Leifseth Ulsom takes lead from Petit in Grayling as Iditarod contenders chase after them

UPDATE, 5:05 p.m. Friday:

The top 5 racers are currently resting in Grayling in what’s become a bit of a pileup.

Defending champ Joar Leifseth Ulsom and his 11-dog team arrived in Grayling at 1:43 p.m. Friday to take over the race lead from Nic Petit. Petit had arrived in Grayling about two hours earlier but is staying at the Mile 530 checkpoint to complete his mandatory 8-hour Yukon River layover.

Leifseth Ulsom completed his 8-hour layover two checkpoints earlier, in Shageluk.

Jessie Royer arrived in Grayling at 2:06 p.m. with 13 dogs, followed by Pete Kaiser at 2:43 p.m. with 12 dogs and Mitch Seavey at 3:03 p.m. with 11 dogs. Aliy Zirkle is on her way from Anvik as well as Richie Diehl, who — like Leifseth Ulsom — opted to take his 8-hour layover in Shageluk.

UPDATE, 11:55 a.m. Friday:

After becoming the first musher to reach the Yukon River, Nic Petit is now in Grayling. The Girdwood musher pulled into the Mile 530 checkpoint at 11:48 a.m. Friday with 12 dogs in harness and said he’ll be taking his 8-hour Yukon River layover there.

Behind Petit, Joar Leifseth Ulsom of Norway and his 11 dogs pulled into and out of Anvik, leaving at 11:28 a.m. Fairbanks musher Jessie Royer and her 13-dog team also elected not to rest there, leaving Anvik — 18 miles from Grayling — at 11:40 a.m.

Mushers must take an 8-hour layover at one of the Yukon River checkpoints or in Shageluk. So far, Leifseth Ulsom is the only racer to have completed his, electing to do so back in Shageluk, the first checkpoint where that layover can occur.

UPDATE, 7 a.m. Friday:

Girdwood’s Nic Petit may crave a first Iditarod win, but he won’t go hungry on the trail after winning a five-course meal featuring bison chili and a very nice dessert for being the first musher to reach the Yukon River on Friday morning.

Petit arrived in the village of Anvik at 4:23 a.m. after seizing the lead overnight by dashing through Shageluk 25 miles back. For reaching the checkpoint first, he wins the Lakefront Anchorage First Musher to the Yukon Award, which comes with a gourmet meal prepared by the Anchorage hotel’s chef, Roberto Sidro.

This year’s main course is beef tenderloin in a whiskey sauce paired with jumbo Alaska spotted shrimp in a Champagne sauce with a potato pancake and sauteed broccolini. The meal includes a bison chili starter, roasted beets with caramelized macadamia nuts, jumbo scallops and a pan-fried cinnamon banana and ice cream with brandy caramel sauce for dessert.

After traveling 512 miles, Petit is now past the midway point in the race and has approximately 486 miles to the finish line in Nome. For being the first to reach the village of fewer than 100 people, the native of Normandy in France will also receive $3,500 in one-dollar bills and a bottle of Dom Perignon Champagne.

Petit, 39, seized the race lead after midnight when he and all 14 of his dogs checked in and out of Shageluk while defending champion Joar Leifseth Ulsom of Norway rested there. Petit finished second to Leifseth Ulsom last year.

Leifseth Ulsom was the first to Shageluk early Friday, arriving just after midnight and bedding down his team. He was joined there by a handful of mushers Friday morning, with Nenana’s Jessie Royer checking in at 4:08 a.m. and Bethel’s Peter Kaiser arriving at 4:58 a.m.

Kaiser was followed into Shageluk by Seward’s Mitch Seavey at 5:02 a.m., Aniak’s Richie Diehl at 5:28 a.m. and Skagway’s Ryan Redington at 6:28 a.m. As of 7 a.m., none had yet left the checkpoint.

ORIGINAL STORY:

SHAGELUK — For 39 minutes early Friday in Shageluk, defending champion Joar Leifseth Ulsom was the leader of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Then Girdwood musher Nicolas Petit did his come-and-go thing.

Just as he did Thursday in Iditarod, Petit sped through a checkpoint here, stealing the lead along the way.

Here’s how it played out:

At 12:14 a.m. Friday, Leifseth Ulsom and his team of 11 dogs reached Shageluk, 487 miles into the 1,000-mile race to Nome. The musher decided to stop his team in the village and give the dogs a rest.

At 12:50 a.m., Petit and his 14 sled dogs pulled in.

“You staying or going through?” a race official asked the musher.

“Uh, did Joar go through?” said Petit, last year’s Iditarod runner-up.

“Nope.”

“I’m going through.”

[The Iditarod leaders just spent hours grinding across a tussock-studded trail with not much snow]

Petit, 39, grabbed his thermos, ran into a nearby building and filled it with Tang. His race is going well, he still has all the dogs he started with and that feels pretty good, he said. Then his thermos was full and he ran back outside.

Three minutes after Petit arrived, he was gone and on the way to Anvik, 25 miles away. Petit was first into Anvik last year, winning $3,500 and a gourmet meal. There’s also $3,500 and a five-course meal at stake this year.

Leifseth Ulsom, 32, had already bedded down his dogs in straw Friday by the time Petit arrived in Shageluk. He decided to stop, he said, because his team had just run for more than seven hours to travel the 55 miles between Iditarod and here.

“It’s going to be another good three hours to get over to Anvik,” he said. “That’s further than I want to run.”

Leifseth Ulsom said he expected Petit would go straight to Anvik since he had camped along the trail on the way to Shageluk. He said he didn’t know yet whether he’d take his 8-hour mandatory rest here.

(Mushers must take a 24-hour break, plus an 8-hour stop at a checkpoint on the Yukon River or in Shageluk and an 8-hour rest in White Mountain, 77 miles from Nome.)

A similar scene to what happened in Shageluk played out Thursday.

[Photos: In the dark hours of the Iditarod]

Petit was the second musher to reach Iditarod, the halfway point, but the first to leave. He arrived at 12:13 p.m. and left at 12:22 p.m., 15 minutes before Leifseth Ulsom got there.

Petit traveled 10 miles before stopping for about five hours, according to the race’s GPS tracker.

Back in Iditarod, Leifseth Ulsom was resting his team too. The Norwegian left at 4:52 p.m. and passed Petit early in his run to Shageluk. Leifseth Ulsom did the 55 miles in 7 hours, 22 minutes. Petit did it in 12 hours and 28 minutes.

As of 1:30 a.m. Friday, nine mushers were making their way to Shageluk, survivors of a punishing, tussock-studded run from Ophir to Iditarod — Jessie Royer of Fairbanks, Pete Kaiser of Bethel, Mitch Seavey of Seward, Richie Diehl of Aniak, Ryan Redington of Skagway, Matt Failor of Willow, Paige Drobny of Ester, Matt Hall of Two Rivers and Jessie Holmes of Nenana.

Several others were in Iditarod, including the musher who got there first -- Aliy Zirkle of Two Rivers, who was nearing the end of her mandatory 24-hour layover after a brutal run to the checkpoint.

Fifty-one out of 52 mushers are still in the race. The back of the pack is in McGrath, where three teams remained early Friday morning.

Tegan Hanlon reported from Shageluk and Beth Bragg from Anchorage.