What to watch for as a pack of Iditarod teams leads the way down the Yukon River

The top teams in the 2019 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race are finally running head-to-head up the Yukon River on their way to Kaltag. Joar Leifseth Ulsom and Nicolas Petit are still the clear front-runners. But with some powerful teams coming up from behind and 350 miles left, this race could be blown wide open by the time the front pack reaches Koyuk (mile 827).

The top teams right now:

Leifseth Ulsom and Petit. These two have been the clear front-runners since the beginning of the race. Leifseth Ulsom led into Eagle Island on Saturday at 2 a.m. after a 7-hour, 15-minute run. He quickly bedded his team down for a rest. Soon after that, at 2:45 a.m., Petit blew through the checkpoint, posting a run that was 20 minutes faster than Leifseth Ulsom. Petit continued on up the Yukon River, pulling over to rest roughly 15 miles past Eagle Island and about halfway between Grayling and Kaltag. Leifseth Ulsom took an unprecedented and luxurious 5-hour, 42-minute rest at Eagle Island, dropping a dog and leaving with 10. He left Eagle Island with Pete Kaiser, who has yet to take his mandatory Yukon River eight-hour rest, and the two began their trek to Kaltag. Two hours after leaving Eagle Island, Leifseth Ulsom and Kaiser passed a resting Petit, who quickly packed up and hit the trail right behind them after resting just four hours (nearly two hours less than Leifseth Ulsom). Most likely we should expect Leifseth Ulsom, Petit, and Kaiser to reach Kaltag a little after 4 p.m.

Jessie Royer. At this point Jessie Royer is the major wild card. She is still running with 13 dogs and has completed her mandatory eight-hour Yukon Rest, but to catch up to the lead pack, she has had to cut significant rest time — resting for just three hours 10 miles shy of Eagle Island. She is now running in the lead pack of four, but will more than likely pull over around 20 miles shy of Kaltag and then blow through the checkpoint and head to Tripod Flats Cabin, roughly a three-hour run from Kaltag, breaking the run from Grayling to Unalakleet into four even 50-mile runs. This means Royer will be taking two rests compared to one for Leifseth Ulsom and Petit. While Royer is in the lead pack for now, she is most likely still two hours behind the lead. But with 13 dogs, and keeping her runs shorter than her competitors, she is poised to make a big push up the coast, where a two-hour lead can be wiped away in a single run.

Mitch Seavey. It looks like Seavey got what he has been hoping for — a big slowdown up front, with Petit and Leifseth Ulsom both taking considerably more rest than expected in the last 100 miles. Seavey who was once 4.5 hours behindLeifseth Ulsom in Takotna, is now only two hours back with a team that looks poised to make a statement on the coast. Seavey, like Leifseth Ulsom, Petit, and Royer, has also completed his mandatory Yukon eight-hour rest. Seavey, who has been comfortable letting Leifseth Ulsom and Petit battle it out in front for the last 650 miles, could very well now be their biggest threat.

Pete Kaiser. He has been lurking in the shadows behind the lead pack for the entire race and made a statement Friday night by posting the fastest run from Grayling to Eagle Island in 12 years (Jessie Holmes, who pulled in seven hours after Kaiser, just posted a time nine minutes faster than Kaiser, but is seven hours off the lead). Kaiser made that run 30 minutes faster than Petit and 50 minutes faster than Leifseth Ulsom. Kaiser’s surge of speed, however, has evened out and for the moment he is traveling equally to both Petit and Leifseth Ulsom on the run into Kaltag. Kaiser also still has to take his mandatory eight-hour rest in Kaltag, which will put him at least three hours behind the lead on his way to Unalakleet. Kaiser’s only hope to win his first Iditarod will be if he can find that speed again on his way to Nome.

With nearly 350 miles left of racing and the storm-battered Bering Sea coast still standing in the way of the mushers and the burled arch in Nome, surely anything can happen. But more than likely the winner of the 2019 Iditarod is sitting in this Top 5.

Note: As of 1 p.m. Alaska time, it appeared as if Leifseth Ulsom had pulled over to rest just over halfway to Kaltag. Is he waving the white flag? Doubtful. But he is clearly not in a position anymore to dictate this race. The front five are on a less-than-ideal run/rest schedule and they are currently running right through the “heat” of the day. With Leifseth Ulsom pulling over now, he will most likely take advantage of the cooler nighttime weather and push to Tripp’s Flats Cabin and be on par with Royer. The lead that Petit once built and then gave back, is being built again.