Yukon Arctic Ultra - Day 5

Yukon Arctic Ultra 2004 has been won by Rocky Riefenstuhl. He arrived at Pelly Crossing yesterday evening, having completed the 300 mile course in 4 days and 6 and half hours. He is at least a day ahead of the rest of the field. His chosen method of transport was mountain bike and it worked well for him. (Using a bike didn‚t go so well for Sven Riedesel, who scratched from the race yesterday. His bike was so heavy and he was pushing it more than riding it, meaning that he got too cold.) The course took Rocky via the finish line at Pelly Crossing, out to Pelly Farms and then back to Pelly Crossing, so he may see some of the other competitors soon, but they will still have a way to go before they finish. Other competitors are barely at the half way point.

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Andrew Barnett, on foot, is in second place and late on Wednesday. He is travelling with Laszlo Kovacs, who is doing the race on skis. They had managed to build up a 10 hour lead over the field behind them - at around 6am on Wednesday morning, as Andrew and Laszlo were nearing McCabe Creek, at the 210 mile point, the others were at Carmacks. Behind Andrew and Laszlo is Shelley Gellatley, so unless things go wrong for them they should get second place. This is of course an adventure race, so anything can happen.

Behind Shelley comes Juan Carlos Sagastume from Guatemala (hats off to him), and Steve Bowron and Wilko von den Akker, a Dutchman, who are travelling together at the moment. Close by is the competitive Arkim, who was hoist on his own petard the night before last. Having bivvied up with Steve Bowron, with each of them making a promise to wake the other up when they got up again, Arkim crept out of his sleeping bag and set off without letting Steve Bowron know. Four miles later, when he bumped into Wilko coming the other way, he realised that he had headed off in the wrong direction.

Following them are Luke Cunliffe and Andy Stern and then several other competitors. There was a scare for a while when three German runners were not to be seen on the course for over 24 hours, but they arrived safely at Fred Lake in mid-afternoon on Wednesday. It will be hard for them to finish the race in the allotted time now.

After causing so much difficulty on the second night, when it turned so cold so suddenly, causing a number of competitors to withdraw, the weather has been kinder to the competition. The temperature has mostly been between -15 and -5 and it even snowed yesterday.