Good morning Pedigree Stage Stop Race Fans,
The race crew had a wonderful dinner last night at Bear Den Restaurant and Bar in Pinedale, thank you to Katie and Randy Williams for your generosity. The drive back from Kemmerer to Pinedale was nothing short of spectacular, the pictures say it all.
Stage 5 went once again to Remy Coste. It is undeniable that Remy is now in control of the 29th Editions of the Pedigree Stage Stop Race with winning 4 of 5 Stages. In Kemmerer that was rewarded with a beautiful Fish Fossil Trophy, as before in Pinedale with a beautiful hand made knife. Remy is dominating this race over non other than 5 Time Stage Stop Champion Anny Malo. That is impressive, as Anny is having flawless runs averaging 16+ mph. In general it was a blistering fast pace yesterday with the trail being very hard and fast, and also shorter than in the past with only 27.5 Miles instead of 35+ Miles. It was also one of the most flattest trails with the switchbacks which were waiting before the halfway point in previous years, being taken out. The ” old turnaround ” was less than ideal, that is why the change has been made.
With the reverse starting order Remy has been leaving the chute last. Whereas his dogs display incredible calmness at hook up and while waiting in the chute, they explode into action when Remy pulls the hook. Usually by the 8 to 9 Mile Mark, Remy then has caught up to Anny Malo, who keeps her speed steady near 16 mph throughout the race, yesterday Remy passed Anny and finished 12 seconds ahead of her.
During Stage 5 many teams opted to only run 8 dogs, the only team in the Top 5 being an exception from that was Rachel Courtney, who had her best finish to date with 3rd for the day. The impressive part with Remy gaining 3 minutes 12 seconds over Anny Malo with 8 dogs was, that Remy essentially ran a 7 dog team from about Mile 3 on, with loading one dog.
Jess Moore and Laura Bontrager ran very evenly matched teams in the Top 5, only running 37 seconds apart. Michael Tetzner had a better run than the previous days with 6th for the day, despite also carrying a dog for a good part of the race, still having 9 on the line.
Charlie Connor running 10, Sarah Tarlton running 9, Mike Bestgen the only team with a full slate of 12 dogs and Austin Forney running 10 were rounding out the Top 10. All of those teams ran an impressive 14.6 to 14.8 mph average and finished well under 2 hrs for the 27.5 Mile course.
Today’s rest day is much appreciated by all and we will meet tonight in Alpine at 6 p.m for a Pizza Dinner. There is a change in weather coming with snow showers in the forecast for tomorrow. So far we have seen nothing but bluebird days. The Alpine Trail along they Greys River is one of the most scenic ones of the whole course. It also has no major climbs. Temperatures remain warm and are supposed to hover around the freezing mark tomorrow morning. This warm weather has definitely been favorable for the hound teams, which dominate this style of racing.
Anny Malo has her work cut out, if she wants to be a 6 time Champion, as Remy now has an 8 minute 13 second lead. Anything can happen in a dog race, but this is a tall order.
