FL-500: Who is in the lead?

It is not easy to find out who is in the lead of FL-500 but we will try.

Simply put, we can say that we have two audience groups: those who follow the race without being very invested in the sport, and those who know everything. This article is target toward the first group.

All participants in FL-500 have to rest 22 hours plus the number of minutes they are ahead of the last team out of Alta (time alignment). All teams had to rest a minimum of half of these 22 hours, plus the time alignment at the first checkpoint, Jotka. Six of these have to be taken out in Skoganvarre. The remaining 14 hours can be taken out wherever they decide.

Last year, most teams in the lead chose to rest only the required time, but it is not certain that this is wise if the conditions are challenging. This is part of the tactics in the race.

If we assume that the lead will only rest according to what is required, it is the accumulated running time that shows who is doing best in the race. This means that it is not necessarily the team at the top of the result list that is actually in the lead. This is because mushers have different plans for how they will administer their resting time.

Arriving in Karasjok the ”ranking” is as follows:

1	Ronny Wingren	accumulated running time 19 h 31 min
2	Terje Erik Loftsgård	accumulated running time 19 h 35 min
3	Harald Tunheim	accumulated running time 19 h 45 min
4	Liv Bjørsvik	accumulated running time 19 h 49 min
5	Trine Lyrek	accumulated running time 19 h 55 min
6	Sissel Vollan	accumulated running time 20 h 10 min
7	Andreas Tømmervik	accumulated running time 20 h 14 min
8	Vidar Uglebakken	accumulated running time 20 h 16 min

 

Ronny Wingren (Finland) has maintained the highest speed to Karasjok. Photo (archive): Mads Suhr Pettersen.

More than half of the race left to go. Probably not necessary to say, but we do it anyway: This is very exciting and anything can happen.

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