CLOSE TO THE END: With his lead cut to 2 minutes, veteran musher turns it on in last stage.
A lesson that Lance Mackey taught Jeff King two years ago at the end of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race may have helped the 54-year-old Denali Park veteran capture his second Copper Basin 300 title -- 15 years after his first.
The lesson was both simple and obvious -- you can't win a race until you lead. On Monday, that axiom worked to King's advantage as he held off hard-charging Allen Moore and took advantage of a mistake to claim the $3,000 winner's share of the $12,000 purse.
Back in the 2008 Iditarod, Mackey seemed to be trying to hold together a faltering team on the Bering Sea coast, while King stayed on his tail behind a full complement 16 dogs. But Mackey never wavered, caught King napping in Elim and went on to the second of his three straight championships.
On Monday, it was King who watched his lead shrink as Moore looked to add a fourth Copper Basin title to his resume. On the penultimate stretch, a 50-mile run from the historic village of Chistochina to Glennallen, Moore sliced 22 minutes off King's lead.
Twenty-four miles remained before the finish line in Tolsona, just west of Glennallen, and Moore was two minutes behind.
"You can look at the times and speeds and do the math!!!" Moore's wife, Aliy Zirkle, enthusiastically wrote on the couple's blog.
But mushing is sometimes more than math.
A tangle leaving Glennallen cost Moore a few minutes, and King surged. He raced the last stretch 0.2 mph faster than Moore -- after being 0.5 mph slower on the previous run. That's a huge change late in any distance race.
It added up to a seven-minute victory, with King finishing in 50 hours, 34 minutes.
Moore was second, just seven minutes behind King. Young Josh Cadzow of Fort Yukon finished third, 50 minutes behind.
For Cadzow, 22, the race was perhaps the most impressive performance of his budding race career. He won the Yukon Quest 300 two years ago, but his best finish in the Junior Iditarod was just eighth place.
Although the Copper Basin started with unseasonably warm weather on Saturday, by Sunday afternoon the temperatures had dipped to minus 24 in Glennallen and minus 29 in Paxson, according to the National Weather Service.
After Cadzow, a tight-knit pack of five mushers hit the finish line within 64 minutes of each other. Former Yukon Quest champion Sonny Lindner was fifth, following by Dan Kaduce, Ray Redington, Sven Haltmann, Brent Sass and Zach Steer.
Copper Basin 300
Finishers Monday night
1) Jeff King, 50:34; 2) Allen Moore, 50:41; 3) Josh Cadzow, 51:21; 4) Sonny Lindner, 51:52; 5) Dan Kaduce, 52:06; 6) Ray Redington, 52:22; 7) Sven Haltmann, 52:28; 8) Brent Sass, 52:32; 9) Zach Steer, 52:56; 10) Hugh Neff, 53:12; 11) Aliy Zirkle, 53:28; 12) John Schandelmeier, 54:12; 13) Jodi Bailey, 56:36; 14) Anjanette Steer, 56:56; 15) Colleen Robertia, 57:16.
