Yukon Quest sled dog racers off and running

With near perfect snow conditions and temperatures hovering around 20 C, 28 dogteams in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race blasted out of the starting chute in Whitehorse Saturday morning.

Billed as the toughest race in the world, the teams travelling along the 1,600-kilometre trail to Fairbanks, Alaska, are competing for a slice of the $200,000 US purse, with the winner taking $40,000.

Defending champion, Alaska musher Lance Mackey, who won the race in 2005 and 2006, has returned to try to make it an even three.

The 36-year-old cancer survivor nearly had to hang up his sled in 2001 due to the illness, but after undergoing surgery and radiation treatment he pulled off a sensational comeback and is determined to win again.

"If I'm going to have a third title, I'm going to have to do something different and I'm not going to let anyone know what that might be, and it might not work out," Mackey said Thursday.

"It's going to be a huge gamble. I'm relying on the speed of my team. I'm going to mix it up a little bit. I'm going to keep people ontheir toes."

Stiff competition

Mackey will face stiff competition from three-time winner, Hans Gatt, of Atlin, B.C., who dominated the race from 2002 to 2004.

Whitehorse musher Frank Turner, who has run 23 of the 24 Yukon Quest races, decided to take on the challenge again after sitting on the sidelines last year while his son ran his team.

The 59-year-old tour operator won the race in 1995 and still holds the record for the fastest time of 10 days, 16 hours and 18 minutes from Whitehorse to Fairbanks.

Also returning after a one-year hiatus is two-time winnerJohn Schandelmeier, of Alaska, who won the race in 1992 and 1996.

Other top contenders include Carcross musher William Kleedehn, a German expatriate with an artificial leg, whose best finish has been second.

Other Yukoners includeWhitehorse-area mushers Gerry Wilomitzer and Sebastian Schnuelle, and Dawson City's Peter Ledwidge.

Rounding out the field of Yukon mushers are Michelle Phillips, Catherine Pinard, Kyla Boivin and Kiara Adams, the youngest entrant at 19.

Adams started the race last year but was forced to scratch, along with four other mushers, after they were trapped on Alaska's treacherous Eagle Summit in a snowstorm.

The race began in downtown Whitehorse at 11 a.m. before hundreds of spectators, with the teams leaving at two-minute intervals.