A small disaster has struck!!

Well, we were hoping to avoid it but Milos has finally fallen to the sickness that is rife through the mushers and some LGO staff at the moment. He is in bed as I type with stomach cramps and a fever. He's sweating but he's cold and his stomach is painful. He won't be moving from his bed today and certainly won't be eating which won't exactly help his energy levels. 

The final bivouac stage starts at 17.30 from Lanslebourg. We have to be there by 15.00. That doesn't give Milos much time to recover. If we want to stay in the race he has to be on that sled this afternoon and complete this last overnight stage. The sickness couldn't have come at a worse time. I think our hopes for catching Radek are over. We just hope Milos can get on the sled today and finish otherwise we forfeit our podium position. 

When you think about how hard we've worked to prepare for this race with months of training and the effort to get here (driving 8 days and through the night, over 8000km return journey) it seems a shame to not be able to perform at your best. Actually, that's putting it mildly. It sucks! I'm finding it hard not to be annoyed and depressed at the whole situation. I have a vested interest in the team not only as a handler but as Milos's wife and the dogs guardian and trainer. To see the team not perform their best is utterly frustrating. And as a wife, I hate to see my husband unwell and not be able to help him. 

So who knows what will happen later. The dogs have two shorter stages today and tomorrow (one blessing) but Milos is supposed to be camping out again in a tent. We gave 18 seconds to Radek yesterday so have 3 minutes and 20 seconds to 1st place. It seems an impossible task to catch him. Perhaps if Milos had been fitting fit we stood a chance but now, well, you can imagine our spirits are quite low. The good news (if you can call it that) is that we gained time on 3rd place Remy Coste last night so our gap to him is a little more comfortable. I think we'll need it if we're to maintain 2nd place! 

Jan on the other hand is feeling much better today and starting to fuel up again after not eating yesterday. He was so close to third place last night - just a minute and a half after Coste - that we thought he might actually have made it to the podium. Sadly not. But his team still look good and with him coming back to form personally our hopes are good for him in the next two days.