Podium Stage 1 - and we're on it!!!

We haven't had the official times yet but we have had the podium presentation and we were on it!! Yay!!! 2nd place after Radek. But I think it must have been a really close result... Down to about 30 seconds difference maybe. We'll find out later. Remy Coste came third. 

Milos is very happy with that. He says he actually went wrong at one point which cost him over a minute. The markings on one of the loops they made was hard to spot (even one of the organisers missed it when they were on the trail with a snow machine) and then up one particular hill it was a bit of a mess too. The pictures I posted earlier show how the teams were spread out. Unfortunately Jan went a little bit too far to the left side too and it meant he struggled to see any marker at the top of the hill and went wrong. He lost time here. 

Both probably struggled with the steep hills down. Milos said there was no way to brake hard enough even though he deployed his chain brakes and used every other way he could think of to steady his pace. It's essential to run the dogs steady downhill otherwise you're asking for injuries. 

But the first stage is just the start. Infact Milos says he's never been 2nd on the first stage before and in 2011 when he won he actually came 5th in stage one! 

I will try and post again later with timings. But for now all the dogs are fed (although we're still having problems with some not really eating) and we're heading back to the accommodation for dinner.