Stage 7 results... And it's close!

This is getting a bit ridiculous. Radek and Milos were separated by just seconds again today - 18 seconds to Radek. It's no wonder really as he has much faster, houndy dogs than we have. He sprinted his way to the finish after the two teams travelled together the whole distance. For him it was a good strategy to just stick with Milos. As for our strategy, well, Milos said he knew he had to push Radek today or the Czech would have just taken it easy (if Milos had followed him instead) and if the chance to escape came up Milos would take it. It didn't. So we have to be satisfied we only gave him 18 seconds. 

But for us that might spell the end of our chance for first place. Stage 3 cost us heavily and since then we've been running with only a 12 dog pool. Dixie can't keep the speed and Leepey has a sore toe. Very frustrating indeed! So the same dogs are running every day and we're only managing to swap 2 each stage. Radek most likely can swap 4. 

It's easy to feel a bit disappointed with our second place today - as crazy as that sounds!! But we really couldn't have done any better. The dogs gave it their all. They ran 60km in 2.5 hours - and it wasn't even flat!! A few of them were tired tonight but the vets gave them the all clear and we haven't had problems with injuries either. Cliff looks like he hasn't even been running and is eating unbelievably well. Waf too. The pair are doing great. Our racing drivers are notoriously fussy eaters and we're having problems with their eating which is shame because they're really great to run. Senna is doing really well in the race and is probably the best eater out of the three. Grony and Patch are our stable girls and they're still reliable and eating good (Patch a bit too well!). Toby looks a bit tired tonight but he's a big heavy dog to be doing such a fast race. Hopefully with a good nights sleep they'll all be perky in the morning. They were certainly very happy to be in the trailer tonight!

Jan had an extremely good race too. He missed third place by just a minute or so. Such a shame as he really deserves a podium spot. He's the only team even close to giving the top 3 any competition. And today Remy Coste had what looked like a bad day. His dogs caused him trouble in the loop and he was screaming at them and everyone around. Then he won Best Dog Care tonight... Go figure! But even his day wasn't as bad as Martin Bily's. He didn't run this stage as he was being sick in the toilet!! He felt so bad he couldn't even get on the sled! That meant he got 150% time of the last team. This virus, or whatever it is, is rife through the mushers. The last count was 9 out of 16 is on medication or having problems. Milos has been lucky enough to escape it so far. Jan is just about holding on!

Now it's late and I'm super tired. It's the last stage tomorrow - another bivouac double. Usually good for us but when you're competing with Radek nothing is easy! It's starts in Lanslebourg around 5.30pm. 

Good night all.