The Silver Fox, as he is called in Norway, has been delayed when he passed by the skiddo of the trailbreakers, stucked in depp snow. He had to open the trail himself until other snowmobiles came.

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Since the beginning of the race, Sigrid Ekran and Robert Sorlie have been setting the pace. Sorlie has produced an agressive first part of the race, cutting rest, on  the contrary to Ekran. She, who took the 3rd place in 2009 La Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc got the time back until she finally took the lead. She has left Grimsbu with a small 10 minutes lead on Sorlie. 200 kilometers are remaining in two stages of 100 and 95 kilometers. In Tolga, the last but one checkpoint, mushers have to observe an 8 hours mandatory rest. Sigrid still has 10 dogs on the line while Robert has 9 (he dropped 2 in Grimsbu2).

Last year, Robert Sorlie won the race while Sigrid took the 3rd place.

Their main contender is Inger Marie Haaland, Finnmarkslopet-1000 2009 champion. She left Grimsbu2 only one minute after Sorlie with a full team (12 dogs.) Bjornar Andersen, Sorlie's nephew, followed her one hour later. He has dropped 4 dogs before leaving, keeping only the freshests not to risk to get a dog in the bag on the 100 kilometer stretch to the next checkpoint.

The trail seems to be really deep and soft. Reports from mushers confirm that for those of the back of the pack, the trail is like sand because of the many teams passing through. The musher with tough-headed leaders used to this kind of trail will get a big advantage.

Here is the ranking of the LGO mushers (february the 6 2010 - 20:00):

(the Femundlopet 600 mushers have left with 12 dogs and are allowed to drop a wounded or tired dogs at every checkpoint)

1 Sigrid Ekran (10 dogs)

2 Robert Sorlie (9)

7 Ketil Reitan (8)

23 Barbara Inauen (9)

28 Jean-Philippe Pontier (10)

32 Daniele Rao (11)

33 Per Olav Gausereide (10)

34 Lars Hoffman (10) handler of Petter Karlsson LGO 2009-2009

40 Catherine Mathis (10)

Scratched : Jack Gaspard in Grimsbu (340 km)

On the Femundlopet 400, Arnt Ola Skjerve, the reigning Champion, is among the leading group. 7 mushers can still hope to win the race.

Here is the ranking of the LGO mushers (february the 6 2010 - 20:00):

(the Femundlopet 400 mushers have left with 8 dogs and are allowed to drop a wounded or tired dogs at every checkpoint)

5 Arnt Ola Skjerve (8 dogs)

18 Thomas Verin (french handler of Ketil Reitan) (8)

20 Salva Luque (7)

40 Radek Havrda (8)

48 Daniel Juillaguet (7)

66 Erik Martinez (7)

photo: Arbeidets Rett