Stage 3 : a bit of relief :: La Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc

In the morning, at a time when the mushers trucks were still covered of frost, this third day of racing began with a shocking news. The third overall and candidate for the final victory, Czech Jiri Vondrak left the race. A few hours later, the caravan of La Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc settled down in Praz de Lys, home of the start of the third stage. If there were significant amounts of snow in the Grand Massif, it was really impressive to see how much of it fell on the plateau of Praz de Lys Sommand, presaging very good trail conditions. But these amounts of snow forced the trailbreakers to skip one of the sectors that had to be crossed because of a too high avalanche risk, which has shortened the step from 52 to 43 km.

After the first two stages very demanding for both mushers and dogs. This shorter and a little less steep stage was welcome. Nevertheless, this was not a stage of transition, far from it. The competition continues. With the departure of Vondrak, Pontier took with no effort a place on the podium, but it apparently had increased his appetite. Indeed, if we expected to see him performing on the longer stages, his second place of the day indicates that it is legitimate for him, for the first time, to claim second place overall. After 3 stages, he's been twice faster than defending champion Milos Gonda and this, on two very different stages.

After the great run he had yesterday, Luque Salva stalled, he joined the finish with a dog in his sled bag and conceded 4 minutes on Jean-Philippe Pontier. Jimmy Pettersson expressed his delight about this stage. His dogs used to the hilly trails of northern Sweden had a little trouble adapting to the steep trails of La Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc, but the Swedish felt today that they got it now. His good performance of the day confirms this. Miloslav Mikolasek is back to his real level after a "day without" yesterday in which he had to drop two dogs at a vet check after they have been transported over long kilometers in his sled.

After this first round of the Grand Massif - Praz de Lys Sommand, Radek Havrda clearly stands as the favorite of the event and if he doesn't fail, it will be difficult for his pursuers to take it back . However, many mushers were seen making thunderous debut and paid it at the end. The last edition was a good example of it. It seems that the Czech has on his mind to dig a gap quickly and then to control. However, with only eight dogs, he once again posted the fastest time and now is more than 25 minutes ahead of Gonda. A significant difference but not definitive. If it has been difficult, the start of La Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc has also been an opportunity for enormous rewards for mushers and a real pleasure to enjoy these beautiful trails and these exceptional conditions.