BHP Billiton Rock and Ice Ultra
Ice Road Trekkers
Rob Howard / 24.03.2009
Day 3 of the BHP Billiton Rock and Ice Ultra is a similar distance to the first two days, but from previous races it’s clearly a slightly easier/faster day, perhaps because the last 5 km is raced along the Dettah ice road, or maybe because the finish is at Matrix Camp. For the 3-day K-Rock racers this is the end of their adventure, and while its only half way for the Diamond Ultra racers, there is still the lure of eating out in town (instead of out of a foil bag), warmer tents with cots and clean gear to change into. The overnight camp at Jennejohn always seems to be one of the coldest, but a big fire was lit in the centre of camp and the new heaters in the race teepees worked well, though not everyone stayed warm. Thomsen D’hont said his head was by an opening in the tent and he was freezing much of the night and race photographers Morten Hilmer and Josh Caple built themselves snow-shelters to bed down in – the second night in a row Hilmer had slept out in -30C temperatures.
In the morning the restart was at 0900 as always and once again the weather had changed – it was back to overcast skies and light snow, but visibility on the lakes didn’t deteriorate too much. It certainly didn’t slow the lead skiers at all as they set a pace across Jennejohn and Mason Lakes at 11km/hour, and then sped up on the dash back down the ice road to the finish.
Thomsen D’hont and Corey MacLachlan lead the way. D’hont had a comfortable lead from day one, but MacLachlan pulled out a good lead in the early stages, only for D’hont to pull it back and the pair hit the ice road together. The road was mostly snow covered but they crossed to a strip of open, polished ice and raced towards Yellowknife, not easing up though the race was decided now. They crossed the line together and D’hont had a winning margin of 16 minutes – the same margin he’d won in the closing stages of day one.
“I’d wanted to race this event since it started,� said the 20 year old Yellowknifer, “and I knew a lot about it so there were no real surprises. It was as tough as I expected and in the conditions on day one I knew it had to be slow and steady. I was lucky I took goggles and they made a huge difference, I wouldn’t have enjoyed those conditions without them and Corey didn’t have any. The poor visibility helped me as when I opened a lead he couldn’t see how far I was ahead of him.�See All Event Posts
