Race to the finish Grueling event sees 9 teams scratch, slowest winning time

FORT KENT – A haggard, tired-looking Martin Massicotte of St. Tite, Quebec, crossed the finish line of the Irving Woodlands 250-mile race at 1:34 p.m. Monday, winning his third Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Race title after an unusually grueling trek through the North Woods.

By noon Monday, nine of the 30 teams that had started the race Saturday had scratched from the 13th annual event and lost their chance at part of the $20,000 purse. A fresh blanket of snow Sunday slowed dogs and mushers to a crawl.

Massicotte completed the race in 36 hours, 16 minutes of running time, making it the event’s slowest winning time ever. Mushers also have 14 hours of mandatory layovers during the race.

“It was very hard, extremely hard,” Massicotte said in French, soon after crossing the finish line at Lonesome Pine Ski Lodge in town. “It was the hardest race I’ve done here.”

Massicotte finished one hour, 16 minutes ahead of Rene Marchildon of South River, Ontario, who crossed the line at 2:50 p.m. Marchildon was followed by Normand Cassavant of Val des Lacs, Quebec, at 3:46 p.m.; Amy Dugan of Shirley, the first of four women to complete the race and the first Maine finisher at 4:02 p.m.; Stephane Duplessis of St. Zenon, Quebec, at 4:06 p.m.; Ward Wallin of Two Harbors, Minn., at 4:14 p.m.; Andre Longchamps of Pont Rouge, Quebec, at 4:15 p.m.; and Don Hibbs of Millinocket at 4:55 p.m.

Other teams were expected to follow through the night. Teams have to leave Allagash by 10 a.m. today to remain in the official race.

Massicotte, 36, a paving contractor, also won titles at Fort Kent in 1998 and 2002. He is the second three-time winner of the 250-mile classic along with Don Hibbs of Millinocket. Andre Nadeau of Quebec won the title four times in the early 1990s.

“Papa, ta gagne, personne d’autre, c’est toi qui a gagne, [Papa, you won, no one else, you are the one who won],” Massicotte’s 7-year-old daughter Melodie enthused as he crossed the finish line.

“Allo, la poule. Oui, oui, [Hello, chicken. Yes, yes],” he replied. “No one else.”

He was also met at the finish line by his wife, Marie-Josee, their 31/2-year-old son Etienne and Massicotte’s sister, Louise Brisson, who drove five hours Sunday to be at the finish.

Massicotte, who has competed in the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest race twice, finished second last year at Fort Kent and has been a perennial contender in the Maine race since 1995.

He wasn’t the only participant slowed by an unexpected snowfall Sunday that dumped anywhere from 3 to 12 inches on the route.

“It was awesome, challenging,” Marchildon said as he crossed the finish. “This race makes you think, about strategy and endurance.

“I’ll be back next year for sure,” he said.

It would have been faster, but Marchildon hit a tree and rolled his sled after leaving Allagash on Monday. He said he struggled the rest of the way working to keep the sled going straight.

Bright sun and mild temperatures in the teens eased the pressure on man and dog Monday. Sunday’s fresh snow, coupled with the tough, hilly terrain between Maibec and Allagash drained men and dogs. The final 56-mile leg took its toll. The lead team, driven by Keith Aili of Ray, Minn., scratched 20 miles out of Allagash.

“I made it 15 miles. I stopped, and I said [to myself], ‘What the heck am I gonna do now. I can’t ask these dogs to keep breaking trail like this all the way because it took me a long time to get there,'” Aili said after reaching Allagash with people who went to extract him and his team late Sunday night.

“I turned around, ran into Martin [Massicotte], and he convinced me to go with him and said he’d break trail the whole way,” he said. “He did most of the way, but then we got to that safety shelter. Even his team didn’t want to go on and he was complaining about the trail.

“Thirty-one miles, and it took Martin six hours to get there. That’s crawling. You don’t see those speeds ever in dog racing. That’s walking speed,” Aili said.

“I could have done it to Allagash, and I could have ruined my dogs for life,” Aili said Monday as he waited for Massicotte to get to the finish line. “It was a hard decision to scratch.

“I train my dogs for speed, not like Martin who trains slow dogs who just keep going,” he said. “I had the team to win this race.”

Aili had been in the lead from the start. He is the 2001 winner of the Can-Am Crown and a two-time veteran of the 1,000-mile Iditarod in Alaska. He was one hour and 11 minutes ahead in the race with 110 miles to go Sunday afternoon.

All three of the races – the 250-mile, the 60-mile and the 30-mile – had full complements of 30 teams each Saturday. It was Fort Kent’s largest race in the 13 years it has been run. Thousands of people watched the Main Street start Saturday morning in temperatures that ranged between 10 and 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

There was $40,000 in cash up for grabs in the three races. Irving provided $20,000 for the 250-mile race. The winner receives $4,500 and the other top 11 mushers split the remainder with the 12th finisher receiving $600. That race also has stage prizes, $1,000 split among the five fastest teams between checkpoints. The Finishing Touch purse of $4,000 is split among all finishers of the race.