Perfect storm of woes sends racer to sidelines

Gerry Willomitzer surprised race followers Saturday morning when he became the first musher to scratch from the 2010 Yukon Quest.

BRAEBURN – Gerry Willomitzer surprised race followers Saturday morning when he became the first musher to scratch from the 2010 Yukon Quest.

Willomitzer spoke to the media at the Pelly Crossing checkpoint after hitching a ride with his dogs with fellow Yukoner Hans Gatt’s partner, Susie Rogan.

“I’m the first musher to Pelly, by the way,” Willomitzer joked.

Willomitzer, who lives at Shallow Bay, just north of Whitehorse, said he scratched with a heavy heart for a variety of reasons.

“There have been a long list of things in the first half that got me out of the front pack,” Willomitzer said. “By Eagle (Alaska), I just felt I needed to give them a long break.”

In the first half, WIllomitzer struggled with injuries that forced him to lose more dogs than he wanted to, handler problems and a faulty alarm clock that caused him to sleep too long at the Fortymile hospitality stop.

The four-time Quest runner left Dawson City on time after his 36-hour layover with every intention to keep going, but ran into trouble with his sled.

The plastic runners on Willomitzer’s sled kept popping off when he turned corners, causing the sled to bog down.

“(It was) like the dogs were pulling a block of concrete, not a sled,” Willomitzer said.

After attempting to change the plastic three times on the trail, Willomitzer was forced to turn around and head back to Dawson about 10 or 12 kilometres out.

“I realized that going forward with the wrong set of plastic was too slow and hard on the dogs,” Willomitzer said.

After turning around to set back for Dawson, Willomitzer had a change of heart a quarter-mile later, turned back around to head for Whitehorse. He ultimately reversed his team’s direction once more and headed back to the checkpoint to scratch.

Willomitzer likens his decision to Gatt’s in the 2009 Quest, when Gatt scratched to save his dogs for the Iditarod.

“If I wouldn’t have had Iditarod coming up (next month), I would have continued,” Willomitzer said. “It was a process of weighing the pros and cons.

Where is the benefit to battle it out for 10th place in a race with a reduced purse?

“I don’t mind the struggle, but I don’t want to hurt my chances for March,” Willomitzer said.

He was not happy having to withdraw his name from the race – his last Quest run saw him reach third place.

“I hate scratching. You don’t want to let anybody down,” he said.

The musher said the blame lies with him for not having the proper plastic to repair his sled with.

“The fault is always with the musher. I should have had the plastic that stayed on there,” Willomitzer said.

The plastic runner problems were the last in a string of factors that prompted his decision, Willomitzer said.

“It’s just the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

Even with the disappointment of scratching, Willomizter is looking forward to his Iditarod run, and said his dogs are now in top form.

“They’ve had a 550-mile quality training run,” he said.

After organizing the transportation of his dogs from Pelly Crossing to Whitehorse, Willomitzer plans to get home and begin training his Iditarod team.

“I feel to have a good Iditarod; I’ve got to get home now,” he said.

Willomitzer still has time before the Iditarod’s March 6 start to get new plastic for his sled.

Gatt was shocked to hear of his fellow Yukoner and competitor scratching from the race upon his arrival in Pelly Crossing.

“It’s really disappointing, because he probably put more in than everybody else in terms of money and time,” Gatt said.

Willomitzer has a long history of breeding and running dogs. This year was his fifth running of the Quest.

“I’ve been breeding dogs for 10 years. It’s a huge, year-round commitment,” he said. “This is what we do and live for.”

With Willomitzer’s name out of the race, three Yukon mushers remained in the race – Gatt in the top three, and Normand Casavant and Jocelyne LeBlanc further back.