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Day 3
06:56pm CET, 21 Mar 2005
The third day of the Vindelälvsdraget 2005 is about to start in Björksele on march 19th, 2005. Maryse Keppens is selected again to take the mass start. Today will be yet another long one: Maryse has to drive two teams again, and Juha and Pasi Kanerva have to put their dogs through two stages for Team Gafsele to make it through the 9 stages over 112km to Hällnäs.
 Sean Permentier holding the team's
most important asset: The relay pin.
About half an hour before start the phones start ringing to bring the message of today: The car towing Michael and Sven's teams has been hit by a police car when they turned into their starting point! Everything is alright with people and dogs, but the car is out of service for a while. This means there is no way either Michael or Sven can drive their teams today. This is a major setback for Team Gafsele. One car is out, taking two teams out of the race with it. Still, everything is not lost. It's quickly decided that Maryse will start the race today regardless of what happened. At the point where Sven was supposed to take over the pin from Maryse in Vormsele, a car will take it instead and drive it to the starting place of team 3, Rusksele. The same will be done for Michael Labove's stage, later in the race.
Skipping a stage in the race will cost Team Gafsele a lot of time. And it will cost even more time because two stages will be skipped today. The rules of the race state that when a stage isn't run, the time of the slowest team on that stage is also taken for the team which didn't start, and 10 minutes penalty is added to that. All Team Gafsele has to make sure of is that the relay pin is taken to the finish of the skipped stage where the next team will pick it up again.
Start. Maryse rounds the corner to get from the starting area back to the river in a very nice position, 3rd in a field consisting of the favourites: Kebnekajsorna Kiruna, Team Optimisterna and Alpentrail. On the way Maryse leaves two of these behind her, and comes in second in Vormsele, 5 seconds after Team Optimisterna. While the relay pin is driven by car to the next change point to be taken further in the race, Team Gafsele also catches up with Michael and Sven who are driving their wrecked car home with 20km/hr. After a little crisis meeting it's decided that Sven's car isn't able to tow the trailer with equipment and dogs over 130km to get home, and a rescue team is called in from Gafsele in the form of Jelle and Rinske Tempel with their car. And since an extra car is called in anyway, it's also decided that Team Gafsele will not give up and continue the race until the end!
 Sven Heitman and Michael Labove waiting for their transport
While Sven and Michael are waiting for the transport to arrive, the race continues with Pasi Kanerva running the 3rd and 4th stage, totalling 19.5km. Pasi secures a very nice 8th place for his first stage. Pasi takes the pin to Siksele where Frida Oderstål will take over for the next 15km to Föjsviken. With only 5 dogs, Frida takes the 16th place, passing the pin to Juha Kanerva for his first run of 7.5km to Åmsele. Juha takes only 19 minutes to run this part, which is a good 5th time on this stretch but instead of passing the relay pin to Michael Labove, it is taken by car to Ekorrsele.
Michael is still waiting for the transport to take him, Sven, the dogs and their equipment to where the night will be spent. Juha isn't done either though, he also has to drive the last stage of today to the finish in Hällnäs. The relay pin is taken by car to Maryse Keppens who will run her second team of 5 dogs over 12.5km from Ekorrsele to Strycksele. After some on-trail adventures, she still manages to come in with the 4th best time. Meanwhile, Juha has put together a team of 8 dogs out of his and his brother Pasi's for the last stretch from Strycksele to today's finish in Hällnäs. When Maryse comes in, Juha drives the team over the 13.5km which will end this long and eventful day for him, Team Gafsele and his dogs. Some of these dogs have run 32km to keep Team Gafsele in the race!
At around 3pm, the rescue team from Gafsele arrives at the parking where Michael and Sven are still waiting. The wrecked car is left behind, and the dog trailer is hauled to a little place called Ramsele, where the night will be spent. At 6pm, the entire Team Gafsele is reunited to discuss the strategy for the 4th and final day in Vindelälvsdraget 2005.
Because two teams haven't been able to run their part of the race today, Team Gafsele is put on distance at position 24 for the day, and 17th overall. If this day had been run as planned, it looks like a place near or in the top 5 would have been possible. Not bad for a rookie team which has a lack of cars, mushers, dogs and handlers.
Day result, Vindelälvsdraget Gallery, Team Gafsele gallery
 Maryse Keppens at #2 position, chasing the competition in her first run of the day.
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