newsminer.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Organizers of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race have moved their 2010 start time up a week, a change that could tempt more mushers to try both the Quest and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

The Yukon Quest, an annual 1,000-mile race between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, with alternating start and finish locations, will kick off next year on Feb. 6 in Fairbanks.

The 2009 Quest, won by Sebastian Schnuelle of Whitehorse, began Feb. 14. Schnuelle crossed the finish line 10 days later, edging Hugh Neff of Skagway by four minutes.

Eleven days later, Schnuelle harnessed his dogs in Anchorage to begin the Iditarod. Schnuelle finished second to Lance Mackey in the race to Nome.

Mackey pioneered success in running both races in the same year, winning both the Quest and Iditarod in 2007 and 2008. Mackey sat out the Quest this year.

The Iditarod next year starts March 6. If the Quest is a 10-day race again next year, mushers would have 18 days between races.

Schnuelle said he's glad to see the change in the Quest starting date. He has completed both races in the same year four times and he lobbied Quest officials to make the change.

"I'm very happy they finally listened," he said. "Moving the Iditarod back would have been difficult, because there's a chance you'll get into warmer weather (later in March)."

Wendy Morrison, executive director of the Quest, said a group of mushers sought an earlier Quest start date.

"We'd like to see our numbers go up, and I think there's growing interest in doing both races," she said. "Some (mushers) felt an extra week would give mushers more time."

The Iditarod has always dwarfed the Quest in the size of its field and its purse. The last five years, the Iditarod has averaged more than 81 mushers at the starting line, compared to nearly 25 for the Quest. Lance Mackey earned $69,000 and a new pickup for capturing the Iditarod. Schnuelle took home $30,000 for winning the Quest, less than half of what he earned for finishing second to Mackey in the Iditarod.

Neff said the change in the Quest start date might boost the field.

"They're trying to get more Iditarod people doing the Quest," Neff said. "The more Iditarod people who do the Quest, the happier I'll be."

The Quest runner-up will enter the race again in 2010.

"Somewhere along the way, the Yukon Quest stole my soul," he said. "I just love to be out there on that part of the river. I feel sorry for Iditarod folks who've never seen it, because that part of the Yukon River is gorgeous.

"I love it. It's like going back in time and being alive in the 1800s."

The Iditarod has its own appeal, he said, and not just its larger purse.

"With all respect to the Quest," Neff said, "I've done both races the last five years and without question, the Iditarod is much more difficult."

Some mushers contend that the bitter cold temperatures and long distances between some checkpoints make the Quest tougher, but Neff said nothing compares with the vicious winds of the Norton Sound coast.

Neff has been talking up the Quest to Iditarod veterans such as Ramey Smyth of Willow and Ray Redington of Wasilla.

"It's a like a bad addiction," Schnuelle said.