Alpirace

The race is over...
The two stages in Pitztal Michael has had clean runs with happy and healthy dogs. But Apanatschi his main lead dog didn´t work that happy as usual, because of this they didn´t find their fastet galopp and ended with an overall 10th place (still not too bad in a field with 35 starter).
The last stage was in Nauders/Reschenpass. On the 1st day (Jan 11th) they´ve had to follow a trail over a ski piste with not very good snow conditions; they have had a missing security net on the trail, some teams got on a wrong trail and ended on a highway. The same with Michael´s team. As he saw the highway he wanted to use the snow hook but there was no chance: under the few snow was a paved way!! The team ended up on the highway with a car passing our leader´s head 5 cm with approx 100 km/h. Michael and the dogs were shocked; after getting them stopped and turning back on the right trail he finished the 5th stage 10th place in general and decided not to run the 6th and last stage the next day. He wanted to save the dogs health and happyness and thought to run the same trail next day would be too shocking. He scratched (knowing his 10th place in general would possibly not be changing on the last day) and drove home the same day.
Now they´ve recovered a few days at home and continued training yesterday. They´re looking for a good race in Todtmoos Jan 28th/29th and the European Championchips in Italy 3-5 Feb.