FORT KENT, Maine (AP) – Montana musher Rick Larson came from behind to pass three-time champ Don Hibbs with nine miles to go to win the Can-Am 250-mile dog sled race on Monday, more than two days after the race began.

Larson, of San Coulee, Mont., started the final leg 30 minutes behind Hibbs but managed to make up the difference. Hibbs mushed the last 44.8-mile stretch with only eight dogs after four members of his team were sidelined over the course of the race.

Rita Wehseler of Tofte, Minn., who was the first woman to complete the race in 2001, came in second, 16 minutes behind Larson.

Hibbs, of Millinocket, Maine, settled for third place.

A minute behind Hibbs was Normand Casavant of Val Des Lacs, Quebec. Last year’s winner, Matt Carstens, of Whitefield, N.H., finished fifth.

Conditions were sloppy at the start of the race Saturday with nearly a foot of snow having fallen the night before and temperatures in the 30s.

Overnight, the snow would freeze, and the dogs’ paws would punch through the crust.

Larson, an Iditarod veteran, said the course in some ways was more grueling than the longer race across Alaska.

“It’s a very demanding course,” Larson told WAGM-TV. “It’s more demanding that the Iditarod. It’s a tough course.”

The 15th annual 250-mile race, known as the Irving Woodlands Can-Am 250, has a total purse of $29,000 and is a qualifier for the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest.

The 14th annual 60-mile race, named in memory of Willard Jalbert Jr., has a total purse of $7,000 and the top three places went to mushers from Ontario. The 11th annual 30-mile race, called the Pepsi Bottling Can-Am 30, has a $4,000 purse. Quebec mushers took the top three places.

All three races started from Main Street in Fort Kent and finished at Lonesome Pine ski lodge, also in the northern Maine town along the border with Canada.

—

On the Net:

CanAm Crown: http://can-am.sjv.net/

AP-ES-03-05-07 1508EST

Copy the Story Link