That pretty much sums up the 350-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational bike/foot/ski race that came down to a duel between the two rival Alaska cyclists.
Basinger won his fifth Invitational title Wednesday by holding off an unrelenting push by Oatley, the former champ from Fairbanks, who couldn’t quite catch up to his younger rival.
Basinger covered the 350-mile race from Knik Lake to McGrath in 3 days, 6 hours, 30 minutes, at an average speed of approximately 4.5 mph. He was more than an hour off his record-setting time of 3:05:40 in 2007.
Oatley, who was behind by three hours or so for much of the race, finished 25 minutes behind Basinger.
It marked the second straight year Oatley finished second to Basinger. Last year, Basinger beat Oatley by 33 minutes. Oatley’s win came in 2009 when Basinger did not race.
After traveling together for the first 100 miles of the race, Basinger gained what proved to be the deciding edge over Oatley on the 30-mile stretch of trail from Skwentna to Finger Lake on the second day of the race. They left Skwentna at the same time but Basinger arrived in Finger Lake at 8:20 a.m. while Oatley got there at 11:28 a.m. Oatley was charging hard at the end, but couldn’t close the gap.
His only hope was that Basinger would run out of steam pedaling across the Farewell Burn on the long, rough 90-mile trail from Rohn to Nikolai. Basigner covered that stretch of trail in 19 1/2 hours, an average speed of about 4.65 mph, which was 45 minutes faster than Oatley, who averaged 4.45 mph.
The fact that Basinger, who moved to McGrath last year to teach school, was heading home didn’t hurt, either.
Not one to give up, Oatley kept the pressure on Basinger to the end.
Basinger got to Nikolai at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday and stayed 2 hours, 10 minutes, leaving on the 50-mile trail to McGrath at 9:40 a.m. Oatley reached Nikolai at 11:45 a.m. and left just 35 minutes later at 12:20 p.m.
Of the 44 competitors who started the race, 37 were still on the trail as of Wednesday evening. Five racers had scratched and two were disqualified.
Fairbanks skier Andy Sterns, one of only three skiers to start the race, was in 32nd place. He arrived at Finger Lake, 130 miles into the race, at 2:45 p.m. Tuesday.
Sterns is the only skier remaining in the race after the two other skiers, Mario Sterli and Paolo Gregorini, were disqualified.
Fairbanks cyclist Rocky Reifenstuhl pulled out of the race after about 20 miles for medical reasons.
Contact staff writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587.
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