Sass sprinted down Front Street and over the finish line just before 6:45 a.m.
Sass exclaimed, “It’s amazing, it’s an impossible dream come true.” He had his mustache and beard partially covered in ice at the post-race interview. Then he was awarded a $50,000 prize-winning check.
“When I began mushing, my goal had been to win the Yukon Quest as well as the Iditarod. He said, “I have crossed them off the list.”
Sass stated that he was extremely proud of his dog team. It’s all on them. The whole race did an outstanding job. He said that he had asked many of them and they did a great job.
He said, cracking his voice, “Everyone of these dogs I raised since puppies. And we’ve been working towards that goal all the time. We’re here.” “It’s crazy.”
The street was filled with people welcoming the popular musher. He was then escorted to the famous burled arch by police.
Sass, who is a wilderness guide and kennel keeper, won the Iditarod for the first time. He was third in the last Iditarod.
Sass was the first to take control of this year’s race and was never challenged. However, the last stretch of the race could have been the most difficult, with extreme winds blowing across the Bering Sea Ice leading to Nome.
Sass stated, “I had to make the ending very interesting.”
He took a tumble during the final few miles of race and the sled was thrown off the trail. He was sure he would have to stay put, and he stopped with his dogs to wait for the weather to improve.
He said, “I couldn’t see anything.” “The dogs, the reason they got out of there was because they trusted me to take them back to the trail. Once they got back on the trail, they took off at a hundred miles per hour and were able stay on the trail to get in here. He said that it was hard work.
Sass pushed the pace and refused to sit down at a gourmet meal that was prepared by an Anchorage chef. He won the award for being the first musher through a checkpoint.
The native of Minnesota, aged 42, was moving north to ski for the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1998. He had a roughly 90-minute lead over Dallas Seavey as he left Safety’s last checkpoint, 22 miles (35 km) from Nome.
Seavey and Rick Swenson are tied for fifth in the number of Iditarod victories. Seavey previously told The Associated Press he planned to take some time off from the race to spend time with his daughter, regardless of whether he won it or not.
Sass stated that Seavey was “the best” right now, and being able, to keep him at bay for the entire race, and race against, the best guy in business, makes this victory even more sweet.
Seavey, who was at the finish of the race, said that he was content with his runner-up status and told KTUU-TV in White Mountain that he could not win unless Sass went down.
Seavey joked that “We have a pretty solid advantage over third.”
Jessie Holmes was the third place musher and was approximately 50 miles (80 km) behind Seavey on Tuesday.
Seavey arrived at Nome in just over an hour from Sass.
Sass completed the race in eight days. He finished it in 14 hours 38 minutes and 43 seconds. He won a declined gourmet meal and $13,000 cash and gold nuggets. In addition, he was awarded 25 pounds (11 kg) of salmon for being the first to reach several villages along the trail.
March 6, was the start of the nearly 1,000-mile (1 609 km) race across Alaska. It began just north from Anchorage. The route was followed by mushers through Alaska’s wild and unforgiving wilderness, which included two mountain ranges and the Bering Sea Ice along Alaska’s western coast.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the race’s inception, which began in 1973. The race started with 49 mushers and five of them have since dropped off the trail.
In 2012, Sass finished 13th and was named the Iditarod’s rookie-of-the-year. He was 22nd the next year, and he then dropped to 22nd before he missed the 2014 race.
He was disqualified in 2015 after race officials discovered that he carried an iPod Touch on the trail. This was a violation race rules prohibiting two-way communication devices, as the iPod Touch can connect to the Internet. He claimed he was clueless and that he did not intend to cheat.
Sass finished 16th in the following year, before taking a three year break from Iditarod. He was fourth in 2020 and third last year.
Sass, who lives in Eureka, a small area about four hours northwest of Fairbanks had greater success in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.
In 2015, 2019, and 2020, he won the 1,000-mile (1 609 km) race between Fairbanks, Yukon and Whitehorse (Yukon). The race was cut to shorter races this year. Sass won both the 350-mile (563 km) Alaska race as well as the 300-mile (483 km) Canadian contest.
