Aliy Zirkle maintained her slight lead over defending Iditarod champion John Baker Tuesday night. Both arrived in McGrath about 30 minutes apart. The two leaders spent only a few minutes in McGrath and then headed back onto the trail. Zirkle is racing with 16 dogs. Baker had dropped two from his team.
Long-time rivals Jeff King and Lance Mackey were racing neck and neck behind the leaders into Nikolai, but King had raced ahead of Mackey and was closing in on Zirkle and Baker later Tuesday night.
