Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes repeats as Iditarod champ - ESPN

NOME, Alaska — Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes cruised to a repeat victory in the Iditarod, the roughly 1,000-mile sled dog race in Alaska.

Holmes guided his dog team across the finish line Tuesday night in the old Gold Rush town of Nome, a Bering Sea coastal community. He pumped both fists in the air as the crowd cheered for him and his team of 12 dogs.

After finishing, the dogs got steaks and Holmes answered some questions accompanied by his lead dogs, Polar and Zeus.

«Zeus led every single run except one. I just wanted to let someone else have some fun. And Polar deserves it more than anybody,» he said. «He leads by example.»

The race started March 8 in Willow, a day after the ceremonial start was held in Anchorage. The course took dog teams and their mushers over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and across the unpredictable Bering Sea ice.

Holmes, a former cast member on the National Geographic reality show «Life Below Zero,» is the third competitor in the 54-year history of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race to repeat the year after winning for the first time. The others were Susan Butcher in 1986-87 and Lance Mackey in 2007-08. Both went on to win four titles.

Before the Iditarod, Holmes told The Associated Press that this year's race was the most important of his career.

«That's hard to put that on yourself because you got to live with that pressure every day,» Holmes said. «And if I do not make it, it is going to absolutely crush me.»

He will pocket about $80,000 for this year's win, up from the $57,000-plus he took home last year. This year's purse was boosted by financial support from Norwegian billionaire Kjell Rokke, who participated in a newly created, noncompetitive amateur category.