Musher Brent Sass wins his first Iditarod race across Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Musher Brent Sass won the arduous Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across Alaska on Tuesday as his team of 11 dogs dashed off the Bering Sea ice through a crowd of fans in downtown Nome.

Sass mushed down Front Street and across the finish line just before 6 a.m.

Fans lined the street welcoming the popular musher to the finish line. Some gave him high-fives as a police cruiser escorted Sass the final few blocks to the burled arch that marked his victory.

It's the first Iditarod win ever for Sass, a wilderness guide and kennel owner who was running in his seventh Iditarod. His previous best finish was third last year.

Running in second place was the defending champion Dallas Seavey.

The 42-year-old native of Minnesota had a 2½ hour lead over Seavey on Monday night. All mushers must take a mandatory eight-hour break in White Mountain before making the final push for the finish in Nome. He held his lead in Safety, the last checkpoint before the finish line.

«We stuck to our game plan and ran our own race, and we weren't worried about anybody else around us,» Sass told Anchorage television station KTUU during his layover.

For his part, Seavey was resigned to runner-up status. He flatly told KTUU that he couldn't win unless something goes wrong for Sass.

«I haven't looked at the time, but isn't he like three hours ahead?» Seavey said.

Seavey was attempting to become the race's most decorated musher. He and Rick Swenson are tied with the most Iditarod victories at five.

He was still able to joke, saying: «We've got a pretty solid lead over third.»

The third-place musher, Jessie Holmes, was about 50 miles (80 kilometers) behind Seavey.

The nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race across Alaska began March 6 just