Another fast day on the Trail today.

Casey Fagerquist secured a lead over Jill Martindale and Petr Ineman.

All athletes have now reached Galena and covered 532 miles of the race.

Casey had a close encounter with wolves on his way. Listen to him tell the story in the video below when KTUU caught up with him in Ruby.

“Trail was slow from Ruby, but rideable”, says Casey. “There are so many awesome things that happen each day. This is so cool”, our race leader adds.

Petr Ineman had issues with his bike but it didn’t slow him down much on his race to the next checkpoint.

Next bike racer expected to arrive at Galena is Finnish athlete Jussi Karjalainen, who is currently following the Yukon river.

His fellow countryman, bike racer Toni Lund is closing in on Ruby. Toni has maintained his advance over New Zealand bike racers Graham Muir and George Adams with a gap of 20 miles.

Right behind the Kiwi athletes is skier Asbjørn Skjøth Bruun, who is the first skier since 2003 to go to Nome and the first to do the 1000-mile route since 2000. Asbjørn is closely followed by Italian bike racers Roberto Gazzoli and Willy Mulonia. The group has been moving steadily together up the Trail.

Also on his way to Ruby is foot racer Beat Jegerlehner who has been averaging over 2.6mph with long, strong strides all the way. His fellow foot athlete Klaus Schweinberger who is 49 miles out of Cripple is showing an equally steady race pace.

The Trail has been busy with the Iditarod mushers heading to Nome as well.

Fresh from the Trail pictures are courtesy of our race leader Casey Fagerquist - yes, the guy can really do it all, race, take pictures, do TV interviews and avoid wolves.

The first bike athletes to make it to Nome

TRAIL UPDATE