COVID is now ruining the greatest dog race in the world -- because the reigning Iditarod champ says travel restrictions are forcing him to bail on the 2021 event.
Thomas Waerner -- the musher who famously won the 2020 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race back in March -- says getting in and out of Alaska with his 16 dogs seems like an insurmountable task with the pandemic still wreaking havoc all over the world.
"I had to make the difficult decision to not start in the Iditarod 2021," Waerner said in a Facebook post.
"It is a lot of work to get to the starting line in a normal year, and in this COVID times it is not possible to get dogs and myself to Alaska.