Tobias Schwoerer pulled away from the lead pack in the last kilometers of Sunday's
Tour of Anchorage to win the 53K marathon by 10 seconds. The lead pack of Schwoerer,
Erik Flora, Scott McArt, Nathan Schultz and Jurai Brugos skied the entire race
together, with Flora pulling most of the way, until the last few kilometers.
At that point, Schwoerer made his move and was quickly pursued by McArt and
Brugos. Schwoerer held a 50 meter lead coming into the stadium and held on,
while McArt and Brugos had a furious sprint for second. McArt won the battle
by a very slim margin. Flora came in 40 seconds later in fourth, while Schultz
took fifth.
In the women's 53K, Abi Larson skied away early and was never challenged. She
won by seven minutes over Susanne Kumpulainen, who was second. Brandy Bland
was third.
The Tour of Anchorage literally tours the city of Anchorage, starting on the
Hillside trails at the foot of the Chugach Mountains, and traversing across
the city on ski trails and multi-use trails, before finishing at Kincaid Park
on the shores of Cook Inlet.
The following is a personal account of the race from Randy Beckner. Beckner,
(51) of Helena, Montana, continued his great season by placing 11th overall.
Only one skier over age 40, the winner of the 40-44-year old category was ahead
of him. Behind him were a large number of good young skiers. Randy recently
won the 50-54-year old age category in the American Birkie – see “Birkie
Tales” in Fasterskier.com archives for Randy’s own race report from
the Birkie if you are interested in knowing what it takes to be “forever
young” and beat the top skiers several decades younger than you! Randy
is a member of Team TorbjornSport/SOLDA.
Full
Results
