Photo courtesy of Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage
You didn’t have to be an Olympian to make the top five in the Tour of Anchorage women’s race Sunday, but it helped.
Three of the top five finishers in the 50-kilometer freestyle race were Olympic cross-country skiers, including four-time Tour champion Rosie Frankowski.
Frankowski, 32, and Thomas O’Harra, 27, repeated as champions in the showcase event for Alaska cross-country skiing.
Frankowski, a member of the 2018 Olympic team, won for the second year in a row and the third time in four years. This time she took a 50-second win over Hailey Swirbul, 25, a member of the 2022 Olympic team.
Frankowski triumphed in 2 hours, 25 minutes, 22.7 seconds, adding to previous wins in 2017, 2021 and last year.
Placing fifth, four minutes later, was two-time Olympian Holly Brooks, 41, who skied in the 2010 and 2014 Olympics.
While that’s some impressive firepower for a community race, it’s typical when the community is Anchorage.
Photo courtesy of Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage
Put a thousand Alaskans in a ski race and you’re bound to encounter a few Olympians. Tenth-place in the women’s 50K freestyle went to Sadie Maubet Bjornsen, a 2014 and 2018 Olympian. Victory in the women’s 40K classic went to 62-year-old Sue Forbes, a member of the 1992 Olympic team.
In all, Sunday’s Tour of Anchorage boasted 1,028 finishers in point-to-point ski races in both techniques at three distances. The 50K freestyle, the Tour’s premier event, took 270 skiers 31 miles from the Hillside to Kincaid Park.
Leading the way was O’Harra, a three-time champion who — like Frankowski, Swirbul and Brooks — is a veteran of Alaska Pacific University’s vaunted nordic ski club. His previous Tour wins came last year and in 2017.
O’Harra finished in 2:06:55.9, about 80 seconds ahead of 19-year-old UAA skier Matt Seline. Hunter Wonders, who also trained with O’Harra at APU, was nine seconds behind Seline in third place.
O’Harra, 27, and Wonders, 25, both were coming off top-20 efforts in last week’s 50-kilometer American Birkebeiner in Wisconsin — Wonders was 11th and O’Harra was 16th.
Also doing back-to-back 50Ks was Annika Landis, 26, who finished third in the women’s 50K Sunday behind Frankowski and Swirbul. An assistant ski coach at Harvard University, Landis placed 13th in the Birkie.
Will Ross topped the 50K bike in 1:55:46.9, nearly three minutes ahead of runnerup Jason Lamoreaux and more than 10 minutes faster than O’Harra on skis. O’Harra’s time ranked fifth among the times of 39 bikers.
Winners in each of Sunday’s races:
Tour of Anchorage
Skiing
Men’s 50K freestyle — Thomas O’Harra, 2:06:55.9
Women’s 50K freestyle — Rosie Frankowski, 2:25:22.7
Men’s 40K freestyle — Elias Watson 1:49.11.8
Women’s 40K freestyle — Anna Engel 1:58:12.1
Men’s 25K freestyle — Derek Richardson 1:05:27.0
Women’s 25K freestyle — Marit Flora 1:15:44.8
Men’s 50K classic — Eric Auten 2:59.16.7
Women’s 50K classic — Alexandra Otto 2:56.43.1
Men’s 40K classic — Jim Falconer 2:10.02.7
Women’s 40K classic — Susan Forbes 2:48:10.0
Men’s 25K classic — Rory Stark 1:33:45.6
Women’s 25K classic — Beatrix Brogan 1:42:24.6
Fat biking
Men’s 50K — Will Ross 1:55:46.9
Women’s 50K — Melanie Beale 2:36:22.3
Men’s 40K — Bruce Giffen 2:00:32.7
Women’s 40K — Rose Garner 1:56:10.9
Men’s 25K — Fred Stewart 1:11:46.0
Women’s 25K — Bri Keifer 1:27:33.5
Photo courtesy of Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage