March 28, 2014 (Anchorage, Alaska) – Finland’s Aku Nikander, a sophomore at the University of New Mexico, came out of nowhere to challenge USST skier Noah Hoffman (SSC Vail) and capture the gold in the men’s grueling 50-kilometer classic contest on Friday as the U.S. National Championships wrapped up at Hillside Ski Area in Anchorage.

Nikander and Hoffman traded the lead during the race, but the young Finn out-dueled the Olympian from Aspen, Colorado in the final 50 meters to win the 5okm race by nine seconds. The title, however, officially went to Hoffman, who was the top American.

Nikander is a native of Lohja, Finland, and only U.S. citizens are eligible to win the prize money as well, which meant Hoffman took home the first-place prize of $1,200.

“It’s a little bit strange,” said Nikander about the way in which he won the first 50-K of his career. “But this was an individual race for me, not a national championship.”

Winning some cash was nice, Hoffman said, but what he really wanted was to take home a victory in his strongest event. He won the national title in the 30km classic in 2012 and finished 26th in the 50km freestyle at the Olympics in Sochi.

So how much of surprise was it that Nikander beat Hoffman?

For starters, the best Nikander had ever finished in a 50km classic was ninth at the 2012 Finnish National Championships. Secondly, Hoffman had never even heard of the guy before Friday’s race, which marked the end of the 2013-14 season.

“I don’t know his name,” Hoffman admitted after the race. “I was impressed, though. He was good.”

Hoffman said Spencer Loop, an arduous 290-meter climb up into the foothills of the Chugach Mountains, posed a challenge but it certainly wasn’t the toughest climb he had experienced this season.

“It’s for sure a challenging course but not as hard as the other 50km races I’ve done,” he said. “The Oslo (Norway) and the Sochi course both had similar hills but less flat skiing.”

Back in January, Nikander won a 30-K freestyle at the Pat Miller Invitational in Park City, Utah. He hoped some of that momentum would carry him into the NCAA Championships earlier this month, but the 24-year-old wound up a disappointing 25th in the 20-K freestyle.

Wanting to redeem himself, he decided to buy a plane ticket to Alaska and spend his spring break skiing with some of the best Nordic skiers in the United States.

“I’ve been looking forward to U.S. Nationals all season,” he said.

Nikander and Hoffman pulled away from the pack early and traded leads throughout the second half of the race. It wasn’t until the final straightaway, with Nikander double poling his way toward the finish line, when he finally separated himself from Hoffman.

“He had clearly been better than me double poling,” Hoffman said. “I was struggling to stay with him. I didn’t like my chances coming into the final stretch with him. He proved to be a lot better than me.”

Nikander finished the race in 2 hours, 23 minutes, 8 seconds, followed by Hoffman (2:23:17), Fairbanks’ Reese Hanneman (2:24:09) was third and Brian Gregg (Gregg/Madshus ) was 4th in 2:27:46.

Hanneman won $600 for the final podium spot soloing in just under a minute back while Gregg pocketed $300 following a battle with Alexander Treinen (APU) in 5th with Andy Newell (Stratton) just behind in 6th.

Live results with splits here.