March 08, 2010 (Anchorage, AK) – APU’s Lars Flora and Kate Fitzgerald skied their way around the city to win the ASM Series Tour of Anchorage men and women’s 50km freestyle events. Flora had a bit of a challenge, holding off Brent Knight by one second to win with a time of 1:11:22.7, and third place went to Dylan Watts, just over two minutes back. Fitzgerald seemed to have no problem, winning in 2:34:22.4 with a 3:30 margin over Melissa Lewis with Raphaela Sieber in third.

The Tour of Anchorage is unique in that the four events start at different points and times along the point-to-point course. The 50km and 40km competitors start first on one side of the city of Anchorage, and follow the bike trails around the city. They pass the start lines of the 25km events in the middle of town at approximately the time that those events begin. This means that instead of everyone starting at once and finishing at different times, the various events meld into each other and all racers finish on the trails of Kincaid Park at nearly the same time.

Full results for Tour of Anchorage events here.

Results – 50km F – (brief)

Women
1. Kate Fitzgerald, 2:34:22.4
2. Melissa Lewis, 2:37:52.8
3. Raphaela Sieber, 2:38:42.6

Men
1. Lars Flora, 2:11:22.7
2. Brent Knight, 2:11:23.7
3. Dylan Watts, 2:13:49.6