1 Larry Tomie 2:54:49
2 Ray Boucher 2:56:16
3 Mario Festival 3:33:41
4 Grahame Gordon 3:39:33
5 Masa Higuchi 4:17:26
6 Don Boucher 14 Km
The Crystal 50 used the Crystal Trails at Hiawatha Highlands starting with the Kinsmen 2K and then followed by 4 laps of the Crystal 12K loop (including all the extensions: Hiawatha, Inner Loop, Olympic). The format for the race is simple: no fees, no awards, no aid and no wimps!
Race morning temperature was a mild -1 C, but fortunately, the temperature held there for the duration of the morning.
This year's race quickly broke down into two separate contests.
Larry Tomie marked Ray Boucher skate for skate until the 23 km mark where Tomie made a mistake and fell. It took Tomie approximately 11km to catch back up and his reappearance was a bit disheartening for Boucher. They exchanged the lead for the next 8 km until the top of the first Hiawatha loop climb, where Boucher stepped aside and said those infamous words "no mas".
The bronze medal hunt found Mario Festival back on the podium after a two year hiatus. Graham Gordon kept the pressure on Festival right up to the end.
Kudos to Masa Higuchi who took advantage of the "Early Bird" start time and blasted off at 7:00 am. Also to Don Boucher who was attempting to be the first "classic" skier to finish the race, but ran into extremely tricky waxing conditions and only completed 14 kilometers.
Crystal 50 Statistics:
