SKIMO Race Sunshine 5000 Banff, AB Feb 6, 2010

Bryon Howard of http://www.thehowardteam.net is a Calgary ReMax realtor and lover of self propelled sports.
Feb 6. 2010 marked the 6th annual Sunshine 5000. The weather was perfect, blue sky, warm temps and nary a breath of wind made for comfortable race conditions.

The race started fast and furious with the lead peloton winding through the forest before breaking out into the alpine at the top of the WaWa chair and continuing around to Mt Standish. The course had lower angled uptracks and steep short descents, favouring those with longer strides and polished transition skills.

A long alpine climb on the South west face of Lookout Mtn spaced the racers out well, leading them to the aesthetic stairs and airy traverse to the top of Delirium Dive. Even with good conditions in the Dive, caution was necessary and everyone made it through unscathed and on to the last gruelling climbs up Goats Eye. The well groomed skintrack led to a heinous bootpack through a sunbaked couloir and airy traverse under a cliff. Conditions here were some of the finest the Rockies had to offer (windslab and facets) and rewarded persistence and good line selection.

Caution again as competitors picked their way down the last descent, uncovering rocks and skiing for their lives in a thinly covered gully before making it onto a nice wide cruisy groomer until the finish line
On-course arch nemisis Reiner Thoni and Brendan French(USA) duked it out until the photo-finish ending that Brendan conceded due to time penalty. James Minife was overcome on the last climb by the Slovakian diesel engine Stano Faban and after a bad fall on the final descent couldnt catch him. Stanos effort was really impressive as he managed to actually speed up as the race went on. The 5th and 6th spots went to Ian Gale and Andrew Mcnab respectively .

Mel Bernier cruised into the finish line as the first female across with a hefty time margin slaying most of male racers. Behind her was Billie Velisek and Julie Matteau, who were neck and neck most of the race, swapping leads as both suffered skin failures. Ultimately Velisek managed to pull ahead into the lead.

It was great to see almost all of the Canadian National Skimo team out racing, and see some new smiling faces on the start line. Thanks to Dave D, Ryan J and the whole crew of volunteers for organising this years Sunshine 5000!
... above report copied from Ian G. at http://goldenskimo.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/sunshine-5000-race-report/

Your truely, Camera man Bryon Howard, finished 9th in 2:32 ... just 45 minutes from the leaders! (I took 15 minutes from the leaders since my 1st race in March 2009 at Dogtooth Dash.)

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• Feb 6
• 2010
• Sunshine 5000
• Reiner Thoni
• Brendan French
• James Minife
• Stano Faban
• Ian Gale
• Andrew Mcnab
• Mel Bernier
• Billie Velisek
• Julie Matteau
• Canadian National Skimo team
• Dave Dornian
• Ryan J
• Bryon Howard
• Dogtooth Dash