Rosie Frankowski wins 5th Tour of Anchorage and Hunter Wonders his first on a course limited by lack of snow - Anchorage Daily News

On most years, the Tour of Anchorage is true to its name.

The trail starts in the southeast part of town at Service High, cutting through the heart of the city before finishing at a far west point in Kincaid Park.

And while due to low snow, this year’s race was more of a tour of a small portion of Anchorage, it still drew big crowds of skiers and fat bikers to Kincaid Park on Sunday.

Modified courses were set up throughout the park, with the premier 50K freestyle ski race consisting of 10 spins through a 5K loop.

That didn’t stop Rosie Frankowski, who has made winning the Tour a frequent accomplishment in recent years. The win Sunday marked her third in a row and fifth in total.

She’s taking online courses at UAF and spent the last six weeks in Fairbanks, allowing for some skiing in more welcoming conditions.

“Which was really nice, because they have really good snow,” she said. “So I’ve missed a lot of the hamster-wheel laps.”

A world-class skier and 2018 Olympian, Frankowski had competed in other similar races, including a 20-lap 30K race. Her time of 2 hours, 2 minutes, 3 seconds was more than seven minutes faster than runner-up Anabel Needham.

Frankowski makes the race an emphasis every year and is an opportunity to renew relationships and hang with friends. The loop format offered more of an opportunity for camaraderie.

“The other thing I love is you could cheer for people the whole time, because you go back out and back and you do laps,” she said. “So I got to ski with more of my friends than I ever have.”

While the usual route wasn’t an option, Frankowski, 33, was stunned at how good conditions remain for skiing at Kincaid given the lack of snow and string of days above freezing.

“Shoutout to NSAA,” she said. “The fact we have these conditions when I have seen the weather down here, it’s insane. I don’t know if they would have had this a decade ago when I first moved here. They’ve really invested to make this possible.”

Shortly before Frankowski earned her fifth Tour title, Anchorage’s Hunter Wonders notched his first-ever podium-topping finish at the Tour.

Wonders is fresh off a top 10 finish at the American Birkebeiner last weekend. He felt like he could have even had a better finish and used the Tour to fuel more regularly during the course of the 50K race.

“The Birkie definitely left me wanting more,” he said. “I felt like I didn’t feed early enough or often enough and at 40K and I was just really on borrowed time and I knew it.”

He said a race that includes a number of the same loops makes for an interesting challenge.

“Everyone figures out what they’re good at and where they’re going to make a move and kind of whose skis are running well in certain hills,” he said. “When you are on the same thing over and over, patterns start to come out. And it’s fun thinking about it tactically like that.”

He finished in 1:47:27, just nine seconds ahead of his former APU teammate Scott Patterson and 80 seconds ahead of APU teammate and two-time defending Tour champ Thomas O’Harra.

Like Frankowski, Wonders said he was grateful for having the opportunity to ski in Anchorage despite little-to-no snow throughout the Bowl. He plans to hunt some better conditions as the season winds down.

“I’m looking forward to maybe going up to Talkeetna or Fairbanks and just getting some skiing on more natural snow,” he said.

Race organizer Kikkan Randall said there were over 600 competitors registered as of Saturday. The last time the race needed to significantly modify its course about a decade ago, there were only 48 participants, she said.

The winners of the 40 freestyle were Kari Fritzel and Richard Suddock. The top finishers in the 25K freestyle were Ed Ives, Zarah Laker-Morris and Sara Cook.

The 50K classic winners were Alexandra Otto and Nathan Berry. Abigail Elbow and John Wood earned 40K classic titles. were the Evie Witten and Kneeland Taylor took the 25K classic titles.

In the fat tire biking competition, Karen Divelbiss and Jonathan Burgess won the 25K races. Catherine Benoit and Alko Noordwijk won 40K victories. In the 50K competition, Will Ross and Katera Seybert took the titles.

This story will be updated.

Chris Bieri -----------Chris Bieri is the sports and entertainment editor at the Anchorage Daily News.