A deluge of snow turned the trails of Otway Nordic Centre into a sloppy quagmire that bogged down most skiers in Sunday's Caledonia Loppet ski race.
It didn't seem to slow Simon Perreault. Abundant winter snow, especially in the current La Nina conditions, is the reason he picked Prince George as his destination last summer on a cross-country bicycle tour, and he used it to his advantage Sunday.
Perreault, 39, has been acing his long-distance tests in ski races this winter in northern B.C. and on Sunday he took the Caledonia crown, drawing on his experience to win a duel with teenagers Will Andal and Arthur Roots and take the overall 30-kilometre title in 1:40:29.
"I tired to keep them in sight and those guys were doing awesome," said Perreault. "For 17-year-old guys, that was just incredible. I was just hoping they would break down.
"There were a couple of places, even on the second lap where there had been more people on the track, the snow just kept coming down and on the dog loop it seemed like there was about 18 inches of snow. You just had to have a really strong stride and that's where I started my finishing kick. I was happy to see that finish line."
Perreault was so spent at the finish, as he moved to get out of the way of other arriving skiers he tripped over his skis and did a faceplant, then nearly passed out as he struggled to get back on his feet.
Perreault won the Halllis Lake Loppet in Quesnel, was third in the Bull Mountain Blast near Williams Lake, and two weekends ago won the 50km Cariboo Gold Rush Marathon near 100 Mile House. "That was a classic (technique) race and conditions were really good -- today was harder," he said.
Although the official results show Perreault just two seconds ahead of Andal, his winning margin was more like 30 seconds. Andal and Roots took turns jockeying for the overall lead most of the race until Perreault caught up to them late in the race on the Doggone-It loop.
"He was really fast," said Andal, second overall in 1:40:31. "I tried to stay with him but on the dog trail he just left me. I was pretty tired at the end. It was a hard race because you had to lift your feet up twice as high as usual and I kept slipping out. The second lap was tougher because I was more tired."
Roots competed in the biathlon events a week ago at the Canada Winter Games in Halifax. While his level of fitness has never been higher, the tough conditions Sunday forced him to dig deep into his energy reserves.
"For sure, that was one of the hardest races I've ever done," said Roots, who clocked 1:43:26. "I hit the wall about two kilometres from the finish line. It's really hard to finish once that happens. Those legs don't want to move at all."
Jacqui Benson won the women's 30km race in 1:48:52, 26 seconds ahead of second-place Shar Jackson.
"It was a tough go, it was a bit of slog, but it was fun," said Jackson. "I tried to get to the finish line first, but Jacqui had an extra gear I don't have."
In the 15km event, Erica Kreitz (1:17:05) and Chris Turski (1:06:13) won the respective women's and men's titles. Other event winners were Saige Bialuski (female 7.5km classic, 32:47.5); Kristian Jensen-LeBlanc (male 7.5km classic, 32:45.0); Damian Georgyev (3.5km classic, 36:35.8); Petar Georgyev (3.5km classic skier with bunny, 36:28.1).
Lauri Karjaluoto, 66, captured the men's 60-and-older category in 2:01:25, edging Ed Day (2:05.13), a member of Canada's 1976 Olympic ski team. Karjaluoto is preparing for the World Masters championships that start this weekend in Vernon and is entered in three classic races.
"This kind of event takes a bit out of your system and it would have been better to do a shorter distance, but when you ski as much as I do and your technique works OK you don't have to hustle it and you don't get sloppy. If you really push yourself to the limit, your technique falls apart because you get anaerobic a bit."
Other Prince George skiers heading to Vernon are Perreault, Nikki Kassel, John Hagen and Scott Forrest.
Complete loppet results are available at www.zone4.ca.
