Twenty centimetres of snow at the top of Whistler Mountain made for a pretty picture for 250 mountain bike riders who took the plunge at the start of Sunday's second annual Red Bull 5000 Down downhill.
It was like a scene right out of Christmas. For Tyler Morland, a Prince George guy who knows a thing or two about winter bike riding, there was a big present in the form of a $4,000 cheque waiting for him at the bottom of the hill.
He just had to figure out a way to get there ahead of 249 other riders.
Leaving his hands off the brake levers, Morland put his professional riding skills to work and took off on a 1,500-metre vertical descent that covered 2,182 metres of terrain. By the time he'd left the snow behind and found his way to the fire roads, Morland was coming close to paved highway speeds and it took him only 21 minutes 49.82 seconds to reach what he was after.
"The start was a little crazy," he said. "The snow was definitely a surprise in the morning when we checked out the webcams but it was better than rain."
"Normal downhill races are under the five-minute mark and this race is unique in the aspect of the mass start, which is pretty cool."
Morland won by 11 seconds over second-place Curtis Keene of Whistler, about a minute ahead of Kevin Bartkowski, another former Prince George resident, who made it down in 23 minutes flat. Two other riders who grew up in Prince George -- Kenney Smith of North Vancouver and Gareth Dyer of Whistler -- finished 89th and 90th respectively in the 250-rider field. Smith, who had brake problems that delayed his start, finished in 29:55.16, while Dyer bottomed out in 29:59.92.
