Ruth Winder repeated as the women's champion of the Old Man Winter Bike Rally on Saturday, while Alexei Vermeulen pulled away from Scott Funston on the second timed climb to win the men's championship.

The ninth annual 100-km mixed terrain event traversed the snow-covered foothills of the Rocky Mountains and Cantor in Boulder County. The high-elevation segment featured two timed sections on the uphill to ensure safety on the downhill, and scenic gravel roads on Linden Mountain and Old Stage Road. Flat terrain at the start and finish led to a new start/finish at Bourne Park in Lyons.

Last year, Winder won the women's race by 2:25 over Jess Cygan. This time, on the Front Range, where the weather was mild and sunny, Deanna Mails finished second behind Winder, with Cygan in third. Last year's men's winner, Alex Howes, did not compete.

The roller coaster-like route up and down the snow-covered canyon began on a paved road. About 18 miles into the run, the road tilted around a plateau turn and entered Left Hand Canyon at a single-digit grade. The route then narrows at an old jeep trail called Rowena Trail, which appears to be singletrack in parts. A technical gravel descent on Route 83 leads into Sunshine Canyon, where the first timed section crosses 7,499 feet, the highest elevation on the route.

In the lead pack heading out of Sunshine Canyon to the time check, Funston was just over a minute ahead of Vermeulen and Chad Valensen. Nick Gould and Brennan Wertz ran together two and a half minutes later.

Ruth Winder led the girls in Sunshine, seven and a half minutes ahead of Mails and another two minutes ahead of Cygan. Tina Hart and Tess Amer were more than 10 minutes behind, running fourth and fifth in the women's race.

The second timed section was the paved Linden. Vermeulen was first up the Linden climb, giving her a 2.5 minute advantage over the chasing pair of Funston and Wertz.

Another 30 seconds later, Barentsen sprinted in front of Gould in fourth place; when the two times were combined, Vermeulen was 2:46:15, 1:01 faster than Funston, and Barentsen was third at 2:49:15.

In the women's race, Cygan recorded the fastest women's time to the top of Linden in 1:32:18, 0.5 seconds faster than Meirs. Just 5 seconds later, Ameer stopped the clock. Winder was 10 seconds behind in fourth place, while Leah van der Linden finished the second section in fifth place, about six minutes behind. Winder finished with a best time of 3 hours, 19 minutes, and 45 seconds for the two sections combined, well ahead of Mails and Amell.

The route returned to gravel, descending Linden Mountain and the Bow Loop. At the top of Old Stage Road, a steep paved climb, the riders returned to the flat road where they joined the 50 km route and headed for the finish.