Pounding snow at the base of Eldora! Rugged skimo conditions. Good start, 7th a the top of the 1st little climb after a VO2 effort. Settled in, but the front group was getting away so burned a match to move into 6th. Good pace because I wanted to get to the trees and bootpack in front of people. Did that and made time on the bootpack section. Near the top of climb #1, passed Rory who was having skin issued, 5th. Great transition to ski, 4" of new snow on Jolly Jug to the base and had a minute at the bottom transition clearly in no-man's land. (1m behind 1-4 and 1m ahead of chasers). Kept the pace high on climb #2 in threshold and got to the top w/ plenty of time. Ski #2 was challenging as it was broken-up powder and firm snow, but got to the finish in 5th.