With barely five hours of light remaining in the day, winter cyclists assembled at the biathlon range on Grey Mountain for the 6th annual 5+ Hours of Light winter bike relay last Saturday.

With the same ideology as its summer race brethren, 24 Hours of Light bike relay – no headlamps – cyclists set off to complete the most laps of the course they could before the sun set at 3:46 p.m.

Ian Parker was first, completing eight laps of the nine-kilometre course to ride 72 kilometres. He had set out for one more lap, but didn’t come in before the sunset and so the lap didn’t officially count.

Josh de Cloet was second, completing six laps (54 kilometres), while Josh Glynn-Morris was third with five laps (45 kilometres).

Only Sammy Salter completed more than one official lap (seven for 63 kilometres) to win the women’s division.

In the group category, Five Old Goats ( Mike Tribes, Arno Springer, Cindy Breitkrautz, Lenore Morris and Mary Holozubiec) reigned supreme, finishing five official laps.

A group of enthusiastic runners also celebrated the winter solstice with a brisk morning run up Grey Mountain to the observation platform, doing the vertical trek decked out in festive attire.

Winter solstice was Wednesday.