Goretex Trans Rockies Run
A Day of Superlatives
20.09.2007
28.3 miles/2994 ft climbing
The penultimate stage of the 2007 GORE-TEX TransRockies Challenge is the one for the superlatives—longest, highest, most remote. With clear blue skies and the snow capped 14,421 foot peak of Mount Massive looming over the racecourse, most of the racers would argue that Stage 4 was also the most beautiful of the event so far.
Leaving from Turquoise Lake just outside Leadville, racers headed uphill for the first ten miles, reaching a maximum altitude of 12,000 feet at the top of Hagerman Pass on the Continental Divide. The climb was grinding and relentless, with loose boulders and rocks, making it unrunnable for all but the strongest teams. The second consecutive long day of running took its toll throughout the field and many more teams opted for a tow system on the descent as well as the climb to balance the workload and get to the finish line.
As they have since the start of the event. Eric and Kyle Skaggs of Team Montrail took off early on the climb distancing the rest of the competition and crossing the top of Hagerman Pass with a 5 minute lead over Team Gore-Tex Vortex who weren’t able to follow the long-legged pace of the Skaggs on the descent as they stretched their lead to over 15 minutes by the finish where they crossed the line in a time of 3:44:18, once again finishing ahead of all fastest finishing time projections.
In the Masters Division, the Run with GORE-TEX duo of John Dimeo and Robert Steele broke through for their first stage win after three days of knocking on the door. They came across the line in a time of 4:11:23 to snag the glory and close their deficit in the overall classification to 8:50 behind the Flying Monkeys who gutted through a tough day to finish second in 4:15:32. With the 18 mile Basalt to Aspen leg remaining, first place overall is still up for grabs in this category.
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