Goretex Trans Rockies Run
Final Stage Surprises
21.09.2007
Most often, the final stage of a multi-day race is little more than a parade lap for the victors but the 2007 GORE-TEX (TM) TransRockies Run turned that pattern completely upside-down. With first-time stage winners in three out of the four categories and a dramatic change in the overall lead in the fourth, there was no end of surprises at the finish line in Aspen, Colorado.
Stage 5 featured a route which was very different from the rest of the event—made up of primarily urban path and including 2000 feet of gradual climbing, and it always held the potential of letting speed specialists shine on this day.
The skies dawned clear and warm in Basalt with a later 10am start for the runners allowing more time for adrenaline and temperatures to rise. The field went out at full speed and stayed close together through the first of two checkpoints. While Erik and Kyle Skaggs of Team Montrail broke out to their usual lead, this day the chasing team, Ben Evans and Eli Lane of Team Adi Zero, kept them in sight limiting the gap to less than a minute.
Team Adi Zero accelerated and caught the Skaggs brothers with less than five miles to go and when they attacked, Team Montrail did not follow. Lane and Evans kept on the gas all the way to the finish line, finishing in 2:34:56 and becoming the first team other than the Skaggs to win a stage in the inaugural GORE-TEX(TM) TransRockies Run. With a dominant lead built over the previous four days, Team Montrail’s overall victory was never threatened and they still became the first-ever champions of the 2007 GORE-TEX (TM) TransRockies Run.
In the Men’s Masters (80+ combined age) category, the face of the race changed on Stage Four when Run with GORE-TEX (John Dimeo and Robert Steele) broke through to win a stage from the previously dominant Flying Monkeys duo of Whit Rambach and Billy Simpson. In the process, they closed the gap in the overall classification to 8:50, a gap which they felt they could overcome on the last day.
Through the first checkpoint, they opened up a two-minute gap on Rambach and Simpson who were fighting with all their strength to hold onto their lead. With time gaps from race officials showing that overall victory was within reach, Dimeo and Steele continued to apply the pressure and crossed the line in 2:29:22 for the stage win. At that moment, the clock started ticking and showed that the Flying Monkeys needed to cross the line before the clock hit 2:38:12 to hold onto their lead . . . while other teams crossed the line and celebrated their finish, Dimeo and Steele crossed their fingers and the celebrations began when 2:38:12 came and went with no sign of the Flying Monkeys allowing Run with GORE-TEX to snatch the overall win on the last day of the race.
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