Vail-Beaver Creek
21.4 miles/ 4607 feet climbing

Often, the last day of a stage race is a formality as the winning teams are usually decided long before the last stride is taken. The 2009 GORE-TEX TransRockies Run flipped that on is head with a dramatic last day which saw the leads on both the Open Men’s and Women’s races in serious jeopardy. The route for Stage 6 covered a gruelling 21.4 miles from Vail to Beaver Creek Resort and included over 4600 feet of climbing including a final last 700’ grunt up to the finish line in the exclusive surroundings of Beaver Creek Resort.

While the distances are not extreme for elite runners, the relentless pace and difficulty of the TransRockies Run course began to tell after five mostly hot and dusty days high in the Colorado Rockies. Team RunFlagstaff had been the dominant men’s team since Day 1 of the race but Robert Krar had begun to suffer from cramps and seizing in his hip and back and would have likely quit the race unless there was a lead to defend.

On stage 6, the hip flared up and he was forced to spend time on his back during the stage until it loosened up enough to continue. It didn’t help that the third-placed team, The Two Joes (Adam Campbell and Aaron Heidt) blazed away from the start line in a death or glory attempt to take the final stage. They dropped their last remaining competitors at checkpoint 1 and kept the throttle pinned to cross the finish line in 2:53:32, almost six minutes ahead of the second-placed Team Nike Rogue Valley Running and over 7 minutes ahead of Team RunFlagstaff who fought through the pain to hold onto their overall win. Near the end of the stage, Aaron Heidt asked his teammate Adam Campbell when he decided that they were going to run that hard on Stage 6: “Last night, but I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d say ‘no way’” was the answer. Continue Reading

Red Cliff-Vail
23.4mi/ 4407ft climbing

The 2009 GORE-TEX TransRockies Run saves two epic stages for the end of the event and today, the participants took on the first of these, a 23.5 mile run from Red Cliff, up and through the legendary back bowls of Vail Mountain and then down into the village itself for the last race night of 2009. All told, runners would climb over 4400 feet iand reach an maximum elevation of over 11,700 feet while running through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Rockies.

After four tough days on the trails, there was no let up as Stage 5 pitched up 3,000 feet over the course of 10 unrelenting miles of climbing. The top part of the climb consisted of a famous piece of singletrack called Bowman’s Shortcut famously used by soidiers at Camp Hale to access the nightlife in Minturn and Vail. Considering the steepness and difficulty of the terrain, it‘s a little humbling to think of soldiers crossing these passes in full winter gear just for a beer and a little entertainment.

If the course was tough, the conditions were perfect late summer Rocky Mountain alpine with crystal clear blue skies and warm temperatures, though the high altitude sunshine made the temperatures seem warmer than the thermometer showed.

The one universal of the TransRockies Run is that runners from front to back need to dig deep to get to the finish line. Stage 5 saw team throughout the field making huge efforts, whether to hold onto a top placing or just to get to the finish line. While they have been dominant throughout the race, Team RunFlagstaff show the complete effort put in every day—today both Robert Krar and Mike Smith were utterly spent after another stunning finish covering the 23.5 miles in 3:07:22 to stretch their overall lead to just over 22 minutes with only the final stage to go. In the Open Women’s race, Devon Crosby-Helms felt so bad at the start of the first climb that she was near tears thinking that the overall lead would slip away from her and her teammate Caitlin Smith. By checkpoint 2, they were over 8 minutes behind the the North Face Girls who were making a huge push to close the overall gap and take the leaders jerseys back. In the last 9 downhill miles to the finish, Crosby-Helms and Smith made a huge push to cut the gap in half, saving 9 minutes of their overall lead for the last run into Beaver Creek.

That level of commitment is displayed throughout—at TransRockies Run cameraman was shooting on top of a ridge and coaxed a participant into running for the camera when she stopped, she said “I ran 10 feet so you could film it, but it’s a good thing you didn’t see me 30 feet further back when I was throwing up.” She finished the stage.

There’s one more tough stage to go before runners can call themselves finishers. Stage 6 will cover 21.2 miles with over 4600 feet of climbing including a last 700 vertical foot grunt up to the finish line and closing ceremonies at Beaver Creek.

Photos by Dan Hudson

Camp Hale-Red Cliff
23.4 miles/ 4407ft climbing/ 4868 feet descending

It’s no secret that individual sports like ultrarunning attract personalities who are not only drawn to the solitary nature of the activity but also the ability to set goals and train individually. The team format of the TransRockies Run is nearly unique because it forces distance runners out of their comfort zone, adding teamwork to this most individual of pursuits. Runners who have different strengths must learn to co-operate and compensate different strengths and weaknesses or even how to work around one teammate’s bad day.

Each year, a new group of TransRockies Run first-timers quickly comes to enjoy the camaraderie that builds over the course of six days—not only between teammates but also between the teams who find themselves battling over and over as the stages unfold. The 2009 GORE-TEX® TransRockies Run has not only seen the extra level of intensity that can build between evenly matched teams who find themselves fighting for place day after day, but also the true spirit of competition which is part of this same dynamic.

Stage 4 of the 2009 TransRockies was on the short and sharp end of the spectrum with a steep and brutal 2500 ft climb up from Camp Hale to Hornsilver Summit followed by a steep descent straight back down ending in the small town of Red Cliff. Though the climb was tough, the views from the top of the ridge are among the best in the Colorado Rockies and many runners no doubt will fill their scrapbooks with photos of the 360 degree vista that included views of famous 14ers like Mount of the Holy Cross, Mount Elbert and Mount Massive. Continue Reading

Leadville-Camp Hale (Nova Guides)
24.2 miles/2930 ft climbing

The weather in the Rockies can change in a flash, surprising in turn with its violence or beauty. After a cold, overcast day on Stage 2 which included heavy rain showers at the finish line in Leadville, Tuesday dawned clear with only a few clouds moving past the peaks of Mt Elbert and Mt. Massive which loom over the valley. Though the cold of a 10,000ft above sea level made layers a necessity as runners started lining up for breakfast at 6am, it was obvious that the air would heat up quickly and competitors came to the start line ready for a long hot day of running.

Luckily for the competitors, this stage, both the longest and highest of 2009, was mostly run on tree-shaded trails providing great conditions and beautiful surroundings for a long day of running. At more than 24 miles long, stage unlike Stage 2, the 3000 vertical feet of climbing was broken up into two gentle treed ascents to 11,000 feet and with a number of rolling climbs though gorgeous singletrack on the Colorado Trail. While it wasn’t the high point of the ride, runners had the rare chance to run over the Continental Divide at Tennessee Pass which also provided a barrier against the storm cells which were running up and down the Leadville valley all afternoon. The rain and wind never managed to reach the runners either on the trail or relaxing afterwards at Nova Guides in historic Camp Hale. Continue Reading

Vicksburg-Twin Lakes
10.1 miles/3098 feet climbing

There’s a well-polished chestnut of wisdom which goes “different courses for different horses”; meaning what suits one person won’t necessarily be right for the next one. Stage 2 of the 2009 GORE-TEX® TransRockies Run proved that it still holds true with shake-ups at the top of the podium in three of the categories and winning gaps of less than 35 seconds in three divisions.

Stage 2 was a short sharp climb up over 3000 feet from Vicksburg to the peak of Hope Pass at nearly 12,600 feet above sea level before a steep and sometimes technical plunge into the hamlet of Twin Lakes. Though only 10 miles in length, the course would test runners with elevation, altitude, a cold river crossing and the possibility of severe weather above the tree line.

The briefing the night before the stage from medical staff was very clear in explaining the possibility of sudden weather changes and the need to carry full mandatory gear like jackets, hats and an emergency blanket. Through the clouds rolled in during the stage and rain came down heavily at times throughout the afternoon, runners were safely back at camp by the time the worst of the weather hit. Continue Reading

Buena Vista-Railroad Bridge Campground
20.4 miles/2721 feet climbing

After all the training, packing and preparation that participants do in advance of the 2009 GORE-TEX TransRockies Run, the mixture of nerves and exuberance on display in at the start was completely understandable. Under clear Rocky Mountain skies, over 260 runners from 10 countries lined up at the start line in Buena Vista, Colorado for the third and largest edition yet of the TransRockies Run.

This year’s field not only included the largest number of runners but also the deepest and competitive elite field in a TransRockies Run. With trail legends like current Western States 100 Champions Hal Koerner and Anita Ortiz and superb runners like Nikki Kimball, Devon Crosby-Helms, Kami Semick, Adam Chase Mr. Ultramarathon himself Dean Karnazes, there was going to be a lot of pace and power at the front of the field.

Today, though, the trail running star power on hand gave way to the speedy duo of Robert Krar and Mike Smith of RunFlagstaff who laid the law down early in stage 1. They grabbed the lead on the long first climb out of Buena Vista to the day’s high point at 9329 feet and never looked back. By the top, they had stretched their lead out to a minute over the chasing Team Nike/Rogue Valley Runners duo of Hal Koerner and Andy Martin who continued to pursue them closely through the first two checkpoints. RunFlagstaff’s lead continued to grow on the sandy singletrack between CP 2 and 3. They put their sub-2:20 marathon speed to use on the run-in to the finish along a hard-packed converted railbed, blowing the gap open and finishing the stage in a smoking time of 2:27:19, more than 3 ½ minutes ahead of Koerner and Martin who crossed the line in 2:50:52. The Salomon Canada duo of Phil Villeneuve and Gavin Hamilton ran a steady, smart and obviously fast race to grab third place and a spot the podium.
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Crowsnest Pass-Fernie
74.8km/ 1293m climbing/ 1633m descending

After four consecutive days of unseasonable cold and rain, riders left Blairmore, Alberta for the final stage of 2009 with the finish line in Fernie squarely in their sights. The euphoria of completion added an extra level of excitement to the morning, as did an extra hour’s sleep with a later start made possible by slightly shorter and flatter route than the previous three days which had seen most riders on course for at least 7 hours a day in tough conditions.

At 75 km long with 1300 metres of climbing, Stage 7 looked like a mere blip compared to the 300km and 6700 metres of climbing they’d overcome in the previous three stages. It would still mean nearly four hours on course for the winners and much longer for most of the field thanks to course conditions which remained slick after the wettest edition yet in eight years of TransRockies riding.

The leading group of riders stayed together through the first two feed stations before the leading Rocky Mountain Factory Team duo of Stefan Widmer and Marty Lazarski dropped the hammer, determined to celebrate their GC win with a solo ride down Victoria St. in Fernie. They had been the fastest team on the singletrack all week and again, they were able to open a sizeable lead on the technical sections and rolled into the finish alone for another impressive stage win.
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Stage 6: Elkford – Crowsnest Pass, AB
101km/ 2467m climbing/ 2419m descending

There are days in endurance racing when many riders would turn back if it weren’t for the responsibility to their teammates and the support from other riders in the midst of the same test. Stage 6 of the 2009 TransRockies was one such day. An already long day turned crushingly hard with another day of rain and trails that had turned soft and rutted over the previous 48 hours. Despite the test, teams continued to press forward to the finish, most with smiles and good cheer in the face of the struggle.

Instead of the estimated finish time of 4 ½ hours, the winning Czechmasters duo of Martin Horak and Milan Spolc rolled into Crowsnest Pass, Alberta with a finishing time of 5:38:48. They were followed closely by Team Amarante BikeZone-Onbike (Joao Marinho and Jose Silva), who finally got the better of Stefan Widmer and Marty Lazarski from the Rocky Mountain Factory Team in the Open Men’s category. The first three teams who had agreed to ride most of the day together as a measure of safety in the cold conditions and the Czech duo were able to maintain enough energy to burst free for the win near the end. Behind, teams drifted in one at a time looking spent but glad to know that just one day remained in perhaps the hardest mountain bike stage race ever held.

It was a huge effort for all at the front of the field and Team Amarante in particular dug impossibly deep to snag their first category win. Joao Marinho was holding onto his partner Jose Silva down the last metres of the finish chute as Silva was too spent to even lift his head up. This was the rare day when many slower teams looked better at the finish than the winners—they were probably better prepared for the cold conditions at the top of the climbs with extra clothes and jackets than the winners went out with the bare minimum of cover.

The day had started in Elkford with hope of improving weather. There was low-lying fog but the patches of blue indicated that there might be a break in the rain that had soaked riders during the previous stages. The residents of Elkford had demonstrated the kind of hospitality and warmth that has made it a favourite stop at the TransRockies, spontaneously billeting riders in spare rooms and taking loads of dirty laundry home to be returned in the morning to riders emerging from another great breakfast—this morning breakfast burritos and pancakes were on the menu.

Hopes of a brighter day soon ended in chilling rain and thunder that hit the field before checkpoint 1 at the base of the climb up and over Deadman’s Pass and the Continental Divide. With 70km of riding still left, conservation of energy was the order of the day for most riders rather than straight competition. As riders rode down Main Street in Crowsnest Pass, the locals looked at the riders as though they were aliens, soaking wet and coated head to toe in mud.

Despite the day’s drama, there was little GC movement in the field as the Rocky Mountain Factory Team held their overall lead. The Scallion sisters, racing for stage host Nipika Mountain Resort, won their fourth stage and holding onto the overall lead in the Open Women’s category. National team rider Mical Dyck and her partner Craig Neilson continued their clean sweep of the Open Mixed division with a top-5 overall ride and another dominant performance.

Tomorrow is the home stretch to the finish line in Fernie and the party which the town has lined up for the riders. Fernie has been a part of the TransRockies since it began in 2002, and the town understands well the sacrifices that are made to get to finish the hardest mountain bike stage race in the World. The wild and unseasonable weather has made 2009 perhaps been the most challenging edition of the TransRockies in half a decade so the celebrations will be that much more intense for the teams who reach Fernie and earn the toughest t-shirt in mountain biking.

All photos courtesy of Dan Hudson/TransRockies Challenge

Stage 5: Whiteswan Lake – Elkford
87.5km/ 2254m climbing/ 2115m descending

After four straight years with almost unbroken sunshine, it was inevitable that the Rocky Mountains would demand a little payback from the TransRockies. The riders of the 2009 have been hit with three straight days of unseasonably cold and wet weather that has added an extra level of epic effort to each long day in the mountains.

On Stage 5, the TransRockies field rolled out of Whiteswan Lake deep in the wilderness with the mountain town of Elkford in their sights. As they have since the first year of the TransRockies, one of the friendliest and most enthusiastic groups of locals anywhere would welcome them with hot showers, dry clothes and ample snacks to recharge. With the basics of life like high-speed internet and cell phone reception, riders were anxious to get back in touch with family and share stories of the 2009 race so far.

With tough conditions on the menu and two major passes to cross, the leading groups of riders stayed together early on in the 87.5km stage sharing the work before splits began to appear as tired legs needed to take a rest. As they have since the start, Marty Lazarski and Stefan Widmer from Rocky Mountain bikes were again the strongest as they rode away from the group and rolling into Elkford solo. Testament to the tough conditions was that fact that their finishing time of 4:36:07 was just 8 minutes faster than the day before despite a route 20km shorter.

In the Open Women’s division, the VeloBella/Vanderkitten duo of Erika Krumpelman and Shannon Holden took advantage of the burly conditions to grab their second stage win of 2009 with a 13 minute gap over Magi and Kate Scallion of Team Nipika who retain their overall first place position with two days to go.

A number of overseas teams are battling for podium spots despite the tough and complete foreign conditions. Team Cox (Hans-Tore Steen and his partner Gisele Langslet) from Norway have a 23-minute lead in the 100+ Category, while the Czech Republic Czechmasters, who again finshed second overall on the stage, have nearly an hour on their closest competitors, Team Breck Epic. The Flemish Belgian contingent from Team Detrog Granville occupies 2nd and a close 4th in Open Mixed and were also in 2nd in 80+ Mixed until hypothermia problems dropped them to 4th after Stage 5.

Every team, whether local or from across the World had to battle through some tough riding throughout Stage 5. The last descent became as much of a survival course as the climbs as the steep and sketchy Rock Garden descent from top of Crossing Creek pass was slick and scary-a huge opportunity to open up time gaps for the technically adept teams and an exercise in care for those not comfortable with 3 km of vertical rock field.

Despite the conditions, only a few teams failed to make the finish cut off time of 10 hours, which was extended by a few minutes in light of the conditions. With hot showers, dry clothes and a town-run barbeque at the finish, riders were restored to wellness quickly and were left to tell war stories as the mechanics braced themselves for another night of bike repair which would require headlamps and ample caffeine to make sure that hundreds of cables, chains, brakes and shocks would be buffed and ready for another 101km and 2600m of climbing across the Continental Divide and into the Crowsnest Pass region of Alberta.

All photos courtesy of Dan Hudson/TransRockies Challenge

Stage 4: Nipika Resort – Whiteswan Lake
107km/ 1980m climbing/ 1951m descending

With the competitors from the TR3 leaving camp for home this morning, it was down to business for the TransRockies teams who had a huge 107km day ahead of them on the middle day of this year’s seven-day epic. This stage, which started under low cloud at Nipika Mountain Resort, was going to be a long haul through some high and remote Rocky Mountain backcountry to the wilderness campground at Whiteswan Lake.

The new stage 5 routing omitted a major climb and instead took the field through roughly 30km of reclaimed singletrack to the base of the day’s major climb, Lodgepole Pass. By the time the riders reached the base of the climb, the morning cloud had turned into pounding rain and the visibility dropped down to mere metres as riders slogged through the ruts at the top of the climb. While they might not have enjoyed the pass, they probably came out of it in better shape than the TransRockies race partner whose brand new pickup truck lost both bumpers in the deep mud.

A change of tempo from the singletrack to more open riding meant that new teams surged to the front of the pack. First-placed Masters Men (80+) the Czechmasters Milan Spolic and Martin Horak made an early bid for glory with an attack after the first feed zone that dropped the second-placed overall Team Amarante but not the overall leaders, Rocky Mountain Factory Team who responded in kind and left the Czechmasters behind on the way to their fourth straight stage victory.
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Stage 3: Nipika – Nipika
~40km/1000m climbing/ 1000m descending

After two days of perfect racing weather, riders who woke during the night after the epic second stage heard the gentle patter of rain on their tents and campers. The start line at Nipika Mountain Resort is at roughly 1100 metres elevation, so rain and cloud also means cold temperatures so long sleeves and jackets were the order of the day for racers in the 9am start wave.

The weather continued to deteriorate throughout the morning prompting organizers to shorten the distance by roughly 5km—dropping the steepest and most technical sections of the course. Still, riders were faced with over 40km of wet and slippery single and doubletrack through the Nipika trail system including vertigo-inducing rides along the edge of the Kootenay River Gorge.

The racers took on the stage in three waves from slowest to fastest with the final group leaving starting at 1pm. The tension was highest for the competitors in the TR3 solo event, whose event would be complete at the end of this stage. Nipika would be their last chance to move up in the standings.

The change in conditions offered up the possibility of big changes in the standings as the relatively smaller elevation gains and constant level of technical challenge suited different skills sets than the previous two stages, likewise the mud also raised the possibility of mechanical difficulties.

With relatively small time gaps between first and third places, the TR3 Open Men’s Race was going to be dramatic and it took a turn in the first half hour when second-placed Colin Kerr inadvertently shortcut the course passing first-placed rider Cory Wallace along with the first-placed overall team Rocky Mountain. He maintained the gap to the finish but was penalized 10 minutes at the finish dropping him to third. Behind, Wallace and third-placed Roddi Lega (Team Pedal Head) were having a classic battle with Lega using his superhero singletrack skills to close in the technical sections only to have Wallace pull back out on the climbs. In the end, the final climb was enough to give Wallace a 20 second win and the overall GC as well.

In the Open Women category of the TR3, Katharina Beeler of Arizona confirmed her overall win with a third straight stage win. Craig Bartlett of Canmore won his battle extraordinaire with Calvin Zaryski with his second straight stage win in the Master Men (40+) category.

In the TransRockies team event, Stefan Widmer and Marty Lazarski continued their clean sweep of the action in the Open Men’s division with a 9-minute win over the hard-battling Portugese team of Joao Marinho and Jose Silva. Ray Adams and Ryan Leech of Team visitPA.com have been battling since the start and finished on the podium again to solidify their third-place overall standing. There were some first time stage winners in other categories as the technical mud masters got their chance to shine on a day when the sun didn’t.

With 107km of climbs and wide-open riding on the way to the wilderness camping at Whiteswan Lake tomorrow, the tables will likely turn again. In a classic ironic turn that mountain biking seems always to offer, the sun finally broke through as the awards presentations began meaning that the riders could enjoy the pictures and video from the day’s action knowing that tomorrow would very likely be a much better day for mountain biking in the Rockies.

All photos courtesy of Dan Hudson/TransRockies Challenge