There's a phrase: "As much fun as you can have with your clothes on." Since my son is now a Minion, that isn't appropriate, but maybe even more apt is: "As much fun as you can have while enduring such intense pain." If you nod your head at that description and a smile creeps across your face, you get it. This was the stage like that.
It started at the Gregory Canyon Trailhead and headed up the Amphitheater Trail for just a minute or two before breaking off-trail to something I named the Gregory Ridge. This is a fin of questionable rock that sticks up out of ridge like blades on a Stegosaurus' back. The idea is to start scrambling as soon as possible and limit the running and hiking. It isn't great, but it serves that purpose and leads directly to The Spy. A bit of hiking after the Spy leads to the start of the North Ridge of the First Flatiron. From the top scramblers could down-climb the Southwest Face or rappel one of four fixed lines. Once on the ground, we ran over to the East Bench of the Third Flatiron for its classic East Face. Then took the 200-foot rappel back to the ground and over to the South Sneak on the Second Flatiron. From the top of that rock we down-climbed the West Face and then ran uphill (oof!) to the back side of the First Flatiron and then down the old trail to the Saddle Rock/Amphitheater Trail and back to the start.
This was only 2.5 miles, but involved 2400 vertical feet and over 20 pitches of traditional roped climbing, up to 5.4 in difficulty. It's plenty of room for the ebb and flow of race dynamics to play out in interesting ways. At least for me.
The last two years my main rival has been the reigning Female Tour de Flatirons Champion Sonia "Beet Red" Buckley. Each year my tenuous hold on besting her has gotten weaker. I edged her out in the first stage only because she couldn't race in the field and had to go solo. Without me to chase, she was slower, as I would be without her. I soon as I saw her walk up for this stage, my palms started to sweat. Pain was in my future. And not just pain, but fear. It's sort of like a horror movie where you know the monster is going to jump out, but you don't know when. I know she is going to be beat me, but I don't know when. The longer I stay ahead, the more the tension rises, as my margins get cut with each stage. It's almost to the point where I want to just give up and follow her in, to reduce the stress. Alas, I can't. No Minion can do it. That's why racing can be quite dangerous if you are harnessing an injury, telling yourself you'll just go easy and make things worse. As appealing as that sounds, it's nearly impossible.
Since the start is singletrack, we self-seeded for the start. I was nearly last, where I should be for the start. Tony was right in front of me and I knew I'd end up beating him, but I also knew he starts fast, so that was no problem. In fact, he gapped me early on. I took the low cut over to the talus even though I think the high cut is faster. I was just following the people in front of me. I passed Tony on the talus and when I got the ridge, there was a queue. I should have expected this. Climbing this ridge is slower than power hiking, so it is a natural bottleneck at the start. Sonia was right behind me and there was five or six of us before I was able to leave the ground. It was a nice rest, but a bit early in the stage for resting.
Above me was Max and at first we were both being held up a bit, but as soon as the group above us hit one of the hiking sections the space between us expanded and he gapped him. Sonia was on me like stink on a warthog (credit to Lion King). She was so tight that by the time we got to the Spy, I stepped aside and let her go in front. She immediately gapped me. By the time we got to the top of the Spy, she had ten seconds on me and once on the ground and hiking up to the North Ridge, she put scramblers between us. It would be awhile before I'd see her again.
Just before getting on the First, I let Corn Muffin by and gave me a boost up a steep section. I followed him for the most part, getting slightly gapped on the easier sections, but closing up and waiting on him on the more technical parts. Near the top I asked to pass and he let me by. I hit the rappel lines just behind David Alexander and Max, with Corn Muffin right behind me. I rapped quickly, but so did Corn Muffin. In no time he was back in front and he and David gapped Max and I. I did a better job traversing over to the Third and caught those guys just at the normal approach trail. David had so much downward momentum that he went right across this trail and continued down! I yelled to him to get him back on track, but now I was ahead of him.
On the Third I was one again on Muffin's heels. He offered to let me by and I declined, as I was redlining. But after a bit I felt better and passed him on the right. I was flowing and moving well and left him far behind as well as David and Max. I could see I was fast closing on climbers above and excited about that until I realized it was a roped party. It must have been quite a show for this team. I'm sure they got passed by thirty Minions before they finished one pitch.
Above I saw David Glennon and was closing, albeit slowly. Since DG is the fastest runner in the Minions, I only catch him, if at all, on more technical climbs. I wouldn't normally catch him on the Third, but he was out of practice and taking things slow and solid. Every Minion racing needs to be solid all the time and David always is. At the crossover, David beat me there by maybe a second, but graciously let me play through. I zipped up the last piece and passed another roped party and Sir Crimps-alot, just below the top.
These passes were key, as I was now just two scramblers behind Sonia, who was still on top when I arrived. The other was Full Gaynor, a young, fit guy who I beat in the last stage and was hungry for payback. As soon as he saw me he exclaimed, "Dammit, Bill!"
Sonia rapped first, then Full, then me. I thought I was unlucky getting the 60-meter line (as opposed to the 70-meter line), but it turned out great, as my line was untangled until just the last twenty feet or so. I zipped down past Full and was able to scramble down and off the end of the rope. With Sonia in sight, I gave chase. I could tell she didn't know the best way to get to the Second and I saw her pause to look around a second. She then cut left too early. I stayed on the path that Kyle had shown me in the preview and got in front of her by about 10-15 seconds.
Full Gaynor arrived at the base and zipped up the lower part of the South Sneak, closing on me fast. I was hurting big time and trying to pace my effort up the Second. I knew it was a long way to the top. Apparently Full Gaynor went too fast and blew up a bit. He stepped aside and let Sonia pass and soon she was nipping at my heels and we were both gapping FG.
I zipped down the West Face. Bill Hanson was walking by, completely unrelated to the Minions I'm sure, and he cheered me on. I wanted to say something clever about holding up Sonia, but I'm not too clever even when I'm full oxygenated and just nodded at him. I ran the first switchback because it was mostly flat and then power hiked the rest of the them to the north behind the First. Sonia ran more of it and was less than ten seconds behind at the top, maybe five.
She closed further and we stumbled, ran, shuffled, but stayed vertical on the loose, rocky descent down to the Saddlerock Trail. I was feeling tremendous pressure. I wasn't sure I could hold her off, so I called back, "We have to at least hold off our chasers." In the last stage Muffin and Sometimes Great came flying by on the talus. This was easier terrain, but I still feared their young legs. Below us I could hear loud cheering and encouragement. It was Kyle's posse cheering on the rest of the field. Cool.
We went by the posse about the time we hit the Saddlerock Trail. I ran as quick as I dared. Catching a toe here would have resulted in a very damaging fall. Sonia would yo-yo between two and four seconds behind me. It was nearly impossible to pass here. I asked myself if I should give track and decided no. She wasn't close enough. Yet. I couldn't look back. I decided not to yield unless asked. She would have to decide if I was holding her up.
Sheri was at the Amphitheater junction and cheered me on, but, dammit, she also encouraged Sonia! I knew it was four minutes to the finish. I focused and pushed hard. There were people on the trail below, but they moved to the side and I never looked up. Even a glance upwards for momentary eye contact could have resulted in bruised and battered body. We stayed locked in that combat clear to the finish. Sonia might have backed off a tiny bit at the end, knowing she wasn't getting by. Officially the gap was six seconds on our respective watches, but it seemed more like three seconds to me. What a battle!
Kyle won, going away. He's the King now and there are no solid challengers on the horizon right now. He's basically a pro. He works these rocks every day. He's young, thin, strong, agile, experienced, and highly motivated. A challenger will emerge, they always do, but it won't be this year. He will likely become the fourth Minion to win the Tour at least twice.
The battle for second sounded epic. Ryan Hans-and-Franz is ultrafit this year and seems to have a lock on second place, but two-time champion Mattias Messner was in field and had never finished a stage lower than second place. He didn't break his streak here either. Ryan knew he had to gap the fleet-footed Tyrolean before the final descent and couldn't get it. They finished seconds apart, but with Ryan in third.
Stefan, 6-time champion, was comfortably in fourth, if you can be comfortable while in so much pain. Logan was fifth, also with a margin, and then there was another great battle between Biceps, Diesel (aka Satan's Spawn), Kissing Cousins, and the Modern Major General. Here's Derek's report on that action:
Some good ol’ fashioned Minion scramblin’ fun out there today! More heavy hitters were in the race this time, so I settled into a more reasonable place at 7th. 1:03:53.
Started off with Greg (duh) and Danny ahead. Dylan passed all of us trying to go get Franz. With Greg pretty much all the way up to the First. No delay with ropes here (thanks riggers!) and the DGD party of 3 were all together heading down the Sunset trail together. Greg got in the lead and pretty soon Danny told me to go by, to which I obliged. Near the bottom of the steepest stuff we both passed Jeff, being a bit careful because of his ankles.
I was trying to stick with Greg and he led me perfectly to the Third, but not without a nice little slip-n-stuff of my face into some talus.
On the Third Dylan was back in sight (he might’ve had trouble on the link), Greg was gapping me a bit, and Danny and Jeff were hot on my heels. I originally followed Greg to the left side of the Third, but, worried Danny would sneak by me on the right, I cut back over in order to motivate me a bit extra and keep him on my radar.
The rap down the Third was a tangle, and I spent some time getting it sorted so I could go all the way down. Thinking we might need a “spotter/rope handler” to compliment the excellent riggers. They’d manage the ropes and make sure they go smoothly.
Greg had a gap now and Danny was even closer, breathing down my neck. I was totally gassed getting over to the Second, but did a good job on the link and started up. I was sure Danny was gonna pass me and he even mentioned afterwards that he was tasting blood in the water.
A bit higher up though, Dylan had to backtrack due to more route finding woes. This put me in front and this extra motivation had me moving faster. Near the top I got a gap on Dylan and I nailed the Second downclimb.
My only objective hiking back up to the notch was to get as high as possible before Dylan/Danny could see me. A really nice cheering section up there and I even ran a bit at the top! I ended up keeping my lead and finished 7th, behind Kyle, Matthias, Ryan, Stefan, Logan, Greg. Not bad people to follow, and about 20 more excellent people behind me. The Tour is SO. FUN.
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