Eric Brunner Edges Seth Hirsch at Vail Pass Cycling Event

Do you remember the last time you watched a peloton disappear into the thin air of Vail Pass, lungs burning at 8,000 feet, wondering if the climb would break them or make them? That’s the specific, visceral anxiety that gripped the final cycling event of the 24th-annual GoPro Mountain Games, where Boulder’s finest didn’t just ride up the mountain — they battled each other for supremacy on a course that tested every fiber of their endurance.

The scene was set in Vail Village, where 99 athletes were dispatched in 30-second intervals, a staggered start designed to strip away the tactical chaos of drafting and focus purely on rider effort. The rules were strict: no time-trial bikes, no aero extension bars, no disc wheels. Just raw power and the steep, unforgiving grade of the 9.7-mile climb. Eric Brunner, who had finished ninth in the mountain bike cross-country race earlier in the weekend, cruised through the ascent in 26 minutes and 15.68 seconds. He beat Seth Hirsch by less than eight seconds, a margin so narrow it felt like a coin toss decided by who held their nerve longer.

“It was solid,” Brunner said, reflecting on a day that began with a rocky opener. “Yesterday didn’t go well for me, but it was a good opener for today.”

Hirsch, a Footlocker cross-country high school All-American and former NCAA Division I runner at CU, had emerged as one of the area’s premier climbers. He knew Brunner was dangerous, particularly on the relatively flat South Frontage Road that preceded the final, punishing miles. “I knew I would have the advantage there and probably lose time on the climb,” Brunner admitted, acknowledging that Hirsch was “solid all around.”

Hirsch, meanwhile, viewed the course as a puzzle. “It’s kind of an interesting course,” he noted. “Pretty flat for awhile and then it’s really just kind of steep the last two, three miles.”

The strategy was as much about pacing as it was about speed. Hirsch, the winner of the inaugural Bighorn Road event in Gypsum last September, rode without the luxury of watching his rival. He relied on his own power metrics, pacing himself through the pack. “There were good guys around me, too,” Hirsch said. “I didn’t catch anyone or get caught by anyone, but I knew my power and I was really happy with how I paced it.”

Eight seconds stings, he admitted, but losing to Brunner — a rider described as “great at everything”, was a bitter pill to swallow for a competitor who had just secured a dominant performance. The field was deep, with Eagle’s Sam Brown rounding out the top local finishers in ninth, and former XTERRA world champion Josiah Middah close behind in twelfth.

On the women’s side, the dynamic shifted to Ashley Frye, Brunner’s Boulder-based training partner. The 26-year-old Texas native, fresh off a second-place general classification finish at the five-stage Tour of the Gila, won with authority, finishing almost 90 seconds clear of runner-up Erin Osborne. Frye, who transitioned from collegiate distance running to professional cycling, found the gradient perfect for her style. “First 15 minutes I was like, ‘Oh god I want this to be steeper,’ and then once we got to the steep section I was like, ‘yes, this is it,’” she laughed.

Both Frye and Bruner are now looking toward U.S. Road Nationals in Charleston, West Virginia, later this month. For them, this Vail climb wasn’t just a race; it was a proving ground. “This is perfect prep,” Frye said. “Felt like it would be great to get a hard effort.”

As the sun dipped below the peaks, casting long shadows over the finish line in Vail Village, the air still hummed with the memory of tires on asphalt and heavy breathing. The crowd had dispersed, but the silence that followed the roar of competition was heavy with the knowledge that these athletes had pushed their bodies to the absolute limit, leaving nothing on the road but tire marks and the echo of their effort.