Source for Sports wins 24 Hrs

Blood, sweat and tears. 

That sums up this year’s 24 Hours of Adrenalin in Canmore over the weekend, as Jasper solo riders and relay teams had strong performances, with the Source for Sports men’s team leading with way with a first place finish.

The five-man team finished a whole lap ahead of the second place team and two laps ahead of the fellow Jasperites and third place finishers the Freewheel Fatties.

Manu Loir-Mongazon said the key to their success this year, after placing third last year, less than two minutes behind the Fatties, was training. “It’s all about the training. Everybody trained better and harder.”

Source for Sports had no mechanical issues last year, but Loir-Mongazon said this year they had two flat tires, and still went much, much faster. He said his own night laps were 15 minutes faster than last year, even though the course was 1.5 kilometres longer this year.

Loir-Mongazon, along with teammates Vic Vassallo, Sean Smith, Matt Staneland and Jason Backman, all whom raced last year, knew what to expect.

“The first eight kilometres of the race were the same as last year, so we knew where to push, where to rest. It was more fun than last year. The last 10 km of the race were a lot of fun, a lot of technical downhill. It was just easier to keep a really fast pace,” Loir-Mongazon said.

He also said they had a huge help from Doug Alberta, owner of Source for Sports, who paid for their admission fee, provided them with tents and gear, and even Nik Skwarok, Source’s bike tech, to head down for the weekend, without having to take time off work.

“We would have done it anyways, but it would not have been that comfy.” They had a really nice set up,” Loir-Mongazon said.

But like last year, both Jasper teams shared the podium, which Loir-Mongazon was happy about. “I was really happy to see Freewheel come back (to take third place). I didn’t want them too close, but I wanted them on the podium,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Freewheel Skinnys women’s team had a tough go, starting off strong in second place as they rode through the night until illness and timing faults got the better of them.

After finishing what she thought was her last lap of the race, Wendy Hall was ready to take a shower when they heard over the speaker phone that their team had a cancelled lap. Having to be driven off the course, Anna Declerq suffered from what they believed to be food poisoning in the early Sunday morning on what would have been her final lap.

Forced into her lap sooner than expected, Alana McGrath headed out without eating or preparing. To add to the confusion, another cancelled lap was called, meaning McGrath had also dropped out. Getting thrown into the action earlier than expect again was Jose Hull, only to find that McGrath was to finish her lap 10 minutes after Hull had taken off.

 “Alana had a little bit of a breakdown because she had not eaten, high on sugar, just rode her little heart out, to be told her lap was cancelled. It was tough. But we registered for next year this morning, so we’re doing it again!” said Hall.

Jasper’s PGE team also had a strong finish with 17 laps, while solo rider Pamela Roy won her category with 10 laps.

The Freewheel Skinnys weren’t the only ones taken by sickness, as solo rider Meghan Osbourne also fell ill, stopping at five laps. 

Elite solo rider and a favourite to win this year’s race, Cory Wallace, who had a fever during his practice run on Friday, was forced to stop after 12 laps due to illness also, but still managed to place 12th place in the division.

Dave MacDowell had an extremely strong race, taking second in his solo category, completing 14 laps.

Despite all the illness, timing confusion and 24 hours of pain, Hall says it was a great experience. “It was super fun, it was just crazy. We had a good time. Those kinds of things make you stronger.”