Town tears it up in 24 hour mountain biking race

Cory Wallace of Jasper pedalled across the finish line as the top Canadian contender in the 24 Hours of Adrenalin World Solo Championships mountain biking race last weekend in Canmore.

Wallace, 24, ranked fifth overall in the elite solo category of 34 riders with four Australians ahead of him. He rode the 20 km-route 16 times in 24:31:10 and passed the cyclist ahead of him, another Australian, in the last lap.

“It couldn’t be all five Aussies sweeping the podium,” he said. It was Wallace’s first night ride and twice as long as he’s ever ridden in his life, and said he couldn’t have done it without the support of his sponsors, Freewheel Cycle and Specialized Bikes.

Though it’s a 24-hour event, soloists get an extra hour to complete their final lap. The race began at noon on July 26 with a LeMans start, which includes a 600m run to disperse the cyclists.

Jasper’s only other solo competitor, Dave MacDowell, called it quits after six laps when he started to feel the effects of a chest cold. “I started off pretty good and it started to get worse and worse,” he said. “I just pulled the pin and said, ‘No more’.”

The Wild Mountain owner, who rode 16 laps in 24:14:54 last year, stuck around to cheer on other athletes, including Wallace. “He rode himself to pieces,” MacDowell said, adding he wasn’t sure how Wallace felt at the end of the race, aside from exhausted. “It was pretty hard to tell because he was toast.”

Wallace agreed. “I was completely done,” he said. “I just couldn’t move.” He plans to race in the Hinton Moose Dash Madness on August 7 then in the provincial championships later that month.

The world solo championships took place concurrently with the team relay competition, which had a shorter route by 5 km.

In the five-person, 150-199 age category, Jasper’s Freewheel Fatties took second place, completing 22 laps in 23:44:21.

Teams are categorized based on the sum of their teammates’ ages.

After the race, Freewheel owner Wendy Hall remarked on Fatties teammate Lyle Stromstedt’s sportsmanship, after learning that he stopped in the middle of his lap to help a rider with a flat. “They’re competing for second place by minutes, and this guy stops to help someone,” she said.

Jasper Source for Sports came in third in the same category, finishing the same number of laps just 80 seconds behind the Fatties. The Astoria D’ed Dogs ranked 10th in the 5-person 200-and-up category, riding 18 laps in 23:39:28, and team PGE from Jasper came in 16th in that division finishing 16 laps in 23:51:14.

Freewheel’s all-female team No Big Deal placed fourth, riding 16 laps in 22:56:06, and the Papa Gorgeous Adrenalin Girls 3 came in 6th with 15 laps in 23:44:02.

It rained off and on over the 24 hours, and Kelly Skehill from team No Big Deal, said it made the track feel different with each lap. “The first time it was muddy and wet which is fun,” she said. “At nighttime it cooled off and got sticky, so it was faster to walk in some spots.”

She said it was a big change from last year’s event which was consistently dry, though the weather didn’t dampen the athletes’ spirits.

“The Jasper teams were pretty strong,” Skehill said. “We’re not scared of mud.”

Teammate Kelsey Thomas said the race, her first 24-hour event, was “epic.” As the second-last rider, Thomas was up against the clock to get back in time for another cyclist to attempt a final lap. “It was pretty emotional when I got back,” she said. “I just started crying.”

It was Thomas’ first time riding in the dark, and as luck would have it, her light stopped working halfway through her lap. Her fortune improved when a member from Papa George’s team came along and rode with her to share his light. “Without him I think I would have been in a lot of trouble,” she said.

Two hundred soloists contended and 1,400 athletes took part in the team competition. First place winners in each category received cycling jerseys, and top three competitors received medals and prizes such as bike tires.

Last year the world championships took place at the Laguna Seca Raceway in California. The Canmore Nordic Centre, which was originally developed for the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, has hosted a 24-hour mountain biking race for the past 13 years and last held the worlds in 2000.