Talking to a 24-hour cyclist before the race

Mountain biking for 24 hours straight is first a physical challenge, and then a mental one. “The last little bit is your heart – how much you want to do it,” says Dave MacDowell, avid cyclist and 24-hour race solo competitor.

Though he dropped out early this year to ward off a threatening chest cold, last year he rode the 15 km route 16 times in 24:14:54. Teams in the event must complete as many laps as they can in 24 hours, but soloists get 60 extra minutes to finish their final route.

Not surprisingly, riding from noon to noon leaves bikers exhausted. “You don’t even remember what you’ve done all night,” he says. “Normally I’m not even a person that can stay up late, but when you’re in an event like this, you’re so focused you don’t notice how tired you are until you take a rest.”

And there are rests, but they’re generally short. Cyclists will stop to eat, stretch and fix up their bikes before they get back on the trail.

After riding for hours in the dark, cyclists find renewed energy when the sun rises. “When you’re riding all night, when you hit the morning you feel like you have a little bit of a lift again,” he says.

The “wild” excitement surrounding the event provides a high as well. “The crowd’s cheering when you come through the transition zone, and there’s so much energy that you go zoom.”

One of the biggest challenges for MacDowell is to keep pedalling. “You need support,” he says. “Jasper’s great because you get a lot of support. There’s going to be 50 people out there.”

As far as local athletes go, he says the town is brimming due to the nature of living in the mountains.

“I’m just a pretty average Jasperite, there’s a pile of them,” he says, adding it’s important to take advantage of the surroundings. “I think it’s a missed opportunity if you’re living in Jasper and not getting out and enjoying the park.?

“There’s no opera here, but there’s the outdoors.”