After competing in the Tour de Bowness road race in Calgary two weekends ago, Jasper mountain biker Cory Wallace is preparing for the Trans Rockies Challenge – an 80 kilometre per day race held from August 9 to 15.

Wallace is riding in the solo category, and says he hopes to get a podium finish in the race that starts in Panorama, BC and ends three days later in Nipika Resort.

Called ‘the hardest race in North America’ by Mountain Bike Magazine, Wallace says he’s looking forward to getting to race closer to home, and back on the mountain bike.

“I’m anxious because I’ve done a lot of races out of Canada, but I’ve never done one (like this) in Canada yet, so I’m excited to be close to home,” he says from Calgary, where he did the Tour de Bowness.

“I’m kind of into the long, mountain bike events. This was just high intensity. It’s a bit of a change for the body to go from slow and steady to high end. But I did better than I expected. I finished 11th in the hill climb.”

Wallace says he went into the race with the goal to improve his fitness for the Trans Rockies Challenge. It was a lot faster than what he’s used to, he says, and but he hopes it will pay off for the weekend of mountain biking.

“My main goal on the weekend was to get fit. But on the last day I saw the strongest guy take off, so I took off with him for a few laps, and we had a good gap in the field but I just couldn’t maintain that pace long enough.”

Wallace has never competed in the Trans Rockies, but has been in the 24 Hours of Adrenalin in Canmore twice, but he says this one will be different because it’s over three days, with breaks in between, as opposed to 24 hours of straight riding.

“I don’t know what to expect. They say it’s not too technical. But day one has like 3000 metres of climbing, which is like Signal (Mountain) three times. So, yeah, it should be good,” he says, not seeming too concerned about the climb over the Continental Divide.

This year’s Trans Rockies race will have 420 competitors from 20 countries and will run over seven days for the team relay, ending in Fernie, and three days for the solo, ending in Nipika, BC.