The friendly rivalry between Source for Sports and Freewheel Cycle was alive and well as cyclists from both stores battled it out during the 24 Hours of Adrenalin relay race held in Canmore last weekend.
Freewheel Cycle edged out Source for Sports by nearly 30 minutes to earn first place in the five-person co-ed category and second overall with a time of 24:13:52.
“We’ve been battling those guys for a long time,” said Chris Peel, owner of Freewheel Cycle.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever beat them,” he said, explaining his store has competed in the race for about nine years.
Held at the Canmore Nordic Centre, racers took turns completing the gruelling 18-km mountain bike course before handing off the wooden baton to the next rider.
“It’s pretty much a sprint, you’re hammering as hard as you can up the climbs and trying to recover on the down,” said Peel.
“Because we’re alternating one through five, you get a chance to ride in all of the conditions whether it’s hot and sunny, cold and rainy or in the middle of the night,” said Victor Vassallo, who raced for Source for Sports.
Freewheel Cycle took advantage of its captain, Jasperite Cory Wallace, a professional cyclist, letting him do the first five laps of the race, as well as the final four laps of the race.
“When we heard that he was going to be racing for them in the capacity he was going to race, we knew where we stood,” said Vassallo, in reference to the fact Wallace regularly competes against some of the world’s best cyclists.
“Under the circumstances, I thought we did exceptionally well to be as close as we were. Throughout the entire race we were right with them.”
Vassallo said his team was only 15 minutes behind Freewheel Cycle after Wallace finished the first five laps of the race and they were able to get ahead during the night, before falling behind again in the morning when Wallace returned to finish the race for his team.
“Normally, as a regular mountain biker, to do five laps in a row would be destruction, we would be dead,” said Vassallo.
“As good as that is for them to start off with their fastest guy, the rest of the team still had to ride and they had a lot less rest because he wasn’t there and they couldn’t do the five-man rotation.”
Racing for Source for Sports was Emmanuel Loir-Mongazon, Matt Staneland, Meghan Staneland, Sean Smith and Vassallo. The team placed fifth overall out of 258 teams and individuals.
Racing for Freewheel Cycle was Kate Ryan, Derek Anderson, Ryan Gardiner, Wallace and Peel. The team placed second overall.
Both teams completed 23 laps, one shy of the overall winner.
In addition to the two co-ed teams, Source for Sports also had a second team competing in the race, lead by captain Jordan Sales.
The team placed 10th in the five-person 150 to 189 pound category, with an overall time of 24:34 flat.
“They did really well because one of their guys got hurt right away,” said Vassallo, explaining Brady Murphy injured his thumb after the first lap and a half.
“It makes it a lot more difficult when you’re a four-man team because you get a lot less rest,” he said.
Racing for the team was Brad Bobey, Keith Bobey, Trent Tompkins, Sales and Murphy.
The team finished 84th overall and completed 17 laps.
Jasperite Simone Heinrich and her team placed first in the five-person female category with an overall time of 24:14:23.
Heinrich recorded the best lap for her team with a time of 1:11:04.
Several other teams from Jasper also competed in the race, including Jasper Electric, Wild Mountain De’d Dog, Sawridge Sliders and Two Mikes and Three Babes.
Paul Clarke
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