After being plagued by injuries in Europe this spring, Jasper’s Cory Wallace returned to his usual winning ways during the Singletrack 6 mountain bike race held in British Columbia’s picturesque Okanagan two weeks ago.
The six-day race is arguably one of North America’s premier stage events showcasing some of the best riding throughout Western Canada.
“I spent two months in Europe and had a rough time,” said Wallace. “I was battling injury and just couldn’t get it together, so I was excited to be back on home soil and have a chance to gun it.”
With that mentality in mind, Wallace crushed the first four stages of the race and went on to win with an overall time of 10:55:47, more than 11 minutes ahead of the next competitor.
The day before starting the race in Salmon Arm, B.C., Wallace and two of his racing friends scouted out the first stage by riding the 25 km descent to the finish line.
The preparation paid off the following day after all three men took the top three spots in stage one. Wallace finished with a time of 2:16:55, more than a minute ahead of his friend Kris Sneddon, who had the second fastest time, but was competing in a different category.
In addition to scouting out the first stage, Wallace and his friends got some outside help when third place rider Greg Day, from Squamish, hit a hornets nest getting stung 12 times and creating a swarm of hornets in the process.
“Luckily I was in the lead at the time, but the third place guy hit a log and did a face plant into the dirt and hit a hornets nest and then every rider after that had to ride through that same area and the hornets were pretty pissed,” said Wallace.
“It seemed like everyone in the top 50 got stung,” he said.
Stage two started at 1,700 metres above Vernon, B.C. at Silver Star Mountain Resort.
For Wallace it was a ride down memory lane as he recalled competing at the resort during the National Championships and the Canada Cup more than a decade ago.
With bermed corners and switchback after switchback, Wallace and his three friends got out ahead only to run into a group of 30 riders on the single track course. The group had missed a sign and run off course.
“It’s always tricky on those courses because there’s a lot of trails in a small area,” said Wallace. “If you don’t see all the signs you’ll blow by them and go off course.”
After getting through the traffic, Wallace and his two friends managed to hold on to a narrow lead ahead of the chase pack before Sneddon opened things up and widened the gap for the three men.
Near the finish, Wallace and Andreas Hartmann, from Germany, broke away on a climb, with Wallace crossing the finish line first about a minute ahead of Hartmann.
On day three, the race shifted to switchback climbs over rocky terrain and steep descents in Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park.
Taking advantage of the hill climbs Wallace got out to a solid lead, but had to remain vigilant for rabbits and chipmunks that seemed blissfully unaware they were in the midst of a mountain bike race.
“There must have been a rabbit boom up there, because there were rabbits and chipmunks everywhere,” he said with a chuckle.
A few kilometres later the trail hit the infamous Big Ed descent, an extremely steep drop that requires riders to sit behind their saddle or risk going over their handlebars.
By the time Wallace made it to the bottom, his lead had quickly evaporated as British Columbia’s bike race champion Tristan Uhl narrowed the race, coming within 30 seconds of Wallace’s rear tire.
Luckily for Wallace, there was a small climb before the finish where he was able to reclaim his lead to finish the stage a minute and half ahead of Uhl.
Stage four started in Myra Bellevue Provincial Park, near Kelowna, and featured loose rock, power climbs, exposed trail through burned out landscapes and technical descents.
Battling Switzerland’s Severin Nowak, who has been living in Kelowna for a few months, Wallace was overtaken several times on the descents while regaining his lead on the climbs.
Knowing the course ended with a climb, Wallace conserved his energy and overtook Nowak with about five kilometres to go. He finished the stage about two minutes ahead.
“On day one I figured out pretty quickly that I had better climbing legs then other guys, so then I adjusted my race tactics to that,” said Wallace.
Stage five moved to Penticton and turned into a gong show as the windy course on Campbell Mountain overlapped itself several times causing mass confusion for riders.
Wallace again found himself with a comfortable lead after the opening climbs, but nearly lost his gap after he had to slam on the brakes to open a gate.
Rather than closing the gate behind him, he left it open, which allowed riders behind him to bomb straight through at 40 km/h, cutting his lead to within 10 seconds.
Fortunately he was able to quickly regained his lead on the next hill climb before eventually making his way to the finish line in downtown Penticton.
The confusion happened behind him as riders that knew the course started to realize it had been flagged differently than it was suppose to be. To add to the confusion, riders began asking volunteers for directions, which only made things worse with riders going in every direction.
As a result, race officials decided to eliminate stage five from the official results.
Going into the sixth and final stage, Wallace had a commanding 15-minute lead.
Despite this, he knew he would have to remain focused and attack the race if he wanted to hold on for the win.
“I tried not to think about it and just got into race mode,” he said, recalling a race in Mongolia in 2011 where he lost in the final stage because of three flat tires.
“You can lose everything on the final day.”
To avoid a similar scenario, Wallace attacked the first climb and got out in front with a narrow one-minute lead.
But things started to go sideways when he punctured his back tire, creating a slow leak. Not wanting to stop and risk losing everything, he decided to take it easy down the last descent. Uhl, who had been riding great all day, blew past him about a quarter of the way down and won the final stage with a time of 1:48:25, about three minutes ahead of Wallace.
Despite winning stage six, it wasn’t enough to overtake Wallace’s overall lead, which had him more than 11 minutes ahead of the runner up.
“To come back to home turf and have a good race meant the world to me,” said Wallace.
Paul Clarke
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