Canadian Rockies 24hours MTB race 2024

After 5 years without racing a 24 hours mountain bike event I decided to go back to Canmore Nordic Center and do it one more time !! This time, as the kids are older they made a big difference in the pits, lots of help, extra hands and motivation to go hard to not disappoint them :--)

Canadian Rockies 24 is an event organized by Cory Wallace (5 times world champ in 24 hours), it was a small crowd but fairly competitive, with 56 solo riders and 34 teams.

We pulled the trailer and camp at the CNC Friday afternoon, took the kids for a pre-ride of the upper loop and they really enjoyed that. Spent the night hearing bear bangers and rangers going out all night as there were a few bears on the trails and the campsite.

Woke up at around 9am, and after dropping off everything on the tent (food, water, clothing, etc) went back to the trailer and had a nice breakfast to start the day!

The race stated right at 12:00pm on Saturday and you will need to complete as many laps as possible before 12:00pm Sunday for them to count. I started with the ambition of 300kms… after a few laps I realized that 20 laps were achievable and that would take me to 256kms with 7,100mts of elevation gain.. I was racing my single speed bike with a 32/21 which is not an easy gear, but a gear you can ride for a long time as long as the hills are not super steep (which wasn’t the case, but I pulled it off).

The course was a 2 parts, the upper and the lower. The upper part of the course was apprx 5.5kms and the lower part around 7kms. The upper part consisted of Killer Bees, Ziggy’s, The Albertan, Swamp, FYI, crossing the stadium to the lower part to the trails Get In, Get Out, Matching Jerseys, Coal Chutes, Georgetown Climb, Long Road to Ruin and back through the stadium.. (I did this 20 laps for a total of 256kms and 7,100mts of elevation to complete my goal) I was exhausted due to the technical and bumpy trail, my upper body was beat up.

The first lap was good, but the seat post was lowering every lap for some reason and I had to tighten it every lap ! quite annoying. Other than that I had no mechanical issues at all.

During the 3^rd lap a black bear was on the trail, right at the end of Ziggy’s, I told the rangers and they took care of it, after that lap every time I was passing that spot, and I was looking for that bear !!

At lap 4th I decided to break the race into 4 quarters of 5 laps each, that way my focus would be on a 5 lap race x 4.

By 6:00pm I had completed 6 laps, making good time and very consistent without killing myself. I think through the years doing this you get to know your limits and your body, it is important not to burn all the matches early on, 24 hours is a long long race and you want to make sure you stay strong.

I mounted my lights at 9:00pm, but didn’t turned them on till 10:00pm (that was the start of my 11 lap. I had one bar light that lasted throughout the night in medium and my helmet light was good for 3 ½ hours each so I only swapped it once).

I was able to do 5 laps between 10:00pm and 5:00am, I probably stopped too long on the pits overnight, but was alone and heating food and warming up was necessary.. I had squash soup twice, pasta once and oatmeal once as well to stay warm.

The sun came out at around 6:00 and I was able to turn off the lights, energy started to come back with the sun out and warmer weather and laps were a bit faster.

Lucas (one of my twins) set up a tent inside the pits and stayed there all night, he felt sleep at 12am and was up at 6am.. Maria was there at 7:00am and with that a bit of help resumed, she brought me coffee and some more food. I had a few bites of a breakfast bagel with egg and bacon and felt better again.

I considered switching to my geared bike in the morning for the last 4 laps, but Steve Kelly was there and convinced me not to… I felt that I needed an easier gear for the climbs, but that would have meant slowing down….

I went out for my last lap at 10:05, and at the end of the upper section, I met a guy that was visiting from Illinois, he had rented a bike and was trying to follow the course. He asked if he could ride behind me and we were chatting for a bit. I was planning on walking sections of the course, but somehow wanted it to be over and punch as hard as I could for a 1:04min lap.

My fastest lap was the 2^nd one at 54minutes, then after that pretty consistent at around 1 hour ish.

I crossed the finish line at 11:10am and secured 2^ndplace. Happy with the results we packed the trailer, waited for the podium and Maria drove home while I passed out in the passenger seat. Maria Clara and Luis were there both days cheering me on !!!

Before I forget, eat and drink list is here:

Bottles:

6 of 3 in 1 (beets, carrots and orange)

5 water melon juice

1 gatorade

1 ice tea (too sweet)

1 chocolate milk

1 nuum

2 water

1 coke (last lap)

Food:

Squash soup (twice)