Cory Wallace doesn’t play competitive hockey these days, but the former Jasper Wolves winger recently scored a double hat trick on his mountain bike.
In September, the 37-year-old Jasperite chalked up his sixth consecutive WEMBO 24-hour Solo World Mountain Bike Championship, outlasting two extremely fast Australians pedalling on their home turf, and capping off a string of podium finishes in races on multiple continents.
“The [Australia] course was loose gravel over hard pack,” Wallace said. “It was like racing on kitty litter.”
Despite the conditions, Wallace scratched together one of the best races of his career. Over the 40 laps of the Mount Stromlo course, Wallace rode 434.71 km and climbed more than 10,178 metres, all the while maintaining an average speed of 18.7 km/hr.
“It takes a huge village in the background and I sure have an amazing one,” Wallace said via Instagram after the victory.
Wallace used his fifth free flight to WEMBO Worlds (part of the prize package when you win) and touched down a week before race day. The extra time to acclimatize and get used to the course paid off, he said.
“After a week I was almost up to [my competitors’] speed on the descents, and I figured with my fitness I could take them on the climbs,” he said.
Ironically, it wasn’t ramping up his training regiment in the weeks prior to the race which necessarily put the Kona Factory Team rider in a position to win. Rather, it was taking a forced-break to clean out the Wallace family home in the wake of the July wildfire which gave his engine the required rest.
“I think that helped the body have a bit more in the tank,” he said.
When his hometown was evacuated on July 22 due to the threat of the Jasper Wildfire Complex, Wallace was in Canmore, hosting the third annual Rockies 24, an event he has helped create for riders of all abilities in one of the best venues in the world, the Canmore Nordic Centre. After the fire, making the most out of his evacuee situation, Wallace booked a training trip to Colorado for a month, then stacked up races at the Leadville Trail 100 mile MTB race back to back with the six-day Breck Epic, where he garnered a third place finish against an extremely competitive field.
Wallace then came back north of the border to snag another top three in the three day stage race, the Tranrockies’ Gravel Royale.
Experience, healthy eating, top-end bikes and amazing pit crews—which again included former Jasperite Luke Way—have all contributed to Wallace’s winning ways, but as usual, a big part of what has allowed him to stay at the top of an ultra competitive sport is his home training grounds.
Wallace thinks the diversity of Jasper’s cycling offer is what makes it special—what the terrain lacks in technical challenges, it makes up for in long, galloping, pedal-heavy rides.
“Those rides build great fitness for a 24 hour marathon,” Wallace said.
Follow Wallace’s next adventures via Instagram.
Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
