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Bikepacker takes 24 Hour title

The field may have been small, but the win was big for Canmore’s Ryan Correy. The Bikepacking aficionado emerged victorious with a 17-lap effort at the 21st annual 24 Hours of Adrenalin race Sunday (July) at the Canmore Nordic Centre.

The field may have been small, but the win was big for Canmore’s Ryan Correy.

The Bikepacking aficionado emerged victorious with a 17-lap effort at the 21st annual 24 Hours of Adrenalin race Sunday (July) at the Canmore Nordic Centre.

Correy, who finished second last year in the solo category, found himself locked in a battle with Jamie Miceli of Calgary. By midnight, he was an hour-and-a-half behind his rival, but was determined to push through the night.

“I was behind the first half of the day. I really had to dig deep after midnight. I always say that’s when the race really starts, so my fastest laps were my last several laps. This feels great and is unexpected,” Correy said.

Pushing through the night, he was able to eat into Miceli’s lead. But Miceli suffered an injury and wasn’t able to go out for a final lap Sunday morning. That’s when Correy was able to surpass him.

“I had to go as fast as I could, really. That’s all I could do. It came down to the last lap,” Correy said. “I didn’t know I had won until I crossed the finish line.”

Thomas Lane of Edmonton finished third with 13 laps in hot conditions.

Correy only races once a year, but stays in shape bikepacking around Western Canada and United States. He’s fresh off a scouting trip through Montana and Southern B.C., so fitness was not an issue.

“I used some fast twitch muscles I don’t really use that often. They’re good for once a year,” he joked at the finish. “Usually I’m just bikepacking. We go for 24 hours, too.”

Following his second place finish last year, Correy said the win was very satisfying.

“Very much so, there was unfinished business,” he said.

The men’s solo category shrunk substantially this year, and there were no female solo riders, as numbers dwindled to 600 athletes over the event. The event cap is 1,600.

The fastest team on the day proved to be in the four-person category, where Team Elite Sports Therapy (Sanjay Sachdev, Michael Manka, Mac Potter and Dan Seibel) churned out 25 laps. Potter clocked the team’s fastest lap (53:30), while the team only had two laps over the 1:05 mark.

“We looked in the history of the results, and 24 laps was the most that we had seen. So our goal was 24 laps,” said Manka. “Halfway through the night, we noticed we were still holding strong and had a chance at 25 laps. We didn’t back off through the night, and it worked out.”

The “dream team” of Calgary, Cochrane and Canmore riders had raced one another quite often, but never combined their cycling prowess at the endurance race. Their competitive spirit carried the day, after they spent 18 hours battling the second place team of Jordan Easterby, Danny Easterby, Craig Paterson and Benjamin Juchli of Edmonton. The top team struck while the day was at its hottest, as the mercury tipped 33 C.

“In the first eight hours, we had to build down a good time bank. It was those first eight where we laid down the cement for the win,” Seibel said.

The number of local riders was down again in this year’s event, however those that did race ended up on the podium. Team Trinity Bible Church was Calgary based, but included several Bow Valley athletes on their team, including skiers Trevor Kiers, Ian Murray, Erik Carleton, Pearce Hanna and Nate Gerwing. Their 25 laps tied for first overall on the day.

The Mudslingers (Devon Smibert, Jeff Macpherson, Ken Belanger, Declan Unsworth, Jordy Shepherd, Keith Libech, Matt Macisaac and Phillipe Desautels) clocked 22 laps in the corporate team event, which was good enough for second place in the division.

Next year’s race appears to be in jeopardy (see story page 38) but the scaled down event still kept several riders smiling.


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