Everyone in the Canmore cycling scene knows that RMCC Rampage riders Ty Godfrey, Andreas Massitti, Sam Hendry, Kyle Burt and Lucas Fabbri are insanely fast teenagers.
However, at the 2014 24 Hours of Adrenalin event, they proved they can ride with the men.
Facing the crčme de la crčme of endurance mountain bike racers, Rampage riders completed 23 Laps to finish 10th overall on Sunday (July 20) at the Canmore Nordic Centre and first in the youngest age category.
Powered by six sub-60 minute laps and a combined age of 77, the Rampage teammates were two laps ahead of the nearest team in their age category, and a mere two laps behind the first-place, five-person team overall: Cowboys of Mass Destruction. Although it’s doubtful any of the boys have ever used a razor, they sliced past older and larger riders with ease on their home course.
“It’s pretty cool. We didn’t have any expectations at all heading in and we were totally blown out of the water with how well we did. We’re super stoked,” said Massitti.
The Rampage started off strong with Godfrey leading the way with the team’s fastest lap of the day, a 56:25 time out of the gate. Cruising along into the night, the team was struck with a setback when Burt was taken to hospital with a peanut allergy at 10 p.m. He made a full recovery, but it meant the boys had to power through with four riders.
“We were lucky he had just finished a lap, but it’s still unfortunate he couldn’t be here for this,” Massitti said.
Supported by their parents, the team needed special permission to enter the race, which usually has an 18 years of age cutoff. But the boys rallied together and had no problem forming a team.
“One of us decided it would be a good idea, and that became a group. It was a ton of fun,” Godfrey said.
When the going got tough in the wee hours of the morning, the team referred to the Velominati’s Rule #5: Harden up.
Four of the boys will race this weekend at the Alberta Summer Games, while Burt, Fabbri and Hendry are fresh off a strong performance at the RMCC stage race. They had no problems trading in skinny tires for fat ones.
“A bike’s a bike,” Fabbri said.
Not ones to rest on their laurels, the Rampage team also showed bravado at the finish line and issued a warning to their competitors for 2015.
“We’re gonna win the whole thing next year,” Hendry said.
Before the boys get too cocky, they know next year they’ll have to beat several other strong Canmore clubs. Allister Darichuk, Gary Brown, Peter Tondl, Murray Oshanyk and Torben Jensen clocked 24 laps this year to win the five-person 220 years and older category, good enough for sixth overall. The new team consisted of a mix of cagey 24 Hours veterans (Brown has 10 yellow jerseys to his credit), youthful exuberance and wolverine-enhanced spandex.
“That’s way worse than honey badger,” Tondl said. The Calgary Onyerleft team took first overall with 26 laps, while a Rocky Mountain Racers team of Alex Mahoney, Stuart Harden, Evan Girard, Kurtis Wenzel, Menno Arendz, Michael MacIsaac-Jones, Nate Gerwing, Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt and William Poffenroth were the fastest 10-person team, clocking 23 laps.
The Town of Canmore team of Adam Robertson, Greg Burt, Megan Dunn, Allan Wingenbach and Stephen House finished 22 laps, which earned them second place in the five-person co-ed category.
Visit adrenalin.my24h.ca for full results.
