Cory Wallace looks ahead to his MTB marathon world championship debut

Cory Wallace, six-year veteran of the Kona Factory Team, is making his first UCI mountain bike marathon world championships appearance on Sunday, June 29, in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

The mountain biker from Victoria, B.C., arrived in South Africa this past Tuesday, after spending the last few weeks racing in the Alpen Tour, a four-day stage race, with a lot of vertical, in Austria, and the one-day Sellaronda race. He also worked on his climbing in the famed Dolomites, in Italy.

In addition to building his base, Wallace gained the benefit of acclimatizing his body to the same time zone as the African continent, while familiarizing himself with some of the top European riders who will also be in Pietermaritzburg this Sunday.
With Wallace having already achieved an handful of top-10 finishes in the first half of 2014, he is approaching the worlds, and his upcoming defence of his Canadian mountain bike marathon national championship title, in fine form.

In the video interview, Wallace shares the story of his epic 30-km solo win at an Australian XC MTB race in early May; his encounter with South African wildlife while pre-riding the world championship course; and his plans for the rest of 2014 after the worlds debut and, of equal significance, his defence of his national title in Squamish, B.C., Aug. 16.