The second trip through Canada’s top amateur sports event was an exercise in comparison.
Turner Valley’s Isaac Niles wasn’t so much measuring himself against the top mountain bike racers in the country, but rather to the man in the mirror at the 2017 Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg.
“The first time I went I was one of the youngest guys there and it’s a U23 games,” Niles said. “As a young racer it’s a little unnerving showing up at your first big games. Some of the guys at those games have gone onto bigger pro teams. It was a pretty steep learning curve.
“To be able to come back to my second games and be able to know what to expect and be able to actually do well and compete, I’m really happy about because I can compare myself from four years ago to now.”
Niles, 22, had his Canada Games journey come full cycle in taking home the silver medal in the mountain bike sprint on Aug. 4 while adding a sixth place finish in the cross-country event.
“A lot of it comes with experience,” said Niles, a University of Calgary student. “Getting out and training a ton and being strong is half the battle, but the mental game and the bike handling skills is another huge aspect of it.”
Primarily a road rider, Niles shifted his training to incorporate more mountain biking work during the past 12 months.
“For me it’s training six, seven days a week and early season right around now is just a lot of base miles, long easier days on the bike,” he said. “As it shifts to race season it switches to shorter, more intense training sessions. A lot of it is just making sure you’re always on the bike, always riding.”
Those kilometres paid off in the Keystone Province.
Competitors were given two days to get to know the Manitoba terrain, not exactly known for being mountainous.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” he said. “Winnipeg is ridiculously flat, but the course and race organizers and course developers did a really good job working with what they had.
“There were some really good man-made features and aspects of the course where you actually had to know how to ride your bike and be comfortable.”
Niles qualified second in his heat and third in the semifinal to move onto the male sprint final.
He picked up on some important strategy along the way leading to a two-horse race to the finish line.
“From all the previous races it seemed like whoever was in first or second into the first corner that was usually how they finished,” Niles said. “In the finals it was just an all-out drag race to the first corner because me and Rhys Verner, the guy who ended up getting gold, had the exact same game plan.”
Niles, a two-time veteran of both the Canada Games and Western Canada Games, didn’t have to look far to find a massive silver lining in landing on the podium.
“I’m ecstatic to be leaving my last Canada Summer Games with a medal,” he said. “Throwing it back to my first Western Canada Summer Games I didn’t medal and same thing there, I was the young guy. I did my second Western Canada Summer Games and medalled there and it was a good way to end that stream.
“With Canada Summer Games doing the exact same thing, it’s a huge confidence boost and just to be able to have something to show for it I’m really happy about it.”
