Awesome Sauce: Zeeland Boy Becomes Youngest Racer To Complete Challenge

Catch Awesome Sauce at 6:10 AM, Monday through Friday on The B-93 Morning Show with Mike and Aly. It’s your daily dose of feel-good stories, viral moments, and smiles to start the day right!"

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Grand Repids B ninety three, an iHeartRadio station guarantee human
This is Awesome B ninety three Awesome Sauce. Start your
day on a positive note. Awesome Sauce six ten weekday
Mornings with the B ninety three Morning Show brought to
you by Modernistic. Today, we are shining a light on

(00:22):
a local kid who is already peddling his way into
legend status. This is nine year old Rider Panky from Zealand.
He just became the youngest racer to complete this year's
Iceman Cometh Challenge. This is a thirty two mile mountain
bike race through the toughest terrain in northern Michigan. And

(00:45):
get this, he finished in two hours and forty nine
minutes thirty two miles. He's nine. What Rider says he
loves the hills. My dad always says, it's because I
love to suffer, he says. But he powered through with
a steady pace, a whole lot of grit and the
cheers of thousands of people along the trail. Biking is

(01:08):
a full on family affair for the Pankis. Rider rides
with his parents and his sister Ellie, and he trains
with the West Michigan Coyotes, one of the largest youth
mountain biking teams in the state. He's been biking since
he was a toddler, and I guess it shows yeah clearly.
Rider trained three times a week, rides up to fifteen miles,

(01:29):
long weekend rides with mom and dad, even a twenty
four mile peak to peak race to prep for the
Iceman Cometh Challenge. And this kid dreams big, like really big.
On his bucket list a one hundred mile Lumberjack, a
one hundred mile Leadville race in Colorado, the two hundred
mile Unbound Gravel in Kansas, and ultimately he wants to

(01:50):
become a pro mountain biker in the UCI World Series.
He's nine. That's insane, not bad for someone who just
hit fourth grade. For beginners riders, and vice is simple
and wise. Don't push yourself too hard at the start
you want to keep liking bikes. It's nine and dropping
life lessons like that. I was just excited that we

(02:10):
made it through Rivertown, crossing some mall without having to
pick a kid up. This kid, my kids are same age,
same age. My kids could never rider. Pankey from Zeeland,
a little hometown hero this morning. That's how you start
your day on a positive note. Awesome saw us six
ten weekday mornings with the B ninety three Morning Show,

(02:30):
brought to you by Modernistic