ZEELAND, Mich. — Ryder Pankey has big dreams, and at just 9 years old, he's already making them come true on two wheels.
The Zeeland Christian student recently became the youngest racer to complete this year's Iceman Cometh Challenge, finishing the grueling 32-mile mountain bike race in 2 hours and 49 minutes.
"I love climbing hills, my dad always says it's because I love to suffer," Pankey joked.
The race starts at the Kalkaska Airport and finishes at Timber Ridge in Traverse City. For Pankey, who has been biking since he was a toddler, the challenge was both demanding and rewarding.
"It was really just, like, steady, consistent pace, and at the end it was starting to get hard, but I just kept pushing," Pankey said. "It was a lot of fun, because there was, like, a ton of people cheering for me, because there were so many people out there."
Biking is a family affair in the Pankey household, with his parents and sister Ellie all participating in the sport.
"It's a lot of fun, having my whole family do it," Pankey said. "Ellie's a really similar pace to me in a lot of things, which is fun, because I can ride with her."
As an athlete on the West Michigan Coyotes bike team, West Michigan's largest youth mountain biking team that serves riders from kindergarten to high school seniors, Pankey trains regularly at locations like the Upper Macatawa Natural Area in Ottawa County.
To prepare for the Iceman Cometh Challenge, Pankey trained three times a week.
"The two practices during the week are usually like 10 to 15 miles, and then the weekend is just a wide range," Pankey said. "My mom and dad would ride with me on my longer rides, and I would practice with some of my friends from the Coyotes."
He also completed the Peak2Peak Mountain Bike Classic as part of his training.
"I just thought it'd be a lot of fun. I did the Peak2Peak, which is 24 miles, to train for it," Pankey said.
The Iceman Cometh Challenge is just one item checked off Pankey's ambitious racing bucket list.
"There's Lumberjack, that's 100 miles, and then there's Leadville [in Colorado], which is 100 miles, but it's in the mountains. And then there's Unbound Gravel [in Kansas], it's 200 miles," Pankey said.
His ultimate goal is clear.
"I want to be a pro bike racer," Pankey said. "I want to be in the UCI [Mountain Bike World Series].
In the meantime, he's focused on his next challenge: the Michigan Scholastic Cycling Association series.
"Next year, I have a MiSCA series, and I'm doing Advanced Elementary, so I want to try and win the championship. There's six races," Pankey said.
For anyone interested in trying mountain biking, Pankey offers some sage advice.
"At the beginning, don't push yourself too hard, because you just want to keep liking bikes, and then you can get more into it," Pankey said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
