Felix Burke couldn鈥檛 have chosen a better 鈥済uide鈥� for his first ever foray into Just Another Bike Race on Saturday (Aug. 15).
Burke sought out the advice of top local rider Quinn Moberg for insight into the course. The advice from Moberg, his future roommate at the University of Victoria, helped lead him to a first place showing.
The Mont Tremblant, Quebec native crushed the competition at the finale of the Test of Metal series, finishing the 47-kilometre course in 2:29:38. Burke beat out second-place racer Toby Swanson of Washington State by more than eight minutes.
鈥淨uinn gave me some tips,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檇 never done JABR before, and half the trails I had never ridden on. Quinn told me it would take about two and a half hours so I just set the timer on my bike and set a pace to finish in two and a half hours.鈥�
Moberg bowed out early on in the race, citing a lack of energy after a seventh-place finish at the Canada Cup cross-country race in Whistler on Friday (Aug. 14). Burke flatted at that race and said it gave him more energy for JABR.
鈥淚 was a lot fresher than Quinn today,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 would have loved Quinn to be fresh today because I feel like it would have been a good battle. We鈥檝e raced and had some good battles on Canada Cup races this year.鈥�
Burke said he had a five-second lead heading into the Tracks From Hell trail and turned on the jets after that to build a strong lead. It鈥檚 the last big race of the season for Burke, who narrowly missed being named to Team Canada for the World Championships races in September. He said he鈥檚 looking forward to moving in with Moberg at UVIC this fall.
Whistler鈥檚 Michael Robinson placed third at JABR with a time of 2:41:29, and the top local biker was Jamie Sparling, who placed seventh overall (2:47:38).
Other strong local finishers included: Nathan McKay (ninth), Dwayne Kress (12th), Jean-Sebastien Lareau (13th), Brendan Hunt (23rd), Rob Phoenix (24th) and Michael Kinney (25th).
Squamish鈥檚 Zoe Dawson continued her spectacular summer by posting the top female time at JABR. Dawson clocked in at 3:07:53, edging out Squamish鈥檚 Meghan Kindree by 50 seconds. Katie Button of Victoria placed third with a time of 3:16:31.
Dawson鈥檚 summer has seen her win JABR, the 麻豆社国产Triathlon, the Shannon Basin Loop trail run and the Sea to Sky Scramble. She was also awarded the 麻豆社国产Mountain Women title for the fastest combined female local time at the Scramble and the Test of Metal.
JABR marks the end of the Test of Metal series for 2015. The series starts up again in 2016 with the Orecrusher in May.
For complete results from the race, visit .
