A little-known Canadian amateur, Jack Burke, has grabbed his share of the limelight after taking more than a minute off Vincenzo Nibali's Strava record for scaling the Mortirolo.
Burke, 29, completed the ascent of one of Italy's toughest climbs in a time of 43:45, 67 seconds faster than Nibali's record, on November 16.
"I smashed it… It's just one of those days when you really have the best legs, you see the power numbers and you're like – yeah, I'm on a good one today,” he said in an Instagram post from the top of the climb.
A rider who has raced with multiple amateur and Continental squads, Burke used his striking achievement to plea for a chance to get a first professional contract.
He said he had not planned on racing this year, but after being "talked back into it" in May, he has been performing well, breaking records for climbs in three different events.
"I don't know what more I can do, I've done everything I can, I just want a chance, I just want a chance to compete against the best guys in the world," he said in his Instagram post. "So…I've done everything I can and now it's time to go skiing, I guess, this is a good place to end it for the year."
Speaking in freezing temperatures at the Mortirolo summit, he said, "Time to go warm up [but I'm] up there with the legends now."
In his last year as a junior, 2013, and when leading an amateur race in Quebec, Canada, the Tour de l'Abitibi, Burke had an adverse analytical finding test for a minute quantity of the diuretic Hydrochlorothiazide [HCTZ]. But in two complex court cases, one to determine if he could race in the 2013 Worlds, which he won, and the second against a UCI appeal heard by CAS, he was twice cleared of any wrongdoing, with the blame laid on his consumption of contaminated tap water.
Since then, Burke has spent much of the last decade racing in Continental teams and with clubs. Amongst the former were the well-known Leopard amateur team from Luxembourg and the USA's Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis squad in 2018.
While in the latter, Burke showed his climbing prowess in Canada's Tour de Beauce, winning solo on a freezing cold day on the summit finish of Mont-Megantic. However, the second half of his 2022 season suffered badly when he broke his back after being hit by a car while training.
Two years on, and in addition to his Mortirolo record, the Canadian also claimed on Instagram he broke the Strava record for the Stelvio, one of Italy's best-known and hardest climbs and set to form part of the Giro d'Italia next year. However, Burke said he was not allowed to upload the file, for unspecified reasons, for the moment, but promised to do so shortly.
"I broke the [Stelvio] record last week, but I wasn’t supposed to tell you guys that. I’m supposed to keep that secret for another few weeks," he said in his Instagram post, where he also revealed he'll now be going for Tadej Pogačar's record on the Col de la Madone and pleaded for a chance to race as a pro.
"If you’re someone who can give me a pro contract, you’re allowed to know that I broke the record last week," he said. "But for everybody else, pretend you didn’t hear that for another few weeks until I’m allowed to post it.”
