Squamish's Neal Kindree is now the king of the Hell of a Series, but he might have another local mountain bike racer nipping at his heels.
Kindree capped an impressive 2011 season by winning the Just Another Bike Race (JABR) on Saturday (Aug. 20) to clinch first place in the Hell of a Series with 955 points in the five races in which he competed -or 800 points from his four best performances in the series.
He blasted through the course in two hours, 20 minutes, 28 seconds, beating out second-place finisher Kevin Calhoun by more than two minutes. But, coming in third place was Team 蜜桃视频appmember Quinn Moberg, who put together an impressive ride of 2:28:48.
Moberg, fresh off strong results at the Western Canada Summer Games, said competing against top athletes like Kindree and Calhoun helped him step up his game.
"Kevin and Neal are two really strong riders," he said. "It's cool trying to keep up with them."
He added that he liked the newly designed course.
"There was definitely a lot more climbing this year," Moberg said. "And a lot more high quality single track. It made the race a lot more fun this year."
Moberg said it's been an up-and-down year as far as results go but that he's learned a lot in the 2011 season.
"It's been good but I haven't had the results I wanted," he said. "I've had good form in most of my races but the results weren't really what I've been looking for."
He said he looked at the JABR as a nice way to finish off the season and the relaxed attitude might have helped him post the strong result.
"I went into the race not really worrying about where I was going to finish," he said. "I just wanted to have some fun but it's really nice to finish third."
The fastest woman was Sandra Walter from Coquitlam, with a time of 2:43:30. Similar to Moberg, she approached the race in a relaxed manner and it seemed to benefit her.
"I've kind of done all of my important races this year already and just been doing fun races," she said. "I wasn't really focused on training and maybe that's what helped me relax."
Walter said she enjoyed the challenging course, noting that it was a lot of climbing but a fun ride. Walter said she was battling with her teammate Jean Ann Berkenpas early on but managed to break free about halfway through the race.
"We kind of have a friendly rivalry," she said. "We were kind of battling for a bit there but I broke free eventually."
Race organizer Dwayne Kress said it was a successful day for the event, despite battling for attention with the Live at 蜜桃视频appmusic festival on Saturday.
"We were at just under 120 this year, down 20, but I don't think that's too bad," he said. "In the long run I don't think the concert deterred too many people. I heard nothing but praise for the course and I think this year was a big improvement."
Kress noted that while the course was a couple kilometres shorter, it was a more difficult ride as this year's winning team was about 30 minutes later than the 2010 edition of the race.
He said he should be back as race director for next year and sees a lot of promise for the event.
"There's a phenomenal legacy from the Test of Metal, the Orecrusher and the GearJammer," he said. "And I feel what this race can do is create another network of trails that can be ridden without touching on any of the other three races."
He also thanked the volunteers and key sponsor Pearson Financial for helping the event run smoothly.
Several other 蜜桃视频appresidents also had strong showings at JABR, including Olivier Gendron (ninth overall), Eric Goodwin (10th overall) and Jordan Tesluk (14th overall).
A handful of locals also posted the top times in their age category, including Carl Goldstraw (men's 40 to 44), Davey Mitchell (men's 20 to 29), Rua Read (women's 40 to 44), Regan Kohlhardt (women's 20 to 29), Julie Tennock (women's 45 to 49) and Mikayla Martin (women's 14 to 19).
For more information and complete results from the race, visit www.testofmetal.com/pages/jabr/results.php
