After Mortirolo and Stelvio... Alpe d'Huez! Canadian amateur continues Strava KOM hunt in chase of World Tour contract

Jack Burke has hit the headlines in recent weeks as he travelled to Europe to chase down KOM's and make a last bid to get a World Tour contract for the 2025 season. It has been effective in bringing in exposure, he made the trip after the season ended and now he's added the Alpe d'Huez to the luxurious list of Strava KOM's on his list.

Burke is a former pro rider who has raced in North America and a few European continental teams (currently, he races for the Above & Beyond Cancer Cycling p/b Bike World team). At age 29, he is not yet done with his dream of reaching the highest level of cycling and he has been putting himself in the spotlight with a string of KOM's in the Alps. He has done so at the Passo del Mortirolo intially, and soon after the Passo dello Stelvio. He had named his Strava activities with requests to 'get a chance to compete against the best', obviously referring to the opportunity to race in a top-tier team.

Although of course these Strava times do not reflect the entirety of the pelotons at the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, they do include very strong names and although he is not racing a full stage, achieving such brilliant times up these colossal mountains is a display of pure climbing talent that hasn't gone unnoticed.

Burke has made his way to France and next in line was the Alpe d'Huez, which he conquered and wrote "I don’t know what I’m training for, but I’ll be ready when it shows up. I just love feeling like me again," in an Instagram post. In the 13-kilometer long segment he put in 35:56 minutes, beating the likes of Sepp Kuss, Romain Bardet and David Gaudu directly and placing himself at the top of a chart that should take a long time to change.