Bike champion Neal Kindree has once again made locals proud with another significant victory.
Kindree dominated GearJammer's tough terrain on Sunday (July 15), defending both last year's GearJammer win and his spot on top of the podium for the Hell of a Series.
His sister Meghan Kindree won top female for the series without racing GearJammer - her times in the first two races, Brodie Rat Race and Test of Metal, were enough to secure the win.
Neal's 2:26:53 win on the GearJammer's 47 km cross country single-track race came on the heels of a strong second place finish - missing the top spot by four seconds - at a Canada Cup race in Canmore the day before GearJammer.
"I had a good ride, it felt good," he said as he wiped sweat off his forehead after the grueling race, which takes most riders between four and five hours to finish. "My fitness is coming along well. Nationals is next weekend and I'm feeling ready."
With 300 racers navigating the difficult course from Alice Lake to Rose Park, GearJammer finished its sixth year of muscle-screaming competition in perfect weather - warm with an overcast sky.
Second place went to Whistler resident Matt Ryan with a time of 2:30:14.
"I love that course, it's a mountain biker's course," said Ryan, who hasn't missed a single GearJammer and rode his best race on Sunday.
"It's my favourite race of the year so it's good to do well."
Ryan said the leading riders cycled the start of the race together.
"Then Neal put the hammer on just before the Skookum climb, which I thought he might, and it came down to who could ride the technical the best."
Rounding out the top three was Charlottetown, PEI native Ryan Taylor, who finished in 2:32:40.
"I mainly aim for Canada Cups, so it's nice to have a more mellow race," said the first-time GearJammer. "But when Neal Kindree's in it's not too mellow."
Finishing first of the female riders was Whistler's Joanna Harrington in 2:59:37.
"It was awesome," she said. "I didn't have any water for probably half the race so that was hard."
Along with Kindree, first-time GearJammer racer Valerie Fraser won the cup for being the fastest male and female local riders. "It was hard, but it was really fun," said Fraser, who crossed the finish line in 3:38:40.
There were 140 volunteers who helped at this year's race. Extra-loud cheering helped one racer across the finish line after she suffered a broken derailer and had to run 40 minutes of the course.
Most racers come from Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest to race Squamish's famous trails, but GearJammer has historically attracted riders from New Zealand, Japan and England.
It's the first year the race has finished at Rose Park - a change that made some question whether Kindree's time was a record-breaker.
"The course was about one kilometre shorter than last year, and the winning time was about three minutes shorter than last year," said race director Curtis Roberts. "If Neal can ride a kilometre in less than 3 minutes - and I'm pretty sure he can - then I think we can call this a course record."
