Amateur cyclist beats Sepp Kuss's time on Alpe d'Huez to take Strava KOM

An amateur cyclist has claimed the Strava KOM on Alpe d’Huez, bettering Visma-Lease a Bike rider Sepp Kuss’s time by nine seconds.

Jack Burke, a 29-year-old from Canada who also holds the KOMs on Italy’s iconic Mortirolo and Stelvio passes, rode the 21 hairpins of Alpe d’Huez in 35 minutes and 56 seconds, beating Kuss’s best set during the 2022 Tour de France.

Burke’s latest scalp comes after he made a plea to professional teams to offer him a contract. “I’m still trying to chase my dream. I just want a chance to compete against the best,” he wrote on Strava.

Sharing the news of his Alpe d’Huez KOM on Instagram, he wrote: “2 years ago I was hit by a car & that ended my career. I was crushed to feel like I never lived up to my potential as an athlete. You can’t imagine how good it feels to feel like the old Jack again & that maybe I can still do this.

“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.”

Burke rode for a number of Continental teams between 2016 and 2022, representing Canada as an under-23 at the UCI World Championships. He has spent recent years competing in sportive events and KOM hunting.

In his final year as a junior in 2013, Burke returned a positive test for a banned substance, but was later cleared, after it was found he had accidentally ingested contaminated water from a town in Quebec, Canada.

The 29-year-old’s Alpe D’Huez attempt was completed on 11 November, and uploaded to Strava on Tuesday evening. His file shows he rode the 12km climb at 20.1km/h, sustaining an average of 420 watts.

“That one hurt the most and to think Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogačar and Geraint Thomas did it at the end of a stage. Bonkers. I’m even more of a fan now. Incredible guys, so impressive,” Burke wrote.

The Canadian began his attempt in temperatures of 5°C, and finished in freezing conditions at the mountain’s summit.

“[It’s] the first and only time I’ve ever used arm or leg warmers (seriously),” he wrote. “Hands were so frozen I couldn’t work the shifters for the final Km’s or unbuckle my helmet after. Only the goofy Canadian thinks this is a good idea in November.”