Neal Kindree tightened his grip on the Hell of a Series mountain bike race series by winning the Gearjammer in Squamish on Saturday (July 23).
The Squamish resident added the victory to earlier race series wins at the Orecrusher and the Nimby 50 in Pemberton this summer, along with a third place finish at the Test of Metal.
"It went surprisingly well for me today," Kindree said. "I basically took off after Alice Lake and didn't look back."
Nor did Kindree need to with a huge gap over the rest of the field. His winning time of two hours, 26 minutes and 2.55 seconds left him nearly five minutes ahead of runner-up and Chilliwack resident Ricky Federeau (2:30:48.80), who just edged out third-place finisher Kevin Calhoun of North Vancouver at the finish line.
Although there were no Whistler-area riders within striking distance of Kindree, many recorded excellent finishes in the point-to-point ride showcasing 52 kilometres of Squamish’s single-track trails.
Cathy Zeglinski (3:11:48.94) was the second woman across the line Saturday and 54th overall out of the 200 bikers completing the course. Zeglinski finished less than three minutes back of women’s winner and Revelstoke resident Melanie Bernier (3:09:19.67) and well ahead of third-place female Rua Read (3:24:44.42) of Squamish.
Zeglinski held the lead over Bernier in the early stages of the race but said she was overtaken about 40 minutes in.
“Melanie’s a good racer and we battled it out,” said Zeglinski. “I was hoping to take this one as a win. Melanie’s now (up) 2 to 1 on me in the series. I beat her in the Nimby but she’s got me in the Test and now this one… so I wanted this one. But all the girls are about 15 years my junior and I’m just trying to keep the power going.”
The top Whistler finish overall belonged to Keith Ray, who placed 15th with a time of 2:48:22.64.
“I was happy with that — it was a good day for me,” said Ray. “The Gearjammer is my favourite race and I tend to have good results down there at that race.
“It’s such a technical, single-track race with not a lot of road sections in it and it’s just a really fun mountain biker’s course.”
Fellow Team Whistler rider Trevor Hopkins had the next best finish among locals, as he placed 21st by clocking in at 2:51:21.01.
Earning the last spot in the race’s top 25 was Whistler’s Joshua Stott, who arrived at the finish in 2:54:22.73. A couple more Whistler residents were right behind Stott as Greg McDonnell (2:54:26.70) and Tony Routley (2:56:19.97) placed 26th and 27th, respectively.
Pemberton’s Terry Evans (3:04:12.12) and Russ Wood (3:04:26.38) also crossed the line consecutively and just missed out on the top 40.
In some other notable finishes, Team Whistler’s J.P. Boulais (3:11:37.16) finished 53rd overall and maintained his series lead in the men’s 20 to 29 age group, while junior rider Mahon Lamont placed 56th with a time of 3:12:22.73.
For a complete list of results visit www.gearjammer.ca.
The final Hell of a Series ride, Just Another Bike Race, comes up on Aug. 20 in Squamish.
—with files from Ben Lypka, Squamish Chief
