Jack Burke joins UCI Continental development team Leopard Pro Cycling

23-year-old Squamish, B.C. resident will be racing in Europe with Luxembourg-based feeder team

Philippe Tremblay November 27, 2018

Jack Burke originally of Toronto but now a resident of Squamish, B.C. is joining Luxembourg UCI Continental development team Leopard Cycling for 2019. The winner of the Mont Mégantic stage of the 2018 Tour de Beauce rode for Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis in 2018.

Burke, 23, distinguished himself as a climber and competent stage racer during his tenure with Jelly Belly and Aevolo the year before. In 2017 he racked up overall results at the Grand Prix de Sauguenay where he finished 6th, the Tour de Beauce where he was fourth and the Tour of Alberta where he finished sixth and won the best younger riders classification. He raced and finished both Canadian WorldTour races that year and went on to represent Canada at the world championships in the under-23 category.

In 2018, his development continued and he won the mountaintop finish on Mont Mégantic at Beauce on his way to finishing fourth overall. Just as impressively, at the Tour of Utah in August, Burke finished 11th overall finishing in that position on the challenging final stage into Park City and won by Sepp Kuss.

“It is no surprise that my strengths have always been in the longest and hardest stage races. I really like the long mountain climbs and selective courses which will help me obtain great GC positions,” Burke said about his attributes as a rider. “A lot of the races I’ll be doing next year are foreign to me, so I’m still looking over the calendar and doing my best to set my goals. In 2019 I would like to at least win a national title and represent Canada at the world championships.”

Burke will have the opportunity to race a European road calendar by joining the team after spending the past years racing a North American calendar with H & R Block, Aevolo and Jelly Belly. “Leopard Pro Cycling seems like an excellent feeder team and development program to prepare promising riders to make the final step up to the WorldTour. I’m very grateful to be a part of that program next year and learn as much as I can about more European style racing.”

Leopard Cycling is a program that was launched in 2012 as a feeder team to the RadioShack-Leopard UCI WorldTour team. The team has graduated riders like Bob Jungels, Eugenio Alafaci, Jan Hirt and Sean de Bie to the WorldTour.

“When the opportunity came around to sign Jack, we did not hesitate too long. He has a proven track record in the difficult American and Canadian stage races and it will be no surprise that he will be one of our go-to guys in the stage races coming up,” said team manager Markus Zingen. “We hope that he adapts well to the European style of racing and we will 100% support him and pass on our experience.”