Félix Burke
Ditching school and finding inspiration among the dirtbags
This past fall, Félix Burke bailed on his studies in economics at the University Victoria and went on a road trip across the western United States with a friend. They hiked, climbed and mountain biked. It was Burke’s way to set the reset button before heading into his 2019 season, his first as an elite cross country racer. Why was it important for you to cut school this past fall? I finished the season and was really happy with it. But I was also fatigued. The year before was hard with school and training. So, I was starting school without much of a break. All that combined with the end of my under-23 years and getting ready for my first elite year, I was feeling a bit off. I didn’t know what my goals were in the elite category. In under-23, I always dreamed of winning a national championship and a Canada Cup. But as an elite, you have set your goals higher, and the competition is tougher.
So, in the first month of the semester, I had a hard time getting excited about everything. That made me nervous.
I had wanted to do a big road trip for a long time: just take off, live an adventure. I spoke with a few people close to me, including the Rocky Mountain management team, who suggested I do it. One of my buddies had just graduated. He was willing to go with me. It all fell into place, and we just took off.
On your trip, you hung out with some climbers in Yosemite National Park and found it inspiring. What inspiration did you find hanging out with dirtbags? In racing, I had diverged from why I rode my bike so much in the first place. I had become very focused on racing performance. It’s still something I really love and I think is cool: setting a goal, working backwards and breaking it apart. But I had lost a little bit of riding just for the adventure and the fun of it, which, for me, is the essence of mountain biking. Looking toward my elite year and getting ready for even more performance-oriented riding, I was getting a little scared. It wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to do.
The climbers in Yosemite are very performance-oriented, which you might not believe because they are dirtbags, like you said. But they are very focused on their craft. They train very hard; they eat really well. They spend all day perfecting their routes or the moves they need to make. But they do it for themselves. It’s them against the wall. If there are two of them, then it’s a similar challenge for both of them. They’re not racing each other to do it. They are helping each other to overcome the same challenge.
The similarities with climbing and mountain biking that I see are conquering a certain feature or route. Also, letting the terrain challenge you instead of a result-oriented goal challenging you. There’s something a bit more pure about that. It’s more nature versus human and machine. That’s why I left Yosemite feeling inspired. We were hanging out with these phenomenal athletes for four days. They could do the equivalent of winning a Canada Cup in terms of athletic performance, but there’s no result associated with what they were doing. There are no names next to a results sheet. It’s just them and their personal satisfaction. For me, that’s a motivation that is stronger than a results-focused, external motivation.
Is there a particular technical skill that you’re trying to hone? The Downieville Classic race is one that I’m really excited about this season. The type of trail is singletrack, but it stays straight and smooth for a long time. I found that my gaze – from riding Quebec and Victoria trails, which are a lot more technical and slow – is closer to my front wheel. That’s where the obstacles are and how you process them. But that’s not the right technique in Downieville. You feel like you’re going really fast because you’re only looking 10 feet past your front wheel, which then slows you down. I found when I looked farther, 100 feet down the trail, I could go faster. Now I’m practising keeping my eyes up. I think if I can do that on technical trails, it will be a lot easier to do in California.