On his 16th birthday, against his Mom's will, Brandon Indic went to Panorama to race in a downhill bike race. He won the race by ten seconds. It was the first of six races he did last year, and finishing as the fastest rider in Alberta, the Jasper-born teenager hasn't stopped.

"I wanted to go ride my bike for the weekend," he says as he talks about how he got started. "I was pretty excited about that one, and I was just like, 'OK, well I'm going to keep doing this."

Now Indic is on the Alberta Cup and B.C. Cup circuits. The two are separate circuits, which means Indic is traveling almost every weekend to anywhere from Edmonton to Vancouver Island, and he's tearing it up at every event.

In the first race of the year the young, un-sponsored cyclist competed again at Panorama, this time finishing in sixth out of 57 racers, including coming out ahead of two pro riders on the World Cup circuit. Despite crashing and losing crucial time, Indic still finished in the top ten.

"I would have been up there (closer than sixth), maybe first, who knows. When you crash you are guaranteed to lose at least eight seconds," he says. "You need to stop, get your bike back together, get back up and carry speed again. That sucks."

Then only two weeks ago Indic finished in second place at the first Alberta Cup circuit race, held in Grand Prairie. This time he only lost by two seconds, but, he says, "I got second out of 102 riders," looking on the bright side.

What makes Indic different than the rest of his competitors isn't necessarily how fast he makes it down the mountain, but the fact that he lives in a small town with little exposure and no summer chairlift access to train.

"It's kind of a unique situation for Brandon," says Manabu Saito, owner of Vicious Cycle, where Indic works when he's not riding his bike. "Because he's from Jasper, we don't even have chairlift access or a sanctioned race of any sort. So all these guys he's racing against, they're from the city, and they've got a lot more exposure, it's easier for them to pick up the sponsorship. But surprisingly enough, he's right in there, he's usually a podium finish."

Due to living in a national park, there are no ski hills that are allowed to run their chairlift in the summer for biking, with Lake Louise being the only hill with one that runs at all. "Considering that we don't have that kind of riding here, it's amazing how well he's doing on the circuit," Saito continues.

Saito has been doing what he can to help Indic, who will be competing in the Canada Cup circuit next year, where he'll compete across the country. "We do everything we can from our end, equipment and such, but it gets quite costly," he says.

Saito says that businesses in town helping would be great, from gas to food. "With all the cost that's involved in racing, it would be nice if he could get some sort of corporate sponsorship, especially from the bike industry."

Indic works Monday to Friday at Vicious Cycle, and then takes off on the weekends to race, which makes for a busy and expensive schedule. "That's when it gets hard, because I can't work here too much when I want to train to go ride," he says.

"Manabu gives me jerseys and he helps me out with anything I need," Indic says of his boss. "He can't afford the big sponsorships, he's trying to find me sponsorships right now. He's talking to companies for me‚ he's actually helping me out a lot right now, it's ridiculous. He's talking to some pretty big companies, and they are pretty interested, and I'm pretty stoked on that."

In his third year working at the bike shop, Indic says when he was younger he looked up to local riders like Charlie Diamond, David Edwards and Allie Diamond. "They always raced and they were the fastest guys who I'd ever seen in my life. They used to have the big Vicious Cycle race team a couple years ago, and seeing them going out and race, and always wanting to be on the team, kinda got me stoked on it."

Now Indic has his sights set on the rest of the season, with a trip to Edmonton this weekend, Blairmore the following and to Whistler in August for Crankworx, one of the biggest mountain bike events in the world. Whatever the stage, Indic is pushing himself to be a top finisher by the end of the season.

"Finishing first is definitely always the goal. You want to do the best you can, that's your competitor's edge," he says. "Im just going to ride as fast as I can, keep doing what I'm doing. I'll probably finish in the top five, but I don't know how I'll do in the top five."

For now, he'll keep doing what he's always done - ride his bike in the backyard of Jasper National Park.