Rebecca Rusch

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Rebecca Rusch wasn’t thinking about world championships when she joined the Downers Grove North High School cross-country team. “I just wanted the free track suit,” recalls Rusch, who, 28 years later, finds herself among the ranks of the world’s elite endurance athletes. In July of 2009, Rusch won her third straight mountain biking 24-hour Solo World Championship.

Since donning those gray cotton sweats and Lycra shorts, Rusch has outfitted herself in the kit of numerous other disciplines: racking up ascents of big walls from Yosemite to Zion, paddling on the world-famous Offshore Canoe Club’s women’s outrigger team in the brutal Molokai crossing and winning adventure races around the world.

When not training in one of the five mountain ranges surrounding her hometown of Ketchum, Idaho, the 41-year-old known as the “Queen of Pain” can be found chasing adrenaline from Tibet to New Zealand to Kyrgyzstan, constantly adding titles to her impressive and extensive resume.

In addition to those three 24-hour solo mountain bike World Champion rainbow jerseys, Rusch is a three-time national champion in 24-hour team mountain biking. She’s Idaho’s Short Track state championship (twice), and its Cyclocross state title. An accomplished Nordic skier, she’s won the Masters Cross Country Skiing World Championship, in addition to taking the top prize at Raid Gauloises Adventure Racing World Championships. And although that’s just cross-section of her palmares, it’s easy to see why Rusch has been profiled by Sports Illustrated, Outside Magazine and Adventure Sport Magazine.

Talking about age draws a laugh as she gestures at her surroundings. "People around here are all 10 years younger than they actually are. And I don’t mean they just look it; they are actually 10 years younger," she said. "Everyone’s out there constantly doing stuff, from biking to skiing to hiking. There’s a collective mentality that if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it."

This mentality, along with what she calls "perfect terrain for training," provides a home base for the typically itinerant Rusch. She is part of the community; for more than two years she has been a stalwart volunteer emergency medical technician and firefighter for the Ketchum Fire Department, and a homeowner. On breaks from her race schedule, she works on her condominium, though the domestic idea continues to bemuse her; the last home she owned was a 1975 Ford Bronco.

The Stage that Almost Never Was

June 3, 2010

11 AM seems like a very civilized time to start a bike race. It was a remote start, so we all had to drive about an hour to get to Raystown State Park for some sweet IMBA built trails that were made specifically for mountain bikes. The description was 35 miles of fast, flowy, 90% single track. Greg and I packed up the land yacht rental car and left the scout camp at 9 AM to allow plenty of time to get there and warm up. About 40 minutes into our drive through beautiful, peaceful, green Amish country, Greg remembered that he had forgotten his cycling shoes. We busted a U turn and I called the race director to tell him that we had to go back to camp. All the other cars and bus heading to the start passed us as we headed back. Greg apologized, I settled into the fact that I would not get to warm up before this stage if we made it at all. He drove like a mad man back to the camp, got the shoes and turned it around again. Most of the drive back was on two lane country roads with many, many Amish horse and buggies on the road. The speed limit was around 45 and Greg was ranging between 90 MPH on the open parts and about 15 MPH when a line of cars would get caught behind a horse and buggy. I had to laugh at the different lifestyles that were coming into contact on that road. Us risking our lives in a huge gas guzzler to get to a bike race and them just wanting to live a peaceful life and deliver their eggs. We kept calling the race director with reports of our progress and he kept announcing to the racers to keep waiting.

We peeled into the parking lot and ripped our bikes out of the car. As soon as they saw we were there, they announced 5 minutes to start. I rolled to the start line and realized I did not have my helmet on and ran back to the car and slapped it on. No warm up, no time to take a breath, but at least the race directors and all the other athletes were relaxed enough to wait for us and let us start the stage.

The riding was probably the best cross country type course I've ever done. It was almost all smooth, fast single track and reminded me of my home trails so much. I felt really comfortable with the style of riding. There were tons of whoops, bermed corners and pump track style riding. The trail was the type of trail you could ride up or down and have just as much fun. There was climbing, but it was all fast, short power climbing, so you could carry speed over most of the crests. I passed Karen, who is in 2nd overall, about 10 minutes into the stage. After that I was mostly alone for the next hour until aid station 1. Someone told me that Selene was just 45 seconds up the trail. I had been riding fast and having fun and not really thinking about the race. I was still going as hard as I could, but the trail was so great that I wasn't thinking about my placing at all. I was just grooving and feeling one with my bike! I caught up to Selene after she took a brief wrong turn. She made up for that by barreling past me on an uphill. I caught her back at aid station 2 about 10 miles from the finish. At that point, I started to take a few more risks on the high speed trail and see if I could open a gap and go for a stage win. It was such fun riding that I figured I had nothing to lose. I ended up winning the stage by less than 2 minutes. Selene was 2nd and Karen was 3rd. The overall standings did not change, but I was able to pull myself about 7 minutes closer to 2nd overall. I'm still not feeling 100%, but the asthma is under control at this point and the super fun trails are making up for the lack of spark in my legs.

Stats for Rebecca Rusch are coming soon.
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