Rebecca Rusch

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  • http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCEqProductList.jsp?sid=2012EquipHelmetMTB&pscid=1009&scid=1136

    S-Works MTB Helmet

    The lightest certified helmet in the world, worn by 2008 UCI World XC Champion Christoph Sauser...

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    Specialized Gloves

    Made to keep your grip sweat-free and your bike control precise ...

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    MTB Shoes

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    Tires

    The product that started it all.....

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S-Works MTB Helmet

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.

Countdown Begins.....

June 25, 2009

24 Hour Solo World Championships are just about 4 weeks out, so I have entered the period in my training cycle where I’m super focused on this primary goal and pretty much nothing else. This is the point in a year long training cycle to focus on every meal, every night’s sleep, every training ride to squeak the very most out of my efforts. Most of the hard work has been completed and these last four weeks are about topping off the engine before heading to Canmore, Alberta, Canada west of Calgary in the Banff/Lake Louise area.

Last weekend, I raced in the Cowbell Challenge, a 50 miler in North Carolina. This race was part of the USA Cycling Ultra Endurance series and a short distance for me to get in a good, hard training day. The course here is always tight, technical single track and this year was no different. The biggest difference in the course was the heavy rains they’d had the week leading up to the race. It made the course really slippery and treacherous. On my pre-ride on Friday, I had to work a couple sections of the course to figure them out and also made a tire change to Specialized Captains to get more traction and confidence on race day. The local dealer Cycle Path helped me out a lot with the last minute tire change. Since this was a short race, I did not take crew, a mechanic or an extra bike.

Race day, with temps heading to triple digits: The bike was perfect, but the race was not. I had a great start in a strong pro women’s field and was in the lead, but about an hour into the race, the affects of the triple digit temps and over the top humidity started to get to me. I was feeling chilled, lightheaded and fumbly. I had to make the decision to settle into survival mode instead of race mode. Each lap, I was getting iced down hydration packs, pushing fluids and endurolytes and putting ice water on my head to cool down my core temperature. It has been a cold Spring in Idaho, so I was not acclimatized to the heat in any way. I was suffering badly and wondered if I was going to be able to finish. By the last couple laps of the race, my cooling strategies seemed to be working and I started feeling like myself again and felt like I could get back into race mode. I settled for a 2nd place finish behind Carey Lowrey (Last year she finished in 2nd behind me.) Carey was up by as much as 10 minutes at one point, but I was able to pull about 4 minutes back on the last lap and get a bigger gap on third who was inching up on me The outcome was a little disappointing, but considering that only 40 athletes out of nearly 200 finished the race, I’m happy that I was conservative and didn’t dig myself into a hole that I couldn’t get out of.

Cowbell results are posted here: www.cyclingnews.com

A video interview I did is posted here with a race recap and over view of my 2009 Specialized S-Works Era: Bikerumor Interview: Pro Mountain Biker Rebecca Rusch www.bikerumor.com

I’m home for a week then the next race on the schedule is Marathon Nationals in Breckenridge, CO on July 4th.

Cheers,

Rebecca

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