Rebecca Rusch

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    S-Works MTB Helmet

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    Tires

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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.

I just stepped off the plane and I am back in good ol’ Ketchum

July 22, 2009

How’s it goin!

I just stepped off the plane and I am back in good ol’ Ketchum, just in time for a G Love concert, how perfect is that? Snowbird was a great time, met some wonderful people, and rode some even better bikes. Specialized just keeps improving on everything, every year and I am fortunate to be riding for them. The Amira, next years women’s road bike blew my mind. It’s the lightest and stiffest women’s road bike on the market. Finally women don’t have to ride a miniature men’s Tarmac, or a Ruby. We now get a full blown race bike! I have a picture to load as soon as I get it off my phone somehow

Getting off the plane at home is a breath of fresh air. I love summer in Ketchum. Only crappy part of the day is that Delta now charges $300 for a bike each way! Oversized is $175, but he said if the contents are a bike then its more! Total discrimination. I negotiated him down to 175 but even that is robbery! Being at the mercy of the airlines is terrible. Can’t wait to relax and ride lightly this week as I prepare for the big one up in Canada. Thanks for reading and I’ll talk to you soon.

Cheers

Reba

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