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.

Cape Epic Pre-Race/Prologue

March 21, 2009

I am finally over in South Africa and have started the Cape Epic, a 685 km, 8-day mountain bike stage race. The route passes through mountain and wine regions and will feature over 14,000 meters of climbing over the course of the week. It’s the largest and most competitive stage race in the world and the team rosters are packed with 1200 athletes, including Olympians, pro riders, World Champions and regular cyclists.

It is my second year competing in this event as my own Spring training camp and a great travel experience. I am here racing in the mixed division with my coach and friend, Matthew Weatherley-White. Matthew is an ex-road cycling racer, adventure racer and long time endurance athlete. We are using this race as a key building block to my season. We’ll be recording all of our heart rate data on our Suunto watches and compiling a training report when the kilometers are all logged. I am also traveling along with Specialized team riders, Chrisoph Sauser and Burry Stander. We’re camping for the entire week of the race, but camping in style with motor homes, mechanics and soigneurs to help us out. I will be sending reports from the field when I can and you will hopefully get to experience much of the behind the scenes experience and the racing excitement from our reports.

The Prologue is now under our belts and I feel relieved to have finally started the race and gotten the nerves calmed. It was 17km with 650 meters of climbing through the recent burns on Table Mountain. What goes up must come down and the descents were extremely loose and rocky. A rider broke his collarbone yesterday pre-riding the course. I expect there will be more crashes today. Matthew and I discussed our strategy for this day and vowed to ride hard, but be sure not to blow up or crash and to take things a bit conservatively. It is a long race and this is just the prologue. Matthew and I made it through unscathed. The bikes were perfect and we stayed upright. We finished the stage in 4th place, which I am VERY pleased with. All of the women in the top three mixed teams for today are Olympians. We are also surrounded on all sides by World Champions, more Olympians and various other cycling pedigrees. We are in very competitive and very good company, so I feel great about our preliminary performance. The top 6 mixed teams are all within 5 minutes of each other after today, so this week promises to be extremely competitive. There are still more than 600 km to go, so I’m sure the results will be fluid. However, we made a great statement and it’s a good confidence boost to know we are riding amongst the best in the world.

My Specialized teammates Chrisoph and Burry won the men’s prologue by just a few seconds and head into the race in the leaders jersey. They are racing as team Songo.info

Sorry no photos from today. We had to be up at 4:30am, and I am NOT a morning person, so I forgot to take the camera. I’ll work on that.

Tomorrow is the real start of the race with a 119km stage with 2700 meters of climbing. It is rumored to be one of the hardest of the race, so stay tuned. Thanks for checking in. Thanks to Red Bull and Specialized for making this race a reality!

Stats for Rebecca Rusch are coming soon.
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