Rusch Hour – Zipp talks in depth with the Queen of Pain
Rebecca Rusch on gravel, women’s cycling, risk, and defining victory
Rebecca Rusch didn’t start racing bikes until she was 38. Yep, hard to believe. But before building her mountainous reputation in bikes she packed her years with other athletic pursuits and adventures – cross country running at the University of Illinois, whitewater rafting, adventure racing, and cross country skiing to name a few. Now 47, Rusch has amassed a collection of cycling achievements (four Leadville 100 titles among them) as well as national and world titles to earn the nickname “the Queen of Pain.”
Beyond all that, she’s found fun and innovative ways to encourage women to ride bikes through the SRAM Gold Rusch Tour. Rusch, who grew up in suburban Chicago, now lives in Ketchum, Idaho. She’s best known for mountain biking but has a deep affinity for gravel riding. She visited the Zipp factory and met with Zipp and SRAM staff in Indianapolis last week on her way to Indiana University to speak with women’s teams from the famed Little 500 race. Below is an edited transcript of our conversation:
How did you become so involved with gravel riding?
I live in Ketchum, Idaho. It’s in the Sun Valley area. … There’s a lot of untouched terrain, which means a lot of gravel roads. I’m primarily a mountain biker, but since I live in a mountain region I do a lot of training on gravel roads as well when the trails are under snow, or they’re muddy, or I just want to go on a really long ride. I do a lot of exploring on a gravel bike.
I launched my own event called Rebecca’s Private Idaho three years ago because this is how I train. This is where I live. People don’t even know that this is out there. I got inspired when I did the Dirty Kanza 200 a few of years ago and have won that race a few times.
What’s so cool about gravel is… the surface is so changing… there might be a good line for a little while, but then there’s a pile of gravel that’s really smooth, and then it’s washboard…. It’s actually really exciting because you have to stay focused on where your tires are, where you line is going. Things like tire pressure are more important. The bike handling was very much like mountain biking. I felt like it’s this very beautiful way of taking the best of both sports – mountain biking and road – and bringing them together on one playing field. And it didn’t really favor necessarily the roadie or the mountain biker. You had to have pack-riding skills, aerodynamics, but then also the handling skills of mountain biking.
So, on gravel you ride disc brakes?
I ride the 303 Firecrest and I’m full-on disc – totally 100 percent sold. I had rim brakes for a long time and I wasn’t as confident stopping as fast. Now I feel like I’m OK hauling down a hill and going faster because I am confident that the bike will stop.
What do you make of the influx of mountain bike technology, such as 1x drivetrains or thru-axles on wheels, coming into road and gravel riding?
It’s awesome. It’s a mistake not to look at moto, not to look at cars, not to look at road technology, mountain bike technology. Not to share across the board, it’s really myopic…. It’s all bike riding. You’re riding on a different surface, but the technology and what it can do is still the same.
What were your impressions of visiting us in Indy?
You walk up and there’s a really cool sign and a cool building. In the entry there’s art and bikes put together…. It’s kind of the SRAM MO. When you walk into one of the offices you can tell it’s not just a boring office building…. Everyone’s in t-shirts and happy. They’re wearing their Zipp jackets. The vibe is just instant when you walk into a company where people are happy to be there and they like what they do.
There is a lot of history here. There are people who have been with the company since it started, and that speaks a lot to people who are happy in their jobs… The guy who’s hand-truing the wheel. It’s kind of the best of both worlds: It’s super high-end technology and equipment, and then somebody’s hand, heart and personal soul still has to go into that product, which I think is a really cool juxtaposition.
You’re going down to Indiana University from here to speak to the women’s teams in the famed Little 500 bike race. What is your message for them?
Some life lessons that I’ve learned on the bike, of getting up when you fall and the dedication and the focus that training takes. Race day, that’s the easy part…. It’s the hours alone and putting in the commitment.
I want to give them some real life tips on nerves before the race, working as a team, what they’re doing in a relay situation. I’ve done a lot of 24 hour racing as well on teams. It’s longer, but it’s very similar in that you’re giving your all on your lap but knowing that there’s a bigger purpose – you don’t want to let your teammates down.
But also a really big part of the message is: what is your definition of a win? Only one team is going to win. But what’s your definition of a success. I hope that the first and the last team, they feel like they were a success. I’ve had races that I didn’t win that I was extremely proud of…. If you were your best self, then it was a success and it was a win.
What did you learn from writing your autobiography, “Rusch to Glory”?
It was really interesting for me to look back on stuff I’ve done and look back at old pictures and other sports I’ve done and be like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s cool!’ We live in a world that’s, ‘What are you doing next? What’s your next thing? What’s your next race?’ We rarely go back and kind of just (think), ‘oh, that was cool what I did.’ Not to rest on our laurels or anything, but I think all of us, we don’t even have photo albums anymore where you’d flip through from a trip that you did. ... The process of going back and revisiting some old memories was really fun for me.
It’s a cool message for people that it’s never too late. I started bike racing at 38. When somebody comes back to me and says, ‘I read your book, and now I want to go do something.’ The whole purpose was not for me to talk about myself. The purpose was hopefully if someone read a story to see that I’m a normal person and I did some rad stuff, and you can, too.
A lot of your life has been about risk– it’s in the subtitle of your book. When it comes to life decisions, such as leaving a job or living out of your car, how do you approach risk?
It’s calculated risk. It’s never the total leap of faith, like the bungee jumping sort of thing. It’s like maybe somebody would approach a downhill mountain bike race where they walk the course. They look at it. They think about it, and then they do the run.
Those have been the choices to quit my job and live out of my car. It was pretty calculated. Like OK, if I want to do this then this is what I need to do. This is how much money I need. This is where I’m going to stay. OK, I’m going to live out of my car. I’m going to have a storage unit here. I can stay with those friends. I can stay with my mom. So, it was risk but it’s calculated. It wasn’t just a blind leap of faith.
So you wouldn’t describe yourself as an impulsive person?
I wouldn’t, not at all. I actually feel like I’m really calculated. People will be like, ‘oh you just do anything.’ No. I really think about it. I decide. I did a trip swimming the Grand Canyon, and that was the same sort of thing. I had already planned if I need to walk out at Phantom Ranch, I’ll walk out. Everything like that, I just had a bailout plan.
Do you ever cross paths with fellow Idahoan Kristin Armstrong (two time Olympic gold medalist riding for Team Twenty16)?
Yes, she’s great. We’ve done some rides together. We’ve done some women’s events together. I keep inviting her to my event, but it conflicted with the World Championships this year, you know, little stuff like that! She’s really active in Idaho, too, in health and wellness and getting bike paths built.
How much do you follow women’s pro road racing?
I follow it pretty closely. I get to meet people like Kristin Armstrong through my association with SRAM. Then you start to develop a connection with those people. I’ve road raced a little bit on my own. You meet those people, and there’s obvious mutual respect. Evie Stevens (Boels-Dolmans Cycling Team), she spends time in Ketchum, Idaho… I taught her to skate ski last winter, which was really fun…. She loves cross-country skiing!
The SRAM Gold Rusch Tour has helped to engage more women in cycling and get them on bikes since 2011. How did that come about?
SRAM basically helped me launch all of the women’s programs. It started at Sea Otter (Cycling Festival). I was intimidated to go into the SRAM booth, and I was a SRAM athlete. I was a new mountain biker. I didn’t know the equipment that well. I went to them after and said, ‘Look, I was intimidated to go into the SRAM booth’ … They’re like, ‘why?’ I just was, and if I’m feeling that way, other women are feeling that way. They just said what do you want to do about, what should we do? That’s where I pitched my idea for the SRAM Gold Rusch Tour, which offers free women’s clinics, and elevates the female athletes, and brings in female journalists, and starts to build a little community. They went for it.
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