March Madness
Hello Friends-
I’ve been home nearly a month from my great training and racing camp in Argentina. I returned home to snow on the ground, but variable winter/spring weather in Idaho and all I wanted to do was ride my bike! One day I’m skiing in 25 degree temperatures, the next day riding on the road outside as the thermometer hits 50, then back inside on the trainer the next day as the snow falls again. It’s the time of year when I have to take advantage of any little break in the weather to get outside on the bike. Argentina was such a great early season trip for me and now I’m so ready to be cycling. I did head down to the Spa City Marathon in Arkansas so that my race fitness would not wear off. It was a 6 hour race and the #2 stop on the USA Cycling Ultra Endurance Series. It’s a great 10 mile single track loop that you repeat as many times as you can in 6 hours. I completed 6 laps and won the women’s division. It felt really great to be on the Era again breathing hard. There was also the double bonus of getting to see my Mom on this trip. She drove over from Illinois and took care of water bottles and nutrition for me. I guess you never grow out of needing your Mom around every once in a while. Thanks Mom!
March is Media Month for me! I was really honored and pleased to find that both Shape Magazine, Fitness Magazine and Biciclub (Argentina’s biggest cycling magazine) all have feature articles on me this month and some great gear mentions for my sponsors. Check them out on the news stand. If you can read Spanish, the Biciclub article is great! There is also a great article written by my teammate in Argentina on her Outside Online blog. She talks about racing with me and our experience in Argentina for the Tour de la Patagonia.
The Mountain Town Movie Tour is also in full swing! By the time you read this, I will have the Sun Valley and Missoula shows under my belt and will be on the road for Colorado, Park City and Jackson Hole. The first event in my hometown was a huge success with a nearly sold out show and a pre-party that was wall to wall people. All of the movie screenings are 100% fundraisers for the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) and their local chapters in each town that I am visiting. The Sun Valley show raised over $5000 for the Wood River Bicycle Coalition and will go towards keeping trails open where I live. It was a blast to share the Leadville Trail 100 experience with my friends through this film. I received a number of comments after the showing thanking me for the inspiration, for the community fundraising efforts and for showing them what it is I really do for a living! Everyone here sees me out training and riding my bike, but it’s nothing like seeing a real race unfold on the big screen. There are too many sponsors of the tour to list here, but THANKS to all of you who have supported the movie tour.
Finally, I want to share a few great pictures from Argentina with you. All photos in this newsletter are from Michael Darter. He did a great job of capturing the Argentina experience.
Take Care and Happy Trails!
Rebecca
Tour de la Patagonia
Overall Time: 9:16:10
Placing: 1st Open Women, 23rd Overall
By Rebecca Rusch (courtesy of singletrack.com)
Stage 1: Feb. 12
Route: San Martin de los Andes to Hua Hum, along the shores of Lago Lacar
Distance: 49 km
Time: 2:31:51
As with most South American races I’ve been to, the start resembles a dance party with pulsing music and a chaotic energy. The race was a mass start with 700 people, broken into two start groups: open men followed by everyone else 15 minutes later.
With that many riders, it was a good way to start the field to avoid unnecessary congestion. The controlled start rolled through the picturesque town of San Martin de los Andes, but within minutes turned uphill as the lead motorcycle peeled off. The hill was a wake up call, and all the mixed teams started pushing and towing just minutes into the race.
My teammate Heidi Volpe’s anxiety was high and she started really, really fast. I had some initial pangs of insecurity about my winter season fitness, but we quickly found a rhythm on the first climb and settled into a good race pace. We entered the singletrack with the top mixed teams and got really excited about the technical terrain. Our flow was disrupted when we quickly came across the back of the men’s field. Our clean, unrestricted lines near the front of the pack vanished and the rest of the stage was a video game of passing and dodging traffic. It made for some interesting riding and even more interesting communications.
Heidi and I were skirting around people and moving through the field quickly. I have to admit, it does make you feel ultra fast to pass hundreds of people in a bike race. Neither of us speaks much Spanish, so we threw around Spanglish phrases and added lots of “gracias” for good measure. For the most part, all the guys were extremely nice about letting us pass and were somewhat astonished as two female riders ripped by. There are some great athletes in Argentina, but the ratio of male to female racers is still quite disproportionate. Much of my inspiration for racing in South America is to act as a role model and encourage the local female riders to develop their skills and get out on the trails.
For our first ride EVER together, Heidi and I fell into a smooth rhythm quickly. She hammered hard and we communicated about pacing, passing, and strategies to work the course. We worked the drafting, did a little pushing and got to the finish line sandwiched between the 1st and 2nd place mixed teams. At a time of 2:31, the stage was super short for us, but we were laughing and passing tons of people on the sweet singletrack sections that day.
Stayed at a picturesque lakeside camp with 700 other racers and our friends from San Martin who are following the race. Their kids even made special flags with our names on them that they waved at the start. After the stage, the bike and body maintenance began. We washed our bikes and bodies in the frigid lake, got a great massage (a gift), the Specialized dealer, Adventure Store, had mechanics on hand to dial in the bikes so we could just relax, drink mate and refuel.
Stage 2
Route: Hua Hum, Argentina into Chile for a brief time and ending in Lago Verde in Argentina
Distance: Approximately 70 km broken into two stages
Time: 3:59:02
This stage was 12 hours of logistics and travel for four hours of racing. The pre-dawn start was a neutral 16 km rollout to the ferry launch for a 90 minute ride across Lago Pirehueico. The entire ferry was jammed with bikes and athletes trying to stay warm and snoozing before the start of the real racing. After disembarking, we lined up for another mass start, this time with the top 50 percent of the field.
It was a high-speed roadie start on sketchy gravel roads with about 350 people jockeying for position. We’d been up for six hours already and people were jonesing to get on their bikes and pedal fast. The group was moving along rapidly at about 40 km per hour and Heidi and I were just mainlining position and being super alert. Rocks were flying around and the traction was a bit like surfing around the corners.
Add into the mix occasional bridges with broken boards, tire sized slots, no guard rails and you have a recipe for disaster. About 15 minutes into the race, we’d already had numerous close calls when the crash happened. A couple of riders near Heidi got squirrely, touched tires and took out about five other racers, including Heidi.
I was in front of her but heard the mayhem and pulled to the side to see if she was involved. Hundreds of other racers and most of the field flew by and when the dust cleared, I could see Heidi’s red Specialized kit rolling towards me. She was upright, but not uninjured.
We rode on and began working to pass people back and get onto a train for this mostly dirt road stage. Her elbow and knee were dripping blood, her team kit was torn and there was blood on her race number. She’s incredibly tough, so we just kept riding and worked through the field. We never regained our position with the top peleton, but we got through the first part of the stage in decent position.
This is where the South American culture came in. The 70 km stage was broken into two separate race sections with a mandatory 90-minute break in the town of Liquine so racers could have the traditional giant mid-day meal. It was the strangest thing I’d ever seen and I’m not sure why we did not just keep riding, but it was part of the rules.
People were splayed across a park area, buying plates of pasta, eating chips and socializing. I used the opportunity to clean Heidi’s wounds with my Adventure Medical Kit and take stock of our situation. She was bruised and her shorts and jersey pockets were full of gravel. Most of her injuries were not threatening, but the cut on her elbow was deep, wide and would require stitches. However, she could continue the stage.
Some of the other riders in the crash were not so lucky. There were multiple injuries including a broken hand, ribs and shoulder dislocation. I cleaned her up as best as I could and put butterfly bandages on the wound to keep it from stretching wider. We wrapped it and then put her arm warmer over the injury to keep the bandages in place.
The second stage for the day was about 40 km, mostly uphill. Heidi and I did really well with the multi-hour climb and finished this stage just behind the top mixed team. Our camp spot was another beautiful lakeside setting on Lago Verde with volcanic rock and black sand beaches. Our group of friends all went to work on Heidi’s arm cleaning while we waited for the doctor who would be able to stitch her up to arrive.
We had some really qualified mountain guides and outdoor professionals among our group and we did a decent job of getting it clean and prepped for her stitches. Heidi never once flinched as we scrubbed and pulled at her skin. She got three stitches from the doctor and the green light to race for the last stage.
Stage 3
Distance: 67 km
Time: 2:45:17
Stage 3 started in reverse order of placing in groups of 25 teams at 5 minute intervals. We were ranked 23rd in the overall, so we started with the last and fastest group.
The start was a beach run through the black sand and out to the road. The small start group was a joy for about 10 minutes. That’s when we started catching the slower groups and for about 90 minutes, we again spent our time working through the field and eventually passing about 650 people of varying skill levels.
It was a fairly wide dirt road, but packed side-to-side with racers and also sprinkled with those sketchy broken bridges just to keep you on your toes. We spent most of this stage again practicing our Spanglish words for passing. Heidi took a few risks and threaded the needle a couple of times. The dust from being behind so many racers was gathering in our lungs and on our faces. You can see from the photos how much Argentine dust we were really eating.
After most of the passing was done, we fell into a good peleton of about four teams for a long road section. It was difficult to try to get the group to work together and swap leads. In fact, it was impossible, so Heidi and I just sat on the back of the train for about 30 minutes to eat and recover. On all the uphill rollers, each team would split from the group and begin towing and pushing their teammate. Heidi and I were doing the same. We had a great rhythm down and I was more than happy to do the towing. She thanked me about a billion times for helping her out. I finally had to cut her off and tell her that I am the one who should be thanking her.
I came to Argentina for some hard training and these uphill pulls and sitting with my face in the wind is exactly what I wanted to be doing. Those efforts will absolutely pay off in the height of the season in July and August. Once the road turned downhill, Heidi and I cranked into the big gears and dropped our little peleton. We rode the rest of the stage alone and finished with about 5km of fun singletrack as icing on the cake.
I let Heidi lead for this last part because she rips on descents and because she had been breathing my dust all day. I have a great mental image just before the finish of her riding in her bright red Specialized jersey through a giant field of purple wildflowers. I took a mental picture and was sad to see the race come to a close.
We had a great time riding together and an even better time connecting with the cycling community down there. I will miss hearing “vamos Chicas, vamos!” when I’m riding.
I was super inspired by the level of riders down there and also the strength of the women’s and mixed fields. We made some great friends and I’m already making plans to go back down there to help organize Argentina’s first 24-hour mountain bike race! Stay tuned for details.
Final Report: Trans Andes
The adventure of the Trans Andes stage race has come to a close. Jenny has left to head back to Colorado and I have been chilling in a cozy cabin in San Martin de los Andes with the Specialized dealer and his friends. The damp stench is finally washed out of my clothes and sleeping bag and the Era is all tuned up and shiny again. I’m relishing in long, hot showers and casual mornings where I can eat my food at a relaxed pace. The 6 days in the Patagonian wilderness were a fantastic experience and the riding was the best I’ve done in a multi-day stage race. The organization really did serve up some of the best trails they have to offer. In contrast to the thousands of racers in the Cape Epic, the small, multi-national field in this race made for a homey feeling around camp and the ability to get to know some very interesting people from around the world. We all bonded in our suffering and compared stories each night at camp.
Jenny and I got through the week with a pretty clean slate. Jenny had a flat on day one and a mechanical problem with her hub on day 5, but nothing that was race ending. We both went through a set of brake pads each and did the changes and maintenance on our own. Well, we did have a little help from Mike Broderick, our camp neighbor! We each had one rough day physically, but this was also nothing that was race ending. For early season miles, we were both really happy with how our legs performed and how quickly we slipped into pedaling again.
I was really happy that Jenny and I ended up being compatible race partners and camping companions. I can relate to her Kiwi sense of humor and we both have the racing maturity to get through multiple day events. It takes a lot of planning, patience, teamwork and self-preservation to come out the other end of one of these events unscathed. I am a little scathed from a high speed gravel crash on day 6, but otherwise all that remains from the race are some great memories and hopefully some killer fitness.
We both went into this race with the intention of some awesome early season training and a bit of adventure. We got both. Although some of the route information seemed inaccurate, courses changed during the event and my odometer died on day 5, we rode somewhere around 500km this week and an estimated 30,000 ft of climbing in approximately 25 hours of racing. Not bad for 6 days of training in January! I have no idea how we finished in the overall rankings. The race results that are posted do not add up, so it’s difficult to tell. I can tell you that only 18 teams finished day 5, including us, so technically less than ½ the field completed the whole course. It was not an easy task and I feel really good about our achievement. The Virgo in me would really love to see accurate race results and exact mileages and be able to compare our performance against the other athletes, but I’m practicing my patience and just chalking it up to a great travel and training experience.
I would recommend this race, but would caution anyone interested to come with the intention of being self sufficient with bike maintenance, camping comforts, route finding and bring plenty of travel and race experience. This is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world and getting to see it on your bike is the best way to travel.
I have two more weeks here of training and racing. The next stop is the Tour de la Patagonia, a 3-day stage race in this same area! I have created a set of photos on Flickr for all to see as well.
Cheers
Reba
Stage 5 in the words of Jenny Smith
In the words of Jenny Smith,
Stage Five of the Trans Andes challenge was held today in Huilo Huilo national reserve. The stage was shortened and changed from the original route because of the weather and difficulty of the riding. It was a good idea to change it as we woke to rain and started in the rain, but maybe some details where missed due to the last minute decision to alter the course. Such as course marking and sufficent marsheling. So while we where riding we came upon, yesterdays course, todays original course, todays modified course and tomorrows course.
It created a good dose of chaos! Riders ended up everywhere from here to Argentina. Literally.
Rebecca is a survivor and an adventure racer so for better or worse we THINK we rode the correct course and our predicted 3 hours took 5 hours 30. We are worked over, so are our bikes, and equipment.
With such a late finish its been very hectic to try and get everything in order for the last day tomorrow.
Tomorrow we hope to cross into Argentina with our top ten position still in place. We believe we are in 9th. Fingers crossed for us all. Here are some funny pictures to showcase what our race has been like.
Cheers
Reba
Trans Andes Update
Sorry for the silence. The internet and the facilities are less than desirable. The “media center” usually consists of a card table in the middle of a field with a generator and various foreign plug adaptors. There are two phone/internet plug ins for ALL the media and the race directors (and me!). Right now I’m trying to send pics and updates, but I’ve been sitting here for 25 minutes with a “good” connection and it’s still working on sending. That’s just the deal in the middle of the country in South America.
The race is going very well, and it has been such a great experience being here camping with everyone. A very “family” type environment where everyone is sharing/talking etc. You can check results and photos on the Trans Andes website. I will do my best to put together a full report soon!
Reba