We are off to on Stage 3 today, and are loving every bit of this race so far. Chris Carmichael and I are having a great time racing together, and have definitely been suffering! Day 1 ended up great with Chris and I placing 1st in the 80+ mixed category, and 5th overall in the mixed teams. Stage 2 was a bit rainy and sloppy, and thankfully was a bit shorter than all the other days, at only 50K. You can check out my Garmin Connect page for a view of the ride.

There is good race coverage on the following site for everyone to enjoy:

Trans Andes Website

A great blog by Jason Sager on Cyclingnews.com

I have also added quite few photos to my Facebook page and to my Flickr account so check them out! We are off on Stage 3 today, and I’ll check back in as soon as I get some quality internet time.

Stage 3: Distance 72 kilometers. Total Climb 2496 meters. Feed Zone 1 Km 26. Feed Zone 2 Km 49.

We are racing today! Stage 1 is all set to go. Day 1 Panguipulli to Huilo Huilo (try to say that three times as fast as you can)!

Trans Andes starts today and I’m racing with Chris Carmichael from Carmichael Training Systems. Greg and I traveled down here with about 25 athletes and coaches from CTS. It’s the royal treatment with CTS and my friends from Adventure Store in Argentina as our support crew. Being in such a big, organized group is a logistical luxury and it’s also great to have so many instant friends to hang out with. The group ranges from a neurosurgeon to tech wizard to a BLM employee. The one common thread through us all is a love for riding bikes. Everyone here is addicted to cycling and are super stoked to be in the Andes. I am the only on in the group who has raced Trans Andes, so my role has been to share my experience and help get everyone excited and prepared for the event. This race is one of my favorite stage races in one of the best places in the world.

Today’s stage is long with lots of climbing. It will probably be a rude awakening for my legs and my body. My training leading up to this race has been less than ideal and breaking a rib also put a damper on things. My rib is feeling OK, but it’s definitely not 100% and falling is pretty much not an option for me during the race. We did a shake out ride today to check out the bikes and the legs. It felt great to sweat and be outside in the warm summer weather. I know my fitness is not where it could be, but I’m excited to ride and I know it’ll be a great training week.

Chris and I have talked a little about race strategy and his thought was “to attack each other as aggressively as possible right from the start to find out who’s boss.”
I’m not sure I like that strategy, but I guess I’ll find out soon enough who really is the boss. With 6 long days in the saddle, perhaps the title off “boss” will change hands a few times.

I am using my brand new SRAM Quarq power meter and Garmin 500. I used them both today for the first time on our pre-ride. Luckily, there are a bunch of Garmin veterans here who have educated me and I’m dialed in with the system. I will be sharing all my power and GPS data on Garmin Connect and Facebook. There are no secrets this week, so you’ll all be able to see exactly how fit (or not fit) I am! Here is the file from todays warm up ride.

Stay tuned. I will check in again from the amazing Huilo Huilo wilderness spa.

Stage 1: Distance 82 kilometers. Total Climb 2287 meters. Feed Zone 1 Km 23. Feed Zone 2 Km 55.
Stage 2: Distance 50 kilometers. Total Climb 2237 meters. Feed Zone 1 Km 22. Feed Zone 2 Km 38.
Stage 3: Distance 72 kilometers. Total Climb 2496 meters. Feed Zone 1 Km 26. Feed Zone 2 Km 49.
Stage 4. Distance 77 kilometers. Total Climb 1892 meters. Feed Zone 1 Km 32. Feed Zone 2 Km 54.
Stage 5. Distance 78 kilometers. Total Climb 2162 meters. Feed Zone 1 Km 27. Feed Zone 2 Km 53.
Stage 6. Distance 53 kilometers. Total Climb 1177 meters. Feed Zone 1 Km 21. Feed Zone 2 Km 38.

The weather has been raining hard and super cold at night. The trails are buffed from the rain, but everyone is really hoping it doesn’t rain/snow on Saturday night. Temps could very easily be in the 20′s/30′s F at night.

Cary, Jimena, Martin and I did a pre-race lap with a group of racers.  The course is in great condition and they added a bunch of new single track (sendero, in Spanish) after Greg and I rode it a month ago.  Our feedback was “mas sendero, por favor” and they were able to do it.  It’s a super fun, fast lap.  Cary and I predict that he might turn 35-40 minute laps in the beginning of the race, so it changes the race strategy a bit.  We are both endurance riders, so it might be best for us to do double laps for much of the race.  I feel I will barely be warmed up by 45 minutes and it will not allow for very much rest for the other teammate.

We will definitely have competition in the duo category.  There are 10 duo teams and just two duo mixed teams, but we’ll be racing the men’s teams as well. The other mixed duo is Jimena Florit, Olympian and world cup XC racer from Argentina, and Martin Santos, one of the top male racers in the country.  We are all friends and will have our pits next to each other, so it’s a friendly rivalry.  Neither of them have done a 24 hour race before, so Cary and I have offered advice on pacing, nutrition, sleep.  We even lent them Light and Motion lights so they’d have the best lights available to ride with at night.

For now, the rain has stopped and all of our gear is sorted and ready to go.  It has been a while since I’ve raced a 24 hour race so I’m excited for the night riding again and for the super good day of training.  Basically, I’ll be doing around 12, one hour intervals over the course of the day. Here are a few pics of the course and our home away from home for the weekend.

The competition, Jimena and Martin and the super buff looking guy in the background!

This place is full of amazing volcanoes, mountains, crystal blue lakes and great riding trails. However, my favorite part is the strong sense of family and community. I was welcomed back here by my Argentine friends from last year and they treated me like their own family. Once again we were staying with Anibal, Gisele and their two sons Tomy and Benito. Flavio owns the local bike shop and they spent their days taking us riding, making asado (BBQ) for us and sharing their wine. Every night, the whole neighborhood seemed to gather for a family style dinner where we practiced Spanish and English and showed each other videos of our own skiing, riding and hiking.

This place is very similar to Sun Valley and I think I have convinced them to come visit me as well. Greg and I filmed some of the action on out GoPro’s so you can get a feel for the action. Until then, check out the video from the race organizers website, to give you a feel for the beauty of this area.

Why Argentina you ask? Well when I first went down there for the Eco Challenge in the Patagonia region, I simply fell in love with both the people and the landscape. I returned again for the Raid Gauloises in 2004 and was hooked. There are more high mountains and crystal blue lakes than you can take in with your eyes. In 2009 I returned again, this time as a mountain bike racer, for the Trans Andes and Tour de la Patagonia stage races. I met some great cycling friends in the San Martin de los Andes area and even imagined myself living there. When the local race organizer asked me to consult with them and help them put on Argentina’s first 24 Hour race, I said yes immediately. My boyfriend Greg Martin has also been involved with educating them on how 24 Hour racing works, what sort of lights to use, how to set up a good course, etc. I was able to view the property for the race last year and we will be going back in a few weeks to pre-ride the course and help sort out final details.

24 Hours of Argentina – Introduction from Rebecca Rusch on Vimeo.

When we return for the race, we will hopefully be witnessing history in the making for the Argentine mountain bike community. I will be racing with Jimena Florit, who is Argentina’s most successful and well know mountain bike athlete. Greg will be racing solo single speed.

This format is totally new for Argentina, but I know they are going to love it. The country is all about community, family, spending time together and pushing themselves. The 24 hr format is going to allow them to have friends and family at the race and I expect it will be a really competitive race and and even bigger after party.

For Greg and I, we are looking forward to traveling to one of my favorite places in the world, but are even more excited about sharing our knowledge and love for endurance racing with Argentina. We are really excited to share this intense and unique type of racing with some of the friendliest people on earth. For those in North America, you should really try and come down to race if it is possible. Thanks to companies like Light and Motion, this is truly going to be more than just a 24hr race, it will be something really special.

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

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 1^st and 2^nd 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 23^rd 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.