ITI 2021 350 Women's Bike Champion

At 10:17pm on March 5, Rebecca Rusch, of Idaho, rolled across the Iditarod Trail Invitational finish line in Big Lake, taking the crown in the women’s bike race. Together with her husband, Greg Martin, Rusch also was the top finisher in the race’s inaugural “self-supported” class. The two traveled 350 miles without receiving any of the meals, indoor recovery, or other outside support athletes in the general class typically receive. They slept outdoors alongside the trail, clocking about 14.5 total hours of rest during the race.

Martin and Rusch had not made a pact to race as a team this year—“It just happened organically,” she said. They moved point to point together, but did not know until the very end, she says, that they would finish as a team.

Rusch was also the top women’s finisher in 2019, her rookie year.