It’s hard to believe, but Rebecca Rusch, one of the most recognizable mountain bikers on the planet, who dominated the endurance off road scene for 15 years, did not start riding mountain bikes until she was 38 years old.

Before that, her rock climbing skills and ability to suffer lent themselves to adventure racing, back when adventure racing was a big deal. “Adventure racing was a multi-sport activity,” says Rebecca, “and cycling was one of the categories, but I was a horrible cyclist in terms of skills. It was my worst event.”

Only after watching a friend and fellow adventure racer die in front of her, did Rebecca get pulled into cycling. The death had her thinking about retiring from endurance sports and pursuing a career in business. But then she followed her husband to compete at the famed 24 Hours of Moab race. After her years spent competing in weeklong adventure races, a 24 hour solo race felt easy to Rebecca, even if the skills still weren’t there. “I had to run all the technical sections. But I won the event and beat the men and the women.”

Yeah, that’s how strong Rebecca is at distance. At that time, she was a threat to beat anyone in the starting line. Later, when 24-hour racing faded after she’d won many world titles, Rebecca shifted to distance events like the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. Against some of the top cyclists in the world, she finished in the top 20—overall. “One of my sponsors was racing Leadville that day and after the finish he was like, ‘whoa, you were with the top guys. You were at the front of the race.’ He was my sponsor, but he had no idea that I was competitive with the men until he saw it with his own eyes.”

Rebecca’s education is in sports marketing. She had no idea she would use that knowledge to market herself as an athlete, but as with seemingly everything she puts her mind to, she excelled at the task. Today, she shares that experience with brands and athletes.

Three years ago, Rebecca suffered a serious concussion in a crash, which forced her to put her adventuring on hold for a spell. That might have been a good thing. “It forced me to shift my mindset,” she says. “I went from doing everything full gas to slowing down and savoring things a bit more. Because I’d put so much effort into building my business before the crash, I was able to keep my obligations to partners and actually thrive in new ways. The insights from brain injury recovery have actually opened new doors with speaking engagements and health advocacy work. My signature gravel cycling event is 13 years and counting. I’m leaning into online and in person mentorship with athletes and other high performing humans, and getting back into writing again. Up next? Rebecca is co-creating the Brain Storm Podcast Series. Plus, there’s a podcast in the works, more consulting gigs, and bike packing trips that invariably turn into stories to share.