Faster than the men: Nicole Reist makes cycling history

Michael Restin

21.9.2020

Translation: machine translated

Nicole Reist is the best ultra-distance cyclist in the world, and has long been riding alongside male champions. Only a handful of athletes can match this extreme cyclist. She has just won the Adriatic Cycling Marathon, a feat that no woman has ever achieved before.

I get tired just reading his performances. Today I moved between my bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room, where the desk I'm sitting at is. If I count my achievements over the last 43 hours and 54 minutes, I can add a jog, a few lengths at the pool and a lot of sleep. That's what I said to myself when I heard a "pling" and an e-mail entitled "Ultracycling-Sensation: Nicole Reist holt Overall-Sieg am Adriatic Cycling Marathon" appeared on my screen.

The champion, who hails from Winterthur, beat all her rivals. She covered 1200 km and climbed 7000 m in 43 hours and 54 minutes. In fact, the distance and the difference in altitude were not at all enough for her. In the press release, she said that 7000 metres represents a very small change in altitude over such a distance.

She's absolutely right. It's less than Everest, so it's not enough to be considered everesting, the hype sport of the moment. Nicole, on the other hand, is a real ibex. She doesn't care much about trends. I find it hard to imagine such performance and such indestructible motivation, but I gave it a go all the same.

At the time, I asked her a few questions, which she answered at night. Between her job as a building technician, which she does full-time, and her long hours of training, she took the time to send me these few lines: "I train when others are still asleep, so I've already finished my first unit before going to work. Once my day's work is done, I tackle the second."

The RAAM, his reference

His reference is not a "small" race like the Adriatic Cycling Marathon (in Italian), with its 1200km and 7000 metres of ascent. Her benchmark is the Race Across America, considered to be the most difficult ultra-distance cycling race in the world, with its 4,941km across the United States and 53,400m of ascent. She won it for the first time in 2016, then again in 2018. She had already placed third overall; there were only two men ahead of her. Here are the highlights of her 2019 season:

• Victory and world champion title at the Glocknerman Ultraradmarathon Weltmeisterschaft (1,000km, 17,000m ascent)
• Victory at the Race Across France (RAAF, 2600 km, 45,000 m ascent)
• Victory in Race Around Austria (RAA, 2200 km, 30,000 m ascent); first person to to have taken part in two races as long as the RAAF and the RAA within such a short interval of each other (combined: 4800 km, 75,000 m ascent, 1 week between the two races)

Always further, more extreme, better performing. Only the COVID-19 pandemic managed to prevent the champion from taking part in this race and giving her all to set new records. The fact that she won the overall classification of the Adriatic Cycling Marathon is not the most impressive thing. The fact that she suffered a minor injury when she fell on the guardrail, or that the track profile didn't convince her either.

The mind-blowing thing is that Nicole Reist is quite simply the best ultradistance cyclist in the world. "I'm convinced that human beings are capable of much more than they imagine when they're prepared to step out of their comfort zone from time to time," is what she told me two years ago in response to one of my questions. I, for one, am going to start by going down to the laundry room.

Michael Restin

Senior Editor

Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.ch

Simple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.

Follow

---

Sport

Follow topics and stay updated on your areas of interest

Follow topic