The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Takes Ultimate Mountain Challenge title
Team Griggs Orthopedics athlete and long-time Gunnison Valley local Rebecca Dussault’s list of athletic accomplishments is staggering. It includes, but is not limited to, competing in the 2006 Winter Olympic Games as a member of the U.S. Nordic ski team, winning the 2010 ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships, winning the American Birkebeiner twice, winning a winter triathlon national title and winning the Xterra winter world title. Did I mention she is also a mother of four? She’s no slouch in the summer sports either, as Dussault just proved this past weekend, taking the Vail GoPro Games Ultimate Mountain Challenge overall title.
The Ultimate Mountain Challenge puts athletes through four races over two days as they prove their paddling, trail running, mountain biking and road biking prowess.
The challenge opened with a four-mile downriver sprint at 8 a.m. and with her boating gear somewhat limited, Dussault had to borrow some gear for the event, including a spray skirt that proved nearly useless.
“I was up to my belly button in ice-cold Gore Creek water,” says Dussault.
With a kayak full of water pushing her all over the river, Dussault struggled to make it to the finish line in one piece and was near her limit with three more events left to go.
“Worst experience ever,” says Dussault. “I’m a pretty tough competitor but I wanted to cry.”
Rather than fold her cards, Dussault rallied for the next event that morning, a 21-mile mountain bike race. Dussault used the race to recalibrate her momentum as she finished in third place and climbed into third place in the overall Ultimate Mountain Challenge standings.
“It was a solid race for me,” says Dussault. “I felt like I was still in it.”
Dussault returned to her campsite “under the bridge down by the river” and awoke the next morning for the next two races of the four-race challenge, a 10-kilometer trail run and a time trial road race up Vail Pass.
The turning point for Dussault came in the trail run. Dussault had run just four times this year, spending a majority of her training time on bikes, so she had no idea what to expect as she toed the line.
Nevertheless, Dussault charged her way up and flew down the trail to finish in third place overall among a stout field of professional trail runners and took over first place among the mountain challenge racers.
“I felt amazing,” says Dussault. “I descended like a mad woman and I have proof because I can still feel it in my legs.”
Her effort not only put her in first place overall, but also built a sizeable cushion heading into the final event, a 9.7-mile time trial up Vail Pass.
“I was super pumped going into the road bike race,” says Dussault.
Dussault carried the momentum from her trail run onto her bike and crushed the time trial to seal the overall Ultimate Mountain Challenge win.
“I just buried myself,” says Dussault.
Time and money are now the two major things holding Dussault back. With a number of top-level events on the calendar this summer, she’s training to compete but waiting to make the call on what events to race on a week-by-week basis.
“I’m really doing this self-supported and it’s hard to keep committing more and more and spending more and more,” says Dussault. “I’ll just keep training like I’m going but being realistic about family and the business. It’s Farmers Market season so I should be pizza slaving right now.”
