Ruth Winder hung up her competitive road wheels in 2021 after eight years as a pro, but only three months after her final event, the UCI Road World Championships, she accepted a challenge for gravel and mountain bike racing. Hello Life Time Grand Prix.
Making the cut in the invitation-only, 60-rider field for the off-road, six race series was welcome news over the winter for the accomplished roadie. The top 10 men and top 10 women would share in a $250,000 prize purse at the finale in Arkansas, Big Sugar Gravel. Winder said it gave her “so much excitement to ride and race a bike”.
“I haven’t been training much, really, this year,” Winder said as the series concluded. “I still ride my bike, but just nothing structured. So I never really know how I’m going to feel in a race, which is really odd for me because I’ve been a coached athlete since I was very young. And since I’m not [coached] any more, it’s an odd feeling.”
Winder was not in contention for the top prize in the Life Time Grand Prix series by the time Big Sugar Gravel rolled to a halt. However, she has referred to herself as a race horse when she pins on a number, so she got a fast start. But a gravel race is an endurance event, so half-way through the 104-mile contest Winder’s big lead in Big Sugar dissolved like sweetener in a cup of coffee.
“I was feeling so good. And then I just exploded a little bit,” Winder told Cyclingnews after the race lightheartedly. “No mechanical. I bonked, hard.”
Ruth stole away on a solo effort after 20 miles of small-pack racing across the white, gnarly gravel of unkept, narrow roads and paths in the rolling hills of the Ozarks mountains. She carried a 4:40 gap through the first checkpoint at mile 37.7 in Pineville, Missouri.
By the time she passed by the second and final checkpoint Whistling Springs Brewery, with 31 miles to go, the chasers became the leaders and Winder had slipped to fifth place. She said it was the refuelling of her body over a long distance that went wrong.
“I’ve never just used gels in a race, ever, actually. And although I felt like I kept on top of that, I feel like I [should have] used hard food.”
She would continue to lose momentum and finish 17th. But she did finish. Winder admitted she has not kept a regular training regime this year and has not adapted to the off-road events that require five or more hours of focus and physical effort.
“I think I get super caught up in the moment and I want to go as hard as I can. I’m really new to racing these long-distance races. In WorldTour racing I could do that, because the races are between three to four hours, not five and a half. I probably lost it a bit at about the three and half hour mark,” she said after completing the event in slightly over six hours.
Over her pro road career she won Redlands Classic, Joe Martin Stage Race, De Brabantse Pijl, a stage at the Giro Donne, a stage at the Tour de l'Ardèche and the overall at the Tour Down Under. She also wore the stars-and-stripes jersey as the US Pro Road Championships in 2019. Winder posted to her Instagram a short synopsis, “I’m really good at racing my bike for 3.5 hours not so much 6.”
Winder marked the start of her gravel career this spring with a win in Colorado at a snowy and muddy edition of the Old Man Winter Rally.
However, she had a rough start to the Grand Prix, crashing at the Fuego 80K MTB at Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California and was a DNF. Then a bout with COVID-19 kept her out of Unbound. On to Crusher in the Tushar in Utah, she rebounded to place fourth, scoring major points as the third-best Grand Prix finisher.
She did well at Leadville Trail 100 MTB, 13th, and Chequamegon 40 MTB, ninth, but just didn’t have enough races left in the series to move into the top 10 to take a share in the prize purse.
“But I feel like I did really well in the end. I went out there and went really hard. I didn’t have big expectations for myself so that was a fun race,” Winder said about completing the off-road series in Arkansas and finishing 14th overall.
“I think I learned about how to measure my effort more in the future. I think I might train more if I’m doing this gravel stuff next year.”
