Pro cyclist Rebecca Fahringer has carved a new corner to steer towards her 11th pro season, this time on a fresh path laden with gravel, some single track and stable health.
In the last two seasons, the cyclocross stalwart suffered multiple concussions that sidelined her burgeoning career, where the 2019-2020 season saw her scoop up a career-high 10 victories. That season she earned a trio of World Cup top 10s, the bronze at the Pan-American Cyclocross Championships and a silver at US Nationals. Then came the bumps in the road, or rather, hard impacts from the ground and the coronavirus pandemic.
A new focus off-road and with competition in the Life Time Grand Prix series this summer got her back on the bike and on the podium. She also “learned how to embrace the spirit of gravel”.
“It’s been an emotional roller coaster because when I first started this [Life Time] series, I was still experiencing pretty extreme concussion symptoms from last cyclocross season,” Fahringer told Cyclingnews at the series finale in Arkansas at Big Sugar Gravel.
“I was very disappointed for the first two races. And then I realized, oh, you can have fun on a bike without being fast on a bike or without winning the bike race. Everyone’s ‘fast’ is different than the winning speed, right? Yeah.”
She admitted to being a bit tentative at Sea Otter Classic in April in Fuego 80K MTB, but she finished 17th in the Life Time standings. Then a bout with COVID caused her to miss Unbound Gravel, so she focused on the remaining four series events. She was consistently in the middle of the pack, referring to the mountain bike events as “survive, not thrive”, her best finishes 13th at Chequamegon MTB and 14th at Big Sugar Gravel. She didn’t finish in the money, which was the top 10 for the invitation-only series, but she knew she could race again.
Just a week prior to Big Sugar, she competed in Belgian Waffle Ride Kansas and took the victory. She was back on track, but not in the discipline that she loved most. Cyclocross races remained off her schedule for 2022-2023.
“So, I missed cyclocross with the entirety of my heart, and I hope to do more of it next year when I’m in better physical and mental shape and emotional shape,” said Fahringer, who is still supported in all disciplines by her Kona Maxxis Shimano team.
“I am not jumping into CX racing right away. Kona, like many other bike manufacturers, has taken a step back on the cyclocross front for a while and didn’t…
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