You'll Have To Pedal Hard To Keep Up With Catharina Berge-She Cycles 135 Miles Just To Warm Up!

by–R.J. Latronico Photos courtesy of Catharina Berges Collectio

     At thirty–eight, Catharina Berge–called “Bumble Bee”–has had more challenges and more successes than people twice her age. She picked up a Masters degree and a PhD, at the same time she was breaking records in cross-country, ultracycling bike races.
     Catharina loved bikes from the day she started walking. Growing up in Sweden and Belgium, a bike was only a method to getting to a destination and into nature. In 1998, she came to California and UC Davis to earn a Masters Degree in Preventive Veterinary Medicine.
     Catharina moved to the UC Davis Veterinary Research and Teaching Center in Tulare. She is studying antibiotic resistance in farm animals there.
     In 1999, she started road cycling and it quickly became her passion.  She decided to stay in the U.S. to earn a PhD–her excuse to extend her stay and cycle in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
     Riding with a group of guys one Saturday, they quickly realized what a strong rider she was, that she was a mountain goat. They quickly took away her old mountain bike and put her on a nice Colnago.
     She raced some local races and quickly upgraded to Cat 3, but was disappointed by the women’s races. “You have to learn the name of the game and to race smart,” racers told her. But it didn’t happen for her. Ultracycling seemed to offer a different type of racing where her physical and mental aspects were decisive for success.
     Cat’s first attempt at ultracycling came in 2001 with the Furnace Creek 508–the world’s hardest 500–mile race. She completed it in 31 hours 58 minutes . . . the fastest rookie time ever. The following year, she attacked the California Triple Crown Stage Race, which includes the three hardest double century rides in California with more than 13,000 feet of climbing each. Ultracycle magazine wrote: “In the Women’s Division of the 2002 Stage Race, Catharina Berge came in First Place. She set a new Women’s Course Record on the Terrible Two this year … she was flying!”
week later, she won (by a margin of over 1.5 hours) the California and Nevada State Climbing Championship. This race is called the Everest Challenge, because in over two days and 220 miles, the course climbs over 29,000 feet, the same height as Mt. Everest. By winning, she became the California state champion in hill climbing and became a Clif bar sponsored athlete and enthusiastic ambassador, believing in their products, concept and philosophy.
    On a recent Sunday, Catharina Berge slowed down long enough to appear at an annual banquet for the Visalia Runners Club.  (Cat is a former recreational runner, and hiker too.)
     She allowed RJ. Latronico to record her motivational talk as she addressed her friends and fellow fitness enthusiasts.  Here’s what  was learned :

“YOU HAVE GOT TO LOVE THE BIKE!”

     It can be lonely at the top–the top of a mountain in the pitch-black of night when you’re riding the Race Across America. In this race in 2005, Cat averaged 270 miles per day, pedaling for 20–21 hours for 11 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes.

Do You Have What It Takes To Make the Grade Like Catharina Berge?      Cat’s Race Across America (RAAM) from San Diego to Atlantic City, New Jersey, a total of 14 states and more than 109,000 feet of climbing, was the culmination of her desire to prove only one thing to herself–that she could finish RAAM and not be classified as DNF (Did Not Finish).
     Catharina Berge turned out to be RAAM’s only solo woman entrant in 2005 and the first woman finisher since Australian Cassis Lowe finished the race in 2001.
     At 38 years of age, 5 feet 5 inches in height, this native of Sweden set out in 2005 on a 3,052 mile spin on her bike that took her from the triple digit heat and wind blown sands of the desert to the oxygen–thin mountain heights of 10,550 ft at Wolf Creek Pass in the Colorado Rockies, through pitch-black nights, torrential rains, and even lightning storms. 
     And, after the 11 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes, an average speed of 11.08 mph, she arrived in Atlantic City and said, “All I had to do was pedal.  My crew is as important as I am.  It’s not my race, it’s our race.”

See how many of these “Cat Characteristics” match yours …
Total miles logged  in 6 months on her bike: 13,000.
Cumulative height in 6 months of all her rides 400,000 ft. (in 2005 she totalled 17,000 miles)

Her job when she is not pedaling: 
She is a Veterinarian and PhD who works as a post doctorate at the UC Davis Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare.  Her Doctorate is in Comparative Pathology.

Cat is so dedicated that some people may think that she has an obsessive /compulsive disorder.

Cat is always biking, on weekdays and weekends to and from work.
“Cat Characteristics” continued …

She is single and has never been married. (Although she hopes to be one day).

To Cat biking is not wasting time it is living time.  It is her life!

It’s not unusual for her to train 25 hours a week and then bike to and from work (about 30 miles).

Cat only stops biking when she is totally physically exhausted.

She enjoys riding so much she rides in the winter–even when there is snow on the ground – in Sequoia and Kings Canyon Parks.
(her favorite place to spend an afternoon)

Many of her friends find excuses NOT to ride with her.
(because of the distance she typically covers in a day)

Cat does not believe a heart rate monitor or a speedometer will add anything to make her more competitive.  She instead relies on her Canon digital camera to take breath-taking pictures of her surroundings during her rides.  She says she is blessed. 