Catharina "Ultra Cyclist"

Frequently winning the women's category, and placing highly in the overall, Cat has earned a tremendous amount of exposure and attention. She is incredibly friendly with other racers and spectators, an active participant on several online utracyling list-services, an outspoken advocate of the products she uses, and the leader of a women's cycling group. Cat's involvement at these various levels of sport is great marketing exposure for any potential sponsor!

Ever since I have walked I have loved bikes. Growing up in Sweden and Belgium I saw the bike as a method to getting to my destination and getting out in nature. In 1998 I came to University of California in Davis to do a Masters in Preventive Veterinary Medicine. In 1999 I started road cycling and as I discovered my hidden passion and love, I decided to stay in the US to earn a PhD (good excuse?). As I was riding with a group of guys one Saturday, they quickly realized that I was strong rider and a mountain goat. I was quickly robbed of my old stiff mountain bike and put on a nice Colnago. I raced some local USCF and NCNCA races and quickly upgraded to Cat 3, but was disappointed by the women races. `You have to learn the name of the game and to race smart'- racers told me, but it wasn't for me. Ultracycling seemed to offer a different type of racing where the individual's physical and mental aspects were decisive for success.

Cat's first attempt at ultracycling came in 2001 with the world's hardest 500 mile race called the Furnace Creek 508 where her totem became `Bumble Bee' (all racers gets lifetime totems). The Bumble Bee stung the field, came in second overall, first woman. She completed the 508 miles in 31 hours 58 minutes and posted the fastest `rookie' time ever. This was her rise to recognition.

Quoted from Ultracycling magazine `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!!'

One 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 over two days and 220 miles, the course climbs over 29,000', 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.

In 2002, Cat also started racing tandem with Paul McKenzie from Clif Bar. They proved to the biking world that tandems could climb by taking the overall win (including over all single bikes) in the `Climb the Kaiser', a timed endurance ride out of Fresno, CA, with over 13,500 feet of climbing in 150 miles.

Battling the emotional and physical stress of a sports injury, she asked herself `What can I do for other athletes?' In ultracycling, a crew is an absolute necessity in order to race. She volunteered as crew for a cyclist on the Davis 12/24 hour race in April, and her Toyota RAV4, stocked with clif bars, clif shots and warm cloth, rescued a lot of riders during this stormy weekend. She was also SAG support and helpe out on several other organized rides.

Cat was determined to do the Terrible Two on the tandem with Paul McKenzie, in Santa Rosa, CA, in the end of June. They were determined to break Paul's mixed tandem record in spite of the two of them both struggling with disease and recovering from injuries. Despite this, and race-day temperatures exceeding 110o (the worst in 10 yrs), Paul and Cat managed to break his mixed tandem course record by over 40 minutes and his male tandem record by 10 minutes. They finished in 11:42 and were very pleased with their effort, and extremely beat up the day after, though two weeks later Cat biked with the lead group in the Markleeville Death ride!

Their other goal for the season was the Co-motion tandem stage race in Eugene, Oregon in August. This stage race runs more like a regular USCF race and Paul and Cat had to reframe their ultracycling brains and bodies into shorter distances. (Go to Co-Motion Tandem Stage Race story...)

After putting themselves into last place, lacking time trial experience, Paul and Cat attacked on the last stage and took the overall win. This was one of their hardest and sweetest efforts!

In September, Cat intended to compete as a two-man team in the Furnace Creek 508. But, Cat had some unexpected incidents in her life and this affected her racing for the remainder of the year, including her plans for the 508.

The Terrible Two, one of the hardest 200 mile races in the United States. I did this one twice around back to back on June 18-19. The challenge thus consisted of 400 miles and over 32,000 feet of climbing and some very steep gradient hills. Although a few have attempted to do this, only one man has completed this ride before and he did it in 38 hours. I managed to break the record with over 11.5 hours completing the race in 26 hours and 33 minutes. I did my second lap concurrently with the official race (although non-drafting as is custom in ultracycling), and met some really neat supporters and riders along the route.

I have also raced tandem with ultracyclist and RAAM veteran Mark Patten and we started our tandem racing season with Davis 12/24 hour race in April. We managed to cover 456 miles in 24 hours and thereby set a new unofficial mixed tandem world record. In September we became State Champions in hill climbing as we attacked the 'Everest Challenge' on the tandem. On October 8th we raced in the Texas 24 hour time trials and won overall and set a new course records with 442 miles.

NOTE: The above was written before RAAM in June of 2005. Since then, Catharina has gone on to win the Race Across America, as well as be elected Ultracyclist of the Year 2005 and will be awarded this honor at the Tour de Tucscon in November 2005. Congratulations Catharina!!!!