Seven Cycles' Marilyn Ruseckas and the Art of Racing 
 by Philip Keyes

The Ride Magazine has called her a "Beast of the East," and she has the competitive zeal to make her one of New England's winningest mountain bike women, but you'd never know it from her laid back persona and her artistic outlook. An accomplished artist, Marilyn Ruseckas' pastels create a unique landscaped blend of vibrant --almost hallucinogenic-- colors that stylistically weave the textures of Georgia O'Keeffe with the intense edginess of van Gogh and Munch. As a mountain bike racer for Seven Cycles, she's on the fast track to the top of the New England racing scene, and even captured the woman's record at the Mt. Washington Hillclimb, one of the most grueling anti-gravity races in the northeast. I sat down with Marilyn over some 40 wt. Java while her partner and fellow Seven Cycles team member, Adam Whitney, played around trying to extract the teeth from my Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Here’s what she had to say:

"I really didn't do anything athletic before I started biking. I really didn't! I ran track in high school in Westboro and showed some promise there. I held the record at the school for the high jump, and ran the 880 (which is half a mile) and the long jump. But I never competed in any sport outside of high school, and I didn't know I even had it in me until I moved to Vermont. I had seen mountain bikes around and they looked like a comfortable ride I could use on dirt roads.

I had heard about this intimidating "A" ride leaving the Mad River Bike in Waitsfield (VT), and I pretty much trained all summer to be able to go down and join them. I didn't even have the nerve to do it until the fall when they were on their very last ride, and it sure was an eye-opener! There were some really good riders, like Geo Bullock who was riding for either Fat or Ted Wojcik and some really strong women. The women told me I should race but I told them that it wasn't my style, and finally Ginny Scherer insisted that I race the Three Stallions race in Randolph and made me fill out the form and write out a check. She told me that I should be racing expert, but why don't you race sport since it's your first time and you'd might as well win one;. And I did! I raced sport and I won it, so I got psyched about racing

The next race was the Wicked Witch which was also right in town. It was a four part stage race and I won the overall. The next race was at Sunday River and that was the first time that I raced against Audrey Agustin who was also racing sport. She beat me, and then we both moved up to expert after that.

My strongest point is climbing. Just put me on a pure climb and I can beat most people--men and women. It's just something that comes naturally. So when I heard about the Mt. Washington Hillclimb, I thought to myself, "that's the race for me." I've done it now for two years, and I broke the record my first year which had stood for 14 years using my mountain bike, but I broke it by just three seconds. Next year I decided that I should race it on a road bike like everybody else, so Seven Cycles gave me a steel road frame for that event and Wound Up sponsored the carbon fiber fork. I rode straight Shimano Dura-Ace, but with XTR cranks for the low gearing you need at the last pitch. My time was 1:11 and 38 seconds and I came in first for the women and 25th overall out of about 400 racers. I beat my previous record by three minutes!

Last season was great. I was excited to win the New England Championship Series because it was 3-2-1 for me. I came in third in '95, second in '96 and won it this last year! That was my goal so I was pretty happy. It was also a great year for me with the Mt. Washington win, the win in the New England series and a second in the Trails 66 Series (with Audrey coming in first). This coming year, I'm a year older and I've moved down to a little flatter terrain here in Massachusetts, and I'm curious to see what the changes are. I'm still training hard but on different terrain, so think I might be better technically than I have been in the past. The Seven handles tight stuff really well and I'm learning to ride faster through twisty singletrack and take the downhills better. We'll see what happens and I hope to have good season, but however it turns out, riding the Seven is a lot of fun."

To learn more about Marilyn's art, check out her website.