Ultra endurance sport seems to be popular than ever: ultra-marathons now have entry ballots, ultracycling events have seen a rise in applications, and, with stories like Lael Wilcox taking the around-the-world record, the scene is burgeoning.
One of the riders at the forefront of this growth is German cyclist Jana Kesenheimer. She eats mountains for breakfast, heading out on sunrise training rides from her home in Innsbruck.
This summer Kesenheimer came 13th overall in the Transcontinental Race (TCR) and was the first woman to finish, beating a packed field of riders. Traversing the European continent from Roubaix to Istanbul wasn’t without its challenges, the charger on her dynamo broke and her finish line sprint was marred by a cat jumping out and throwing her off her bike. Still, Kesenheimer finished in 11 days, three hours and 57 minutes, becoming the fourth woman in TCR history to place within the top 20.
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Becoming a cyclist
Having been cycling seriously for just six years, 30-year-old Kesenheimer’s ability to ride for hours on end appears to come from an appetite for the extreme.
‘I’m kind of an extreme person, everything I want to do, I want to do it with 100% determination,’ she says. ‘I think this is something that a lot of cyclists in this ultra scene have in common.’
Growing up in the Black Forest in the southwest of Germany, Kesenheimer spent her family holidays cycling, but it wasn’t until later on that she discovered she had a talent for it.
‘My family was really cycling enthusiastic from the beginning, I grew up seeing the men pros racing on television every year, because my granddad and my father were really into cycling. I think I grew up with this kind of habit to do endurance sports as our family took us to rather extended bike trips when my brother and I were children. But when I was a teenager I found it rather boring what my parents did, so instead of cycling I started running and I finished my first road marathon by the age of 18.’
Kesenheimer then found herself trying triathlon, and after renting a road bike from her dad’s friend, she was hooked.
‘Just two days before the triathlon I started to learn how to click in the pedals, how to brake and how to shift. I realised that it’s something for me and I finished the triathlon on the podium, which was really cool because it was my first one.’
She then moved to Austria and joined a local triathlon club.
‘After a few years, I realised that I was better when the races were long, and it’s fun when you’re good at something, so I entered longer and longer races, and then at some point just focussed on cycling only. My dad afterwards was like, “I always told you this.”‘
In it for the long haul
It hasn't always been easy, Kesenheimer broke her jaw during the Ötztaler Radmarathon, a 227km sportive with 5,500m of elevation, however it turned out to be a revelation.
'The first feeling I had when lying on the road was that I felt relieved,' she says. 'I realised that I still wanted to cycle but in way that was fun for me, without the pressure. So in the hospital I ordered a new bike and focussed on what was the best thing on a bike I ever did, which was a long-distance bike trip with a friend from Germany to Portugal. I decided I wanted to do more long distance rides, and then I stumbled across the TCR.'
There's no escaping Kesenheimer is charming and personable – she's funny, expresses her emotions and doesn't shy away from showing the true realities of ultracycling, which is why there have been several films documenting her ultracycling experiences.
Her first ultra race in 2021, the Three Peaks Bike Race, was the subject of the documentary Three Peaks and In Between. Since then, cameras have kept coming back – German public service broadcaster ZDF even commissioned a film about her TCR, Das verrückteste Radrennen der Welt– but it's not necessarily what Kesenheimer wants.
'Combining racing and sharing the story is cool and I'm really happy about the documentary we did this year about TCR, but it is an extra task, and in the TCR it was more of a burden,' she says. 'Filming yourself every day and the additional stress on your devices being charged – it just doesn't fit with racing hard and competing.
'It's great if you want to focus on sharing a story but I think I don't want to do it again because I think it holds me back. In the TCR I could have gone faster, so my racing focus is what I want to improve next year.'
The camera isn't the only thing she says slows her down. Ultracycling is dominated by men. In this year's TCR women accounted for a mere 12.3% of riders on the start line. Kesenheimer thinks this affects her motivation and competitive spirit.
'If the women field was more packed, if there were more women to catch or really close to me, it would help me keep that race focus more. I try to race everyone who is around me but I hope that the women's field will be packed next year".
TCR organiser, Lost Dot, has just launched a campaign to encourage more women to participate in the race next year, under the banner #100TCRWomen.
'We see more and more women on bikes on the roads, which is really cool, but still there seems to be some kind of obstacle for them to register for ultra-distance races,' says Kesenheimer. 'I think I would have been ready to race TCR two years ago already, but I felt I wasn't ready. Maybe this is something that applies to a lot of women out there, they are underestimating themselves and waiting for the right time.'
It's all about the journey
In ultracycling races, there isn't a podium or a bottle of champagne to spray. A congratulatory handshake and hug is more likely, and it's this relaxed environment that Kesenheimer enjoys.
'Personally, I love that because I think finishing is not about this very moment when we arrive at the finish line, finishing for me is the whole journey. It's not about the moment you arrive, it's more about the problems you solve every day, how you organise yourself every day, the progress you're making every day. This feels like finishing to me.
'I think about finishing a lot when doing the race and then when it happens I mostly feel relieved. But it's not that this point of finishing should not be the main motivation in these races, because it's such a small amount of time during this whole multi-day race. It would be really sad to just celebrate this really short period of actually finishing.'
Changing focus
During the TCRNo10 this year Kesenheimer spent over 267 hours riding, which is a lot of thinking time.
'People are always assuming that one has a lot of brilliant ideas on the bike and that one does have a lot of time to think about everything,' she says. 'But actually, I'm mainly thinking about where I can get food and what I need to buy, and it tends to make me more efficient.
'For example, I plan to stop to buy food once or maximum twice a day and I prepare for these stops long hours in advance. I try to think of what I want, what do I need, how can I combine different salty and sweet things, and then when I actually stop to buy something it's focussed.
'Organising myself, even if it's about food, water or sleeping or whatever, is what I'm focussing on when racing. It's not brilliant ideas, it's really basic but it's a nice contrast to work and everyday life, and I think it's a cool thing.'
When Kesenheimer is not on the bike, she is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Innsbruck in the department of social psychology. She has worked alongside fellow ultracyclist Fiona Kolbinger on a study looking at swelling among ultracyclists.
'I'm working in a postdoc position, which is a step after the PhD. I'm mainly focussing on environmental psychology research, so circumstances that influence if people do pro-environmental actions in their everyday life or not. I always have some side projects that are sometimes cycling-related. It feels cool because sometimes it feels like procrastination for me, but it's still productive work.'
Looking forwards
For 2025, Kesenheimer is already signed up to next year's Transcontinental Race and will be running workshops as part of the #100TCRWomen campaign.
Finally, what's one piece of advice she would give to a fellow cyclist?
'Things pass. Sometimes it's really sad that things pass but sometimes it's a really good thing. In ultracycling races, for example, if there's some kind of pain, it will be over at some point, but also when I have stressful weeks at work, I know that it will be over. It's really simple, but it can be applied to a lot of situations. I think simple is often best.'
And simply put, Jana Kesenheimer is one to watch.
