Amateur cyclist rides a staggering 55,555km in one year 

Kateřina Rusá's previous record for distance covered in a year was 50,505km

For many amateur cyclists, the sign of a good year of riding might be a total of 5,000km, or 10,000km if you’re really serious. But that’s nothing for Czech cyclist Kateřina Rusá, who rode a staggering 55,555km in 2024, according to Strava. 

The endurance athlete broke her previous record from 2023 of 50,505km by cycling for an average of 6 hours and 39 minutes and covering over 150km per day. This was completed while Rusá worked full-time as an editor at an online magazine. 

Rusá is also said to have cycled every day without interruption since March 2016, clocking up 3,238 consecutive days in the saddle – and counting. 

As you might imagine from someone who works full-time, Rusá is said to cover the greatest distances at the weekend. Her personal record for one ride is 675km.

While she has been cycling every day for close to a decade, Rusá began cycling 14 years ago. Rusá got into cycling after suffering from knee pain when playing competitive volleyball. 

Born in 1984, Rusá holds a degree in economics and is a three-time Czech champion in Scrabble. 

Now she is an ambassador for Czech cycling brand Festka and she currently rides the brand’s Spectre road bike. Billed as an all-round race bike, Festka says the Spectre is the stiffest bike in its line-up, which might come as a surprising choice, especially when ultra-endurance athletes tend to pick more forgiving

However, the bike choice doesn’t seem to have stopped Rusá from clocking up the miles and covering a distance approximately 15,000km greater than the world’s circumference.

It’s also a distance significantly greater than that covered by ultra-endurance athletes. On Lael Wilcox’s round-the-world record last year, the American covered 29,169km, albeit in 108 days. 

The distance is also greater than professional cyclists cover. Jiří Ježek, a former Czech professional cyclist and six-time Paralympic champion, says: “For me, those are respectable numbers. During my racing career, the most kilometres I've ridden was in 2013, just over 38,000 kilometres, so I can estimate how much time and effort Kateřina must devote to cycling”. 

The gap between men and women is closing over ultra-distance racing, with some attributing this to women’s physiological attributes or mental fortitude. 

Explaining her own approach to cycling, Rusá says: “I have it so set in my life that I don't even think about whether I'm going to ride a bike. I just know I'm going to go, and I just choose the right machine and clothes based on the view out the window and the radar.”

And while setting ambitions can be a valuable training tactic, Rusá avoids making any firm commitments. 

“I don't set specific goals at the beginning of the year as a rule, I never know what the new year will bring. Of course, somewhere in my subconscious there is a desire to surpass the previous years, but it's not my style to say in January that I'm going to do 60,000 kilometres this year,” she says. 

“I usually don't pick a nice number I want to hit at the end of the year until November or so. And so, this year the choice fell on 55,555.”

Rusá faced tough conditions towards the end of the year and became focused solely on hitting her goal. “In the last two weeks I ‘needed’ to cover a little over 2,500 kilometres, which would have been no problem in good weather. 

“But the freezing fogs didn't give me much motivation and practically forced me to ride only within Prague, so I wouldn't get flattened anywhere. I admit that in those days I really cared about mileage. It was about pushing my limits to a nice number.” 

And while setting ambitions can be a valuable training tactic, Rusá avoids making any firm commitments. 

“I don't set specific goals at the beginning of the year as a rule, I never know what the new year will bring. Of course, somewhere in my subconscious there is a desire to surpass the previous years, but it's not my style to say in January that I'm going to do 60,000 kilometres this year,” she says. 

“I usually don't pick a nice number I want to hit at the end of the year until November or so. And so, this year the choice fell on 55,555.”

Rusá faced tough conditions towards the end of the year and became focused solely on hitting her goal. “In the last two weeks I ‘needed’ to cover a little over 2,500 kilometres, which would have been no problem in good weather. 

“But the freezing fogs didn't give me much motivation and practically forced me to ride only within Prague, so I wouldn't get flattened anywhere. I admit that in those days I really cared about mileage. It was about pushing my limits to a nice number.”