Fastest Woman // Jana Kesenheimer (001)
August 9, 2025
Words by Jake Thorpe
Photos by Matt Grayson, Sam Dugon, Tom Gibbs, and Tomás Montes
-8.jpg)
A Virtuoso
She has done it again. Jana Kesenheimer (001) has defended her title: the fastest woman to cross the continent. Arguably more impressively, however, Jana has just become the second woman in TCR history to break into the race’s coveted top 10.
Aristotle talks of virtue as acting "at the right time, in the right way, for the right reason." On that basis, Jana has ridden an immensely virtuous race. Competing amidst such a strong field of riders while preserving one’s own racing rhythm is a tall order. But Jana has done just that; refusing to make reactive decisions, to be bent out of shape by the strategies of those around her. Instead, she has maintained a proactive and sustainable tempo, prioritising sleep, minimising unnecessary risk, and relishing, all the while, the full tapestry of experience on offer during a race across a continent.
The Art of Divination
Maintaining that rhythm becomes all the more difficult when, after a week spent earning a lead over your competitors, the playing field is levelled, the start line is redrawn, and the race begins anew. But despite the Balkan rebalancing, Jana kept a strong head and a calm mind. Her composure seemed to spring from a commitment to controlling the controllables and leaving the uncontrollables to play out as they liked – trusting herself to navigate any challenges as and when they arose. Whether ferry timetables, or inclement conditions, like Canute, she knew that some things were simply beyond her realm of influence.
But this approach was anything but passive. Recognising moments when apparent uncontrollables transmute into definite controllables is an art. Divination at its finest. It’s the very skill that guided Jana so seamlessly across the Adriatic. Spotting the opportunity to check into her cabin 5 hours before departure, she maximised the crossing’s rest. Asking the crew for the quickest way to disembark, she touched down on Albanian soil half an hour ahead of her fellow passengers. Either could have made the difference in her race.
.jpg)
Too Many Chefs
Jana knew the ingredients of her winning recipe, and didn’t let anyone step in to spoil the broth. Like the leader of the men’s field, Victor Bosoni (232) – a heart-level rider who made good use of his head – she knew this recipe relied on more than one of her faculties. A supremely organised racer, Jana didn’t fall into the trap of relying exclusively on her head. Her heart, too, played its part.
In her routing choices, the emotional held sway alongside the statistical. On Jana’s approach to the Alps, for instance, she chose a route that skirted the base of Mont Ventoux, a mountain she’d last climbed during the 3 Peaks Bike Race, 5 years earlier. This had been her inaugural ultra, the race that had catapulted the young German rider into the spotlight. Returning this year, Jana had witnessed her transition laid bare – from ultra-cycling novice struggling to change a flat tyre beneath the Beast of Provence, to seasoned expert, leading the women’s field in the definitive self-supported bike race across Europe.
It is a transition in which we at Lost Dot feel honoured to have been involved. We can’t wait to see what the next 5 years bring for Jana, or, perhaps more interestingly, what she manages to bring out of herself in the process.
Opening the Floodgates
But racing, for Jana, goes far beyond her own performance. In her short tenure as one of ultra-cycling’s leading riders, she has opened the floodgates for a new generation of women to enter the sport. It’s quite possible that, for a good number of the 100 TCR Women this year, Jana is the very reason that they ended up on Santiago’s start line. She is helping to build the future of ultra; one where anyone with access to a bike and the ambition, passion, and time to train, can feel confident enough to put themselves on the start line of a beautifully hard bike race.
