‘As Fast as I Can’

The Fellowship  |  May 4, 2018

Woman riding a bike on sand mountains.
As Fast as I Can'

Israelis are a tough people, making the desert bloom, facing threats on every border, and playing as hard as they work. One such Israeli is Noga Korem, who our friend Abigail Klein Leichman at ISRAEL21c writes, is the only woman in an exciting world of off-road biking:

Two broken ribs would send most of us to an easy chair, wincing in pain. Extreme biker Noga Korem from Israel isn’t like most of us. Speaking to ISRAEL21c from Chile just before the Enduro World Series (EWS) first race of the season in March, she acknowledged that the bones cracked in training hurt – but so what?

“That’s just part of the game; you get injured and make the best of it,” said Korem, 26, who never considered pulling out of the grueling two-day ride through the high Andes.

Korem was crowned Breakout EWS Rider of the Year in 2017, having snagged top-10 finishes in several races despite being a “privateer,” meaning she rode solo with financial support from a few corporate sponsors, handling every detail herself from booking flights to fixing bikes.

All that changed in 2018 when she was appointed the only woman member of GT Factory Racing’s Enduro team, joining Wyn Masters (New Zealand), Martin Maes (Belgium), George Brannigan (New Zealand) and Joey Foresta (USA).

They have a manager, mechanic, trainer, chef and physical therapist (handy for those broken ribs) accompanying them on tour, and they get to test the newest GT models.

“I just need to ride as fast as I can and they take care of the rest,” says Korem, the only Israeli woman ever named to a factory team…

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