Ruthie Matthes was 6 when her older sister helped her learn to ride. Amelia Matthes held onto the seat, ran along and then let go.

“I’d teeter and fall,” Ruthie Matthes said during a recent interview.

But she kept trying. Finally, she got it.

“For me, two wheels meant freedom. It meant that I could go where I wanted to go.”

A bicycle, more specifically a mountain bike, has taken the Durangoan a long, long way.

It has taken her to several national titles, a world championship and a spot in the Olympics. And now, about 40 years after she first wobbled on two wheels, the Idaho native is in the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame. She was inducted along with three others during a ceremony Nov. 5 in Davis, Calif.

Matthes is the fourth Durango-based rider to enter the hall. The others – all mountain bikers – are Ned Overend (inducted in 2001), John Tomac (2004) and Juli Furtado (2005).

More than 300 attendees – a virtual who’s who of American cycling, including Overend – gathered at the University of California-Davis for the Nov. 5 dinner and fete. The evening’s other three inductees were Olympic gold medalist Marty Nothstein, a track specialist; Mike Sinyard, founder of Specialized bicycles; and the late Bobby Walthour Jr., who won several stage races from 1928 to 1940.

“It’s great to see her recognized in that group,” said Overend, whom Matthes credits for talking her into moving to Durango in 1993. “Ruthie is low-key, but she has a ton of accomplishments.”

In her allotted six minutes, Matthes thanked everyone who helped her, from mechanics to sponsors to the sport itself. And last but not least, she credited her now-84-year-old mother, Susan Matthes, whom she called to the stage along with her brother, Ernest.

“That’s where I kind of choked up,” Matthes said. “To be inducted when she’s still here is really, really special. And she was 3 feet off the ground. She was so happy.”

A bicycle can take one from tiny Ketchum, Idaho, in the shadows of Sun Valley Ski Resort, to points around the globe. But, as the story goes, Matthes was hoping skis would take her there. When she was 3 years old and saw skier Jean-Claude Killy win Olympic gold, Matthes turned to her mother and stated, “I’m going to the Olympics.”

She was a stellar alpine skier and qualified for the junior nationals but wasn’t among the elite there.

Her ski coach – Boone Lennon, who later developed the aero bar that Greg LeMond used to win the Tour de France – invited her to ride with the Ketchum-based cycling club. At her first regional road race Matthes got to the start line and saw her competition was a girl with painted toenails.

“I can dust her,” Matthes figured.

Instead, Matthes was left in the dust. She worked harder, with good results, and by age 20 had signed a contract with the Celestial Seasonings team for $5,000 a year plus expenses.

“One thing led to another,” Matthes said. “The doors just kept opening.”

In 1989, she captured a national criterium title, and in 1990 added national crowns in the road race and team time trial.

In 1990, her contract with sponsor Ritchey bicycles stipulated she compete at the World Mountain Bike Championships in Durango. With little off-road skill, she surprised herself with a bronze medal in the cross country race.

“After that, I was like, ‘Wow, I could be good at this sport.’”

Thus, Matthes entered what many call the golden age of mountain bike racing, when the sponsorship money flowed freely and many top roadies switched to off-road. Although the competition continued to improve, Matthes was still peaking.

She won at the World Championships in 1991 in Barga, Italy, and took the 1992 World Cup title. She began amassing national season titles, ultimately capturing five.

Matthes won’t call the 2000 Olympics her career highlight, but it does make her top five. After thinking she would be an Olympic skier, then an Olympic road cyclist, then barely missing out on the 1996 Olympics as a mountain biker, her reaction in 2000 was a bit more reserved. By then, she was 34, a serial globe-trotter and a veteran of several hundred competitions.

“I finally got here,” she recalled, thinking of her trip to Sydney, Australia. She placed 10th among 30 entrants in the Olympic race.

She raced one more season, 2001, in part because Durango was hosting a World Cup event. The cross country race started and ended at Fort Lewis College, and it was a special day for Matthes, not just because she placed fourth. It was the overwhelming and loud fan base around the course.

“I felt this wave of Durango support, like this tailwind that was pushing me along,” she recalled. “It’s not just me racing. It’s the whole town participating. It just happens to be me on the bike.”

Her Durango supporters take pleasure in her Hall of Fame induction.

Bicycle race promoter Ed Zink marvels at Matthes’ rare ability to combine an earthy lifestyle with a highly competitive nature. She’s quiet, considerate and kind, yet still competed successfully.

“That’s the type of person who should be in the hall,” he said. “It’s not easy to combine those.”

Matthes doesn’t race nowadays, but she rides plenty. In October, she rode 320 miles in Climate Ride California, a fundraiser for organizations supporting bicycles and a sustainable future. And she still travels to Europe and beyond as an ambassador and product developer for Magura Direct, a bicycle-component manufacturer.

Although bicycle racing and the training involved is a self-focused endeavor, a love of bicycling itself can be shared. Matthes encourages others in the joys of self-propulsion.

“Not just for competition but for transportation, for fun, for exercise, for health,” she said.

That 6-year-old’s thrill of experiencing the freedom of two wheels hasn’t yet dissipated, even on a ride to town.

“When I come down Roosa and I hit that corner, and some days I hit it really well, and some days I don’t – it’s just so much fun.”

johnp@durangoherald.com John Peel writes a weekly human-interest column.