Bend's Zoe Roy takes off on her bike at Mount Bachelor on her way to winning the women’s elite race of the Pole Pedal Paddle in 2019.

Zoe Roy will try to make history Saturday by becoming the first woman to win five consecutive individual Pole Pedal Paddle titles.

The Bend resident won the race each year from 2016 to 2019 before it was canceled the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roy will try to break the record held by Bend’s Suzanne King, a former Olympic cross-country skier who won the multisport race each year from 2004 to 2007.

“Oh man, I didn’t even know that,” Roy said when asked about breaking the record. “That’s exciting. That would be quite cool, actually, and Suzanne’s a good one to be up there with. I’m in good company, I feel good about that.”

Roy, 34, spent most of the past winter as a chef at a backcountry ski lodge in Canada. She said she is excited for the race to be back, but admitted that it was nice to have a break from the PPP for a couple of years. The training and logistics that go into a race of alpine skiing, nordic skiing, cycling, running and paddling are immense.

“To be honest, it was nice to not think about it for a little bit, and just focus on other stuff,” Roy said. “But it’s also great that it’s back. It’s not just me that it pulls in and becomes time-consuming, it’s also my support crew. I think I have the same people I had in 2019, so that will be fun. It’s a great group.”

The support crew helps Roy at the transitions so she can move from one stage to the next as quickly as possible.

Roy’s strengths in the PPP are the 6.2-kilometer nordic ski and the 5-mile run, because she has a background in elite nordic ski racing and distance running.

If she has a weakness in this race, it might be the 22-mile road bike ride from Mount Bachelor into Bend. But it is hard to call that a weakness, as she won the PPP by more than 11 minutes over the second-place female finisher in 2019.

“I’ve ridden my bike the least out of all of (the disciplines), so we’ll see,” Roy said.

The last stage of the race, formerly a half-mile sprint, has been increased to one mile this year along the Deschutes River in Bend’s Old Mill District.

Roy is not concerned about that.

“That part hurts anyway, no matter how long it is,” Roy said. “Even if it was only 200 meters it would hurt. And that part has the spectators, so that’s helpful. That makes it seem shorter, because the spectators make it fun. I bet people will be psyched. People are excited to get out and do stuff and be part of things again.

“Racers, support crews, volunteers, spectators … all those people. That’s the best part of the Pole Pedal Paddle.”