Rusch Claims 24 Hour MTB World Title

10.09.2007

Rebecca Rusch (Specialized, Red Bull) won the 24 Hours of Adrenalin World Solo MTB Championship in Monterey, California. Rusch finished 2nd last year and 2nd at this year's USA Cycling 24 Hour MTB Nationals, and was determined to finish at the top of the standings this year.

Rusch is an accomplish world class adventure racer who raced with Team Montrail for many years, has won the Raid Gauloises, and was on Team Bjurfors at this yearâ€™s World Championships, who were one of only 5 teams to complete the full course. She only joined the professional solo mountain biking arena two years ago, and now has a US title (2006) and a World title (2007) to her credit.

The conditions at the Laguna Seca course were brutal with temperatures nearing an unseasonable 100 degrees during the daylight hours on Saturday. The course itself was equally oppressive and demanding. Each lap had 13.7 miles with 2,500 feet of climbing and the added treat of a flight of wooden stairs to both descend and ascend.

Rebecca described it as follows. "The course had a bit of everything including super high-speed down-hills, twisty single track, sand pits, stairs and of course, LOTS of up-hills. My bike odometer clocked speeds as fast as 41 mph on a down-hill and as slow as 3 mph on some of the up-hills. The only bit of flat trail was coming through the transition pits."

Rebecca's race strategy was to be conservative for the first 6 hours in respect of the course and the heat, and then to hit it hard during the night to take advantage of the cooler temperatures and the darkness.

The strategy paid off. Rebecca and Lynda Wallenfels swapped the lead for 4 1/2 laps, then after lap 5, Rebecca put some distance on Lynda during the climbs and finished 5 minutes ahead of her. It was heading into the night, so she kept the pressure on and kept lengthening her lead with faster riding times and faster pit times and by daybreak she had lapped 2nd place ... and in the final 6 hours lapped her again!

The final results were:

1st - REBECCA RUSCH, 16 laps in 23:13
2nd - Lynda Wallenfels, 14 laps in 23:18
3rd - Sally Marchand-Collins, 12 laps in 23:00