Prior to the race, I took my mechanic, Jason and pit boss, Charles on a tour of the Specialized offices. We also ended up being offered the team trailer for the race and two extra crew members, Joshua and Ryan from Specialized. I have to say, I had the most decked out pit area I've ever experienced. They had music, a compressor, bike wash station, team mascots, a full kitchen and more bike tools than any shop I've ever seen. I felt like a princess. Not only were the guys dialing the bikes to perfection every lap, they were wiping my face, changing my shoes, and dressing me. They were also my brains and my motivation. Each lap, Joshua was keeping times on my laps and the closest competitors. Charles was calculating my calorie, fluid, Endurolytes and Red Bull intake. Jason and Ryan were fine tuning the bikes each lap and calculating battery times on my Light and Motion lights for the night laps. All I had to worry about was turning the pedals as fast as possible without blowing up and sticking to a smart race strategy.

Since the course was so brutally demanding and the temps. were in the mid 90's, I intended to be conservative for the first 6 hours until nightfall. I had talked about race strategy with my coach, Matthew, and we both predicted that people were going to go out to fast and end up burning out before the race was over. After a conservative first 1/4 of the race, the plan was to hit it hard during the night and take advantage of the cooler temps. and the darkness. The women's field was really competitive with multiple women who could have contended for the win and a couple unknown names. This year's national champion, Monique Sawicki was there. We had faced off 4 weeks earlier, and I finished a disappointing 2nd place to her. Veteran endurance racer and multiple La Ruta winner, Louise Kobin was present. Lynda Wallenfels was also there fresh off a win from Trans Rockies 7 day race. Australian national champion Kim MacCormack was an unknown entity. I had my work cut out for me.

As the first lap unfolded, Monique was a couple minutes ahead. Lynda was in 2nd just about 30 seconds in front of me. I planned to stay within my comfort level and hopefully keep Lynda in site.

I was doing rolling pits for the first 5 laps, so I never got off my bike and was able to just keep moving through the transition while the guys stuffed my pockets with Hammer bars and the other necessary nutrition. The fast pit times kept me right with Lynda. We both passed Monique on the 2nd lap as she seemed to be struggling in a sandy section. Lynda and I rode together swapping the lead for 4 1/2 laps. It was a comfortable pace for me, but I did not want to make a move too early. We had a great time riding together and chatting started to put a significant gap on the rest of the women's field. Lynda was riding really smart and conserving energy and drafting me on many of the windy ridge climbs. On lap #5 I decided that I wasn't comfortable having her draft me, so I put a bit of pressure on her on one of the climbs and was able to get about a 4 minute gap on her on that lap. It was heading into the night, so I kept the pressure on and kept gaining time on her with faster riding times and faster pit times. As the night rolled on and the hills felt bigger and bigger, I just tried to stay as consistent as possible. During the night, the heat and hills took their toll on a lot of the elite riders. There was a big attrition rate in this race with many super experienced racers not finishing the course or stopping early.

My strategy paid off and by daybreak, I had a lap up on Lynda. With 6 hours still left to ride and the heat starting to swell again, I just tried to be smart and stay focused on the task. As I came in off my 16th lap at 10:45 am, my crew had found out that Lynda was not going out for another lap. Since I had a big enough lead, that meant that I was able to stop racing and not have to go out for one more lap. One more lap might not sound like a big deal, but after nearly 23 hours of riding, 225 miles and nearly 40,000 ft. of climbing, the thought of one more time around that course in the heat was daunting. I was still coherent and ready to go if needed, but once I heard the magic words, "you are done" from my crew, the celebration began early! Because of the rules, I had to wait in my pit area until after 11am to officially clock my finish.

Final results: 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
For those of you who want to check out split times,
here is the link

The feeling of accomplishment definitely welled up inside as I exchanged hugs with Jason, Charles and various other friends, then rode across the finish line with wobbly legs and a huge grin on my face. I wanted to raise both hands in the air like the Tour de France guys do, but I was so tired, I was afraid I might not pull it off.

Overall, it was a picture perfect race. I couldn't have written it out any cleaner on paper. The training, the nutrition, the race strategy, the crew, my friends and sponsors all fell beautifully into place achieve this World Championship title. It took a lot of hard work to get to this point and this is a highlight of my career. I have no idea what is next on the agenda. For now, I'm going to rest and soak it all in.

Thanks to EVERYONE who helped to shape me into a WORLD CHAMPION!

Stairs (2x per lap, yes 32 times up and down these things!)

After the race, the happy Team Rusch!

Victory!