Rusch crushes her former time and sets a course record to retain her reign as women’s champ

Leadville, CO – August 14, 2010 – Rebecca Rusch, the 2009 Leadville Trail 100 Women’s Champ and three-time 24 Hour Solo Mountain Biking World Champion, has scored another high-profile victory – taking top female honors at the 2010 Life Time Fitness Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race for the second year in a row. Finishing the grueling 100-mile race with a time of 7:47:35, Rusch beat her 2009 time by almost 30 minutes, and broke the course record set in 1997 by 11 minutes.

After a chilly early morning start, Rusch says the blue bird skies and temperatures in the high 60s to low 70s were a stark change over last year’s freezing conditions.

She spent most of the first half of the race trying to shake second place finisher Amanda Carey.  Rusch finally gained a sizeable gap at the Columbine climb.

“I just said it’s now or never,” said Rusch.  “I just knew it had to happen then.  And I just put the screws to her and it worked.”

Rusch battled through leg cramps during the last stretch of the race to cross the finish line 25 minutes before Carey and an hour before the 3^rd & 4^th place female finishers.

“Another win at Leadville is a huge. This race is just unreal,” said Rusch. “I’ve been training with this being my main goal all year. Still, I surprised myself.  I wanted the course record, but I didn’t expect to beat it by 11 minutes. This was the most painful day I had on a bike, but it was worth it.”

The Life Time Fitness Leadville Trail 100 is one of the most high-profile mountain bike races in the sport, as well as one of the most punishing, with steep climbs and harrowing descents totaling approximately 14,000 feet in elevation gain.  This year the race had more than 1,500 riders from 48 states and 21 countries.  The race covers 100 miles of peaks and valleys all above 9,000 feet in elevation in Leadville, CO.  It draws some of the top names in the sport, and at least 20,000 spectators.  The race is an out-and-back course; 50 miles to the highest point on the course, the Columbine Mine Aid Station at 12,600’.  90-percent of the race is on back-country dirt roads, with some short sections of paved road.

Since becoming a pro adventure racer and endurance athlete  in 2001, Rebecca Rusch, residing in Ketchum, ID, has proven to the world she has what it takes to execute any of the above even after going beyond her limits in far flung places like Kyrgyzstan and Tibet. She added 24 Hour Solo Mountain Bike racing to her résumé five years ago and proceeded to dominate the sport.  She is currently the three-time 24 hr Solo World Champion, two-time Leadville Trail 100 Champion. Rusch’s blog about her adventures and training can be found at www.rebeccarusch.com. www.twitter.com/thequeenofpain

I really liked his “Performance” video. This one is equally good. As cyclists, we ought to not take ourselves too seriously. This certainly helps in that regard…

A small crash in the mud at Champéry, Switzerland has left Maxxis-Rocky Mountain team rider Cameron Cole, 22,with a broken scaphoid in his right hand, derailing his UCI World Cup downhill campaign for 2010. But the laconic Kiwi says there is a chance he could be back in time for the World Championships, which will be held at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec at the end of August.

Follow Cam Cole at: www.cameroncole.blogspot.com

After being crowned French Downhill Champion last weekend, Sabrina Jonnier, resumed her World Cup season with a second to Emmeline Ragot in wet, trying conditions at Champéry, Switzerland on Saturday.

The current UCI World Cup downhill 

The muddy conditions made the track very challenging and forced Jonnier to change her strategy.

“It was so hard to race today – it rained all Friday, Friday night and until 10am on Saturday. It was really steep with big mud and it was really tough,” the Maxxis-Rocky Mountain rider explains.

“I decided to stay on my bike – once you crash on this track it’s pretty much over. If you get mud on your gloves you won’t be able to hold onto the bars anymore and if you lose your bike at the wrong place it can disappear into the bush – there would be no way to get back to where you should start from – it’s so steep in places. So I decided to go for a safe run – I went really slow – it was not fun at all. I would even say it was the worse run of my life.”

Jonnier finished in a time of 5:32.12 – 4.87 seconds behind current Downhill World Champion Emmeline Ragot, but second was enough for her to be able to extend her lead in the series.

“My qualifier went okay – I just tried to stay on my bike and I got second, but I was pretty far back behind Myriam Nicole – she had an amazing qualifier. I was a bit pissed off, but it was good to get some points for the overall.”

Jonnier crashed on a run on Saturday and hit her leg on “the one rock on the ground” so was glad the course did not have too much pedalling in it.

“I had a dead leg for a few days, so I couldn’t really pedal,” she laughs.

Taking the safe option in the final is out of character for Jonnier, but she admits the series win is on her mind.

“It is frustrating to go for a safe run and not try to go faster in the mud,” Jonnier offers.

Ragot, the current World Champion, became only the second rider (after Rachel Atherton won the opening round) to knock Jonnier from the top spot so far this World Cup season.

“I guess she had nothing to lose. She just went wild and she put everything together and it was good enough to be the fastest today. At the first split she was about 10 seconds ahead of me, but I must have made less mistakes after that point,” Jonnier explains.

“It was hard to stay on – I didn’t have any crashes today, but I had a few moments,” she laughs.

Jonnier said the team at Champéry had worked very hard to prepare an awesome track.

“At Thursday’s practice it was dry and it was fast and a lot of fun, it is a shame the rain came. Hopefully it will be dry for next year’s World Championships as it will be awesome to watch – it can be a real fast track,” she states.

Champéry is the first World Cup round that also features cross-country racing and so the Maxxis-Rocky Mountain team swells in size.

“Since the start of the season it had just been Cam [Cole] and I, and now we have the full team together. I will be up there tomorrow to support the cross-country riders.”

Jonnier was not sure how her rival Rachel Atherton, of Great Britain, was recovering, but expected to meet with her again at the final World Cup round at Windham, USA and then the World Championships at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada.

“Hopefully she recovers well – I am sure she will be back and even stronger again,” she offers.

The World Cup DH1 season moves to Val di Sole, Italy on Sunday, August 1 and Jonnier jokes that people are already talking about more rain.

Sabrina’s 2010 Race Schedule

2010 UCI World Cup DH1 Events (6)
May 15/16: Maribor, Slovenia [Second]
June 05/06: Fort Wiliam, Scotland [First]
June 19/20: Leogang, Austria [First]
July 24/25: Champéry, Switzerland [Second]
July 31/August 1: Val di Sole, Italy
August 28/29: Windham, USA

2010 Enduro de Nations
June 25-27: Val d’Allos, France [First Women]

2010 Mega Avalanche
July 10-11: Alpe d’Huez, France [Eighth]

2010 UCI World Championships
August 31-September 05: Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada

I met Sabrina at Interbike one year, and she’s as polite and gracious as she is competitive. So I wasn’t at all surprised when this press release showed up in my inbox:

After two years of derailed national championship campaigns, Downhill World Cup Champion Sabrina Jonnier regained the French title on a dusty course at Val d’Isère, France, at the weekend. The current UCI World Cup downhill women’s leader, Sabrina Jonnier, of Hyères, France, said it was not an easy task on the dusty, rocky and changeable course.

“It felt more like a small World Cup race with five of the top girls from the World Cups competing for the title,” she said.

Jonnier, of the Maxxis-Rocky Mountain team, won the title with a time of 3:12 – Florian Pugin finished second with a time of 3:14 and World Champion Emmeline Ragot took third.

Also vying for the title was defending French champion Céline Gros and Myriam Nicole.

“I am very happy because this wasn’t my kind of track and I had to work very hard. It wasn’t technically challenging, but the track kept changing with the dust and the rocks were coming up and every run was different,” she explains.

The track featured high-speed sections that terminated in flat square turns, which Jonnier found difficult to hold speed through.

“I had a terrible qualifier as usual,” she explains. “I don’t know what is wrong with me – I messed it up. I qualified third and was three seconds behind Florian Pugin, so I was pissed off,” she laughs.

When asked whether qualifying first was better or not strategically, Jonnier laughed and said she didn’t like waiting at the top or the bottom of the hill.

While Jonnier took some time to find her speed on the track at Val d’Isère, it came together for her race run, despite strong sidewind conditons in the jumps at the top of the course.

“I could finally find some speed, but it was still not the way I normally ride. I was missing something – I wasn’t feeling comfy on the track. I was very worried at the finish because I had done a 3:12 and I wanted to do a 3:08 – that was the time that I thought would be the winning time. So when I crossed the line and saw my time I thought it would be hard to win. I knew the two girls behind me were pretty fast as well,” she smiles.

The French National Championship title has been an elusive one for Jonnier even though she has been performing well in World Cups and World Championships.

“I won the national championship in 2007, but in 2008 and 2009 I didn’t do very well, so I really wanted to win it this year – if you are one of the best at the World Cups then you should be at the top of the national champs as well,” she explains.

“It was a challenge to myself. It’s weird because I get tuned into the World Cups and then when I come to a race like this I don’t have my team with me and I am more relaxed and maybe a bit too much,” she laughs.

“I am very happy to win this race – last night I had to put my cat, Spy, down because he was sick. It was very sad – he was eight years old and so I wasn’t really focused much last night or this morning and so an hour before the start I said, ‘right I am going to get it all out and just go out and forget about everyting and have some fun on my bike’.”

Even with the work that has been done on the Champèry track in Switzerland for next weekend’s World Cup round, Jonnier anticipates the toughest race of the season.

“Champery is definitely going to be one of the hardest races of the season,” she admits.

Jonnier’s mid-season break has been far from restful, but she says she feels it will bode well for Champèry.

“I have done some fun races and it was good to put my mind on something else. Last year I focused on the World Championship for six months and then got a front flat and crashed in the final so after that I decided just to ride my bike for fun whenever I could. The Mega Avalanche definitely made me very tired and I can still feel the affects, but it was a lot of fun so it’s okay.”

But there is not much rest for Jonnier before Champèry.

“I leave at 5am on Monday morning to go on a photo shoot for Bollé and then I get a day and a half rest before the race,” she smiles.

The World Cup season resumes at Champèry, Switzerland on Saturday, July 24.

Sabrina’s 2010 Race Schedule

2010 UCI World Cup DH1 Events (6)
May 15/16: Maribor, Slovenia [Second]
June 05/06: Fort Wiliam, Scotland [First]
June 19/20: Leogang, Austria [First]
July 24/25: Champéry, Switzerland
July 31/August 1: Val di Sole, Italy
August 28/29: Windham, USA

2010 Enduro de Nations
June 25-27: Val d’Allos, France [First Women]

2010 Mega Avalanche
July 10-11: Alpe d’Huez, France [Eighth]

2010 UCI World Championships
August 31-September 05: Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada