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Rebecca Rusch Wins Fourth Leadville 100

Oct 20, 2009
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<p>Specialized Racing's Rebecca Rusch won her fourth Leadville 100 in a row on Saturday and beat her own course record. Her teammate Christoph Sauser finished second in the men's race.</p><p>
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After winning her third Leadville 100, a 104-mile mountain bike race starting and finishing in Leadville, Colorado, Rusch was thinking that she would not race it again. But she was convinced to do so, and headed back to high altitude for another go. The race starts and finishes at 10,200 ft, gets as high as 12,650 ft and climbs and descends 12,612 feet en route.</p><p>
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"I'm moved to tears at having such a good day out there," said an emotional Rusch at the finish line. "I have so much respect for all my competitors and hearing my name out there... It makes me cry!" </p><p>
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Given her experience, Rusch knew early on that she was in for a good day. "It's my fourth time here, so I know the course well. It's usually cold in the morning and I'm not known for being a fast starter, so the first climb is always a bit hard for me. I was probably in fifth early on, but I was feeling good."</p><p>
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Rusch went into the famous and decisive Columbine climb in third place. At the top, she moved into second place, but the top four women were within about two minutes of each other. </p><p>
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"It's a mountain bike race, but there are plenty of road tactics," said Rusch. "I took over the lead at mile 65 or 70, and I didn't know I was on a record pace, but I ended up feeling better than last year and had a good day."</p><p>
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While some of the men took a wrong turn and went off course, Rusch stayed on course and completed the route without deviations in 7:28:06. Her previous course record was 7:31:46. She finished ahead of Sally Bigham and Pua Mata on her Specialized S-Works Fate 29er hardtail with a full SRAM Gripshift drivetrain. A RockShox SID 29er handled front suspension duties over the rough course. She used Specialized Fast Trak Control tires (24psi in the front and 25psi in the rear) and a Specialized Oura saddle.</p><p>
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"The bike did it again. The Fate is a perfect bike for for a race like the Leadville 100," Rusch said. </p><p>
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With the course varying from flat fast fireroads to climbs with 29 percent grades, Rusch thought carefully about her gearing and chose a special set-up. "I was running 38- and 22-teeth chainrings in a double up front and an 11-34 cassette - that worked well," she said.</p><p>
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Upon winning, Rusch reflected on what makes Leadville such a special race. "It's sort of like the Tour de France for mountain biking with people lining the course and cheering. There are 2,000 racers and pros and amateurs are on course together. The level gets higher each year. There were 38 countries represented each year. I want to support that growth and more women being here."</p><p>
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Sauser wasn't quite so lucky as Rusch. The Swiss rider, who is the current marathon world champion, was among the group of lead men, when the entire group went off course. Whether this was a deliberate, sabotaging mis-direction or an innocent mistake by those along the course is still up for debate.</p><p>
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The only good thing about the situation was that all the top favorites were together in going off course, and upon realizing their error, they stopped for a brief discussion of what to do and decided their best course of action was to backtrack to the course and continue it so as to complete it - plus a little extra - in its entirety.</p><p>
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Not all of the racers decided to do this; some took shortcuts back to the course and continued racing. Meanwhile, Sauser, who raced his Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper 29er, and the other leaders not only had to catch them, but also had to catch and pass all those who'd passed them by virtue of not making a wrong turn and going off course.</p><p>
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It was a long effort, but in the end, Sauser, Alban Lakata and Jeremiah Bishop emerged as the lead trio. All hopes of a course record were dashed, but there was still a race to be won.</p><p>
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Bishop fell off the pace first, then eventually Sauser could not hang with Lakata and rode on to finish in second place at 2:27.</p><p>
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Sauser raced with Specialized Renegade Control (rear at 26.5psi) and Renegade S-Works (front at 25psi). He used a Specialized Toupe 143 saddle.</p><p>
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It was Sauser's first-ever Leadville 100 and in fact, it was also his first 100-miler mountain bike race and his longest race to date. He recently retired from the World Cup circuit and is expected to begin making more frequent appearances in endurance mountain bike races.</p>

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