Rebecca Rusch in Australia

Suunto Athlete Rebecca Rusch was busy last week, competing in the five-day Red Centre Enduro mountain bike race across Australia's Outback where she placed 3rd!
Rebecca's been blogging about the entire race on her website, www.rebeccarusch.com.
Here is just a taste of Reba's Outback experience, and the last few days of her race.
The following is an excerpt from Rebecca 's blog -- The Ingkerreke Commercial Red Centre Enduro is in the record books and hopefully the 5 days of hard racing is stored in my legs for further use in the season. The final stage was a 45 km mass start and might have been my favorite stage of all. I was sitting in 2nd at the start of the last stage with just a one second margin over third. Given the crazy terrain and tire eating rocks, it was still anyone’s race. I felt strong on the last day, but not fast. I still rode hard and kept it in the back of my mind that a flat tire would be all it would take to change the rankings. It was one of the hottest days of the week and drank all my water and was still wanting more. Gracie, who is 1/2 my age, won the stage and moved up into 2nd overall. Jodie finished off a super solid week and held onto her first place finish. I finished 3rd and was really happy with my performance. I would have liked to have been able to drum up a bit more top end speed for some of the shorter stages, but I know it’s early season and this race is preparation for bigger goals later in the year. I was super impressed with the race organization and the level of competition in Australia. It was also really fun to see the Aussie spirit alive and well. People here just seem unbelievably happy to be riding their bikes and pushing themselves. They have a way of being super competitive, but with a smile on their face and a kind word as they pass you.

To read about all of the stages and hear Rebecca's exciting and descriptive account of the adventure, check out her blog at www.rebeccarusch.com.