Rachel's perfect season... in her own words.

“New season, new bike. I really gelled with the Session from the off but to say it was an easy transition makes too little of it. We spent so much time getting the bike right before the season started and the guys at the Trek Race Shop were amazing at listening to our feedback. I’d never had a clean sweep of wins so it was a massive goal for me. Lourdes is the only place where I was beaten in 2015 and Tahnee went so fast in qualifying… I was so nervous.”

“Cairns is so physical! I heard the commentator say 7.5 seconds down and I was really disappointed. I’d felt like I had a good run, I panicked! I’m so glad I got that wrong!! I was ecstatic to win but also somewhat upset for Tracey Hannah, she rode an awesome race and I know how emotional it is to win on your home turf…”

“Which brings us to MY home turf! Fort William was my nemesis for so long – I just couldn’t win here! Six 2nd places out of 7 starts, right up ’till 2013. Then in 2014 I was DSQ!! I won in 2015 though! I get so nervous riding at Fort William, the track is so gnarly. I try to say to myself “if you have done it in the past, then you can do it again!” And I take things slowly – I look at things, try it slow, roll it, get a bit faster – and suddenly I’ll feel like I can nail it! Then when it gets to Finals… I just take my brain out!”

“People always ask which wins are most special and its impossible to say, each win feels so special in its own right. Its no big secret that Leogang isn’t my favourite World Cup track, I like the more technical tracks, but I was pretty pumped when I got 10 wins in a row at Leogang and broke Anne-Caro’s record for consecutive World Cup wins, especially because I’d been feeling the pressure …”

“Lenzerheide was awesome because it was such close racing with Tahnee just 0.7 seconds back and PomPom coming back from injury and straight into third!! What I remember most is probably the whole team working so hard to help me keep my head together!”

“I am so proud of this win, I had hurt my shoulder, Tahnee had gotten so close in Lenzerheide, By now I was definitely feeling the pressure. Times like these where you are struggling with something but you dig so deep and find so much, you go over the top! Those are special!”

Very steep, very technical, I love it!! The dusty surface made it extra scary, and by now the cumulative effect of winning and getting closer to that Perfect Season was inside my head. Every race was so nerve racking, each one I won I thought “That’s it, I won’t win the next one – something will go wrong.” When I won here it was just pure sheer relief! I cannot believe it happened!”

“Before the race I made myself say goodbye to the rainbow stripes. Val di Sole is a course I love but I wasn’t taking anything for granted. Tahnee had been getting so close, Tracey and PomPom were riding so well in the conditions… I hardly dared to think about it. Having the perfect World Cup season and winning consecutive World Champs its just totally mind-blowing; I’ve been racing World Cups for 11 years and this year all of the variables just came together.”

Rachel and the Trek Factory Racing DH team are hitting it out of the park on Instagram. Be sure to follow them!