Pua and I wanted to show everybody our new backyard. This will be our home for the next 3 weeks, the National Forest just outside of Breckenridge, Colorado.

We are at 9,800′ elevation and the Colorado trail runs right through our campsite! MTB heaven.

Love you all, wish you were here!

The 4th race in the USA cycling Pro-XCT was really dramatic for all!

Pua had a bad, bad start with a mechanical at the start (my bad, call you soon Matt), I will find out what I missed but on the gun her gearing skipped all over and she found herself in about 30th place going into single track.

She moved (some how) through the crowd and made her way into 7th after the first 20 some minute lap. This was crazy but great after having some more issue with shifting and her shoe coming off.

The race was to originally be 4 laps but it was cut to only 3, bad news for us on this day. Pua ended up in a sprint to the line for the final podium spot with Lea Davison (Maxxis/ Rocky Mountain), missing the 5th spot by 8 tenths of a second!

The good thing for us and bad for some of the other top riders was Pua was not the only one to have a bad race. Heather Irmiger suffered two flats and on the second her mechanic had such a hard time replacing the wheel that she lost 2 places! We are not sure what happened with Kelli Emmet but she is usually top 5 and ended up 12th.

Pua is now be ranked 3rd in the Pro-XCT and now is tied for 1st in the overall calender with Catherine Pendral (Luna)!

Pua also did the short track and we believe with a 7th place finish has moved into 6th in those standings.
Crazy!

We will have all this down before the XC Nationals in Granby, CO. Next 3 weeks in Breckenridge getting ready for the Marathon National Championships.

Race results:
# 1. Catharine Pendrel (Can),
# 2. Katie Compton (USA), At 0.372
# 3. Katerina Nash (Cze), At 02:58.3
# 4. Georgia Gould (USA), At 03:59.3
# 5. Lea Davison (USA), At 04:48.0
# 6. Pua Sawicki (USA), At 04:48.8
# 7. Heather Irmiger (USA), At 06:20.6
# 8. Judy Freeman (USA), At 06:40.2
# 9. Heather Holmes (USA), At 06:54.7
# 10. Zephanie Blasi (USA), At 06:55.0

Guinness Book of World Records has agreed to recognize this years 24 hour Solo National Championship Male & Female winners for the first ever record for “Most miles ridden in 24 hours on a Mountain Bike”!

The race will be at the 24 hours of Moab, on October 10-11th.

After many back and for emails with Guinness they agreed to recognize the Nationals because it is a sanctioned USA cycling race. They wanted a UCI governing body to recognize the event and thus guarantee it’s legitimacy.

Of course Pua will be there and will be attempting to set the first ever record for Females. Pua’s current personal best was set at her first 24 solo race in 2004 when she won her first National 24 title. She road 281.2 miles and has since won the National title 3 out of the last 4 years.

We are very excited about this and we hope this will bring more attention to 24 hour Mountain Bike racing and mountain biking in general.

Mud, Mud, Mud!
Tennessee has been hit by day after day of rain for the last 3 weeks, this left the ground saturated. 5 minutes before race start the rain kicked back in. Jeremiah Bishop and Pua took early leads in the male and female solo divisions. By the end of the first lap Jeremiah was up 3 minutes on Josh Tostado and Pua was up around 8 minutes over Rebecca Rusch. Pua was focused and the steady rain kept the mud from gathering on the bike, at least for a little longer.

A little over halfway through the second lap, things began to change, the rain stopped and the mud climbed onto the bikes. Pua’s lead was still growing but her mood was not getting better.
We stopped for a super long pit after the second lap too wash the hard-tail, she took off still in the lead, I headed out to the first check point passing by many, many riders who were done. When I passed Josh Tostado with a broken derailleur he told me it was not worth the risk to bike or himself. I began to think about that and by the time I climbed the hill to the first CP I made up my mind to pull her out, I could not have her push a bike around 9 miles of mud and risk injury not to mention destroying the bike. The bikes would collect so much mud that they were weighing in for many at around 100 lbs+.

I pulled her aside and convinced her to stop. At that point the lap times had grown to 3-4 hours for the pro riders/pushers.

Pua did walk away with the fastest female lap on the one rideable lap so that was a bit of a bonus. Next is the Bump & Grind in Pelham, Alabama.

This Saturday was the Spring Challenge in Idyllwild, CA. The course is 30 miles with 4,305 ft of elevation gain with some of the best single track anywhere in the US.
The pro men went off first followed 2 minutes later by a large group of open men and then 2 minutes to the pro women. Pua took the lead immediately catching the open men within minutes. Inside of the first hour she had worked her way through the open field into the top 15 pro men and already had a 7 minute gap on the closest female competitor. She rode strong, battling with the guys and ended up 11th in the pro men and winning the pro women’s race by 22 minutes. Next is the 12 hours of Dirt Sweat & Gears in Tennessee.

Pua Sawicki (Ellsworth) 2:40:47
Alison Mann (Sho-Air/Specialized) 3:02:47
Sarah Kaufmen (Roaring Mouse) 3:04:55

Pua woke up on Sunday ready for the race, excited and focused. We received a call early from one of our Kieki team rider’s father (Pual Capinas), he told us the temperature at the event was 90 and climbing and the race organizers were thinking of shortening the race due to the heat. By the time we arrived at the venue it was confirmed and while Pua love’s distance she was fine with just going for it, on what would turn out to be a very hot, short, one lap race.

The women’s race had 51 racers, not huge in numbers but stacked with some of the best racers in the US and World Cup scene. Pua soon made her way to the front of the group on the initial pavement start, trying to make sure she wasn’t caught up in any unnecessary group crash when the wheel bumping began. At the first dirt climb the leaders took off and Pua had to step off her bike when a rider in front of her made a mistake in one of the dips. This allowed many riders to pass, she found herself heading into the first single track off the front and in the mid twenties for position.

Sticking to the game and attacking on the hills, Pua made her way back into the top 10. On the final climb out her and Willow Koerber (Subaru Gary Fisher) battled and worked together to move up to what would be the final spot on the podium for Koerber with Pua chasing her only 6 seconds back.

Pua said she loved the race, felt strong and she knows what she needs to do next time to stay at the front instead of having to work her way back into contention.

Next race:
12 hours of Dirt Sweat and Gears in Fayetteville Tennessee, this is a great event and we look forward to seeing all our southern friends!

Sea Otter TOP 10
1 Georgia Gould (USA) Luna Pro Team 1.22.45
2 Lene Byberg (Nor) Specialized Factory 1.07
3 Catharine Pendrel (Can) The Luna Chix 1.14
4 Kelli Emmett (USA) Giant 3.58
5 Willow Koerber (USA) Subaru Gary Fisher 4.09
6 Pua Sawicki (USA) Ellsworth 4.15
7 Katerina Nash (USA) Luna Pro Team 5.22
8 Heather Irmiger (USA) Subaru Gary Fisher 6.17
9 Jenna Rinehart (USA) Specialized 7.02
10 Lorenza Morfin (Mex) 7.37

Pua raced the Sage Brush Safari which is the 3rd stop in the West Cup. Here goal was to get back into her standard pre-race regiment to see if her legs would come back. They did!
At the start Natasha Hernday (Amgen) made an attack off the line but Pua quickly moved up front and the train of women racers let her pull them up the miles of initial rolling pavement climb to the back of the pro-male field. At that point the course gets steep, so Pua decided to put the hammer down, stand up and attack the climb.

After attacking and moving well into the pro male field she looked back and no female competitors were in sight. A few minutes later she reached the top of the first climb with a 60 second gap over Alison Mann (IE Bikes) in second followed by a tight chase group.

From that point on Pua was racing with the men. At the first feed less than 40 minutes later she had a 4 minute gap over second and headed up the final ascent to the top of Los Pinos, passing about 10 pro men on the way up.

In the end heading to the finish, Pua found herself in a back and forth battle with one of the men, he did not want her to pass so he went as far as elbowing her and cutting her off as they made their way to the finish line, she let him slide in just in front of her.

Pua said it felt great for her her to feel the power back in her legs and she is really excited about the next stop in the Pro tour (Sea Otter Classic).

1, Pua Sawicki (Ellsworth) 1.57.11
2, Allison Mann (IE Bikes) 2.05.11
3, Amanda Carey (Kenda/Tomac) 2.06.37
4, Natasha Hernday (Amgen) 2.06.38
5, Kathy Sherwin (Kenda/Tomac) 2.07.49

The first major race of the year did not go off as well as we had hoped. Pua placed 8th and was unable to pull her pre race lap times that she had done on the same course only days before.
She was very anxious before the race and made some changes to her pre race regiment which in the end was not the best idea. We now know what went wrong and she will be racing this coming weekend at Sagebrush, part of the US West Cup series to make sure things are back to normal and get ready for Sea Otter.
As far as her bike and the all the great race products on it, everything Rocked!! Her bike weighed in at just over 19lbs and performed perfectly.
Thanks to all our partners!

While training and living in our new home town of Yucaipa, California Pua hooked up with the newly formed Yucaipa high school mountain bike team. The team is part of the So-Cal interscholastic cycling league which was started this year by Quinton Easton. The boys call her coach and she works with them on everything from technique to nutrition. She almost always brings along our dog Koa, who runs along with the boys as they train and has become the team mascot.

This Sunday will be the first race for the league and everyone is really excited. Pua had the team come over to our house this weekend for a clinic, teaching them how to keep their bikes up and running and even how to fix a chain break on the trail.

The team is made up of around 20 boys (no girls yet but they’re working on it) and three coaches, head coach Mike Bagg who teaches Geometry & computer science, Scott Kennedy who teaches English & digital publishing and Pua.

It’s really exciting to see the kids get so into the training and racing. We are sure this will not only be great for the future of the sport but also cycling in general. For more info on the league go to socaldirt.org.

Also,
Pua has a new blog up on the our website dedicated to her Kieki’s mountain bike team. She is featuring one rider each month with fun pics and an interview. It’s a really fun read, check it out!

Congratulations Alex Cortez !

We want to apologize for the delay, but we wanted to say Congratulations to our winner! This past month we featured DT Swiss and X-Fusion in our Pua’s Partners Puzzle Contest. It was awesome! We had a lot of entries and some of our entries were from some pretty creative people. We had a few incorrect answers, but for the most part the answers were nailed. All of the correct entries were thrown into a random raffle and the lucky winner is Alex Cortez!

Alex is walking away with some really cool prizes. He is going to receive a DT Swiss X1800 wheel set, DT Swiss MTB baggie short, DT Swiss MTB casual jersey, X-Fusion 100mm Velvet R Fork and an option to purchase any X-Fusion rear shock at a pro-deal price. Thank you to both the DT Swiss and X-Fusion crew for taking part in our contest, providing some cool prizes and making those people out there work for their opportunity in winning. I know they all had fun!

In the next week, we will be starting our next contest for this month which will be featuring InFinit Nutrtion, Fuel Factor and Okole Stuff! We received some trivia from them along with some really cool swag. The prizes and trivia of the next contest will soon be announced, so check it out in the next week click hear for more details.
Goodluck!

-pua & ron