Pua Wins Final XC & First Cross Race!

This weekend INFINIT athlete Pua Sawicki raced her first cyclocross race of the year and it was her first time back on a cyclocross bike in over a year!

There was a good size group of pro women and the reigning California state champion (Coryn Rivera) was sure to be the toughest competition. Pua had been training very hard this past week so she found that her sprinting legs had been spent out on the mountains of southern California.

At the start she was in about 8th position while Coryn took the hole shot and gapped the entire field immediately. Pua slowly felt her legs kick in and began to whittle her way to the top 3.Coryn had finally broke away from another rider and now had a growing gap on the everyone except Pua.

Pua had worked her way into second and was taking time out of Coryn with every pedal stroke. Finally Pua over took her and moved into the lead, Coryn's skill would pull her back to Pua and on one corner Pua went down. Coryn ran into her and both women were piled together with their bikes tangled, they separated themselves and the battle continued!

Eventually Pua was wearing Coryn down and in a final effort she tried to make a pass on Pua but ended up running straight into her on a corner. Pua got up first and never looked back taking the win with around a minute to spare!

A week from last Saturday Pua entered the 18th annual Southridge Challenge in Fontana, Ca. Pua lined up with the Pro male and Cat 1 men to see how she would do after taking off a month. Only pro men and cat 1 men were on hand so since no women were there she decided to race the male field!

After one lap of four she moved into 6th and eventually was able to secure a third in the pro men only 2.5 minutes off the winning pro (Eric Bierman).

This was her strongest finish against the men where she usually finds herself about 5-7 minutes back!

Way to go Pua!!!!

Pua Sawicki 2010 Schedule

3/20 Vision Quest Marathon, California (Marathon mtb race, Pua holds the female record)
4/15-18 Sea Otter Classic
4/24-25: World Cup XCO #1, Dalby Forest, Great Britain
5/1-2: World Cup XCO #2 & 4X #1, Houffalize, Belgium
5/22-23: World Cup XCO #3, Offenburg, Germany
7/4: US National Marathon Championships, Breckenridge Colorado
7/17-18: US National Championships Weekend
7/24-25: World Cup XCO #4 and DHI #4, Champéry, Switzerland
7/31 - 8/1: World Cup XCO #5, DHI #5 and 4X #5, Val di Sole, Italy
8/8: World Marathon Championships, St. Wendel, Germany
8/14 Leadville 100 mile classic, Colorado
8/28-29: World Cup XCO #5, DHI #6, and 4X #6, Windham, New York, USA
8/31 - 9/5: World XCO, DHI & 4X Championships, Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, Canada
11/10-13 La Ruta stage race, Costa Rica