FROM PUA & RON SAWICKI: Chris Eatough and Pua were scheduled to defend their National titles, but this would not be the case.
Chris showed up at the press conference with the flu and had to back out of his final race before retiring. This was a big disappointment for all. Pua, on the other hand, was ready to go and we had taken all precautions to try and keep her free from any viruses before the race.
Pua had a perfect start putting about 7 minutes on her closest competitor. After several hours she had about 30 minutes on the entire field.
As things progressed Pua started to feel that something was wrong, she was still gaining on the chasers but much less per lap. She told her pit crew that her stomach felt bad.
Her lead grew to about 45 minutes but something was wrong, she felt body aches and her vision was bad. We pressed her to go on but feared for the worse.
She lost some of her lead and now it was only 30 minutes, she felt so sick that she could not continue, we urged her to just go to the finish line and pull out of the race.
She did that and we got her the medical attention she needed right away.
After a ton of nasty coughing and other bad stuff we don’t need to describe, Pua was stable but the race was over. We got her checked out with our Doc and he made sure she did what she needed to get over the sickness.
We were very disappointed in the outcome of this race but the real topper to all of this was we were robbed.
After we came back from getting Pua checked out our easy up (10X10 tent) that we were loaned by Moab Cyclery was stolen!  We had only left for a few hours into town and when we came back it was gone along with our 15 gallon water tank we use to survive when we are out training in the wilderness.
We are so disappointed in that someone our Mountain Bike Community could even do this but now we have to pay the price. Sorry to Moab Cyclery for this situation.
All in all this was a crazy roller coaster of a race and we will never forget all the drama. Thanks to our crew for you great, great support (we love you guys) with out you this would not work.
And also a big, big thanks to our sponsors for so much great support!
Ron & Pua
