PUA TAKES FIRST AT THE BAJA ULTRA ENDURANCE 100K MOUNTAIN BIKE RACE!

Pua on the Podium.

Miguel and Pua

<<Pua's Pages

10.22.07

This Weekend in Ensenada, B.C. Mexico was the Inaugural Baja Ultra Endurance 100k Mountain Bike race. The race course was a mixture of sustained jeep road climbs, ultra steep wall climbs and very rocky descents. Weather was perfect and the locals were so excited to have everyone there!

Miguel Martinez, France (Gold and Bronze Olympic medalist and multiple time World Champion XC Mtb), took the lead as soon as the racers hit the initial dirt climb about 2-3 miles into the race. Pua followed behind in the chase group of 10 riders for the hour long climb. After the climb Miguel had put about 7 minutes on the chase riders. Pua came through check point one 1st in the women and 9th overall. In the next 20-30 minutes she moved herself into 4th place with a couple minute gap and less than a minute off 3rd.

As she reached the top of the second major climb she tore her front tire side wall and flatted. She fixed the flat and in only a few minutes it flatted again! Now she was out of luck and tubes, so she began to hike the course. Some riders offered help but she did not want to take a tube unless they had another, she hiked for over an hour to the next support vehicle. They did not have a tube so she continued. A rider named Juan threw his saddle bag at Pua forcing her to take it and she was back pedaling. But, within 10 minutes her rear tire flatted! She road and hiked the bike to the next check point and was able to get set up again with a new tire and tube. At this point she was way back in the overall but still in the female lead.Miguel held on to his lead slowly adding time to his gap on the way.

At the end Miguel won the race and Pua was able to move her way back to 12 place over all and win the female division with no more flats. Miguel was able to complete the course in about 4 hours and 21 minutes and Pua came in at about one hour later.

The race was put on extremely well and the people were gracious and so much fun! It was great to see how much the Mexican people love mountain biking and how much it is growing there!

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