This story comes from Pua's husband, Ron, and we feel exhibits the very best of competitive spirit.  Both Pua and Georgia Gould are Pedro's sponsored athletes and this is why...

Santa Ynez, CA -This past Saturday was the Santa Ynez National XC race near Santa Barbara, CA. The temperature was over 100 degrees and many riders would find it a struggle just to survive the race in such bad conditions. Pua, being from Hawaii, felt good about the heat but, on Friday both she and I started to come down with something which made us somewhat nervous.

At race start the scene appeared to be normal, Georgia Gould darted out in front and Pua was just behind in the chase group. After one lap, Georgia had a gap of just over 2 minutes and Pua had fallen back to around 11th position. She told me after the race that she felt sick, dizzy and had body aches so her focus was just to survive the race and move on.

Half way through the final lap Georgia appeared focused and on track to take the win. Although her lead had shrunk slightly, she showed no appearance of any problems. We have not yet been able to find out what Georgia remembers but, something bad happened on the way to the last climb.

Pua had dropped back to around 15th position and was climbing the final ascent when something in the brush caught her eye. She turned to find Georgia down well off the trail, dehydrated, overcome by the heat and unable to stand. Pua told her she would get help and road up the hill only to find nobody in sight. She went back down to Georgia and began to try and help her alone. Georgia had no liquids with her at all but luckily Pua had grabbed extra water at the final feed station.

She attempted to move Georgia to a better location but it was too difficult since Georgia could not even stand on her own. Pua called out to another racer (Heather Ronoa) and asked her to go back down the hill for help. Heather did find help and soon returned to assist Pua in moving Georgia to a better location. The two women were able to nurse Georgia back and by the time the medics had arrived, life was back in Georgia eyes and she was asking Pua what happened.

A little while later the ambulance showed up and they were able to get Georgia out of the heat and to the nearest hospital. We have since learned that Georgia is fine and was released later that evening.

I am very proud of Pua for sticking with Georgia and also of Heather for stopping to help, you are both heroes. We are also very glad Georgia is ok, she is an inspiration to us and many, many people who ride and we are just very happy it turned out this way.

Ron Sawicki