Vincent Baestaens (Spits CX) powered through the mud and won for a second consecutive day at Rochester Cyclocross, taking Sunday’s C2 contest. He duplicated results from last year when he also won both days of racing in upstate New York.
Curtis White (Steve Tilford Foundation) worked near the front of the race all day to finish second. He battled on the final lap with US men’s elite national champion Eric Brunner (Blue Competition Cycles p/b Build) until a few miscues and a crash moved Brunner to a third-place finish.
“Maybe the turns and searching for lines made a difference. I just had a good day again. It was a good one,” Baestaens said in summary to GCN at the finish. “This is what I like the most [the mud], I can try out my techniques very well and the power. This is something that I really love.”
The Belgian won the C1 race with a 17-second advantage over White on Sunday with sunny, warm conditions and the riders kicking up dust. It was a completely different course at Genesee Valley Park on Sunday for the fourth event of the USCX series, while ridden in reverse the dirt was converted to slippery mud by heavy rains that fell before and during the women’s elite race.
“Everyone is really excited to see the first muddy race of the season, and Rochester delivered,” White said to describe the day. “It was a lot of learning for me. I had to race against the course before I could race against anyone else around me. When Vinnie went, I was a little bit over my head at that point.”
White took the hole shot as the sun tried to brighten the soggy day, but the course was already beaten to bits from a full day of racing and the moisture creating deep mud all around the 3km course. Baestaens followed in second place.
As the men attempted to make the first ascent of the steep, muddy climb past Double Trouble at The Wall Run-Up, it was a similar scenario as the women’s elite race with a severe lack of traction causing a bottleneck of riders slipping and trying to juggle bikes while clawing up the embankment.
Lance Haidet (L39ION of Los Angeles) and Eric Brunner (Blue Competition Cycles p/b Build) led the stung-out field as the riders emerged from the woods near the pits for a completion of the first lap, joined by Tobin Ortenblad (Santa Cruz Bicycles), White and Baestaens. White took a bike change, and lost a few spots.
Baestaens looked to be in control at the front of the race by the third lap, as he rode through the finish line at Genesee…
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