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Matt Pacocha wins the 30-34 Baby Masters race. © Tim Westmore

Matt Pacocha wins the 30-34 Baby Masters race. © Tim Westmore

For full Cyclocross National Championships coverage and information, visit our 2010 USA Cycling National Championships Page.

At the gun, Eric Rasmussen (KUHL) threw himself off the front and quickly gained a comfortable solo lead over chasers Mathew Pacocha (Hudz-Subaru), Weston Schempf (Charm City Cycling LLC) and Ryan Leech (Hilton Head Cycling). The riders caught Rasmussen after he bobbled near the run-up, and for a few moments the four rode together.

Soon, however, Pacocha decided it was time to assert himself and launched a powerful attack that would see him soloing all the way to the finish, crossing the line over forty seconds ahead of the next in line. “I just tried to ride smooth the whole race,” said Pacocha. “I just took it out hard, and kinda stayed calm, waited to see how long they were gonna go, and then I just kept riding my own speed. I got a little worried when they kept saying I wasn’t the fastest guy out there, so I thought I was getting caught.”

Pacocha got a fast start, gave up the lead and then took it over for good. © Cyclocross Magazine

Pacocha got a fast start, gave up the lead and then took it over for good. © Cyclocross Magazine

“The course eats up all your power, which was a mental battle for me to just keep going, honestly. Over here [by the brewery] it was just brutal. Sloggy and soupy and and power-sucking.”

“I’m excited about returning to defend next year,” Pacocha said. He plans on forgoing UCI racing next season to focus on Masters in Louisville.

The big battle of the race was for second place. Cody Peterson passed Eric Rasmussen on the second lap to move into third and set off after Schempf. “Some lines opened up that I didn’t expect – I was able to maneuver through the field,” said Peterson. He then moved ahead of Schmepf and held a slim margin until the Mid-Atlantic rider pulled out all the stops in the final minutes of the race. Schempf chose to run the thick grassy and muddy slog towards the stairs and briefly passed Peterson as they battled to be first on the stairs. Peterson upped the pace, and regained a tenuous lead, then Schempf outkicked him on the pavement.

“That was one of the hardest things I’ve done in a long time,” said Schempf. “Just trying to stay upright. Once I saw Matt [Pacocha] get away, that was pretty much the end, we were racing for second place.

“I saw he was pretty strong in the thick stuff,” Schempf said of Peterson on the last lap. “But he was using a lot of energy and when we got to the straights, he was bogging down so I figured what the heck, why not run it, see what happens, no harm no foul.

“I feel I saved some energy because he was really struggling to get out there. So when I saw him on the stairs, he was suffering, so I tried to punch it. I took a smoother line, took the high side on that thing and cut him off a little bit. It’s my last year in this category, so I get to do it all over again next year!”

“[Schempf] got me at the end,” said Peterson. “I gave everything I could and he out rode me at the end of the last lap.”

“I gave it everything I had,” he continued. “So I’m happy with that. He was running it towards the stairs – when I saw that, I was worried, because I knew that he was going to do better on the steps than me. I was suffering on the steps, it wasn’t quite steep enough for the power I have. I think mentally he got me there a little bit, but I just kept trying. I tried to go into the big ring where he passed me [on the final stretch of grass], and that’s where I fell back.”

Peterson doing his best to keep second place. © Cyclocross Magazine

Peterson doing his best to keep second place. © Cyclocross Magazine

Peterson’s relatively new to cyclocross, and his fellow Bend resident, Canadian national cyclocross champion Chris Sheppard, was the one who got him started. Sheppard was out cheering on his teammate, and at one point got so excited running around and trying to snap photos that he dropped his camera in the mud. “Sheppard was the first guy to give me a shot as a Pro mountain biker about 10 years ago, so I was super-excited when he thought of me for the Rocky Mountain cyclocross team,” said Peterson.

Peterson chose to run tubeless, which he said he likes, but he did flat one in the singlespeed race. “It cost me a podium spot. I like the tubeless system. As a mountain bike racer, it really makes sense to run tubeless – I’m not a tubular guy, I hate running those things,” he said.

One racer who had a superb ride was fourth place finisher Damian Schmitt, who had a huge following cheering for him here at Bend –including two vocal women with blue satin capes who led a group running alongside Schmitt on the grass section after the stairs. We caught up with him to hear about his race.

“I had a great start,” he said, “and we came through the grass by Deschutes Brewery where my supporters are at the Sunnyside tent, we rounded the corner and I was riding the grass lines, and I hit one of the stakes. I pre-rode it with Adam Myerson, and we talked about it – the fastest lines are along the stakes, but the risks are hitting them, and I did it, right on the first lap and I went sliding on my back. I kind of thought it was over on the first lap, and 10 or 12 guys passed me.

“I just started riding hard, I kept riding the tape, and not everyone was doing that. I’d find little patches of grass and move a few pedal strokes faster and close some ground. I felt really fast after the pavement, after turn 1 all along the pits and the off-cambers after the pits where there were some falls.

“If you’d asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would’ve said that I thought I’d win this race. But after Portland I was a little down – Matt and Josh Snead were way ahead of me at the GPs. So, I was hoping for a top 10. I was calm all week, and I think that played a part, and I live five minutes away.

“The local factor was amazing, I had so many friends out here from in town, or from Portland that know me now. That wall of sound – every time up the stairs, I could barely move my legs, but I knew I had to take two stairs at a time and make my way to the front. That left line along the tape after the stairs was really fast, and if you just cut right for that corner you’d have a really good line for the pavement. [This is the same line that Baker took to win the 35-39 race]

“I’ve done Masters Nats twice, once in Kansas City and once here, and both times I met with mechanicals after riding good races. I felt like I’d won, I was so excited.”

Photo Gallery:

Full Results:

Place Points Name City, State Bib Team
1 150 Matthew Pacocha (1 – Cat1) Boulder, CO 278 Hudz-Subaru
2 135 Weston Schempf (2 – Cat1) Bethesda, MD 203 Charm City Cycling LLC
3 120 Cody Peterson (3 – Cat1) Bend, OR 215
4 Exp Damian Schmitt Bend, OR 226
5 90 John Curry (4 – Cat1) Bozeman, MT 247 Gallatin Valley Bicycle Club/Gallatin Alpine Sports/Intrinsik Archite
6 85 Josh Snead (5 – Cat1) Larkspur, CA 248
7 80 Ryan Leech (6 – Cat1) Savannah, GA 239 Hilton Head Cycling
8 75 Brett Nichols (7 – Cat1) Garden City, ID 206 Trek Mountain Co-op
9 70 Brue Syvertsen (1 – Cat2) San Francisco, CA 265 MURDER
10 65 Jared Nieters (8 – Cat1) Haymarket, VA 281 Haymarket Bicycles
11 60 Jesse Rients Shakopee, MN 205
12 55 Davy Yeater (9 – Cat1) Portland, OR 263 River City Bicycles / Cannondale
13 50 Adam Driscoll (10 – Cat1) Halethorpe, MD 270 Adventures for the Cure
14 45 Krishna Dole (2 – Cat2) San Mateo, CA 255
15 40 Eric Rasmussen (11 – Cat1) Bountiful, UT 241 KUHL
16 38 Brandon Gritters (12 – Cat1) Mission Viejo, CA 231 Rock N Road
17 36 Ross Brody (1 – Cat3) Salem, OR 221
17 36 Justin Morejohn (2 – Cat3) Davis, CA 277 Davis Bike Club
19 32 Seth Patla (13 – Cat1) Hillsboro, OR 234
20 30 Ty Kady (3 – Cat2) Brea, CA 269
21 28 Wiley Mosley (4 – Cat2) Austin, TX 272 North American Velo
22 26 Luke DeMoe (3 – Cat3) Eugene, OR 225
23 24 Matthew Fox (14 – Cat1) Bend, OR 208
24 22 Paul LaCava (5 – Cat2) Portland, OR 254
25 20 Matthew Wills (15 – Cat1) Portland, OR 204
26 19 Christopher Fisher (16 – Cat1) Inver Grove Hieghts, MN 236 velorochester
27 18 Matthew Pronovost (6 – Cat2) Steamboat Springs, CO 271 Steamboat Velo p/d MOOTS
28 17 Matt Russell (4 – Cat3) Bend, OR 232
29 16 John Frey (7 – Cat2) Bend, OR 252 Hutch’s Westside Bend OR
30 15 Benjamin Rathkamp (8 – Cat2) Bellingham, WA 279 Shuksan Velo Club/Fanatik Bike Co.
31 14 Benjamin Dodge (9 – Cat2) San Jose, CA 260 Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club
32 13 Daniel Miller (5 – Cat3) Columbia, MO 249 Columbia Bike Club Race Team
33 12 Aaron Wilcher (6 – Cat3) San Francisco , CA 276
34 11 Michael Kennedy (10 – Cat2) Louisville, KY 257 Fetzer
35 10 Adam Mills (17 – Cat1) Lawrence, KS 224 Mercy Cycling Team
36 9 David Wilcox (11 – Cat2) Jamaica Plain, MA 212 Pedro’s Grassroots Cycling Club
37 8 jeremy whitman (12 – Cat2) Boise, ID 282 Broken Spoke Cycling
38 7 aaron mickels (13 – Cat2) Camano Island, WA 240
39 6 Dylan VanWeelden (7 – Cat3) Portland, OR 243
40 5 Patrick Blair (14 – Cat2) Halethorpe, MD 259 Adventures for the Cure
41 4 Matt James (15 – Cat2) St. Louis, MO 237 Mesa Cycles Shop and Racing Team
42 3 George Barthel (18 – Cat1) Sherman Oaks, CA 219 Helen’s
43 2 Alan Adams (16 – Cat2) Seattle, WA 223 Lake Washington Velo/Hagens Berman Cycling
44 0 Jason Siegle (19 – Cat1) Costa Mesa, CA 216 Bike Religion
45 0 Jeremy Dunn (17 – Cat2) Portland, OR 284
46 0 Brian Holcombe (8 – Cat3) Ftcollins, CO 267
47 0 Alex Wilson (18 – Cat2) Seattle, WA 286 Boat Street Cycle Club (BSCC)
48 0 Eric Zuber (9 – Cat3) Boise, ID 256 Bobs Bicycles Cycling Club
49 0 Gabriel Byrne (10 – Cat3) San Francisco, CA 258 Squadra Ovest Cycling
50 0 Evan Sarna (11 – Cat3) Oakland, CA 268 3rd Rail Cycling Club/Missing Link Bicycle Co-op
51 0 Gregory Lyeki (12 – Cat3) St. Louis, MO 209 Manchester Racing Club/Trek Bicycle Store of St Louis
52 0 Chandler Delinks (13 – Cat3) Ipswich, MA 285 Cyclocrossworld
53 0 Andrew Boone (20 – Cat1) Bend, OR 227
54 0 Paul Guerra (14 – Cat3) Los Gatos, CA 242 Alto Velo Racing Club/Webcor/Alto Velo
55 0 Forest Hynes (15 – Cat3) Chicago, IL 250 Johnny Sprockets
57 0 Anthony Broadman (16 – Cat3) Bend, OR 246
58 0 Justin Howe (17 – Cat3) Arlington, MA 235 Northeast Bicycle Club (NEBC)/NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental
59 0 Jeffrey Bramhall (18 – Cat3) Watertown, MA 217 Threshold Cycling
60 0 Gregory Saylor (19 – Cat3) Frederick, MD 222 Adventures for the Cure
61 0 Matthew Hennessy (20 – Cat3) Baltimore, MD 233 Charm City Cycling LLC
62 0 Rey Madolora (21 – Cat3) Austin, TX 211
63 0 Jay Kwan (22 – Cat3) Carlsbad, CA 266 The TEAM /The TEAM SoCalCross
64 0 Jared Vigil (23 – Cat3) Seattle, WA 230
65 0 Christopher Bassett (24 – Cat3) Los Angeles, CA 262 Mafia Racing
66 0 Adam Stern (25 – Cat3) Bothell, WA 214 Puget Sound Cycling Club
67 0 Daniel Breyer (26 – Cat3) Carlsbad, CA 275
68 0 Joseph Czerwonka (27 – Cat3) Louisville, KY 202
69 0 Daniel Fuhrmann (28 – Cat3) Rolla, MO 283
70 0 Terry Deeble (29 – Cat3) Boise, ID 251
71 0 Nicholas Salerno (30 – Cat3) Hillsborough, NJ 273 DeathRow Velo
72 0 Noah Silverman (31 – Cat3) Reno, NV 213 Reno Wheelmen
73 0 Stephen Riskus (32 – Cat3) Silver Spring, MD 261 All American Bicycle Club Inc./All American Bicycle Center
74 0 Eddie Wang (33 – Cat3) Portland, OR 228
DNS 0 Matt Shriver Durango, CO 207
DNS 0 Aaron Odell San Jose, CA 210
DNS 0 Chuck Meyer Bend, OR 220
DNS 0 Geoff Casey Seattle, WA 245 Stranamanti Cycling/Keller Rohrback Cycling
DNS 0 Justin Maka Albuquerque, NM 253 Ten Speed Drive Racing/Ten Speed Drive / BH Bicycles
DNS 0 Ryan Weaver Portland, OR 264 River City Bicycles
DNS 0 Nate Denning Boise, ID 280 Treasure Valley Cycling Club/Team Reel Theatre
DQ 0 Jay Armstrong Boise, ID 238 GS Casella/Look! Save a Life
DNF 0 Rob Brandt Sparks, NV 218 Kryki Sports
DNF 0 Brad Cole Fort Collins, CO 244 KCCX Verge Elite Cyclocross Team
DNF 0 Matt Cline Portland, OR 287
DNF 0 Peter Vraniak Seattle, WA 288