Belgian wins back-to-back races in New York as US riders White and Brunner round out podium
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Vincent Baestaens wins muddy C2 race at 2022 Rochester Cyclocross and retains USCX lead(Image credit: Bruce Buckley)
Vincent Baestaens went back-to-back with wins at 2022 Rochester Cyclocross, winning Sunday in the rain(Image credit: Bruce Buckley)
Curtis White finished second on C2 Sunday at 2022 Rochester Cyclocross(Image credit: Bruce Buckley)
Eric Brunner finished third on Sunday at C2 race 2022 Rochester Cyclocross(Image credit: Bruce Buckley)
Elite men's podium at C2 race 2022 Rochester Cyclocross: second place Curtis White, winner Vincent Baestaens, third-placed Eric Bruinner(Image credit: Bruce Buckley)
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, 17 seconds off the winning pace. 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, 28 seconds off the winning time set by Baestaens.
“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 time of 1:00:32 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 Valley Park. White was leading a trio of US riders in the chase, joined by Ortenblad and Haidet. Baestaens and two of the chasers took bike changes on the lap.
“Tobin and Lance are very good in these conditions, they have a lot of finesse in these conditions. So I just tried to learn from them and dail in the course myself. I hit out on my own,” White said. “Brunner was strong enough to bridge up and we had a really nice last-lap battle. I felt like I had the legs to get around him in the last quarter lap, but he was probably at the limit and just made a mistake and I was able to capitalize.”
With four laps to go, the turquoise and green jersey of Baestaens had a little more than 10 seconds on White. The pair of Ortenblad and Haidet trailed only a few seconds later and Brunner rode fifth, 23 seconds back. Halfway through the circuit, a heavy rain returned with a clap of thunder.
Going into the penultimate lap, White hovered at 15 seconds behind Baestaens, the duo having accelerated ahead of all the other chasers. Haidet rode along in third now, Brunner in fourth, Ortenblad in fifth. Brunner made a move when Haidet took a new bike in the pits and moved ahead of him into third.
Brunner had made the catch and pass of Haidet as the two battled for the final two spots on the podium on the final lap. Brunner had a couple of mishaps on the last half of the course and then crashed near the pits to fall away from White.
“I made up for yesterday a little bit. A couple of mistakes, but a couple less than yesterday,” Brunner summarised. “I generally have not been good in this type of slippery mud so it’s nice to put it together today.”
Not slowing down and not making any noticeable errors, Baestaens continued to ride solo on the final lap to secure the C2 victory in New York. He looked over his shoulders a couple of times, but did not see pursuers.
“For my mechanics it is a little bit worse,” the Belgian said about the messy conditions that kept teams busy in the pits. “I have my family here, without them this was not possible because I didn’t have all my equipment like I have in Belgium, but my dad and my girlfriend [Annemarie Worst] they did a good job today so I am very thankful for that.”
Baestaeans swept the opening two rounds of the USCX series at Virginia’s Blue Ridge GO Cross p/b Deschutes Brewery in Roanoke and is the men’s leader. All the top riders from Rochester are expected to race next weekend at Charm City Cross in Baltimore, Maryland, which is the third stop of the USCX series. Both days of racing, C1 on Saturday and C2 on Sunday, will be broadcast for subscribers by GCN+.
Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. She has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast). Her favorite road and gravel rides are around horse farms in north Georgia (USA) and around lavender fields in Provence (France), and some mtb rides in Park City, Utah (USA).
