Six Straight: Logan Owen Rules 15-16 Junior Men in Bend – UPDATED: Full Results

Logan Owen knew the results before it started...6 National Championships in a row. © Cyclocross Magazine

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BEND, ORE. – Redline’s Logan Owen entered today’s race with confidence, and for good reason. The 15 year-old (racing age 16) has won his last five National Championships, and also swept the Elite series titles in Seattle. At the start, Owen held up six fingers to show his prediction of today’s win.

Off the start, Nate Morse (CLNoonan/Bay Hill Capital) got the holeshot with Owen Michael Dessau (Above Category) following, but half a lap into the race, it was Owen who took charge with a 10-second gap and looked at ease.

Morse slotted in behind as the riders reached the run-up for the first time. Owen muscled over the short hill and was able to ride it, and Dessau came to a stop attempting to do the same. The tangle up that resulted gave Owen an instant gap of 10 seconds over his pursuers.

The previous day’s time trial winner Spence Peterson (Above Category), who got off to a slow start, benefited from the pile up and closed on the chasers when he hit the hill, as did Zack Gould (Clif Bar Development), who crashed and flew through the tape the first time the pack came off the pavement and hit the mud.

Morse went to the front of the chase group and set off at  a blistering pace in pursuit of Owen. He kept the gap at nine seconds for the better part of the next two laps before he began to labor under the effort. Owen, meanwhile, looked cool and calm on the front as he continued to stretch out his lead to 20 and then 40 seconds, even taking the time to pause at the top of the stairs with a smile across his face for the photograhers’ benefit.

Morse looked to have second place locked up, but on the final lap was suffering from stomach cramps. Peterson and Gould caught the New England rider to set up a three-way battle for second. Morse continued to fade, but would lock up fourth. Peterson and Gould battled for wheel-to-wheel for the final lap, coming over the fly-over and into the stairs locked in battle.

“I knew that whoever came off the stairs first would come out on top 90 percent of the time,” said Gould, “so I really battled to get there.

Gould crested the stairs with the slimmest of margins, hit the gas, and held it to the line to take second place, with Peterson third.

Gould’s Clif Bar teammate Jordan Cullen also needed to overcome early race woes, as a first lap flat tire would send one of the pre-race favorites to the pits. Cullen dug deep lap after lap, eventually passing another teammate, Curtis White, to claim the final podium step in fifth.

Stay tuned for a full report, results and photos. Brief results below the photos.

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