You’ve got to hand it to Christophe Pourcel.
Just when it seemed like he was destined for runner-up status for his second-straight Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals MX1 pro moto Sunday, he somehow found an afterburner switch on his 450cc Husqvarna that turned that big bike into a rocket.
On the very last jump of a race that lasted 19 laps and nearly 32 minutes, Pourcel stole victory out of the hands of Matt Goerke with a jaw-dropping finish that brought the Blackwater Motocross Park crowd of more than 3,000 out of their seats.
“Matt made a small mistake in the corner before and I just went outside and carried a lot of momentum and he had to seat bounce the triple (jump) and I had a lot of speed so I was able to scrub it (staying low to the ground) and it was amazing,” said Pourcel, 28, a former world champion from Marseille, France.
“Matt was riding amazing and in the second moto I didn’t think he was going to push that much and I was just trying to push him as hard as I can to try to get him to make a mistake. Everybody in the U.S. and Canada is fast and you just never give up. You try to push as hard as you can.”
Pourcel, who finished second in the first MX1 moto after he lost his lead to Goerke with just three laps left, ended up first overall Sunday. Losing his lead so late in the second race was tough to swallow for Goerke, a native of Panama City, Fla.
“That was the closest race ever,” said the 31-year-old Goerke. “I’m so bummed I’m on the losing end of that. A (lapped rider) was in my way on those last two tight turns and it slowed me down and I took a different line and he got me right before the finish.
“I trained hard for the season and I’m riding the best I’ve ever been but he’s good, he is a world champion. We’re pulling away from everybody else, so I am better than last year, but he’s good. We’re going to have some good battles this year.”
Colton Facciotti of Aylmer, Ont., brought some Canadian content to the MX1 podium, finishing third in the second moto and third overall.
* Winning is nothing new to Pourcel, now in his 15th year of pro racing. He captured the FIX MX2 motocross world championship in 2006, a year before an injury that nearly ended his career. A crash at the Grand Prix of Northern Ireland in 2007 broke his pelvis and he suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down, but he recovered fully and returned to racing in 2009. Last year in Washougal, Wash., he caught a footpeg in the dirt just before a jump and crashed, fracturing a vertebra in his neck.
