Joe Kline / The BulletinScott Chapin, of Santa Cruz, Calif., takes part in the elite men’s category event on Saturday in the Old Mill District in Bend.

Cameron Beard, a 15-year-old freshman at Bend’s Summit High, owes his start in cyclocross to one of the sport’s biggest names.

“We hosted (cyclist) Tim Johnson during the Cascade (Cycling) Classic maybe 10 or 12 years ago,” Beard said Sunday after finishing in the middle of the pack in the men’s Category A race at the Cross Crusade’s season finale in Bend. “Then a couple years ago we watched him down here (at the Deschutes Brewery cyclocross course near the Old Mill District) at the ’cross national championships, which he won. After that, I started racing.”

Johnson, who lives in Topsfield, Mass., and is a six-time cyclocross national champion, won Saturday’s UCI Deschutes Brewery Cup in Bend before riding Sunday — again, in frigid below-freezing temperatures — in the Cross Crusade’s 2013 series finale on the same course.

In his win Saturday, Johnson held off rivals Geoff Kabush and James Driscoll to earn coveted UCI points. On Sunday, riding with men’s, women’s and masters Cat A riders, Johnson inspired Beard and a host of other young Central Oregon cyclists who may in the near future be challenging him on the national stage.

“Getting to ride in the same race, even if I wasn’t right with him, was awesome,” Beard said about competing with Johnson. “If this was football, it’d be like getting the chance to play with an NFL team.”

Beard, Lance Haidet, 16, and Javier Colton, 17, are some of the Bend area’s brightest young cyclocross stars. Haidet, who is 28th in the most recent UCI world junior standings, has been selected by USA Cycling to participate in the three-week EuroCrossCamp later this month in Belgium, where he will train and compete in two UCI World Cup races. And Colton is finishing a ’cross season that saw him win the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association’s high school championship. On the girls side, Sophie Russenberger, of Bend, won the junior girls 15-16 Deschutes Brewery Cup race Saturday.

With a thriving cyclocross scene and developmental programs like Bend Endurance Academy offering cyclists structured coaching plans, it is no surprise that Central Oregon has become a breeding ground for successful youth ’cross racers.

“We help push one another,” Beard said. “I can’t wait for Lance to get back from Europe and see what he’s learned.”

—Reporter: 541-383-0305; beastes@bendbulletin.com.