SAN FRANCISCO -- Travis Pastrana and the great magician Houdini have something in common. They both save their best tricks for last. Pastrana's last run brought him 2000 X Games gold in the Freestyle Moto X competition Sunday.

"I had my entire run planned out. I was up pretty much all night getting all three runs planned out. The second one didn't take much thinking, but the other two were planned out," said the 16-year-old Pastrana.

This careful planning took Pastrana to the top of the competition. Pastrana scored a 94 on his final run, which was enough for the gold, "I was healthy for the first time all year coming into this event, and I am healthy coming out of the event.

Going into the final round Pastrana had the highest score of the preliminaries, and was in first place going into the final round. In his first run of the prelims, Pastrana dazzled the crowd and judges with numerous tricks for a score of 92.33. His run consisted of double heel kicks and different variations of superman seatgrabs with full extension. However, in his second run of the first round, Pastrana attempted the most daring trick of the entire competition -- a backflip. Even though he bailed out of the trick and landed on a dirt mound near his bike. The attempt, nonetheless, sent the crowd into a frenzy.

"I was fortunate to be safe on that one. I was gonna do my final run of the prelims and do a backflip at the end of that run. Everyone usually holds back on their first run, I don't," he said.

This competition was suspense filled. It was anyone's title going into the last riders of the final -- Brian Deegan, Tommy Clowers and Pastrana.

Brian Deegan was up first. Always a crowd pleaser, Deegan showed an array of tricks from seatgrabs with full extensions, heel-kickers, to a smooth lazy boy.

"Usually I bust bigger jumps, but I just had to deal with it. It's only a minute and fifteen seconds so I tried to stick to my gnarliest tricks, impress the judges. I was one of the first freestyle guys so my bag of tricks is pretty deep," said Deegan.

Deegan scored a 90.33 on the run and was in first place. Clowers went next and in a strong run, posted a score of 91.33, moving ahead of Deegan. His run had huge indian airs, no footed can-can's and a variations of other tricks.

"I felt really good today, I was doing some big stuff and holding it for a long time," said Clowers.

The stage was set for Pastrana to bring home the gold, and he did not fail.

His final run was flawless, and featured some new tricks. Said Pastrana, "I had the Super Mute. The one-handed indy air, which had never been done on a motorcycle, I also pulled a superman to heel-clicker, which had also never been done on a motorcycle."

Pastrana added, "I went out there and did all my tricks and I couldn't ask for anything better."

There were many strong showings, but Pastrana had the greatest show of them all. He showed everyone on Piers 30-32 why he is one of the premier athletes in the sport of Moto X.

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