OFFICIAL RESULTS

APRIL 24, 1999

This year's Rocky Mountain Roubaix was a classic and brutal beginning to the Montana Road Racing season. Over 50 racers showed up for Montana's oldest road race and the clear and warm conditions belyed what lay ahead. For those of you who have not ridden this vaunted classic let me describe the course. It consists of a 7 mile "ride-out" over several hills and a one mile section of gravel, then multiple laps of an 8 mile loop consisting of 4 miles of smooth, flat asphalt and 4 miles of rolling, gravel roads. This year the course turned out to be in terrible condition.

After the first lap the course was littered with riders screaming for wheels, patching flats, and walking their bikes along the side the road. The Men's A group hit the first gravel sections at full throttle (thanks in-part to kiwi Mark Legg who was driving the pace over these early sections). Within 20 miles over 1/2 of the field had flatted and at one point a lead group of 4 disintegrated leaving Matt Seeley to ride alone at the front. "I've never taken the lead in a race like that, " he said, " One minute we were all together and the next minute I was alone at the front." Unfortunatley for Seeley, a chase group of three riders caught and passed him with 6 miles to go and Lewis Elliot, Keifer Hahn (who flatted three times), and Mark Legg began setting up for a 3-up sprint. Legg flatted in the last mile however, and National Team member Lewis Elliot took the sprint over Hahn.

Other races turned into time trials as the smaller fields were blown apart by the rough roads. Susanna Gaunt won the women's race in a solo break-away, As did Steve Muller, Dave Berkhoff, John Behrens, and Kevin Colvill.

As the day wore on riders swapped stories of multiple flats (the record was between 5 and 7). Montana Velo riders suffered the worst with over 10 flats between 4 racers. Team member Jeff Caton crossed the line having ridden the last 4 miles on his rim.

Race Director Dale Bickell had this to say after the dust had settled, "Yeah, about 50% of the riders flatted today, none of the wheel cars could keep up and most of them ran out of wheels. We may consider a new course for next year, but then again, we may not."

SENIOR MEN 1,2,3 - Total field size 28, 15 finishers.

1. Lewis Elliot - Yellowstone Valley Cycling Club

2. Keifer Hahn - Wizards of the Coast

3. Mark Legg - Northern Rockies Cycling Club (NR)

4. Matt Seeley - Five Valley Velo (5VV)

5. Brink Kuchenbrod - Montana Velo (MV)

6. Tom Jenni - Gallatin Valley Cycling Club (GVBC)

7. John Weyhrich - 5VV

8. Jeff Seaton - NR

9. Jeff Crouch - 5VV

10. Jon Burkhartsmeyer - MV

11. Jeff Caton - MV

12. Craig Lammey - GVBC

13. Will Culpepper - GVBC

14. Jason Selong - GVBC

15. Geoff Proctor - MV

SENIOR WOMEN - Field size 6, 5 finishers

1. Susana Gaunt - 5VV

2. Becky Broeder - 5VV

3. Mindy Bowman - 5VV

4. Kathy Poerandozzi - SGI

5. Susan Miks - Unattached (U)

MASTERS MEN 40 - Field size 2, 1 finisher

1.. Steve Muller - Flathead Velo

SENIOR MEN 4 - Field size 2, 1 finisher

1. Dave Berkhoff - 5VV

SENIOR MEN 5 - Field size 10, 6 finishers

1. John Behrens - GVBC

2. John Brook - U

3. Matt Gibson - 5VV

4. Wayne Siez - U

5. Todd Berg - 5VV

6. Jay Noonan - U

MASTERS MEN 30-39 - Field size 1, 1 finisher

1. Kevin Colvill - 5VV