Montana Cyclocross Race Number Ten-- Missoula, Montana

Race day:

It was a snowy day, but pretty balmy, you only noticed the slight wind when you were riding west and even then the only noticeable effect was that your face seemed frozen. Jamul and Geoff quickly broke from the field and passed me on the 5th lap, Tejay and Jay rode together the whole race and passed me on the 6th lap. Alex Gallego, his knee mostly cured, passed me on the second-to-last lap, and Tom Robertson passed me about a half mile before the finish on the last lap and I finished about 100 feet behind him (and a lap down, of course). John Weyhrich was next, and Brink trailing him. As promised, the course was a lot of grass, with a little snow on the top (though I made no promises about the snow). I excised the tricky terrain I had planned to include, like the dip down to the Clark Fork, due to the snow, so it was fairly straightforward. Joe Scott has a bunch of raceday photos on his website. http://people.montana.com/%7Ejoescott/ There is a particularly flattering photo of me there that you all may want to blow up to poster size and put up next to your Cannibal Eddie and Indurain posters.

1. Jamul Hahn 53:44

2. Geoff Proctor 53:46

3. Jay Noonan 55:08

4. Tejay V 55:15

5. Alex Gallego 58:20

6. Tom Robertson 59:45

7. John Weyhrich 59:46

8. Brink K 61:53

9. Tim Bechtold 66:12

Judges awarded winner's lap time to lapped riders.

In B, Bob Presta had the field to himself, and finished 2 seconds behind John in raw time.

In Women, Margie Legg finished in 67:44, ahead of Kathleen Jones at 69:08.

In Men 40+, John Coulthard finished in 66:14, Richard Allen in 76:15.

In the team competition, Five Valley Velo was the only team that came ready to play, so I changed the team requirement to 2 people so Northern Rockies and Montana Velo could play as well. The NR team of Jamul and Tom totaled 1:53:39; Montana Velo with Brink and Geoff totaled 1:55:39; and the 5VV team of Alex Gallego and John Weyhrich totaled 1:58:06.

The Big Picture:

Geoff Proctor took $50 and the cool Montana champion's jersey for the Men A series win. Jamul Hahn 2nd ($30), Clint Muhlfeld 3rd ($20).

Kathleen Jones won $25 and the cool champion's jersey for the Women A series win.

John Weyhrich won men 40+ ($25)

Phil Hess won Men B ($25)

Series cash prizes came from the $1 per racer per race MBRA fee from cross races this fall. We gave out $175 in series cash prizes.

We have a digi-photo of the champs and we'll post it pretty quick here.

In the haul of the day, Mike Beltz won the Bianchi cross bike drawing, despite my best efforts to stuff the raffle box and rig the drawing. Though these drawings are completely based on chance, it was nice to see someone like Mike, who put a lot of effort into promoting cross racing this fall, win the bike.

We had ten races in the MBRA Series, and another five races in the Missoula Series this fall, by far the most cross racing opportunities in this state to date. Thank you to all racers for showing up, to all promoters for giving racers a reason to show up, and to all volunteers for helping races go smoothly. A special thank you to the race officials for standing around getting cold and counting all those endless numbers and laps.

For the snowbound, it might be time to hit the rollers, seek dry asphalt, and get ready to flash the pan come March, at the first Training race in Clinton. Or else just ski and play hockey and embrace the season.

Toodles,

Tim