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The 1998 Winter Olympic Road Race

Dysphagia, thy name is Roger

In it's short history this race has already established several traditions. Pizza to the winners. A threat of snow that doesn't materialize. Five years ago the inaugural Olympic event had it's timing just right as a couple of inches of snow fell the day following the race. This year significant snow fell in the week leading up to race, but fortunately it fell to the North and East of the Alpine hamlet of Albertville.

Another tradition has been outstanding performances from Roger Parenteau. Roger showed up five years ago as a newcomer, still adjusting to the idea of skiing in January instead of piling on early miles in the California sun. The adjustment wasn't too hard as he won that first edition. Roger was MIA last year but in other years has never placed lower than 3rd.

Perhaps this year would be different. This was by far the largest and deepest group assembled for the race. The turnout in years past has been surprisingly consistent at around 120 total entries. This year the surprise was that 190 entries were received, with 83 of them ready to challenge Roger for the Gold Medal pizza in the USCF A race. The organizer would like to express gratitude to the officiating crew of the very organized Ken Ring and Larry Mack for their invaluable assistance in ensuring the event ran smoothly.

  • CITIZEN (USCF Cat 5) - 18 miles, 15 riders
    The turnout in the Citizen race was light, I suspect because the stronger Citizen riders used their one day Cat 5 status and the fact that we allowed open access to the A and B races to test themselves against their license holding counterparts. The field fractured early under pressure from eventual winner Paul Ellis. Nobody cheered louder than Paul's mom.

    1. Paul Ellis, 18, Independence WI 56:36
    2. Kevin Potter, 41, CVCC, Eau Claire WI 57:30
    3. Jeff Peterson, 38, Menomonie WI 57:52
    4. Dan Borgenheimer, 32, CVCC, Chippewa Falls WI 58:10
    5. Greg Werner, 25, CVCC, Chippewa Falls WI s.t.
    6. James Sokup, 30, Hayward WI s.t.
    7. Keith Ziehr, 34, CVCC, Chippewa Falls WI 1:00:51
    8. Philip Sylling, 23, Mankato MN 1:01:04

  • Collegiate A - 40 miles, 8 riders
    A friend from Oklahoma once explained to me that if you lived in Oklahoma and wanted to race a bicycle, you got used to driving. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that that largest numbers of Collegiate racers came from Kansas and North Dakota.

    1. Jeff Peters, Kansas
    2. Ben Popp, Carleton
    3. Paul Sadosky, North Dakota State
    4. Josh Lock, Kansas
    5. Kevin Benning, North Dakota State
    6. Ryan Ness, North Dakota State

  • Collegiate B/C/D - 29 miles, 5 riders

    1. Jim Beberniss, Iowa State
    2. Jon Rosemeier, North Dakota State
    3. John Vendel, Kansas
    4. Christopher Hagen, North Dakota State

  • Collegiate Women - 29 miles, 3 riders

    1. Kori Kelly, North Dakota State
    2. Sheri Sweckl, North Dakota State

  • USCF WOMEN - 18 miles, 13 riders
    It has been several years since our club has run a separate Women's race. We didn't give up on them easily, but we ran a number of poorly attended events over several years before deciding it was not worth the effort.

    The thirteen entries in this race is equal to the combined total of our last three attempts at separate Women's races. We hope that these women enjoyed the opportunity to inflict pain, suffer, and grovel enough to want to come back next year to celebrate the successful re-introduction of this event.

    1. Susan Parman, 33, Tselvio, Wausau WI 53:55
    2. Megan Elliot, 16, Surprise, Tama IA 54:04
    3. Barb Harick, 40, MCT, Minneapolis MN 54:41
    4. Bonny Donzella, 34, SPBRC, Eagan MN 56:22
    5. Rosie Wielenberg, 22, Carleton, Northfield MN 56:23
    6. Erika Riss, 28, SPBRC, St. Paul MN 57:04
    7. Sue Lee, 47, SPBRC, Lilydale MN 57:11
    8. Chris Kane, 32, SPBRC, Minneapolis MN 57:13

  • USCF B RACE - 29 miles, 62 riders
    Frank Lundeen was the story in the USCF B race. Frank exited the peloton mid-race and never looked back. He held a gap of about a minute until the last lap when the pursuit slowed as the chasers began to set up for the sprint for second, taken by Harri Pasila. Frank is the first B racer to finish with a gap. We look forward to seeing him in next year's A race.

    1. Frank Lundeen, 19, WRBC, Frederic WI 1:14:32
    2. Harri Pasila 25, u/a, Bemidji MN 1:16:40
    3. Scott Schurhammer, 27, LSC, Mankato MN s.t.
    4. Terry Baillargeon, 34, WRBC, Osceola WI s.t.
    5. Kevin Terril, 22, LSC, St. Cloud MN s.t.
    6. Matt Paulus, 26, WRBC, Hudson WI s.t.
    7. Kevin Nolan, 36, SPBRC, St. Paul MN s.t.
    8. Sean Bujold, 39, SPBRC, Menomonie WI s.t.

  • USCF A RACE - 47 miles, 84 riders


    Nathan Roark and Peter Fairbanks.


    Andrew Broas with the field sprint forming behind him. While it's difficult to count heads it's clear that most of the 84 starters are gone by this point.

    The race hit the fan early as a group surged off the front in the initial circuit. There was a lot of fitness in the peloton this year though and the chase was quick and effective. The trio of Nathan Roark, Peter Fairbanks, and Andrew Broas took charge shortly thereafter and had a gap before the race was a quarter over.

    The leaders never disappeared from sight, and as the gap shrank Parenteau made his move. Along with Matt Gates, a rider young enough to be his son, he said his goodbye on the Col du Fourrage. The pair blew past the lead trio, each less than half Roger's age, to displace them as race leaders.

    Speeds in the chasing peloton reached the upper 30s on the Albertville Road leg of the course. This kept the breakaways in sight, but couldn't bring them back. Gates thought he had the recipe for victory, but it turned out to be half baked as Parenteau showed he was not yet cooked. While Roger savored yet another Gold Medal pizza, the rest of the peloton was left to contemplate indigestion and the hard-to-swallow realization that they let the most dangerous rider roll away up the road.

    1. Roger Parenteau, 43, St. Croix B & S, Hudson WI 1:56:58
    2. Matt Gates, 25, FCCC, Ames IA s.t.
    3. Nathan Roark, 18, LQCC, Iowa City IA 1:57:10
    4. Peter Fairbanks, 19, FCCC, Minneapolis MN 1:57:16
    5. Andrew Broas, 18, Cuesta, Neenah WI s.t.
    6. Erik Hansen, 28, LSC, Minneapolis MN s.t.
    7. Bryan Joas, 28, CVCC, Wausau WI s.t.
    8. Banning Ostrow, 26, Team GP, Minneapolis MN s.t.

    Roger Parenteau's Olympic palmares:

    • 1993 - 1st
    • 1994 - 3rd
    • 1995 - 2nd
    • 1996 - 1st
    • 1997 - DNS
    • 1998 - 1st