The 1996 Winter Olympic Road Race

The-Winter-That-Never-Ended officially drew to a close as the Minnesota road season opened in the Olympic village of Albertville, WI. A number of localities set records for snowfall in the area, and patches of snow still graced some shady spots along the course. The difficult winter has set most people back a couple of weeks in their conditioning, attendance was down and we got almost no inquiries about the race until the week prior.

The course is a deceptively difficult one. There are a couple of gradual climbs on a shortish 3.6 mile loop. The climbs won't knock anybody out, but if the wind comes up it is a course that won't provide much recovery and thus will wear on you. The second climb is about a kilometer from the finish and is known among local cyclists as "The Poggio" in spite of the absence of twisting streets and screaming throngs.

Kevin Benning (NDSU) took a lightly attended collegiate category. This race was an obvious indicator of the problems people have had coming to form this spring. The collegiate race is fairly short, and last year most of the collegiate riders doubled up in the USCF fields later in the day. This year almost no one did. We actually had a fair number of collegiate racers show up, but a lot of them concluded they only had one race in their legs and chose the more densely populated USCF races for that one race.

The USCF B field stuck together until the final lap. The peloton shattered on the Poggio and came across single file, led by Ben Popp.

This is the 4th year we've held the road opener, and Roger Parenteau has never done worse than 3rd. Roger is not known for his patience and when a group of 4 moved clear early in the race, we all knew he would be there, this time joined by Kyle Butkiewicz, Bill Kuster, and George Hayes. A few chase attempts formed and dissolved but the quartet was never threatened. Hayes faltered on the final ascent of the Poggio and lost contact. Parenteau applied pressure over that last kilometer and while neither Butkiewicz nor Kuster opened a gap, the snap to come around and win had wafted away on a warm southern breeze.

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• USCF A RACE - 43 miles, 40 riders
  1. Roger Parenteau - Freewheel Racing
  2. Kyle Butkiewicz - Flanders
  3. Bill Kuster - Loon State
  4. George Hayes - Rice St. Bikes
  5. Ross Dregor
  6. Henry Walker - Flat City
  7. Cleve Pettersen - Flanders
  8. Tony Tennis - Flanders
  9. Dave Metza - CVCC
  10. Frank Lowry - CVCC
  11. Eric Bartz - Max Velo
  12. Kent McDaniel - CVCC
  13. Fred Feirn - JRA
  14. Joe Funk - Habaneros
  15. Paul Peterson - MCT
  
  
• USCF B RACE - 29 miles, 27 riders
  1. Ben Popp - St. Olaf
  2. Steve Mason - St. Olaf
  3. Ron Trebesch - Loon State
  4. James Clemons - Team Wausau
  5. Tim Sproul - Loon State
  6. Charles Anderson - CVCC
  7. Tom Rosencrantz - Eric's
  8. John Pederson - CVCC
  9. John Kortbein - Loon State
  10. Dan Lonetti - Rice St. Bikes
  
  
• Women - 22 miles
  1. Lisa Strand - Habaneros
  
  
• COLLEGIATE MEN - 25 miles, 9 riders
  1. Kevin Benning - North Dakota State
  2. Greg Seidel - North Dakota State
  3. Aaron Flatau - North Dakota State
  4. Jay Woller - St. Cloud State
  5. Jeremy Tesch - St. Cloud State
  6. Art Huber - St. Cloud State
  7. Tyler Sperry - St. Olaf
  8. Steve Niedzielski - St. Cloud State
  
  
• COLLEGIATE WOMEN - 25 miles
  1. Kori Kelly - North Dakota State
  
  
• CITIZEN MEN
  1. Dan Borgenheimer - CVCC
  2. Kevin Potter - CVCC
  3. David Hogue
  4. Martin Sundberg
  5. Pat Rasmus - CVCC
  6. *tie* Pete Moran - Habaneros
  7. *tie* Craig Rudd - Habaneros
  8. John Bailiff
  
  
• CITIZEN WOMEN
  1. Teresa McNab
  2. Rosie Wielenberg