Belgian Waffle Ride Montana: Russell Finsterwald claims overall BWR Quad-Tripel men's title with victory in Bozeman

Russell Finsterwald (Trek Driftless) and Stella Hobbs (Great Northern Cycle & Ski-MAAP) stamped their names into the Belgian Waffle Ride chronicles as the winners of the inaugural BWR Montana on Sunday.

With the victory in Bozeman, Finsterwald secured the elite men's overall in the BWR Quad-Tripel Crown series, while a third place gave Flavia Oliveira Parks (Excel Sports) the elite women's overall.

The men's race played out with a group of 20 forging ahead in the first half of the race, and then a breakaway of three - Alan Schroeder (High Desert Hustle), Alexis Cartier (3T) and Luke Mosteller (Bear National) - rode away to open a three-minute gap. Gradually, a cohesive chase group made inroads in the last hour of racing, with Mosteller the final rider reeled back on the singletrack near the finish.

It was on the technical singletrack where Finsterwald made his move, sprinting ahead of Daxton Mock (Bear National Team-Orange Seal) for the win. Lance Haidet (Specialized-SRAM-Velocio), who was second two weeks prior at Lost and Found in California, took third.

Bear National Team's 19-year-old standout Mosteller, who was ninth at BWR Arizona, held on for fourth. Joel Goettl (Goettl Media-Pain Academy) took fifth.

According to BWR founder Michael Marckx, it was the closest top five finish in BWR history, as only 24 seconds separated the riders, with Finsterwald posting the marker at 5:03:22.

"Dax and I went to the line [together]. Lance was closing in pretty quick on us, so I had to launch my sprint a little early, which I think was good because I have a decently long sprint. That worked in my favor," Finsterwald told Cyclingnews.

Finsterwald, a Colorado Springs, Colorado native, had originally planned to compete at SBT GRVL in his home state, but changed his schedule just a few weeks ago when he realised he still held the lead in the best three-out-of-four series, having a pair of top 10 finishes at BWR Arizona and BWR California then missing BWR Utah in May. His 750-mile drive north to compete in the 111-mile multi-surface race paid off in a big way.

"I'm really glad I came up to Bozeman, it was a super fun course. I just love doing new events because there are so many unknowns. The singletrack, in the end, pleased me the most," Finsterwald explained.

"I'm a big fan of diverse courses like that where you have to use your technical skills, have to use group dynamics and tactics. So it's kind of a course that challenged you in all aspects, which I think is neat. And I think Belgian Waffle Rides are kind of notorious for that.

"When I realized that I was leading the Tripel Crown even after BWR Utah had happened, I talked with Trek and they thought it would be neat if I came up here. We had a few other riders who would be at SBT, so we kind of took the divide-and-conquer approach this weekend on the team."

His Trek Driftless teammates Paige Onweller and Haley Smith finished fifth and sixth, respectively, at SBT GRVL.

It was a home victory for Hobbs, a native of Whitefish, which is located close to the Canadian border high in the Rocky Mountains. She dominated the women's race by storming away from the field on the first climb and riding solo across the line with a time of 5:31:33.

While Hobbs used her legs to put in time to the chasers, it was a train stop that added another four minutes to her advantage. The riders seemed to take the unexpected stop in stride, and battled on for the final spots on the podium.

Australian Courtney Sherwell (Santa Cruz-SRAM) finished second, 12:49 back, which put her in third place in the series. Parks then posted third place, another 14 minutes after Sherwell, to solidify her BWR Quad-Tripel crown, having won the third stop of the series in Cedar City, Utah and going second at BWR California.

Hobbs had not competed in other BWR events so did not score points for the series. She made her mark last year with seventh place at Big Sugar Gravel and is now part of the Life Time Grand Prix field. She had a disappointing Unbound Gravel 200 ride, suffering a pair of crashes and a puncture which left her struggling to 37th in the elite women's field.

Like Hobbs, Finsterwald is also part of the Life Time Grand Prix and they will prepare for the third round of that series on August 9 at Leadville Trail 100 MTB.

While the BWR Quad-Tripel series has concluded, the collection of individual BWR events continue in North Carolina in October and Mexico in November.

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