At the beginning, it appeared that the 2003 version of the second Balltown Classic would be a repeat of the horrible weather during the 2002 event. Sixteen riders from four states reported to DeWitt, Iowa's City Park on June 28 only to be greeted by distant slashes of lightning and drizzling rain. Nevertheless, at 5:08 a.m., the mass start was called and everyone hoped for the best.

Right at the beginning, two Missouri riders, Jim Amelung and Sam Baugh along with Indiana's Steve Marshall and Dennis Grelk from Iowa broke from the field and worked together to develop a gap that would widen as the day progressed.

Meanwhile, the rest of the field stuck together with the exception of John Thier and Tom McCarthy who settled into their own pace, forming three groups by the time all reached the 50 mile check point.

Between the 50 mile check point and Balltown, at the 100 mile point, gaps began to develop in the middle flight of riders, and four groups developed. At Balltown, individual decisions by riders began to determine the direction this race would take.

The lead group, which had stayed together for the entire first 100 miles, pulled into Balltown as a group, but Grelk, who had taken some hard pulls during this early segment, said he had not taken enough food prior to the start of the race and opted to eat before resuming. Marshall and Baugh, however, hurried to replenish the mixes in their water bottles as well as fill CamelBaks. Amelung on the other hand showed the years of experience in these types of events and grabbed some energy bars from the bag he had sent ahead, got a quick charge of water in his bottles and before anyone knew, was on his way opening a five minute gap.

It was assumed that by working together, Marshall and Baugh would catch up with Amelung before the 150 mile check point, but at the town of Farley, 122 miles into the contest, Amelung appeared to be maintaining the five minute gap over Marshall and about eight minutes on Baugh. By the time they reached the 150 mile check point, Amelung's lead was 10 minutes on Marshall and 12 minutes on Baugh.

Farther back, Grelk was on the road and riding alone. By the 150 mile mark, he was one hour behind the leader due, in part, to flatting. Jim Cartwright from Indiana and Paul Pierce from Illinois had moved up from the third flight and due to an abbreviated layover in Balltown were now in the second flight with Cartwright holding a 13 minute advantage over Pierce, but still nearly two hours behind the leaders at the 150 mile check point.

Gary McNabb and Mike Edwards from Iowa City rode a very strong first 100 miles pulling into Balltown in only 5 hrs 39 min. Later it was learned that this was only the second century they had ever done and the first was the week-end prior to Balltown. Later, the hills and extended distance would take their toll on these two game competitors, but if they choose to continue in endurance riding they could become a force.

The rest of the field broke up into groups of two and three riders with no more than 15 minutes between any of the groups. Aside from the leaders, the rest of the field seemed pretty well matched.

At the end, the first six positions didn't change from the 150 mile mark except that Amelung had extended his lead over all riders. He seemed to get stronger as the day progressed. He had no way to know how well riders behind him were doing and showed considerable grit to keep hammering over a course of 204 miles and 10,000' of elevation gain. He rode the first 102 in 4 hrs 50 mins and the last 102 in 5 hrs 09 mins.

And this is not to say that Marshall, Grelk and Baugh were any less impressive. Their stats speak for themselves. It was learned later that Marshall suffered a broken front shifter cable sometime after Balltown and that Baugh was hampered by knee problems. Amelung later commented that Grelk did yeoman work for the group during the first 100 miles. The weather turned out to be super and there were no DNF's this year as a result. All in all, it couldn't have been much better.

The Balltown Classic part of the John Marino Competition to determine the ultra riders of the year

Results

Rider	Time / Speed
Amelung, Jim, 49, St. Louis, MO	10h 5m / 20.29
Marshall, Steve, 33, Nashville, IN	10h 22m / 19.96
Baugh, Sam, 45, Clinton, MO	10h 28m / 19.84
Grelk, Dennis, 23, Donnellson, IA	11h 28 / 18.09
Cartwright, James, 65, Muncie, IN	12h 32m / 16.56
Pierce, Paul, 63, Hamilton, IL	12h 44m / 16.4
Parker, Dave, 52, Davenport, IA	13h 12m / 15.54
Camp, Joe, 47, Washington, IL	13h 14m / 15.53
Zaborac, Greg, 48, Canton, IL	13h 17m / 15.49
Johnson, Bud, 49, Monticello, IA	13h 22m / 15.43
Wharam, John, 57, Duncombe, IA	13h 22m / 15.43
McCarthy, Tom, 60, Davenport, IA	13h 40m / 15.22
Their, John, 56, Parkview, IA	13h 40m / 15.22
Edwards, Michael, 31, Iowa City, IA	14h 4m / 14.53
McNabb, Gary, 30, Iowa City, IA	14h 4m / 14.53
Truesdale, Doug, 50, Davenport, IA	14h 5m / 14.53