By Johnny Purvis

[Photo By Biff Stephens]

The River Gorge Omnium is in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It consists of 3 stages, a time trial, criterium and road race. I didn’t race the TT but I did race the criterium and road race.

Saturday night’s crit started at 8:30 pm. I feel like I’m getting the hang of night crits finally. Last year I didn’t do any night crits and this year I’ve done 4. This was the fastest crit I’ve ever been in, 29.4 mph average! It was a loaded field with 118 starters and tons of pro and elite riders from surrounding states. I fell back pretty far early due to some crashes. But later in the race I was able to make some good moves on corners and moved up into the top 20 with 8 laps to go. I had a chance to squeeze into the top 10 with about 400 meters to the finish but my sprint was lacking and I ended up getting passed by a few riders for 16th place.

Sunday morning’s road race had over 100 participants in the P1/2 race and over 5,000 ft of climbing with a large portion (1,200 ft) of that being the final climb to the finish line at the top of Raccoon Mountain. The race started at 11:15 am and it was already near 90 degrees. This was the biggest road race that I’ve done so far, with full road enclosures. Needless to say it was still tiggggggghhhht early on and really hard to move around in the group. Around 40 miles in we hit the first major climb Sand Mountain (1,000 ft) where there was a KOM cash prize to the leader of the race. Teams were sending off attacks from the bottom. I was doing everything I could to hang with the top 7 guys in the front group until about halfway up a Lupus Racing rider threw in a massive serge and dropped me and 1 other rider. I pushed really hard alone in-between groups trying to get back to the lead group. We hit the top and were 10 seconds back from the leaders and about 25 seconds ahead of the 2nd group. I made a push and dug deep at the top and just caught back on. Shortly after more riders started to join the front and when we got to mile 50 we had a lead group of around 40 riders. From this point on I just tried to eat and dink as much as I could and hide from the wind. With about 10 miles to go, 2 riders slipped off the front and shortly after 2 more bridged across. When we hit the bottom of the final climb one Lupus rider attacked and dropped everyone, he bridged to the leaders and won by nearly 30 seconds. Me and a few others rode together most of the climb with a sizable gap to the next group. I was climbing harder than I’ve ever climbed this late in a race and with about 1 mile to go a Team Jamis rider Stephan Bassett attacked our group of 5 riders with a monster serge and demolished us. I fought hard the last few minutes and reeled in 2 guys to finish 7th on the day. I’m super happy with this result, 4 of the guys in front of me race on professional teams and the other 2 are very well rounded elite racers. It was a great weekend of bike racing and Tennessee is a blast. Put this race weekend on your calendar it is worth the trip!

I’d like to thank our sponsors who make it possible for me and others on the team to travel and participate in some great races around the region. Tyson Foods, Shoulder Center of Arkansas, The Bike Route, Creative Awards and CLIF BAR.

STRAVA CRITERIUM RACE DETAILS
Distance: 27 miles
Time: 56 min.
Elevation: 125 ft
Speed (avg.): 29.4 mph
Power (avg.): 287 w
Work: 918 kj

Link: https://www.strava.com/activities/693121869

STRAVA ROAD RACE DETAILS
Distance: 70 miles
Time: 3:01
Elevation: 5226 ft
Speed (avg.): 23 mph
Power (avg.): 266 w
Work: 2340 kj

Link: https://www.strava.com/activities/693122020/segments/16992700071