By Johnny Purvis

Tour of Lawrence is a great weekend of bike racing. You should totally put this race on your calendar. The prize purse brings in a super group of elite riders every year for the Pro Category 1/2 race. This year the top guys who showed up were pro team Elevate Cycling and other top riders from the region such as Steve Tilford and the local elite team Olathe Subaru. Saturdays criterium was 75 minutes. It was full of attacks from Olathe and Elevate. Early in the race there wasn’t much I could do as I was having a difficult time just getting to the front. I was nearly in two different crashes and the pace was high the whole race. A break went late and I wasn’t in a good position to try and make it across so I had to settle for the group sprint. We were sprinting for 4th place and some how I ended up on the front with 400 meters to go. I ended up 9th which was still a decent race but I knew I had more in the tank. I hoped Sunday’s race would go a bit better.

Sunday was crazy hot (99°) and the course was in downtown Lawrence with little to no shade. I was bummed from the previous day having not made the break so I was planning on riding very aggressive from the start and working to get in the break. The pace was high and after about 15 minutes a group of 3 guys went off the front. I knew this was a good looking group and after a minute or so I jumped and went across. It took me about two laps (5 minutes) to get there. As soon as I did two Elevate guys came up behind me to join the front group of 6 (3 Elevate Cycling, 1 Olathe Subaru, Bret Crosby and me). At that point I knew I had made the right decision getting into this break. We rotated and worked well together and after about 50 minutes we lapped the field. Then things got a little confusing with guys having more teammates to work with. With 10 minutes left in the race right after I took a pull one of the Elevate guys attacked along with the Olathe rider and one other Elevate rider, they quickly got a gap. I pushed on with the Elevate rider in tow because that’s all I could do. I tried to bridge back up and kept it close for 5 minutes or so but then the Elevate rider on my wheel jumped and went across to the lead group and eventually won the race. I was still pretty pleased with this race, I know I made a few mistakes towards the end but making the break was a good move. So I’ll take it.

Thanks for following and a big thanks to all our sponsors (Tyson Foods, Shoulder Center of Arkansas, The Bike Route, Creative Awards, CLIF BAR) who make it possible for me to travel around the region competing in these great races.

Tour of Lawrence Day 1 STRAVA Data
Distance 33.5 miles
Time 1 hour 16 minutes
Average Speed 26.1 mph
Average Power 287 watts
Total Work 1237 kj

Tour of Lawrence Day 2 STRAVA Data
(Note: I think the heat was throwing of the calibration)
Distance 33.7 miles
Time 1 hour 16 minutes
Average Speed 26.5
Average Power 230 watts
Total Work 989 kj