At least 11 Cup chasers attacked the Tour of Hermann this past weekend. Here are a few of their stories….

“Rode in the Tour of Hermann this past weekend.   I decided to dress warm for the first loop, just to keep my body feeling good.  I’ve been out on rides were I’ve got cold, and I just get discouraged.  Needless to say that was probably a bad idea.  I pulled up the sleeves on my jacket quick.  It warmed up very quickly.  Maybe that first hill on Bader had something to do with it.  The first loop wasn’t bad.  Came in from that 30 miles just over 2 hours and felt good.  I had a little issue finding my wife at the park when I got back in.  That cost me about 15 minutes.  We had such bad cell reception out there.  I got going on the second loop and realized this was not going to be fun.  That second loop took me a while to get through.  The hills there are just brutal, I had a lovely old lady who was sitting out on her porch on the 2nd leg let me know that the hill just get worse from this point forward.  Thanks for the motivation hun.  The sections of loose gravel slowed me down a lot too, but I was still able to finish the second loop in time to start the third.  I really wanted to go out for the third loop, but Saturday rides pose me a problem.  I’m a preacher at a church, and I like to be able to stand while preaching most Sundays.  Knowing that the ride home with 2 kids in the car was going to take my family about 5-6 hours I decided against the 3rd loop.  I’ve kind of regretted it since, but know it was probably a smart decision.

I had such a blast in Hermann.  If you are looking for a challenging ride, this is the one.  The town, it great, the course was marked so well.  There is no need for cue sheets or gps files.  I plan on coming back next year, taking the week off of work and getting the full 5 loop 2 day Tour of Hermann in.   At the end of the day all pre/post riding and race riding i had just over 64 miles and 5400+ feet of elevation climb for my 4th metric.  Hoping to get another 2 or 3 metrics in before the end of April.”- Neil T.

“I finished the ride with 97 miles logged Saturday and was really wanting that 100. Loaded the bike after I changed and stopped at the Katy Trail head just outside Hermann. Took the bike off the rack and jumped on with my flip flops on and giggled as I watched the odometer turn 100. Crazy, yet necessary.” – Renee M.

“I completed the 3 loop course of the Tour of Hermann gravel challenge. I had never done this race before nor had I ever been to Hermann but being very comfortable with the gravel in Columbia, I thought that it would be very similar. Oh how I was wrong. The first 30 mile loop was pretty quick with a few steep short climbs. This gravel was pretty smooth and fast. With spirits high, I sent out on the next 33ish mile loop. Much of this gravel was very deep and chunky. Also, the climbs didn’t seem to end. Riding most of this loop solo also didn’t make things easier. I decided to take about a 30 minute break when I got back to the car to refuel and get ready for the 3rd loop. At this point I was able to reconnect with some friends. After a good amount of food, the six of us saddled up for the remaining 33 miles. The beginning of this loop had some very fast gravel with some rolling hills. This was a much better start compared to loop 2. However, at mile marker 80 or so, the hills started to get much longer and steeper. We eventually came up to what looked like a short hill that went around a bend. As we made the turn, we quickly found that this was no short hill be rather the longest and toughest hill of the day (and we were about 85 miles in). After what felt like a lifetime of barley turning over the pedals. We finally made it up the beast. From there it was just a few more miles of rolling hills and fast gravel with a nice smooth surface finish. What a great day!!”- Brian K.