Cannonball Ride sets record with most riders

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When drivers neared the Chester Bridge on Saturday morning, they were probably forced to stop because of a large number of bikes coming across the bridge. Those bikes and riders were part of the third annual Cannonball Ride. The ride, according to organizer John Greenstreet had its highest participation with 132 riders. “It was the biggest turnout at the event ever,” he said. “The finish line at Al’s Place in McBride was super cool and worked out really well.” The ride consists of two races, a 37-mile course that combines climbs of 2,000 feet, while the longer 65-mile course combines climbs of 5,000 feet. The event utilized many different types of terrain including hills, roads but mostly gravel. Technology is a large contributor to this type of race as well. The riders used a GPS to navigate the course as well as the Strava app for timing and scoring. The ride took place in Chester and takes some roads in Missouri. Brian Davis won the 37 mile course with a time of 2 hours, and 8 minutes a full six minutes ahead of the second place rider Nick Heckerson at 2 hours, 14 minutes. The winner of the long 65 mile course was Spencer Seggebruch with a time of 3 hours, 12 minutes “We got rave reviews on the course this year,” Greenstreet said. “People really enjoyed the hills and we only had a few people that couldn’t finish the race because of mechanical failures and others had a stomach bug. But overall, it was a great day.” While the riders were thrilled with the course and other things, they were not all that thrilled with the conditions. There was no rain on Saturday, but there were high winds that messed with riders if they raced ahead and did not stay in groups. “Everybody looks at the course and thinks that the elevations will do them in,” Greenstreet said. “While that is definitely the case, but when you hit the bottoms there and had racers thinking they were just going to tear through last 20 miles or so, they were getting blown around pretty good. We heard more about the wind as a negative than the hills, which is intriguing.” With the good reviews from the riders, Greenstreet believes they will keep the course and all the festivities similar in the future editions of the ride. “We will be doing a lot of the same things, without question,” Greenstreet said. “We will tweak some things here and there, but the neat thing about this region is that there is a lot of gravel opportunity and folks love experiencing new adventures.”