(HERMANN, MO.) — A record 33 people made their way into an elite club this past weekend by completing all 200 miles over five loops of Alpine Shop’s 2022 Tour of Hermann Gravel Challenge bike race throughout Missouri’s wine country in Hermann, Mo.
Saturday, April 30: Storms threatened to postpone the race before anything could begin, but it was actually rain from earlier in the week that caused the most problems as Loop 1 had to be re-routed thanks to rising water on one of the water crossings. GPS devices tried to reroute numerous participants in all sorts of ways, but race officials eventually got everyone back to headquarters at Hermann City Park on a day that the gravel throughout the area was wet and sticky. Tom Keller (47) and Aaron Fader (48), both from Bloomington, Ill., matched each other the entire day (and the weekend for that matter), finishing every loop of the weekend within two one-hundredths of a second. Jon Okenfuss (28) of St. Louis, stayed with the two leaders for the first two loops but fell off the pace in Loop Three on Saturday.
On the women’s side, Anastasia Yanchilina (35), of St. Louis, finished Loop One about 16 minutes behind Carrie Cash (50, St. Louis) and Katherine Lin (26, St. Louis). But by Loop Three, Yanchilina had taken the overall lead in the race just over a minute in front of Lin.
Sunday, May 1: The clouds and threatening skies from Day One were blown away by strong winds for Day Two, drying out the loops and giving riders some much cleaner jerseys rolling through the finish line for the final 99 miles of the Challenge. Keller, Fader and Okenfuss ended up as the top three riders with Okenfuss a little under 39 minutes behind the front pair. Yanchilina took home the Open Women’s category more than an hour and 17 minutes ahead of two Illinoisans, Suzanne Rienhart (51, Champaign) and Claudia Langarica (50, Chicago). Rinehart would beat out Langarica by less than a minute to the second-place finish over the 200 mile course. Neither Cash nor Lin completed Loop Five.
Over the two-day event, only 33 out of the more than 235 participants finished all five loops, completing 200 miles of riding and climbing 11,785 feet of elevation gain over 16 different Category 5-rated climbs.
The Tour of Hermann Gravel Challenge features a unique structure with five completely different loops that participants determine how many they will complete. Three loops with a total of just over 100 miles are offered on Saturday and another two loops just under 100 miles are available to ride on Sunday. Riders must start with Loop One on Saturday and must Loop Two and Three in order if they decide to keep riding. On Sunday, all participants, even those that only completed one loop the day before, start with Loop Four. In the end, the challenge of riding 30 miles, 200 miles or somewhere in between is completely up to the individual participant.
Results: Overall Results PDF | Women’s PDF | Men’s PDF | Overall Results Excel | Results by Gender Excel
Photos: Janice Slover Photos: Day 1 – Day 2 | Dan Singer Photos