From the producers of So ILL Fat Tire Fest, Ridin’ Dirty Gravel Camp, O’Fallon Grand Prix, MGM Double Down and Tour de’ Surgeon, comes Cannonball Rides, a fun new concept in competitive cycling. Cannonball Rides are epically fun gravel and adventure road races, held on open roads, completely self-supported, utilizing Strava for tracking, navigation and timing/scoring. No traditional timing clock, no corner marshals, no closed courses; just you, your bike, and your honor.

The first two Cannonball Rides of this year’s calendar will happen as a series in February. Cannonball Chester 2/3/18 and Cannonball Sauget 2/17/18 will compose this early season Mississippi Levee race series. Trophies will be bestowed on the top three overall time holders, scored on the cumulative total time for events in the series. To keep it exciting for everyone we will include others on course segments. So even if you are not in the running for overall you can still compete for some day-of bragging rights. The coolest part; complete both events and earn the one-of-a-kind custom forged Cannonball Ride inaugural edition belt buckle.

This ride series is co-sponsored by River Ratz Cycling! This is a super rad effort in Chester Illinois focused on getting kids on bikes. We are proud that they have chosen to help sponsor the Mississippi Levee Cannonball Rides! Check them out and show them some love.

Chester Cannonball Ride, 57 Miles, 2,500’ Cole Memorial City Park, 10AM Race Start

The course will include a neutral start with police escort down to and across the Mississippi River on the Chester Bridge (closed for ride start). A quick right just across the bridge gets you onto the gravel where the real racing begins. You will head north along the levee then west through some of the southern Missouri hills before dropping back down to the levee surrounding Kaskaskia Island and north into St. Genevieve. There are multiple places to take a rest if needed in St. Gen before you jump on the MODOC Ferry to catch a ride back into Illinois. Once on the Illinois side you head south and east following the Mississippi levee to the Kaskaskia river, a quick trip thru Ellis Grove gets you on the downhill run passing Pierre Menard’s historical home before taking the hard left to make the climb up into Fort Kaskaskia State Park. We descend from the park to once again engage the gravel as we race to the finish at Chester. Just before town we ride almost directly thru the Menard Correctional Center before going under the Chester bridge which leads to the finishing climb into Chester and the finish right in front of the Randoph County Courthouse. Then head over to Benson’s Wine Bar, warm back up, grab a bite, grab a drink and congratulate the other finishers before heading home.