Cyclists race in the Rockabilly Gran Prix

JACKSON, Tenn. — Cyclists from around the world competed in the Rockabilly Gran Prix in Jackson. The two-day racing event takes place in Jackson Saturday and Sunday.

“The road race is typically what you see in the Tour-de-France style race, where it’s a point to point race, except this is loops,” Matt Joiner, race director, said.

David Piercey competed on the Lift Wellness Center Team. “It’s a local loop that is known to all the local riders and racers here in the Jackson area,” he said.

Saturday’s race is an 11 mile loop, which racers are riding up to six times to make a 66 mile course.

Piercey said his strategy is to help his teammates. “A lot of times we talk about attacking, and so I was basically trying to make the race harder by attacking, creating gaps, making people work harder to catch back on,” he said.

Cyclists raced against the clock Saturday night on a timed five-mile course. “So we’ll have people starting at thirty second increments, and they’ll race against the clock for time. So there won’t be a big pack, they wont’ be drafting. They’ll be on an aero-bike, getting down, trying to be as aerodynamic as possible,” Joiner said.

The state championship kicks off Sunday. Cyclists race around a .6-mile loop. “That’s a race we get a lot of spectators for because you can literally sit right in front of Lyft and watch the racers come by every minute and a half, two minutes,” Joiner said.

Racers are competing for more than $12,000 in prize money.