Slideshow: Chattanooga Criterium

The 2008 Tour de Georgia pro bicycling race may not be making a visit to Chattanooga this year, but that doesn’t mean competitive cycling is entirely absent from the area this April.

The Georgia Cup cycling series is the nation’s largest pro-am cycling series, and professional and amateur cyclists are in town this weekend for the Chattanooga races. This year is the first-ever local Georgia Cup event.

Series director James Lowe says the Georgia Cup brings high-quality competition to Chattanooga.

“It’s like grass-roots professional cycling,” Lowe said Saturday. “We’ve got five teams (in the Chattanooga event) that are pro teams, top-caliber teams throughout the country: Jittery Joes, Toshiba. You have big teams here racing.”

The Chattanooga event is comprised of three cycling disciplines — a time trial held Saturday morning in Apison, a criterium Saturday afternoon in downtown Chattanooga and a road race to be held today in Lookout Valley.

Lowe noted that the criterium is the showcase event and provides the most spectatorfriendly racing.

“We always showcase the criterium as our grand prix,” Lowe said. “It’s like NASCAR on two wheels. Everybody’s racing ... 40 miles per hour down this stretch with head winds coming in at 30 miles an hour. It’s exciting stuff for spectators to see.”

Frank Travieso of the Toshiba-Santo team won the top professional category in Saturday’s criterium, and Rebecca Larson won the women’s pro race.

Today’s road race will begin at the air strip at McLemore Cove. For more information on today’s race or the Georgia Cup series, go to www.georgiacup.com.