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Talansky a USA Cycling champ in first visit to ChattanoogaKristin Armstrong wins women's title at USA Cycling Professional Time Trial Championships
The words of Alex Howes may do little to keep the Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road and Time Trial Championships here past this weekend. Even Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke noted Friday that the event may wave bye-bye to the Scenic City after three straight Memorial Day weekends, saying,"We understand that these types of events move around."
But as Outdoors Chattanooga, the mayor's office, the Sports Committee and the Convention and Visitors Bureau sweat U.S. Cycling's tribute to The Clash by pondering the musical question, "Should I stay or should I go now?", they might also want to embrace the gifted cyclist Howes' take on our town.
"Riding a bike," he said, "is pretty low on the list of great things to do here."
And he meant that as a compliment.
"There's great restaurants," Howes continued. "I'm partial to the Terminal, but Community Pie's also a favorite, and the Public House. Clumpie's Ice Cream, too. It's a pretty friendly, open community. Very outdoorsy. You have the mountains and the river. I just went for a swim this week. I would not mind a bit if it stayed here."
Nor is Howes the only elite cyclist more than happy to keep calling Chattanooga home for another year or three.
"The downtown area is phenomenal," said Carmen Small, a pro cyclist since 2007 who has finished in the top three of the women's time trial each year in Chattanooga . "And the people. Two years ago, I was climbing up Lookout (Mountain) on a practice run and stopped at some person's house for water. They not only gave me water but invited me in.
"I'd love for it to stay here. It's pretty sad to hear it might leave."
As Berke said, every sporting event moves around these days except the Masters and College World Series. Especially those competitions that have temporarily called Chattanooga home. Or don't you remember the painful exits (at least for us) of the SEC women's basketball tournament, Spring Fling and NCAA FCS (formerly I-AA) championship game, to name but three?
When it comes to relationships, we've been involved in more breakups than J-Lo.
But if USA Cycling is correct that last year's cycling championships brought an economic impact of $5.9 million to the Scenic City, you also wonder what we could do to keep the event. Or, if necessary, what could be out there in our future to replace such monstrous revenue on a holiday weekend.
From a completely opposite perspective, could we be reaching a point with big events -- two Ironman competitions, USA Cycling and the Head of the Hooch -- that could damage the health of our triathlons, 5Ks, 10Ks and youth tournaments?
"We've gotten to a point," said Outdoors Chattanooga director Phillip Grimes, "where we have to be careful not to saturate the city with these (big events) to the point we can no longer welcome the 5Ks and 10 Ks, all those things for weekend warriors we've been so good at hosting in the past."
This doesn't mean Grimes wishes USA Cycling Championships or Ironman to move elsewhere. He knows the Ironman was responsible for an economic impact of $8 million during its September appearance. He knows the worth of the Head of the Hooch rowing competition.
But after 20 years of watching our town's outdoors reputation grow following his move from Richmond, Va., Grimes also knows that, "People are knocking down Chattanooga's door to bring events here."
Nevertheless, it sounds like the cycling competition is leaving.
As one USA Cycling employee noted Friday: "I think there's a sense that they want to spread it around a little bit. It's been in this part of the country (seven years in Greenville, S.C., three here) a long time."
To that end, if USA Cycling is staying, why not have announced that on Friday, generating plenty of goodwill and enthusiasm for the weekend?
Not that such logic to move it around is without merit -- unless you're the community getting jilted. Our nation's finest cyclists come from all corners of this great land. It's understandable they'd like to experience more of those corners. Besides, each time someone like Howes or Small talks up the Scenic City, the good word spreads, whether it keeps this particular cycling event here or not. And if we're as good as we think we are, it might even come back somewhere down the road, though no other mid-major sporting event ever has.
Still, there's more than one reason why we won Outside Magazine's "Best Town Ever" award in 2011 and why we've at least reached the Elite Eight of the 64-city draw this time around. (Having won, we were banned from the competition again until this year.)
Again, Grimes: "It wasn't a surprise to our city that we were worthy of that title. But nationally, people who'd never thought of Chattanooga before, suddenly did. Now, with all the magazine articles that have been written about us, the world-class events we've brought here, the cost of living here, the fantastic volunteers we have, you can't have a discussion about the best outdoors town in America and not have Chattanooga be a part of it."
According to USA Cycling, more 10,500 spectators who hadn't been a part of the cycling championships in 2013 attended in 2014 -- a jump of 35 percent. Should such an increase continue this weekend, it might be hard for the organization to move elsewhere. It might be equally difficult for our city not to do everything in its power to keep the event here.
But as Small spoke of the large pluses she believes we have -- everything from our enthusiastic crowds to the challenging yet beautiful road course -- over the unknown foes we're competing against, she also noted how she hoped USA Cycling would consider bringing a "women's pro tour" event here in the future.
Having them agree not to move it around after three years would be even better.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.