Former University of Georgia diver Ansley Long began cycling less than a year ago, using the sport as a competitive outlet after her collegiate athletic career came to a close. In less than six months, she started racing, and this weekend, she claimed her first multi-day event win at Chattanooga’s River Gorge Omnium.
Long, a doctoral student and Category 4 racer from Athens, Georgia, was one of several new racers to find success during the weekend as inexperienced riders had podium finishes across the lower levels of the weekend races.
“I really just wanted to go out and have fun and do as well as I could,” she said. “I don’t take it too seriously, but I train really hard. Athens is a really good place to ride bikes, so that has helped tremendously.”
The Athens-based racer won Friday’s time trial, Saturday’s criterium and placed second in Sunday’s road race.
In the men’s Category 4 race, Kennesaw resident David Anderson, a first-year racer, followed an attack from Colombian racers with team Boyaca Raza de Campeones to place third in the road race.