Rob Borland, Chief Marketing Officer for USA Cycling, announces an addition to the U.S. Professional Road Race and Time Trial Championships course bringing it up steep Kent Street in North Chattanooga during a news conference at the Chattanooga Convention Center on Wednesday.Some of the best American professional cyclists are going to hit a wall in North Chattanooga this Memorial Day. And they’re going to hit it more than once.
For the second year, the USA Cycling Professional Road & Time Trial National Championships will be held in Chattanooga, and USA Cycling and local officials were at the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual business expo Wednesday to announce changes to the route for this year’s racing to crown the men’s and women’s national champions in road race and time trial cycling disciplines.
The key change to the racing for 2014 will be the addition of a very steep section of Kent Street in North Chattanooga to the men’s and women’s road race on Memorial Day, May 26. The one-block section of Kent Street has a gradient in excess of 20 percent, steep enough to challenge even the best cyclists in the world.
The steep pitch of the climb up Kent Street combined with tight turns on the North Shore should create chaos among the competitors. The men will climb Kent Street seven times over their 102.8-mile race, and the women will make five trips up Kent Street in the women’s 64.7-mile road race.
“It’s going to split the peloton up a little bit, which I think is interesting,” said Rob Borland, chief marketing officer for USA Cycling. “Because both the men and women are going to hit that hill on both the short laps and the longer circuits, it will particularly start to show at the end of the race when people get tired.