While the future of the partnership between Chattanooga and the Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road and Time Trial Championships is murky, the show is set to go on this weekend with hundreds of cycling’s top American athletes in town competing for the Stars and Stripes jersey.
The Scenic City will host the event for the third straight Memorial Day weekend, starting today with the men’s and women’s time trial championships at the Volkswagen plant, followed by the road race championships Monday on a course that takes riders through downtown, along the North Shore, through the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and multiple climbs and descents of Lookout Mountain.
“What a great outdoor city,” said Micah Rice, USA Cycling vice president of national events, at a pre-race news conference. “There’s so much to do here, and we love how bicycle-friendly it is. There’s so much variety and so many options for these cyclists to warm up and check out the area as well as the bike-share system.
“We’re excited to be here for a third year in a row.”
Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke welcomed the competitors and hailed the event as one of many indications of how far Chattanooga has come as an outdoor destination in the past 40 years.
“When I grew up here, we were called the dirtiest city in America,” Berke said. “The reason that we live now in such a beautiful city is because we decided not to squander what God has given us. You can bike around now, go along our river and see the bounty that we have.
“While I know that the race is what’s important, this allows us to show off the important assets that we have.”
Today’s 19.2-mile time trial course remains unchanged, but the road race course will add a few new wrinkles: more climbs up short-but-steep Kent Street in North Chattanooga and a switch from Broad Street to Market as the connector from downtown to Lookout Mountain. This is aimed at easing traffic for motorists trying to get to Lookout Mountain.
“We did add Kent Street to every circuit, which will make it a little harder for both men and women,” Rice said.
Kent Street, with a 20 percent grade that forces riders out of the saddle, proved to be a fan favorite last year, so including it in all circuits – eight for women, 11 for men – should make the location a popular spot for spectators Monday. The city will close the street to traffic Sunday so fans can draw messages to riders in chalk for the Memorial Day racing.
Also a part of the weekend of racing will be three national championships for the U.S. Paracycling Federation. These inspiring athletes will compete in the time trial today at Volkswagen, the road race Sunday morning at Enterprise South Nature Park and the handcycling criterium Monday in downtown Chattanooga.
The paracycling road race Sunday is a new addition in a new venue.
“We are very pleased to have three days of racing here and two days at the Volkswagen plant,” said Mike Dunne, spokesman for Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger.
For many of the competitors, the courses are familiar after three years.
“Every time you race a new race, it’s about how is the race going to play out,” said women’s pro Megan Guarnier, a former road race champion who finished second last year. “Now we have a few years of experience with the time trial and pacing. You want to make yourself better, and now it’s very measurable whether you’re better than the year before.”
Whether the event will return to the Scenic City for a fourth year remains up in the air. A decision about the 2016 event is expected soon.
“We’re going to have an announcement next week, so stay tuned,” Rice said. “We have three finalists, and Chattanooga is one of those. So we’ll find out next week.”
But for at least one more weekend, Chattanooga is the center of the cycling world for the top American men and women athletes and a place they are happy to return to for a weekend of fierce competition.
Alex Howes, last year’s third-place finisher in the men’s road race and a member of the Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling team, came straight to Chattanooga from last week’s Tour of California. He’s spent the past week acclimating himself to the weather and enjoying time on the Tennessee River when not training.
Despite riding for a top-level UCI Pro Team that regularly competes in the top races in Europe, Howes considers the racing this weekend in Chattanooga among the most important events of his season.
“I don’t know how much Europe cares about the Stars and Stripes (jersey), but I certainly do,” he said. “This is one of three races I do all year that I really care about.
“I mean, I care about all my races, but for me this is bigger than winning a stage at the Tour de France.”
Contact Jim Tanner at jftanner@bellsouth.net. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.