Hundreds of adult and youth athletes will cycle the urban streets and rural roads of the Roanoke Valley this summer in a series of national amateur races.
USA Cycling, the national governing body for cycling in the United States, named Roanoke Friday as the site of this year’s Amateur Road National Championships.
The event, scheduled June 29 to July 2, is expected to pack hotels and restaurants across the region. Spectators will find viewing locations along the courses, which will include downtown Roanoke streets. A locally based cycling team will compete.
Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge, which will host the event, is the region’s convention and tourism bureau. Support for the event will also come from the city of Roanoke and Botetourt County.
Nicknamed VBR, the bureau previously contracted to sponsor a top national cycling team of women and girls named Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty24.
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The team relocated its operations to Roanoke earlier this year and will hold its first practice in the local area next week. Now, a national championship will occur in the same community where the team trains.
“For us it’s kind of now our home team race all of a sudden, so we have a bit of home field advantage, even though we’re just moving here,” said Nicola Cranmer, the founder and team general manager.
The championship was held in Florida last year but that location fell through for this year, setting up the opportunity for Roanoke.
It was just 50 days ago that the sponsorship became public at a celebration at Hotel Roanoke. Landing the championship is great news, said Landon Howard, president of the bureau.
“This event adds to our growing cycling culture and clearly identifies us as a premiere cycling destination on the East Coast. We look forward to welcoming these athletes and families this summer,” he said in a prepared release.
VBR’s sponsorship is for three years. Virginia Tourism Corp. is involved in the sponsorship as well.
The championship will feature road racing of three types: basic road racing, individual time trials and criterium, in which riders travel along a course of less than a mile, usually a square or rectangle. Cranmer said that will happen in downtown Roanoke.
Victors in the various contests will receive jerseys and medals and, in some cases, will advance to world championships.
Even though VBR sponsors the team, the athletes continue to live at their residences around the country, but plan to periodically meet in Roanoke to train in preparation for races by riding area roads and trails. Cranmer moved to Roanoke from Boise, Idaho, the team’s former hub.
The wheels will begin turning for the amateur road championship on a Wednesday and run through Saturday. July 4 occurs the following Monday, setting up a long holiday weekend.
Youth athletes and their families often make a vacation out of traveling to championships, meaning lots of people will visit the area for the first time and may stick around for a few days after the competition ends, said Cranmer, who thinks people will like the mountains.
Howard
Jeff Sturgeon
Jeff Sturgeon covers business in the Roanoke and New River valleys of Virginia. Phone: (540) 981-3251. Email: jeff.sturgeon@roanoke.com. Mail: 210 Church Ave., Roanoke, VA 24011.
