The routes of the 2015 UCI Road World Championship races were announced yesterday. As someone who has lived almost his whole life within an hour or two of Richmond, Virginia, every piece of news involving the 2014 championships reignites my amazement that the first USA-hosted champs race in decades will be taking place in this small Southern city.
The geography of central Virginia might not initially strike an observer as likely to provide an interesting race profile, but the wonderful thing about a circuit race is that it allows otherwise small challenges to become serious obstacles over repeated visits. Richmond is not in a mountainous region of the state. Its streets are not paved with an abundance of cobbles. But the few steep slopes and the few sections of cobbled roadway, taken on time after time over the course of a day’s racing: that can make for quite a demanding showdown. That’s what the Richmond road race promises to be, now that its course has been revealed.
Another important aspect of this road race will be its technicality. The circuit contains one complete 180 around a skinny median, and a number of other very sharp turns as it cuts back and forth through city blocks. Richmond is not a massive city with miles of sprawl, but this race is taking place right at its urban center. It is going to be hotly contested and it could get hairy. The last four kilometers of each lap are going to include three steep inclines, basically guaranteeing an abundance of attacks to thrill everyone making the trip.
And the best part? Virginia has a sizeable contingent of cyclists and cycling fans, but I’d expect the majority of people coming to these events are going to be new to live bike racing. This is a country that, especially in the last year or so, has simply not been a place where interest in the sport has run particularly high. Bringing this race to this place offers a chance to show a group of people who might never have tuned into NBC Sports just how thrilling bike racing can be. That’s what’s so exciting about the course unveiled today: I think the Richmond World Champs will offer an excellent opportunity for the sport to reach out to a new fanbase, and what I”m seeing with this new course looks like a great start.
The time trial course looks like it will offer a nice challenge as well. 53 kilometers of road with a few small bumps and some twists and turns toward the finish line will provide a good balance; the technical challenges will be there, the elevation will change enough that it will at least mean a few seconds here and there, but overall it looks like a good old-fashioned race of truth.
And American coverage being what it is, I am even more excited with both the location and the specific courses as they’ve been laid out: as much time as media outlets broadcasting in the home country will focus on local culture and history (and they will, because that’s how cycling coverage works in this country), Richmond, and these roads, will offer plenty for viewers to enjoy. Fans here and abroad will surely be treated to an abundance of riverside shots and a thorough rundown of the rich history of this place when the peloton comes to Virginia in 2015.
For now, Omloop het Nieuwsblad awaits, with WorldTour stage races Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico right round the corner. Check back in soon for previews of both!
-Dane Cash
Photo by Bill Dickinson.