Leaders announce courses for USA cycling professional national championships
The championships mean tourist dollars, road closures, national attention
Leaders Wednesday morning announced proposed course routes for this year's Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road and Time Trial National Championships and the U.S. Handcycling Criterium National Championships, which are races that will bring top-level athletes and tens of thousands of spectators to Chattanooga.
The event means tourism dollars for Chattanooga and road closures for area citizens.
When leaders announced in May that the ride would come to Chattanooga, they said that the championship routinely draws nearly 50,000 spectators and results in more than $4 million in publicity value.
This is the first year that Chattanooga will host the event, which will be May 25-27.
“As the title sponsor of the USA Cycling Professional Road and Time Trial National Championships, we are proud to be part of one of the most visible cycling events in the country and to bring it to the hometown of our Chattanooga, Tenn., plant,” Jonathan Browning, president and CEO, Volkswagen Group of America, said in a prepared statement. “Our alignment with USA Cycling demonstrates that our environmental sustainability extends beyond our fuel-efficient vehicles and company practices.”
The Memorial Day weekend race will mean road closures downtown and on Lookout Mountain.
The time trial course will be held near the Volkswagen factory.
Participants will complete two out-and-back runs of 9.5 miles each for a total of 19 miles.
The road races will be downtown and will include a difficult climb up Lookout Mountain.
The men’s and women’s races will begin with a 5.1-mile start circuit—one circuit for the women and three for the men.
The same circuit will be used for the finish of each race.
Then, riders will have a flat run out Broad Street before starting up Ochs Highway. That climb is about two miles long.
The race will use Sanders Road to cross Ochs Highway to Scenic Highway and return to downtown via Broad Street.
Riders will also cross Market Street and Veterans Bridge.
Spectators will have several opportunities to see the race from several areas.
