Richmond to host international cycling championship in 2015

It was announced from Copenhagen earlier today that the 2015 World Road Cycling Championship will be held in RVA. What does this mean for a city that will be front-and-center on the international stage.

September 21, 2011; 11:28 AM • by RVANews staff

Richmond has been awarded the 2015 International Cycling Union’s (UCI) World Road Cycling Championship. Competition between host bidders came down to Richmond and Middle East city of Muscat, Oman. Muscat officials, however, withdrew its bid shortly before UCI announced in Copenhagen that Richmond, VA had won the event.

“Richmond is thrilled to be selected to host the 2015 Road World Cycling Championships, joining a list of great cities like Madrid, Florence and Copenhagen,” said Richmond Mayor, Dwight C. Jones in a press release. “Bicycling, for transport and fitness, has been an important focus of my administration. Hosting the World Championships will help bring Richmond one step closer to being one of the world’s great bicycling cities.”

The annual event features several different categories of races, broken of by gender, experience level, as well as race and trial times. The winner of the Road World Championships road race is considered the World Cycling Champion.

Unlike other races, riders in the UCI World Road Cycling Championship are organized by nation, rather than trade teams. The 2015 Road World Championships will take place between September 19-27 and will feature 12 races for Elite Men and Women, Under 23 Men and Junior Men and Women. American men and women have won 13 World Championship titles in both the road race and time trial, including road race titles by Greg LeMond in 1983 and 1989 and Lance Armstrong in 1993.

An economic impact study conducted by Chmura Economics & Analytics found that the 2015 World Championships would generate more than $135 million for the Commonwealth of Virginia and would attract nearly 500,000 onsite spectators.

The last time that the event was held on U.S. soil was in 1986 in Colorado Springs. The event will be successively held in the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain leading up to Richmond’s hosting.

Correction:

It was originally reported that the Road World Cycling Championship was one of the three Triple Crown Cycling tournaments. That, however, is untrue. The three Triple Crown of Cycling tournaments are the Vuelta a España, Giro d’Italia, and the Tour de France.

photo by Team Traveller