USA Cycling confirms Pro Road Nats back in Knoxville while new Gravel Nationals in the works
Curtis White (Steve Tilford Foundation Racing) battled with defending champion Eric Brunner (Blue Competition p/b Build) and held the lead for his first elite men's title at 2022 US Cyclocross National Championships(Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)
The USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships will take place for a second time in Louisville, Kentucky next season, returning to Joe Creason Park for the first time since 2018. USA Cycling confirmed dates and venues for 11 of its upcoming national championship events, making the announcement after a second return for ‘cross nationals in five years to Riverside Park in Hartford, Connecticut.
The weather conditions for the elite races on Sunday in Hartford for the 2022 Championships were similar to the wintry setting from 2017, with heavy snow showering Clara Honsinger (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) for her third consecutive elite women’s victory and Curtis White (Steve Tilford Foundation) for his first-ever elite men’s title. White had taken three consecutive silver medals in the elite men’s race, the first time in Louisville in 2018.
“Louisville is very committed to the sport of cycling at the highest level. We’re excited to host the 2023 Cyclocross Nationals and hope for some of these epic conditions [snow] at Joe Creason Park,” said Greg Fante, vice president of sports development for the Louisville Sports Commission.
Louisville hosted the UCI World BMX Championships in 2001 and the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2013. The BMX events were held indoors at the Kentucky State Fair and the Freedom Hall while the cyclocross races, hosted in the US for the first time, were staged at Eva Bandman Park.
Fante said the Eva Bandman Park venue was no longer a viable option because of rising floodwaters in 2013. Since Eva Bandman is located along the Ohio River, concerns about water on the course forced the UCI to compact its race schedule to hold all of the races in a single day on Saturday. That proved prudent, as the Ohio River spilled its banks and left most of the course underwater on Sunday.
”You get one pass with a flood, so we’re not going to take that chance again. We have proven we have an excellent course at Joe Creason. We appreciate the partnership with USA Cycling,” Fante added.
The cyclocross races will return to the venue used for nationals in 2018, where heavy rains created epic mud conditions that year that left city officials unhappy with significant damage to the meadows section of Joe Creason Park.
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Also on the replay list for USA Cycling is a sixth trip to Knoxville, Tennessee for the US Pro Road Nationals, June 22-25. The 2023 dates complete the final year in a seven-year agreement, with racing halted in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. US Pro races crown six national champions for elite men and women across three disciplines - time trial, criterium and road race.
“It has been an incredible achievement and honor to host USA Cycling since 2017. This will be the last year of our current agreement, and we will warmly welcome the riders back in the future. We’ve become very close with USA Cycling, and are looking forward to seeing 2023’s exciting event here in Knoxville,” said Kim Bumpas, president of Visit Knoxville, who left the door open for the organisation to bid on a ‘reunion tour’ for road nationals, like cyclocross nationals returning to Hartford and Louisville.
USA Cycling also confirmed they would introduce a Gravel National Championships event in 2023. The dates and location for the inaugural event will be announced in the coming weeks.
Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. She has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast). Her favorite road and gravel rides are around horse farms in north Georgia (USA) and around lavender fields in Provence (France), and some mtb rides in Park City, Utah (USA).
