USA Cycling Pro Championships spin through town

(Credit: Heidi Heilbrunn)

The Upstate has been known for its large biking community and its challenging cycling courses for years. When the USA Cycling Pro Championships were moved from Philadelphia to Greenville in 2006, the rest of the world got a look into what keeps pros like George Hincapie and Craig Lewis in the area.

All eyes will be on Greenville again this year as the event returns to the area for the fourth time, featuring both internationally known pros and up-and-coming locals competing in an individual time trial on Aug. 29 and a road race championship Aug. 30. Amateurs will be able to try their hands at the Paris Mountain climb during the Stars and Stripes Fundraising Challenge on Aug. 30. And for the first time, the event will host two races for the U.S. Handcycling Series, presented by the Paralyzed Veterans of America. 

When it comes to the pros, here are some faces to watch:

George Hincapie
The hometown hero, Hincapie has participated in 14 Tour de France races and five Olympics, and is the only rider to have been part of all seven of Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France-winning teams. But Hincapie, a member of Team Columbia-HTC, is a gifted rider in his own right, the only American to win the Ghent-Wevelgem and Kuume-Brussel-Kuume classics and a team leader for Team High Road this season. A crash during Stage 17 in this year’s race resulted in a shoulder injury, but he finished the race and is planning on competing in this year’s Pro Championships.

Craig Lewis
The Greenville resident and Hincapie’s teammate might only be 23, but he’s already considered one of the front-runners to take up Lance Armstrong’s mantle. He has had strong showings in the Tour of Ireland and was the USA National road and criterium champion, and hopes to do well in the Pro Championship road race.

Lewis says he is most looking forward to spending time with his family, who he is away from for much of the year while riding and training in Europe. He says he feels “spoiled” to be able to do a major race in his hometown.

“It is very special,” he says. “Some guys race their whole lives and never do a big race near their home. So I try to make the best of it and really enjoy it while it is in Greenville.”

Dave Zabriskie
The winner of all three of the Pro Championships’ Time Trial events, Zabriskie also received a silver medal in the time trial at the 2006 UCI Road World Championships and was the holder of the yellow jersey in the 2005 Tour de France. The Salt Lake City native and member of Team Slipstream/Chipotle also set the record for the fastest time trial in the history of the Tour de France in 2005.

Spencer Beamer
Beamer, a 21-year-old Furman University senior, is participating in his third Pro Championship event. The course, which requires cyclists to climb up Paris Mountain four times, isn’t suited to Beamer’s particular strengths, so he’ll be playing more of a support role for his other Team Mountain Khakis Presented by EP-NO teammates.

“Most people don’t understand how big of a team sport this really is,” Beamer says. “If you just went out by yourself, you’d never do well, no matter how strong you were. You need teammates to do stuff for you that most people don’t really understand. The feeding, blocking the wind—just getting in front of them can make a world of difference.”

Because the Pro Championship is one of the few pro events that American cyclists who race in Europe come back to the U.S. for, Beamer says, the competition level is amongst the highest for American events.

“It’s not a money thing,” Beamer says of a win at the event. “It’s more of a pride thing.”

Andy Baker
Beamer’s teammate and an Easley native, Baker will be participating in this year’s road race but is “up in the air” about the time trial after last year’s event, when a bout of food poisoning almost kept him from finishing.

“I knew as soon as I started it wouldn’t be good, but I couldn’t pull out at that point,” Baker says.

The Furman University student, who has been participating in other events leading up to the Pro Championship, says the mental preparation is just as important as the physical training.

“I tend to get inside my own head,” Baker says. “I try to calm myself down and stave off the tension for as long as possible before I get into the race.”

Boyd Johnson
While the Hincapies and the Zabriskies have their eyes on the ultimate prize, for some local pros, finishing the road race is the goal. Johnson, 30, a New York native and current Greenville resident, is hoping to finish the 110-mile course this year along with at least a couple of his DLP Racing teammates.

“It’s such a hard race and you’ve got the best riders in the world here,” he says. “The first thing is just focusing on getting to the finish. It’s one of the hardest courses, but it’s great, because you can never say that whoever won, won it be accident. It’s a great course for picking the best rider.”
 
He says racing in a city he has chosen to make his home gives him extra motivation to “stick with it and not give up when it gets really hard.” He hopes to provide the same motivation to others when he opens his own cycling training center in Greenville in the fall.

For the full schedule of racing events, click here.

Places to avoid if you’re not a bike buff
Is the whole cycling thing not really your bag? If you’ll be more concerned with hopping on a bar stool than hopping on a bike (or watching other people hop on bikes) Aug. 29 and 30, here are some key places to avoid:

Steer clear of the area around Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research, the site for the Professional Time Trial Championship and the U.S. Handcycling Time Trial on Aug. 29. The race will start and finish at the south section of CU-ICAR, at Millennium Boulevard and Research Drive, and do a 6.9-mile loop on parts of Carolina Point Parkway, Innovation Drive and Laurens Road.

If you live in or around downtown Greenville and don’t want to deal with cycling madness, you might want to use Aug. 30 to finally take that day trip to Charlotte you’ve been talking about.

The Stars and Stripes Challenge Bicycle Ride, which runs from 7:30 a.m.-noon and the USA Cycling Professional Road Race Championship, which runs from 1-5:30 p.m., will start and finish at Main and Camperdown streets in the West End of Greenville and will also travel for four laps along North Main Street.

But while the road race takes riders out of downtown and up over Paris Mountain (if you were planning on hiking the mountain for the first time this weekend, put it off another weekend), other events will be going on along Main Street. The Health & Wellness Expo will be held along Main noon-5 p.m., and downtown Greenville will host the Criterium for the U.S. Handcycling Series from 1:30-2 p.m.

Note that if you do find yourself in one of these areas during these cycling events, you’ll be stuck there until the event is completed.

Route maps for all events can be found online at www.usacyclingchampionships.com.