A large crowd of Knoxville natives and visitors from out of town came together to cheer on nearly 200 professional cyclists for this year’s USA Cycling National Championships. About 100 men and 80 women from across the country raced through Downtown Knoxville for the U.S. Professional Road and Time Trial National Championships. The races began in the Old City and looped around steep hills on Sherrod Road in South Knoxville. The route was one of the more challenging courses the USA cycling world has experienced. Cycling course designer Jeff Corbett crafted the course based on level of difficulty, ease of access for the cyclists, and amount of traffic.
The men’s time trial was won on Saturday by Joseph Rosskopf, while the men’s winner in Sunday’s road race was Larry Warbasse. Amber Neben took both the time trial and road race medals. For Sunday’s event, men raced 14 laps for a total of 109 miles, while the women raced eight laps for a total of 63 miles. The race was such a success that Visit Knoxville will continue to host this event for the next two years.
