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Greenville USA Pro Cycling Championships

Sep 14, 2009 | Comment(s) 0

The USA Pro Cycling Championships were once again held in Greenville SC, and we were there for it. As an avid runner and cyclist this was a truly fantastic event for me personally. It was also a very successful outing for the CU crew. I should mention that I have been away from the campaign for several months. I was spearheading this campaign in the early winter months but I had to leave due to crewing on the Lifetime Show Army Wives. Production Season three wrapped in early August so I have returned to the CU crew.

Anyhow, back to cycling.

If you have never been to a road race, it's really something you should check out if you ever get the chance. It's hard not to be impressed and awed when over 100 riders come flying by you at an average speed of 26 mph. Mind you they are maintaining that speed for 110-120 miles around hair pin turns, up mountains, and down technical descents. Professional cyclists can easily reach speeds over 50mph descending off mountains. The Cycling Championships was a two-day event. The first day was the Time Trial Event.


Twenty-three Cyclists participated in the time trials, aka "The Race of Truth". In an Individual Time Trial individuals go all out by themselves for anywhere from 15 to 40 miles depending on the course. David Zabriskie, a young rider from the Garmin Slipstream team, has been the king of this event for three years running. This year he extended that reign to four! He's arguably the fastest time trialest out there. Actually in the 2005 Tour De France he won the first stage time trial, clocking the fastest time trial ever in the history of that event, and besting Lance Armstrong at the same time.  In this year's USA Pro Cycling Time Trial he won with a comfortable margin of 45 seconds and beat his own personal best time by over a minute. What I'm trying to say is, the guy is fast. I actually ran into one of my good cycling friends from Charleston at the event and he was able to get Dave Z. to sign his shorts. Zabriskie commented that it wasn't every day that he got sign a dude's shorts.

The second day was the day of the 110-mile road race. Greenville is really great city to host to an event like this. They have an enthusiastic cycling and running community.  It's just a really beautiful area, very lush with a ton of rolling hills and running bike paths. The downtown area is thriving, which is a really nice thing to see. So many downtown areas around the country are collapsing in on themselves in this tough economic time and it's really refreshing to see one that is thriving and even expanding. The culture of Greenville is diverse and mixed. Everyone was friendly, engaging and very approachable.

We had a lot of success with our tent set up, especially considering that our booth really had nothing to do with cycling. We filled out a fair number of surveys, spoke with a great number of existing Credit Union members and got some non-existing members genuinely interested in becoming a member. As I said the vast majority of the people that we spoke with were really engaging and talkative. Perhaps this is due at least in part to the crowd being comprised mostly of cyclists, runners. I've found that these groups of people are some of the best the planet has to offer as far as just being all around good friendly folk.

The Road Race was great. There is nothing quite like standing on the side of the road as over a 100 riders fly by you. The draft that they create is incredible. It really feels like you could be sucked in. They're going so fast and grouped so tightly that if you are riding in the middle of the pack you actually conserve over 30% of your energy. They're literally inches apart. Local boy George Hincappie, 2 Time USA Pro Cycling Champion, came out on top for the day with an amazing sprint finish. George Hincappie is one of the best cyclists around, and he's been around for a while. He has been with Lance Armstrong on every single one of his Tour De France Victories, on top of having his own share of impressive wins. He's the consummate teammate professional, a great humanitarian, and an all around good guy who you just want to be around. It's that character that has won him legions of loyal fans and support. Winning in his hometown was an awesome thing to witness. The crowd went absolutely nuts when he crossed the line. It was a really special event. George was very humble at the award ceremony. He was also the first to get his champagne bottle open! I had to back off quickly for fear of getting the camera soaked in celebratory booze.

Look for a video blog soon.

Related Video / Photos

• The Greenville USA Pro Cycling Championships

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