The Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road & Time Trial National Championships return to Chattanooga, Tenn., for the third-consecutive year from May 23-25, 2015, where the top road cyclists in America will again challenge the Tennessee pavement over Memorial Day Weekend.
“We are again thrilled to team with Volkswagen of America to bring the 2015 Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road & Time Trial National Championships to Chattanooga,” said USA Cycling President and CEO Steve Johnson. “This Memorial Day Weekend in Chattanooga will feature another great intersection of world class cycling and world class automobiles in a world class city.”
Home of U.S. manufacturing for Volkswagen, Chattanooga hosts the national championships for the third-straight year, and like 2014, the course boasts new challenges.
The road races will showcase downtown Chattanooga along with the tough climb up Lookout Mountain. The men’s and women’s races will begin with a 5.1-mile start circuit — three circuits for the women and four for the men. The same circuit will be used for the finish of each race. The course then takes the riders on a relatively flat run along Market Street to begin the climb up Ochs Highway, which is approximately three miles and climbs 1,150 feet each lap. The race will pass through Lookout Mountain to Scenic Highway, and return to downtown via Market Street. Men will complete four laps up the climb, while the women will do two laps. The “long lap” is 16.5 miles in distance. The men and women will complete the start/finish circuits each lap of the “long lap” and will finish the race with three 5.1-mile circuits each.
The Volkswagen Kent Street Climb is back in 2015, again punishing riders with grades of up to 20 percent. The men and women will face this challenge on each of the “long laps” as well as on three shorter 5.4-mile finishing circuits. New in 2015, the Volkswagen Kent Street Climb is included on each warm-up lap, laboring all riders before the race begins. The course will cross the Market Street Bridge and Veterans Bridge each lap, and spectators will see the riders cross through the start/finish line 11 times during the men’s race and eight times during the women’s race.
The time trial course will be held adjacent to the Volkswagen Chattanooga Plant and features rolling terrain with few turns. Riders will complete two out-and-back runs of 9.5 miles each for a total of 19 miles. The course layout has four turnarounds and will allow spectators to see each rider multiple time.
Riders will vie for more than the Stars-and-Stripes jersey at this year’s event.
“As the title sponsor of the Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road & Time Trial National Championships, we are pleased to present the winners of the men’s and women’s road races with a one-year loan of a 2015 Golf SportWagen,” said Vinay Shahani, Vice President of Marketing, Volkswagen Group of America. “Volkswagen is thrilled to have this cycling event return to the hometown of our U.S. manufacturing, Chattanooga, Tennessee.”
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