Saturday morning I
packed up the car to head down to Richmond to view the World Championship Road
Races. My plan was to arrive in the late afternoon, catch the end of the
women’s event and then walk around downtown. The Virginia capital was once a
major railroad hub and I found out on a historical society website that several
stations are within a few blocks of each other, right in the middle of the
race circuit. I would also be looking for some options as far as parking and access
to the men’s race on Sunday.
After initially
looking at the race route a couple of weeks ago, I decided that the place to be would be Libby Hill
Park, which included a steep, winding cobbled road and was to have a large
viewing screen with which spectators could view the action as it unfolded.
Unfortunately there only seemed to be street parking in this old neighborhood,
and the prospects of getting in and out easily seemed very poor.
To promote the idea
of spectators riding in to view the race, I had heard Richmond planned on
hiring bike valets and setting up bike “garages” during the week-long series of
races. I originally had the idea to take advantage of these services and park a
few miles north of the city to completely avoid the parking and traffic hassles.
To my dismay, the weather forecast showed rain all weekend, and I didn’t really
feel like soaking myself with a ride before
the race and being miserably soggy for hours during the action. However, I put
my Bianchi trail bike into the back of our Honda Fit, just in case I found no decent
alternatives.
I encountered a bit
of drizzle on the drive to Virginia, but the heavy rains never came. As I
circled around the downtown race circuit, approaching the city from the south,
I noticed a commercial property that was being used as a temporary lot for the
race, at about half of the price of those I had seen advertised on the W.C.
website. This area was close to a paved trail that was only a short ride out to
my intended viewing spot in the park on Sunday morning. Happy to have found a nice
compromise, I moved on to explore downtown Richmond.
The Main Street
Station is a spectacular old building once shared by the Chesapeake & Ohio
and Seaboard Air Line (its “air line moniker intended to mean “direct route”).
Amtrak still serves passengers at the station, and a developer is working to
turn the enormous train shed into a market/convention space, much like that
which exists at Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal. The photo below is an artist’s
conception of the finished construction.
I witnessed Great
Britain’s Lizzie Armistead powering her way to the women’s World Championship,
then walked around to find six other nearby structures, some which were freight
stations and others that were less elaborate passenger stations belonging to competing
railroads, in this case the Southern Railway:
On the way back north to my hotel, I visited Union Station,
which is a spectacular neo-classical building now containing a children’s
museum:
When I woke up
early Sunday morning, the rains had yet to move in, but I wasn’t getting my
hopes up, since the weather reports were still pretty bleak. I grabbed
breakfast and packed up my stuff, leaving some dry clothes on the passenger
seat, so that if needed after the race, I could make a quick change before
driving home.
Traffic was still
very light heading back into the city, and since I was so early, I took a shot
and drove by Libby Hill Park on my way to the lot I had spied the day before.
The Honda Fit is very compact, but I still couldn’t believe that I was able to
find a space “just my size” only a couple blocks north of the park! With such
good fortune, I didn’t mind so much the thought that a bit of wet weather might
eventually occur, especially now that I wouldn’t have to ride in the rain. As I
stepped from the car, I grabbed the raincoat I had brought.
I had walked about
a hundred yards from the car when I thought, “You know, if the sun comes out
while I’m down there for the next few hours, I might want my hat for my bald
head.” I returned to the Fit and snagged my sunglasses while I was there. I was
very glad I did – amazingly, that raincoat only served as a cushion while
viewing the race. There was some very brief, light mist, but into the early
afternoon the skies were just breaks of clouds and sun!
The first few laps
of the race I positioned myself where the cyclists first turned right, up onto
the cobbled climb – a perfect place for the slow-down, accordion effect that
happens on such an incline and provides a great view of the riders. It bothers
me when I see people constantly looking through their camera(phone)s, instead
of actually viewing any event, so I was determined to just take a couple of
shots during the first few of the 10-mile laps (of which there were SIXTEEN),
and then just watch the action with my eyes.
The crowd was
entertained by someone in an Evel Knievel costume riding up the climb several
times, and his red, white and blue, star-spangled jumpsuit inspired early
chants of U-S-A, U-S-A. Later, another individual dressed much like the Tour de
France’s famous Didi the Devil attempted to run up the climb. At this point the
race was underway, and the person was intercepted by security. I heard a very
calm explanation being offered as he was being led by the arm back down the
hill, about how “these people will be drinking, and we can’t let this kind of
stuff start now, or it will only get worse”.
The Dutch team led
the peloton into the park on the first lap:
I snapped a couple more photos, this one featuring Italy’s
Daniele Bennati, who almost seems to be looking right at me, while just a
couple bike-lengths behind him is the star of this year’s Vuelta a España, Tom
Dumoulin, riding in the Dutch orange kit with a black helmet.
The peloton had
actually entered the park in too big of a bunch on this first lap and when they
reached the pinch point, came to a grinding halt with many of the cyclists
having to put a foot down. I looked up, and there was 2014 Tour de France
champion Vincenzo Nibali, right in front of me. I had just put my camera in my
pocket and stood there a bit stunned by my luck (probably a little star-struck
as well). If I had another couple of seconds before he clipped back in and took
off, I should have said “Ciao Vincenzo” or “Buon giorno” and gotten his
attention!
Lap two – the bearded
wonder from Germany is Simon Geschke, who won a stage at this year’s Tour de
France. He is surrounded by Italian teammates Daniel Oss and, in the funky
helmet, Giacomo Nizzolo, who won the points jersey at the Giro d’Italia. The
Columbian towards the right in the all-white kit with a dark blue and green
helmet (from his Movistar trade team) is one of my favorite names in cycling,
Winner Anacona.
A couple laps later
I moved across the road to catch the peloton heading up Libby Hill. Former
world champion Michal Kwiatkowski can be spotted in the middle of the group,
wearing the white and red Poland jersey with “CCC” on the side and a pale blue helmet.
I think it is rather strange that a rider wears his trade team helmet,
especially when it completely clashes with national colors, but I’m sure it’s
some type of sponsorship concession!
Movistar and Spanish teammates Jon Izaguirre and Alejandro Valverde are
in yellow, just below the 4K sign. German star Tony Martin is in his white and
black team kit, just above the dude taking a selfie, and right in front of Tony
is the day’s eventual winner, Peter Sagan, wearing blue and riding the black
bike with neon S-Works decals.
I understand that
many people in attendance weren’t knowledgeable cycling fans and were just taking in the festive
atmosphere, but despite the cliche chants of U-S-A, “our” national team really
didn’t have the firepower to win this event. They did, however, try their best
to make it interesting, putting hometown hero Ben King in the early breakaway
to get the crowd fired up. This group was reeled in with about five laps
remaining, and teammate Taylor Phinney took his turn jumping away with three
others to send the fans on the hill into a frenzy.
A knowledgeable
gent sitting next to me, agreed that the cheering was fruitless because the
field was simply packed with too many powerful riders, but we forgave those
hopeful (and mostly clueless) U.S. fans. This group lasted until two laps
remained, but when American Tyler Ferrar launched a last-ditch attack with
Belorussian Konstantin Siutsou and gained 10 seconds during the final lap, the
crowd was absolutely losing it! My new friend and I knew, with Tyler being more
of a sprinter, that the hilly finish would be his undoing, but we hoped he
would at least reach the park in front so that he could hear the roar of the
crowd.
Alas, it was not to
be, as the favorites were now near the front, driving the pace and looking to
rip into the cobbled climb and shed the pretenders. Tyler was caught about a
half mile from the park and was quickly spit out the back as Czech powerhouse
Zdenek Stybar led the pack over Libby Hill for the last time. The stretched out
peloton came together on the decent back into the city center, but Peter Sagan
made a vicious move over the nineteen percent climb up 23rd Street
and used his superior bike handling skills to weave down the backside of that ascent
to build a gap that he hoped to maintain on the long finishing grind up
Governor Street to the finish line on Broad.
Even the casual
cycling fan knew of Peter Sagan from watching the Tour de France, and the
Slovakian star’s frustrating string of runner-up places over the past two
years. When the crowd realized who was leading the race up the final climb, the
noise began to build, and as I looked around, people were jumping up and down, chanting
his name in an attempt to will Peter on to victory.
As he finally
crossed the finish line, Sagan’s rather subdued celebration seemed to say,
“THIS is what I can do – and it’s about time!” The crowd on Libby Hill laughed
as we watched him toss his helmet and glasses to fans on Broad Street and then
walk back through the remainder of the peloton to greet those still crossing
the line.
It was a
heart-warming moment to see so many rivals shaking his hand or patting him on
the back, enthusiastically congratulating Peter on this long-overdue “big win”.
My favorite moment was a “shame on you” finger waving from Tom Boonen with a
big smile on his face to suggest how the veteran pros had all been tricked by
the emerging star’s powerful late move.
I always find it
unnecessary to rush back to the car, just to sit in traffic, so I hung around
the quickly-emptying park to watch the podium ceremony.
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