USA Cycling has announced more locations for next year’s national championships, in both the road and mountain bike arenas. The announcement also includes a major shake up in the mountain bike schedule, which will result in separate venues and dates for some mountain bike disciplines. Click more to read all the details
Mountain Bike
A new policy for 2011, USA Cycling says it will split the cross-country and gravity portions of mountain biking into two separate events, with two separate venues. While details on gravity events have not yet been released, we do know that Sun Valley, Idaho has been awarded the XC national championship races for the next two years. The events will fall on the UCI-mandated dates of July 14-17 in 2011, and July 12-15 in 2012.
Sun Valley is home to the Sun Valley Ski Resort, which will be the host venue, with Breakaway Promotions (the group behind the Tour of Utah, Cascade Cycling Classic, and Mt. Hood Cycling Classic) being chosen as the promoter.
USAC has already announced that Bend, Oregon will host the Marathon MTB National Championships for the next two years.
Road
On the pavement, Augusta, Georgia will play host to road race, criterium, and individual time trial national championships, also securing a two-year deal. However, this will only be in the Juniors, U23, Elite, and Paralympic categories. USAC announced earlier that Masters Road Nationals would go to Bend, Oregon through 2012.
Dates for the Augusta, Georgia national championships have been set for June 21-26, 2011, and June 18-24 in 2012.
USAC says the rest of its National Championship schedule will be announced in the coming months. Read the full press release here.
So what do you think? Are Sun Valley and Augusta good venues for national championships? What about splitting the gravity and XC mountain bike events?
