The announcement of Richmond, Virginia’s bid for the 2015 road cycling world championships is exciting news for our southeast region. Greenville, South Carolina has been hosting the US road cycling championships for five years and now southeast neighbor, Richmond may bring worlds. The man considered to be the voice of American cycling, Dave Towle, officially kicked off the bid announcement. In attendance was the proud mayor of Richmond, Dwight C. Jones with USA Cycling’s CEO Steve Johnson. Virginia resident and current USA road race champion Ben King was also on the stage.

Mayor Jones started off the press conference by stating, “Cycling has a strong and rich history with the city hosting a stage in every Tour Dupont and Tour de Trump,” emphasizing the fact that Richmond is a cycling friendly city.

It has been 25 years since the worlds have been held in the States and USA Cycling’s CEO Steve Johnson told the audience that, “It’s time to bring the sport back to America. There is a tremendous opportunity in America and it puts this beautiful sport in front of young viewers.”

“When you bring cycling to a community like Richmond it shows that it (cycling) is cool,” continued Johnson.

When asked about what it means to have a world championships in Richmond, Team LiveStrong’s King replied, “Every professional cyclist dreams of representing their country at the world championships. It’s a special event.”

Assisting in Richmond’s championship bid is Shadetree Sports – co-owned by Darach McQuaid. This is the same McQuaid whose older brother is Pat McQuaid, current UCI president. This family connection should help grease the wheels for Richmond to succeed in the bidding process.

As it is still early in the bidding process no proposed route was shown.

With Louisville, Kentucky being awarded the cyclocross world championships in 2013 as well as master cyclocross worlds in 2011 and 2012, the southeast is becoming known as the place for bike riding and racing.