US Pro weekend in Greenville

This blog is usually focused on bicycle advocacy issues, but I’ll venture a little off topic and mention racing today. If you are in Greenville, you already know that it is time for the US Pro races again (you can find the schedule of events here). As I have in previous years, I’ll be watching the time trial and the road race with a particular focus on the bikes. Look for coverage this weekend at my Bicycle Design blog if you are interested in that sort of thing. Also, be sure to follow Carolina Cycling News throughout the weekend if you want to read about both races from a local perspective.

If you are interested in riding to the races, the Greenville Spinners will be leading a community bike ride to the Time Trial on Saturday, departing from the Zoo in Cleveland Park at 10am.  The Spinners are providing free bike valet for the TT at ICAR, so your bike will be secure once you get there.  

For the Road Race on Monday, Bikeville will be providing free bike valet from 10am-5pm in front of City Hall on Main St.  Speaking of Bikeville, they are hosting the monthly Critical Cruise ride around downtown tonight at 5:30.  Meet next to Barley's for an hour long cruise around downtown “respectfully celebrating bicyclists right to the road.”

Update 6/2: It was another great US Pro weekend in Greenville. Check out a few of my pictures from the races here if you are interested. 

George thanks Greenville

George Hincapie wrote a nice “thank you to Greenville” article in the paper this week. Following the US Pro races last weekend, he had quite a few nice things to say about the fans, the sponsors, the organizers, and about his adopted hometown in general. Jonathon archived the full article on his Greenville News cycling blog, so be sure to go there and check it out if you missed the print version.

Thanks to you as well George. Greenville's cycling community certainly thanks you for being an ambassador for cycling in this area.

US Pro races and advocacy updates

As anyone who rides a bike in this town knows, the USA Cycling Championship races took place last weekend in Greenville. You can see television coverage of the races this Sunday at 5:00 pm on the Versus network. I enjoyed seeing how Greenville and the Upstate were portrayed during last year’s TV coverage of the races, and I expect similar positive coverage of our City this time around.

As I mentioned in the last post, I attended the initial Plan-It Greenville open house last week. Everyone who attended filled out a survey that covered general quality of life as well as specific issues in Greenville. The survey provided several opportunities to make suggestions for future improvements in the City. As you may be able to guess, more provisions for cycling are something that I stressed in the survey. I encourage all of you who were not able to attend to go to the Plan-It Greenville website and take the survey online.

For those of you interested in off road advocacy, the Upstate SORBA chapter is now official. Check out the website for more information about how the group plans to improve Upstate South Carolina’s mountain biking opportunities.

The SCDOT has a new section on their website that allows the public to see where resurfacing efforts are underway or planned. This is a great opportunity for us to look for places that are heavily used for cycling and to request bike lanes or wide outer lanes as part of the resurfacing.

Photo: George Hincapie on the second to last lap on Broad Street. You can see more of my race photos here.