The USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships make an inaugural appearance in Charleston, West Virginia in 2024, May 14-19. The last seven years the championships were hosted in Knoxville, Tennessee, with the COVID-19 pandemic cancelling the event in 2020. Charleston organisers plan to host the road championships through 2028.
A total of 18 national champions will be crowned in individual time trial, criterium and road race disciplines across the six days of competitions. This is the first time that Junior 17-18 men and women plus under-23 men and women will compete at the same venue in the same week as the professionals. The U23 women will have a separate competition in the time trial, but remain with the pro women in combined fields for the criterium and the road race.
The calendar position of the championships was moved from June to May, providing a two-month cushion until the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, July 26-August 11. Winners of the elite men’s and elite women’s time trial events will automatically qualify for Paris, the competitions taking place on Saturday, July 27 on a 32.4km course that mimics the Olympic course with the same distance and similar flat terrain. All courses for the three disciplines will have start-finish lines in downtown Charleston.
All courses for the three disciplines will have start-finish lines in downtown Charleston, with the time trial events taking place the first two days. Criterium races will be held across two days, May 16-17, with afternoon start times. Road races will be held the final two days, May 18-19.
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USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships history
The USA Cycling Pro Road Race National Championship, or USPRO, has a long history that goes back to 1985 when Eric Heiden captured the first road title in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had already made an impact in sports by winning five gold medals in speedskating for the US at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games.
The event was anchored by the Manayunk Wall in Philadelphia, the major climb and spectator area along a steep neighborhood section of the circuit.
The event moved out of Philadelphia in 2006 and has since been in four other cities prior to 2024 - Greenville, South Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Knoxville, Tennessee.
The USA Cycling Pro Time Trial National Championship was held for the first time in 2006 in Greenville for elite men. In 2013, USA Cycling added women’s championship events for the TT and road in Chattanooga. The pro criterium races were added to the Knoxville schedule in 2018.
Check out the list of winners across the history of USPro.