USGP Weekend is here!! You can tell by the sights of Georgia Gould rolling down River Rd and Curtis Tolson motorpacing Tim Johnson.
Cyclocross park wheels into action
BY CHRIS QUAY • CQUAY@COURIER-JOURNAL.COM • OCTOBER 21, 2010
Taking an undeveloped wooded area on River Road and turning it into to a world class cyclocross course — that’s how city officials and cycling enthusiasts described the development of the new Cyclocross Venue at Eva Bandman Park Thursday morning.
“We’re proudly opening a new venue that is putting Louisville on the map,” Mayor Jerry Abramson said during a ceremony commemorating the opening of the course.
The course — which will host the Derby City Cup this weekend for its first competition — cost $125,000 to build and was designed by Bruce Fina, executive director of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross.
“This truly is a world championship course and venue,” Fina said at the opening.
He said the course has garnered international attention, which led to it being named as the host for the 2012 and 2013 Masters Cyclocross World Championships as well as the 2013 Elite Cyclocross World Championships, the first time those events will not take place outside of Europe.
Cyclocross is a form of bicycle racing that combines different terrains, such as hills and wooded trails, and requires the cyclists to sometimes carry their bikes over or around obstacles.
The sport is beginning to catch on in the states, but it has been more popular in Europe. “We’re going to blow the minds of the Belgians, and the Czechs and the Dutch when they come here,” Fina said of the world championships.
City officials, including Metro councilwoman Tina Ward-Pugh, D-9th District, Karl Schmitt, executive director of the Louisville Sports Commission, and Mike Heitz, director for Metro Parks, spoke at the opening.
“We hit a lot of singles and doubles,” Schmitt said about attractingsporting events to Louisville. “Every once in a while we hit a home run,” he said referring to hosting the cyclocross world championships.
The course sits on 59-acres just off River Road minutes east of downtown.
It was designed with a “360 degree” approach so that riders can get views of the downtown skyline, the Ohio River and Beargrass Creek at different points on the course.
Cyclocrosser Brian Segal, who helped open the new course for the first time Thursday in a symbolic ribbon breaking over one of the course’s grassy knolls, said he was impressed.
Segal will compete this weekend in the Derby City Cup. “It’s fantastic,” he said, giving kudos to Fina for his design in “taking a blank piece of land and turning it into a world class course.”
Reporter Chris Quay can be reached at (502) 582-4241.
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