Cyclists from all over the state converged on Riverview Park on Sunday to try their luck in the fourth race of the Georgia state cyclocross racing circuit season.
The park in downtown Rome offered riders a grueling 2-mile course and a chance to compete for top prizes in the race for the series championship.
Click here to see a video slideshow about the cyclocross event.
Amy Frank of Peachtree Bikes carries her bike up a hill during the cyclocross event Saturday at Riverview Park.
Cyclocross isn’t about racing against each other, organizer Trey Smith said. The competition depends on how many laps a rider can complete in a set amount of time and how long each lap takes.
Smith, of Cycle Therapy, and racer Stephen Stewart teamed up with the Rome-Floyd Parks and Recreation Authority to bring cyclocross to Rome. And 180 people, from first-time riders to professionals, came out Sunday to test their skills in different levels of competition.
Riders begin a race on the 2-mile course Sunday during the cyclocross event at Riverview Park. (Ryan Smith / RN-T)
“It requires kind of mastering several different abilities in cycling,” Smith said. “You have to have the ability to go really fast for short periods of time, and then be able to endure tough hills.”
Stewart said the racing, which is increasingly popular in Europe, is still in its infancy in the United States.
Since the race against the clock is the most important part of the event, organizers threw plenty of obstacles in the way to make things even for novice and professional riders.
The course has pavement like a road race but can go to bumpy turns after 100 feet — presenting all sorts of challenges to racers like Roman Ben Horst, who was racing for his third time Sunday.
Johnny Colt rides along the side of the Coosa River on Sunday during the Cyclocross event at Riverview Park.
“It was a challenging course,” Horst said. “It was a good mixture of technical skills and speed. An overall good rider would do well on this.”
Horst said cyclocross racers must be able to alternate between speed on flat terrain to skill on the switchbacks, which were defined at Heritage Park by stretches of caution tape forcing riders into a series of abrupt turns.
“Cyclocross is the hardest type of bike racing there is, because it’s all about your own fitness,” Horst said. “Your heart rate is maxed after the first couple of minutes, and it never goes back down. But it’s a fun exercise in the winter.”
Atlanta resident Lee Childers sat on a hill Sunday morning, trying to rest after his 30-minute race tested every muscle in his body.
“It hurts a lot when you race, but it’s great afterward,” he said. “It definitely beats watching television.”
