Marianne Vos (NED) and Eli Iserbyt (BEL) were the first winners, in Waterloo, before Lucinda Brand (NED) and Quinten Hermans (BEL) dominated the racing in Fayetteville, which will also host the 2022 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships next 29-30 January. Brannon Pack, Director of Cycling Tourism for Experience Fayetteville, is ready to welcome them.
A few days after the first ever UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup round in Fayetteville, how do you reflect on the event?
Brannon Pack: It was a great premiere for the venue that we know is gonna be used at the end of the season for the UCI World Championships. When we think about a venue, we think about the fans and spectators, and it was exactly what we hoped for as a community. The feedback was absolutely positive and the fans made it an exciting venue. And as importantly, from a sporting side, the athletes themselves gave us phenomenal feedback. It let us know we had nailed what is going to be the UCI World Championships race course.
What did the riders learn about the course?
B.P.: During the first practice on Tuesday, it was dry conditions and the athletes were talking about how fast a course it is. We’ve purposely built a mountain of stairs, 39 stairs, and then there’s a descent that hits 21%. It’s super-fast coming off those stairs. Then we got five inches of rain, so it was a great opportunity to see the course in multiple conditions. And with the Elite races, we saw what we love about cyclo-cross, rain or shine, the show goes on. That course, under those conditions, made for absolutely great racing.
What kind of conditions should we expect for the UCI World Championships in January?
B.P.: It could be chilly in the morning, with a good chance of precipitation. The course is probably going to be muddy. It’s a bit early for snow in our region, Arkansas, but there’s a very good chance of cold, wet, kind of perfect cycle-cross conditions for the UCI World Championships.
Fayetteville was also supposed to welcome the Pan-American Cyclo-cross Championships in 2020, which couldn’t happen. How do you feel now that you’ve been able to host a global event?
B.P.: We were looking for the Pan-Ams to be some sort of a test event ahead of the UCI Worlds. So when that was unfortunately cancelled with all the other events in 2020, we were able to go ahead and find a place in the schedule to have that UCI World Cup, and now we know that we’re ready to welcome the UCI World Championshps. There’s nothing like this venue in the US. We’ve built it from the ground up, it’s world class, and athletes and fans alike will be taken aback by the investment that has been made.
In 2019, the FayetteCross saw the participation of a handful of Canadians, one Colombian rider and a couple of Europeans. This year…
B.P.: There were 12 different countries represented this week! Fayetteville has been welcoming cyclists from all around the world for a long time. What is unique with Centennial Park is that in addition to having a cyclo-cross race course, capable of hosting UCI World Cup and UCI World Championship races, there is also a purpose-built mountain bike race course at that same venue, and in April we hosted the return of professional mountain bike racing in the United States. In August, we hosted the Joe Martin Race, the only multi-day stage race on the UCI International Calendar that happens in the United States this year. We just hosted the first UCI World Cup to ever happen in Arkansas, with cyclo-cross, and now we’re gonna host the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in January 2022. International cycling is part of our history and our culture. This just falls right in line with what we’ve been doing for four decades.
How does that culture reflect in the local community?
B.P.: We are very supportive of international athletes but when they go home, we still have a large community of riders. We’re the only city in the United States to carry the UCI Bike City label and we’re very proud of that designation. It’s not just because we’re going to host the World Championships, it’s because of the long history of investment in cycling, and not just sport, but also in our culture. Fayetteville has over 50 miles of protected trails so it’s really easy to get around by bicycle, and we have 50 miles of mountain bike trails as well.