Virginia's Blue Ridge GO Cross is Ready to Welcome U.S. Cyclocross BACK
We chatted with race director Frank Deal about the challenges and opportunities for Virginia's Blue Ridge GO Cross in 2021
Many many years ago in a land far away—ok, it wasn’t that long ago—early September cyclocross races did not necessarily have the same sense of urgency as they do now.
With the September U.S. World Cups entering the scene beginning in 2015 with Cross Vegas and 2 on the calendar every year since 2016, the early-season races have taken on a bigger importance for North Americans targeting those huge races on the domestic calendar.
While the U.S. World Cups are in October this season, the first race weekend in nearly two years again takes on added importance, as the revised UCI points rules mean the only races that will count toward UCI points come September 21 are Oostende Worlds and the first weekend of racing here in North America.
For the third-straight season of racing, Virginia’s Blue Ridge GO Cross p/b Deschutes Brewery returns as the opening weekend of North American UCI cyclocross racing on September 18-19. Located at Fallon Park in Roanoke, Virginia, the event sponsored by Virginia’s Blue Ridge and Deschutes Brewery has become the unofficial start of the North American cyclocross calendar.
“It definitely seems fitting that a race called ‘GO Cross’ has kicked off the North American UCI/ProCX calendar for three seasons,” race director Frank Deal said. “There's definitely a ‘first day of school’ vibe at the race, and this year should be extra special coming off a ‘gap year’ of sorts.”
It might be a bit of a stretch to classify Virginia’s Blue Ridge GO Cross as a plucky underdog, but with four weekends of the USCX series and three UCI World Cups following it on the calendar, it definitely is a bit of a little bike race that could in an area that has not historically been a cyclocross hotbed.
The story of Virginia’s Blue Ridge GO Cross is one similar to that of retiring rider Courtenay McFadden—a local race that succeeded and then hit the big time. GO Cross started as part of Roanoke’s GO Outside Festival and then moved to its current September date in 2016. Two years later in 2018, Deal and his team decided to take the race to the UCI level.
Bill and I can be the first to tell you that cyclocross is usually a passion project, so it’s still cool to see race directors such as Deal start a cyclocross race instead of chasing something easier like yet another gravel race. I guess when the cyclocross bug gets you…
“I am a huge cyclocross fan. Although I have to admit it took a few false starts before catching the CX fever as a racer, JPow's Behind the Barriers really got me excited about cyclocross before I started racing,” Deal explained. “The stoke is still there, I love the sport, and working on GO Cross is something I'm very passionate about.”
Beacuse it is a niche sport—and sometimes because trees—building support for cyclocross races in local communities can be a challenge. Although just in its third year, GO Cross has seemingly found a path to making the event an asset for the local community by getting the local tourism board on board as the title sponsor and creating an event that includes a running race and a “tailgate-like” atmosphere in the spectator area.
Title sponsor Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge, the local tourism board, returns as a sponsor for the third year of the event. Deschutes Brewery, which has its East Coast headquarters in Roanoke, also returns as presenting sponsor for the third season.
Having Virginia’s Blue Ridge on board was especially key this year. When the UCI calendar was released last winter, the event was slated to have one day of UCI racing and one day of local racing. However, VBR stepped up to ensure both days would feature UCI racing.
"We didn't want to compromise the quality of our event with budget limitations,” Deal explained. “Fortunately, our title sponsor, Visit Virginia's Blue Ridge, stepped up in a big way, allowing us to add the additional C2 day.”
A second neat aspect of Virginia’s Blue Ridge GO Cross is the race venue, Fallon Park. Located east of downtown, the venue features a dedicated cyclocross park that locals have built up over the years to include a sandpit and set of ‘cross stairs. “We're really fortunate in Roanoke to have incredible outdoor amenities and having a designated cyclocross course in a park is definitely one of them,” Deal said. “Our cyclocross community uses the park for cyclocross practices, local NICA teams use it for short track mountain bike practices, and local runners can often be found running the course. Huge thanks to PLAY Roanoke and volunteers for maintaining Fallon Park.”
Long-time readers know this is a hobby horse of mine, but I think providing a sense of permanence is essential for growing the popularity of cycling events. Having a park located so close to downtown that is dedicated to cyclocross lets folks in the community know, hey, there’s this silly sport that people play and we think it’s important enough to give them their own place to do it. Having a space to regularly “advertise” the sport of cyclocross seems like an invaluable opportunity when compared to events popping up for one day every fall.
And while not science, Virginia’s Blue Ridge GO Cross has been doing something right in building participation. The event averaged 109 racers per day in 2016, 181 in 2017, 366 in 2018, and 437 in 2019. It honestly remains to be seen what cyclocross participation will look like this fall with the Delta variant bringing COVID the most depressing kind of BACK, but hopefully, Virginia’s Blue Ridge GO Cross will be able to get near those 2019 numbers to get the season off to a good start.
The GO Cross event and Roanoke cycling community recently gained a nice addition that speaks to why the local tourism board sponsors the event. Emily and Kerry Werner were recently looking for a place to move, and after visiting Roanoke dating back to the pre-UCI days in 2017 for the GO Cross race, they decided to pack up and move to Roanoke.
Emily and Kerry both chipped in to help with one of the local work days—supervised by Sherman, of course—and they helped host a cyclocross clinic at Fallon Park this past weekend.
“It's been great having Kerry and Emily (and Sherman!) here in the Roanoke Valley,” Deal said. “They're fully assimilated into our cycling community and have definitely benefited the scene here. Without a ‘cross season last year, we'd still gather at Fallon Park for ‘cross practices on Wednesday evenings or explore the endless gravel roads in the region. Kerry also held a cyclocross fundraiser for Roanoke Outside's ‘Project Outside’ at Fallon Park in October of 2020.”
It remains to be seen if Werner has the home field advantage this year—he has won 3 of the 4 UCI races thus far, however—and if he has put in some Curtis-White-proof features to help ensure his continued dominance of the event in what is now his hometown. I am, of course, thinking some Rainbow Road stuff here, but IDK if that’s possible for a cyclocross course.
Thus far, we have largely avoided talking about COVID, but again, with the Delta variant helping the virus stage a comeback, the pandemic is something on folks’ minds once again and many eyes will be on these early races to see if they are able to go ahead in a safe fashion.
I asked Deal about the challenges of scheduling a race over six months ago and moving forward with it in the face of the latest wave of the virus.
“I don't believe COVID significantly affected our planning for this year's race,” he explained. “There were definitely additional variables and a couple moving targets, but the Roanoke Outside Foundation (the organizing entity for GO Cross) has been steadfastly committed to going ahead with the race. Earlier this year, Roanoke Outside safely held the Blue Ridge Marathon with almost 2,800 participants, so we were confident we could safely go ahead with the race.”
Although we have admittedly been pessimistic about the impact of COVID on cyclocross—I titled my audio file for our 2020/21 Media Pit preview “Pessimism Pit” after all—we are optimistically hoping events such as GO Cross can pull off a safe race and show that outdoor cyclocross racing is doable even in the face of the Delta variant that has caused the latest wave of the pandemic.
If you’re in the Mid-Atlantic, def think about getting signed up for Virginia’s Blue Ridge GO Cross, and for the rest of us, we’ll definitely be getting stoked to see where North America’s best are at on the first day of cyclocross school, 2021. Bruce Buckley will, of course, be manning that first-day-of-school photo booth.
Totally agree, re: the value of having permanent cross courses. Valley, IA (one of the municipalities that makes up West Des Moines) has a permanent cross course open to the public on the grounds of their community center. They have group practices throughout the late Summer/Fall. If I lived a little closer, I'd definitely take advantage of it.