The 88th UCI Road World Championships brought world-class cycling to Richmond’s streets in 2015. (Photo by Steve Hedberg)
From 1991-96, the Tour DuPont international cycling competition finished on East Cary Street in front of the James Center amid great excitement. “People came out of the office towers,” recalls Tim Miller, then a sports media intern working with the tour. “We had enormous crowds.”
The parking garages served as a stadium where thousands of spectators filled every level. “We don’t have many high-profile international sporting events come through town,” Miller recalls. “People were intrigued by the ESPN and CBS Sports banners.”
Richmond’s cycling history is recorded by Thomas Houff in his book “On Richmond’s Wheel.” Like a long-distance race, the nature of Richmond cycling grew in stages from its original clubs of white men who could afford expensive bicycles to the UCI Road World Championships held here in 2015.
The Richmond Area Bicycling Association (RABA) formed in 1967 to support local cycling and improve safety conditions. RABA sponsored races in Byrd Park and later weekly rides in Bryan Park. The annual Capital Classic race ran in Byrd Park until 1991.
The 1983 Tour of America, a three-stage race from Virginia Beach to Washington, D.C., held a time trial and its stage two race in Richmond. Writing in a 2006 issue of VeloNews, John Wilcockson said, “The American spectators were surprisingly knowledgeable, and came out in their thousands … despite heavy rainfall.” The finishing circuit of stage two “looped through a historic neighborhood of white-painted Colonial-style houses, climbed the cobblestones of Shockoe Slip and finished uphill on Ninth Street outside the state capitol.”
Houff observes, “The 1983 Tour of America was one obscure stage race created to cultivate the American market. It was not repeated. It didn’t have to be. It worked the first time. Bicycle racing is in America.”
Richmond firms organized cycling cohorts. The Signet Bank team produced riders Wes Seigler, who went pro and competed in Europe, and Erik Saunders, who also raced professionally.
Meanwhile, a conversation between two broadcasters in an Indianapolis restaurant would figure into Richmond’s cycling story. CBS college basketball commentator Billy Packer met with John Tesh — yes, that John Tesh, the “Entertainment Tonight” host and musician — who’d recently returned from covering the Tour de France. Tesh thought a similar race should occur in this country. Packer considered organizing the race to run between Manhattan and Atlantic City, New Jersey, enlisting casinos to back his “Tour de Jersey.” He turned to Donald Trump, who at first balked — then backed — the concept.
The tour’s organizers, Hough says, assured Trump of a bicycle parade down the East Coast “causing traffic congestion and demanding media attention.”
After putting up $750,000 and with his name attached, the competition grew to a 10-day, 837-mile race from Albany, New York, to Atlantic City, running through five states, with Richmond as its southernmost stop. Prize money totaled $250,000, and the hype attracted a first-rate field.
The 1986 Tour de France winner, Greg LeMond, and Alexi Grewal, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, anchored the Coors Light team. The 1988 Tour of Italy winner, Andy Hampsten, captained the 7-Eleven team alongside Davis Phinney, who in 1986 became the first American to win a stage in the Tour de France.
The 1992 Tour DuPont peloton cycles east on Monument Avenue. (Photo courtesy Thomas Houff)
E.M. Swift, writing in the May 22, 1989, issue of Sports Illustrated, observed, “If you could get past the name, the Tour de Trump, without losing your lunch, and if you could somehow divorce the sporting event from the excess baggage that went with it — the Trump Princess, the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, the chest-Trumping cameos … what you had was a pretty nice bicycle race.”
The second race, won in 1990 by Mexican rider Raul Alcala for Team PDM-Concorde, was the last bearing Trump’s name. Financial losses caused the future president to exit, and DuPont stepped in as sponsor. The company’s robust support lifted the race’s professionalism and promotional footprint.
For the next five years, even as the course altered, Richmond figured into the Tour DuPont, which drew the sport’s best athletes, with Lance Armstrong winning twice before he famously went on to capture the Tour de France seven times — and was later removed from the record books for doping violations.
Miller, then a racing cyclist and college student, watched the Tour de Trump teams whip through Richmond. In 1992, he volunteered as a course marshal beginning at DuPont’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.
The next year, he joined the 11-member Medalist Sports public relations team promoting the race. “I think I was paid $10 a day, so it was technically a paid internship,” he recalls. His duties ranged from driving the journalist-filled media van that followed the race to writing for the event magazine. The race introduced him to the mechanics of bike racing, marketing, sponsorship and event management.
“People were skeptical. It wasn’t until we got through it that people sat back and said, ‘Well, that was pretty cool.’ ” —Tim Miller, on the 88th UCI Road World Championships in 2015
Then DuPont yanked its sponsorship. Houff cites “money squabbles” between promoters. The competition, however, inspired a generation of regional cyclists to keep Richmond in play by connecting with the wider world of professional cycling.
The Cycling Corporation (CyCor) formed in 1994 and was managed by former Philippine national team marathoner and cyclist Felix Garcia. CyCor took in the Signet racers and other riders. Garcia recruited renowned Russian cycling coach Alexander Kuznetskov, who brought the entire Ukrainian national cycling team and its coach, Sergei Beliaev, to Richmond for CyCor’s training. Sponsorship arrived in 1996 from the Richbrau Brewing Co., and this attracted additional professional riders. Miller joined the management team. CyCor acquitted itself well against teams with bigger budgets.
In 1999, the Xterra multisport competition brought its East Championship to Richmond. The off-road event attracted thousands of spectators to Brown’s Island. Xterra’s presence birthed triathlons, and in 2004 Laurie Mehler founded Richmond Multisports. Miller went on to assist with forming the CapTech Classic (2003-06), a one-night criterium with a cash prize.
Following this, Miller pursued other cycling projects, ultimately spearheading the effort that landed the 88th UCI Road World Championships in Richmond in 2015, the first time in 30 years it had been held in the U.S. The Worlds drew 791 representatives from 76 national federations and 40 trade teams. Slovak Peter Sagan won the men’s race, and Lizzie Armitstead of England took the women’s title.
Miller recalls that persuading the city to host the Worlds was a tough sell. “People were skeptical,” he says. “It wasn’t until we got through it that people sat back and said, ‘Well, that was pretty cool.’ ”
The cover of the 1996 Tour DuPont program featured Lance Armstrong, who rode to victory in the 1995 and '96 races. (Photo courtesy Thomas Houff)
The originally estimated 450,000 spectators didn’t materialize, nor did the rain that threatened during the 10 days of the event. Some retailers complained of interruption to their trade, while commuters griped over the inconvenience of road detours. That said, Richmond looked great from airborne cameras to an international audience.
Another initially uphill project, the Virginia Capital Trail, connecting Richmond to Jamestown along the Route 5 scenic byway, was completed in 2015 and is now a premier outdoor attraction. An effort to improve the city’s streets for bicycles also received a boost due to the Worlds.
What comes next, post-pandemic, isn’t clear. “Creating or bringing a cycling event takes a willingness,” Miller notes. Unlike basketball, football or NASCAR, with scheduled seasons and promotional machines, cycling competitions are more complicated. Bringing the world to Richmond is a tough act to follow.
