![\"U.S.](\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/171\/450236363_a4e1e4d2be.jpg\")
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No pro racing up the cobbles of Libby Hill this year, it seems. Last year, I joked that the U.S. Open Cycling Championship finally gave me an enjoyable reason to go to Richmond<\/a>. Well, it looks like I won’t have to worry about enjoying Richmond anymore – the 2008 U.S. Open Cycling Championship that was scheduled to finish there on April 13 has been canceled, renamed, and moved to Providence, Rhode Island<\/a>:<\/p>\n Last April’s inaugural U.S. Open road race<\/a> was held in epic snowy conditions \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and with nearly unprecedented network television coverage \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in Virginia.<\/p>\n This year’s event is likely to be quite different. The 112-mile professional event has been moved to Providence, Rhode Island, on May 31. And while promoters are still negotiating a title sponsor and TV deal, they say the date and location change will soon make it a fixture on the domestic calendar.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of course, at the end of last year’s race, there were plenty of people on the dais (including Virgnia’s governor, Tim Kaine) talking about making the race a fixture in Richmond, so take that last line with a grain of salt. It’s not clear why the race moved from Virginia, but I suspect it was a mixture of the low spectator turnout last year, fewer state support dollars available this year, and the small fact that the promoter lives in Providence. There’s been very little coverage of the status of the race, with searches turning up only an article in a Baltimore business paper<\/a> regarding the fact that the race had been pitched to that city (among others). Ah, well. In any event, Virginia’s loss is Providence’s gain:<\/p>\n The race will start in downtown Providence, loop out around the Scituate Reservoir to the west, then return to the city for about ten laps of a 4- or 5-mile circuit[.].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So if you’re in the area, check it out. Great fun no matter where it’s held, I’m sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No pro racing up the cobbles of Libby Hill this year, it seems. Last year, I joked that the U.S. Open Cycling Championship finally gave me an enjoyable reason to go to Richmond. Well, it looks like I won’t have to worry about enjoying Richmond anymore – the 2008 U.S. Open Cycling Championship that was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling","category-virginia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}