Cycling fans have a busy summer season ahead as the 2023 USA Cycling National Championship season picks up with a slate of road, mountain, and track competitions to choose from.
If you’re looking to bet on any of these events, the options are much more slim because sportsbooks haven’t really tapped into the cycling market yet. That’s largely owing to the semi-professional nature of USA Cycling’s championship events. Cyclists can sign up to compete for a national title (provided they’re a member of USA Cycling and meet the various requirements to take part in a given race), but oddsmakers aren’t able to sift through the entry rosters and assess how each competitor will do like they can with a football or basketball game.
As such, the main opportunity that cycling fans have to bet on their sport each year is the event that has become synonymous with racing, the Tour de France. Right now, Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard, who won the Tour de France in 2022, is the betting favorite to defend his title this year, given even odds (+100) of doing so at BetMGM Sportsbook. Be sure to use a BetMGM Bonus Code if you want to bet on Vingegaard or the Tour de France more generally, or any of the myriad other sporting events that the casino offers so that you can lock in the best possible odds of winning big.
USA Cycling Summer Schedule Overview
Here’s a look at the summer ahead for USA Cycling, including a look at qualifying events and courses.
The next major cycling slate on the schedule are the Amateur and Pro Road Championships, held between June 13-17 and June 22-25, respectively. Competitors in the amateur event will head to Roanoke, Virginia in the foothills of the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains, where they’ll have their work cut out for them as they navigate the rolling hills. The pro event takes place in Knoxville, Tennessee, so competitors and spectators in that event will get to enjoy much of the same topography on courses ranging from Time Trials in Oak Hill to the main event in Downtown Knoxville, offering varied terrain that will test a variety of skill sets.
This is the final year of a seven-year contract between USA Cycling and the city of Knoxville, and while negotiations on a new contract haven’t opened up yet, Visit Knoxville President Kim Bumpas left the door open on a future deal, whether for the Pro Road Championships or a different level of competition, when speaking to VeloNews.com. “This will be the last year of our current agreement, Bumpas said. “WE will warmly welcome the riders back in the future.”
Following that is a pair of events spanning from July 5-9: the Junior, Elite, and Paracycling Track National Championships in Carson, California, and the Mountain Bike National Championships at Pennsylvania’s Bear Creek Mountain Resort.
Situated at least an hour northeast of Philadelphia (although that can fluctuate dramatically because of the area’s unpredictable traffic patterns), the resort is set in the heart of the Lehigh Valley, where cyclists will negotiate the winding trails.
The Appalachian Mountains circuit continues at the Gravity Mountain Biking National Championships in North Carolina the following week.
Located at the 300-acre Rock Creek Park, a newcomer on the downhill racing scene that only opened last year, the frantic gravity races will be packed into a relatively small area that will only add to the heart-stopping action.
After that, there’s a nearly month-long layoff until August 8-13, when the Master’s Track National Championships take place just across the border in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
The schedule picks up again in late August through September, with five national championship events packed into less than a month during the last gasp of summer. The Cycling Masters and Para-cycling Road Masters in Augusta, Georgia (home of the world-famous golfing Masters each April, from which the event takes its name) from August 23-27; the teeth-chattering Gravel National Championships take place in Gering, Nebraska in a one-off on September 9; the collegiate cycling season begins anew with their Track National Championships running from September 14-17, which happens concurrently with the long distance Gran Fondo National Championships in Frederick.
Maryland on September 17; long-distance gets an added twist in the Heart of Dixie on September 23, when Auburn, Alabama hosts the Marathon Mountain Bike National Championships, and the fall season wraps up with the Madison Track National Championships in Detroit on November 10-12, as well as the Cyclocross National Championships from December 5-10 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Cycling fans can look forward to an action-packed summer season filled with fierce competition, challenging courses, and the opportunity to witness the athleticism and skill of cyclists from across the United States.
Photo – Christy Nicholson / EchelonDesignPhoto.com
