Carolina Cycling News Has Closed as of December 2012

For a number of years Carolina Cycling News was the best source for cycling in the Southeast

Content is from the site's 2010- 2012 archived pages providing a brief glimpse of what this site once offered its readership.

The new owner of the site's domain invites you to take a nostalgic trip back.

APRIL 13, 2013 Carolina Cycling News Update If you’ve stopped by CarolinaCyclingNews.com since the beginning of 2013, you’ve seen the announcement that we closed the site on December 31, 2012. Although we were sorry that there wasn’t adequate advertiser and sponsor support to continue publishing it, we’re proud of the coverage we provided for cycling in Greenville, South Carolina and the broader Southeast region for almost 3 years. We’re still big fans of the local cycling scene and look forward to future opportunities to promote it. Thanks to all our contributors who helped make this site a great resource!

Neil & Pamela.

Carolina Cycling News is the best source for cycling in the Southeast. Here cyclists in the Carolinas and surrounding areas can easily find local resources and information they need in an organized format: event calendars, news, group rides, club listings, bike shops and more.

Carolina Cycling News celebrates the culture of the sport and features glimpses into the great local destinations you shouldn’t miss when traveling to cycling events.

Promoting the sport of cycling is part of the Carolina Cycling News vision:

introduce new fans to the sport

support the dedicated cyclist

collaborate with the hard working organizers who make great events happen

We hope you enjoy the website and will let us know how we can make it better!

About Carolina Cycling News

We founded Carolina Cycling News in April 2010 to bring attention to the great cycling scene in the Carolinas and greater Southeast region, provide resources for local cyclists and support event promoters.

We encourage you to contact us with questions and to submit race reports or event listings.

Neil Browne, Co-Founder

Neil grew up in a cycling family, listening to the tales of his father’s experience as a professional racer in Ireland. His journalism career has included five years as the editorial director of a national cycling magazine, writing articles for Cyclingnews.com, VeloNews.com, Velonation.com and Paved Magazine and as a columnist for RoadCycling.com and Versus.com. You can also find his personal blog at NeilBrowne.com. Pamela Wood Browne, Co-Founder

Pamela is a cycling fan and recreational/commuter cyclist with family roots throughout the Southeast, especially Greenville, SC and East Tennessee. Her background is in design, technology and urban planning.

When we founded Carolina Cycling News in April 2010, we did not know that we would be losing both of our fathers in the same year. Thomas Browne and Burrell L. Wood, Jr. both enjoyed storytelling. It seems appropriate to dedicate Carolina Cycling News to them. Not only do we try to share good stories, but we are inspired by Tom’s love of bike racing and B.L.’s love of the people and history of the Carolinas and Tennessee.

"We were avid readers of this periodical and it helped our team keep us informed and motivated as we trained and competed in state and nationally. We were inspired by the stories of winning strategies and discovered that even small tactics can make a huge difference if you believe in them. For example, we read about how uniforms can help teams unify - this is completely true and although we could not afford actual uniforms, we, as avid Batman fans, decided to let Batman be our guide. We found an amazing website (MoonAtMidnight.com) that sold Batman apparel and chose T shirts featuring batman characters as our uniform. This was inexpensive, effective and everyone was on board, but more importantly, when we entered competitions, we all felt a sense of team spirit, guided by the Dark Knight. I know this may sound silly, but Batman is a force to be reckoned with and he was always on our side as a result of our ersatz uniforms." Carol Knolls





2012 BLOG POSTS

What is training?

MAY 25, 2012 BY DAVID CURRAN

What actually happens when we train and, more importantly, why does it work? This is kind of a big question and one that I’m not likely to be able to do justice to in 600 words or less. But, since this is something I think is very important, and often misunderstood, I think its worth going into.

First things first, why do we train? Well, duh, to get faster. OK, but why do we train to get faster instead of just going out and trying to ride faster all the time? It seemed to work when you were getting started in a sport. The more you worked out, the better you got. Simple! Unfortunately, at some point, that stops working and it seems that no matter what you do, you just hit a peak and stop improving.

That’s because when you started you were essentially “untrained”. So anything you did made you more fit than you were the day before. And likely, you weren’t dedicated enough (yet) to push through fatigue or pain and so you gave yourself rest. And then, lo and behold, you were fit(er)!

Now, you ride or run every day, you compete on weekends, you do group rides, trainer sessions, 100 mile training rides, etc. Fortunately, you’ve adapted to all this work and your body can handle it. Unfortunately, you’ve adapted to all this work and your body can handle it… This means no new gains in fitness will come without pushing past your current level and creating the same adaptations you did when you first started.

The graphic above gives us a nice neat picture of what’s happening. You start at a point, you do enough work to make you tired, and then you rest. During rest, you supercompensate, or adapt, because what doesn’t kill you literally makes you stronger, and then you reach a new level of fitness. Lather, rinse, repeat! Well sort of…

If you just went out every day and tried to run yourself into the ground and then took a few days off, you’d likely not get anywhere. This is where specificity comes in. Jim wrote a great article on this so I won’t bother to rehash it too much. I’ll only say that if you want to get better at a certain aspect of your sport, then you have to work specifically on that aspect for a period of time. More importantly, you need to work beyond your current capability. This is the only way to induce fatigue and then the awesomeness of adaptation that comes later with rest.

Did I mention rest? Let me throw another graphic at you:

Notice that there is recovery in this picture, but its not enough. If you don’t give yourself time to fully recover and then adapt, you end up just making yourself more tired. Imagine starting a trip with a full tank of gas. You drive 100 miles then stop and put in just a little less than a full tank and drive another 100 miles. If you continued to do this, you’d run out of gas. Running out of gas is bad, mmkay?

So, to recap:

1. Training is a progressive overload that causes fatigue.

2. Fatigue requires rest to recover

3. Once recovered, your body adapts/supercompensates to the stress and reaches (hopefully) a new level

4. Eventually you’ll reach a level of diminishing returns and you’ll need to train a different system for a period to see other gains.

Wait…what was that last one!?!?! You mean I can’t get a 500W FTP if I just constantly train it? Well, sadly, no. There’s a limit to what we can do through training and eventually, even under perfect conditions, we all hit it. Sadly, this is your parent’s fault, not yours. However, fortunately, most races require a pretty large toolbox of capabilities. There’s always something else to train. Maybe it’s your sprint, or climbing, or cornering (yes, you train skills, too) or time trialing, there’s always something to improve.

So there ya go. It’s not exactly a PhD course in exercise physiology, but it covers the basics. If you have any topics or questions you’d like to see answered, drop us an email or a comment below.

David Curran

David is a Greenville Cycling Center Affiliate Coach. As a network engineer, father of three, and husband, he knows how how hard it is to come by training time. His goal as a coach is to help his athletes balance their desire to compete at their highest ability with their responsibilities to work and family.

Pedaling Technique – CYCLING EFFICIENTLY

SEPTEMBER 28, 2012 BY CCN.COM

The bike is an efficient machine that is so good at converting our energy into speed that the limits of our efficiency become obvious at the hardest efforts. Cycling efficiency can be influenced in many ways. You can either improve the supply side – power output and pedaling skill; or demandside –overcoming wind resistance by improving aerodynamics, and gravity via minimizing body and bike weight. This article will however, will focus on pedaling technique and drills.

The bike crank set; with 2 rigid directly opposed levers – can hide inefficiency, but the smoother and more efficient pedaling becomes, the less energy you require to produce power. Key ways to improve efficiency include:

Pedaling smoothly thru the two dead spots at top and bottom of the pedal stroke.

Using cadences that are appropriate for the situation to create pedaling momentum and transfer the effort onto the cardiovascular system and reducing muscle load.

Having, more supple, less choppy stroke rotation (i.e. no mashing, pedaling squares, or ‘elongating’ the cranks).

Learning to relax non-essential muscles, including antagonist leg muscles, postural and even facial muscles.

Pedaling Circles

The goal is to subtly guide the pedals around in smooth circles; not wasting muscle energy on overcoming unproductive muscle tension, joint stiffness, or lifting the 25 plus pounds of dead weight of the recovering leg. This load could be even greater if your saddle is too low and/or if joints or muscles are stiff and resist the knee flexion at the top of the stroke. Muscle activity measures have shown negative force vectors resisting the pushing leg beyond the weight of the recovering limb!

An easy test is to unclip one foot and let one leg do all the work. Deficiencies are revealed immediately.Hip flexors and hamstrings will howl. The same muscles we feel when we isolate one leg are the same ones we need to strengthen and teach to contribute to the stroke.

Analysis of the pedal /stroke will often reveal weak hip flexors and hamstrings compared to the more dominant quadriceps. Hip flexors, while not designed as prime movers, are often under-utilized in cycling. The hamstrings also have the potential to contribute to the pedal stroke, but minimally they should be strong and supple enough to get out of the way. There must be conscious neuromuscular conditioning to make that happen.

Left Leg/Right Leg Balance

There can be disparity between left and right pedal strokes. One leg can be dominant and the other along for the ride. One leg can have greater girth and subtly different musculature. You may also feel the dominant leg is more quad driven and the weaker leg more hamstring driven. This lack of symmetry can lead to losses in efficiency, and invite injury. Over time, a cyclists’ quads tend to strengthen, shorten, and overwhelm the antagonizing hamstrings. Single leg pedaling will uncover discrepancies.

Correcting the problem

If you discover a faulty pattern in your single-legged pedal action, make an effort to reverse it. Doing proprioceptive pedaling and single-legged drills regularly will be the first step. When you pedal, be aware of your tendencies to revert to your old program, and correct it. Be persistent and patient. Training aids like PowerCranks can be useful but expensive. Single-leg drills and Proprioceptive drills will cost you nothing and are very effective. Spin Scan sessions can provide feedback while you progress.

Additionally regularly stretch the quads, and effectively and properly work the core to help rotate the pelvis posteriorly. Strengthening hamstrings and hip-flexors in general will aid in this posterior adjustment. Do 10 minutes of Proprioceptive and/or single-leg drills nearly every ride. They should be low resistance at first. As you become more proficient, progress slowly. Revisit the drills several times during the course of a ride to reinforce the patterns. There is plenty of recovery riding, warm-up, and cool-down time to work this process. When you’re working intensely, or racing, just monitor your form now and then, cut loose and go.

STEPS TO IMPROVING YOUR PEDAL STROKE

Analyze Position, Pedal Stroke and Muscular Function

Make sure your bike is fit properly. If your saddle isn’t high enough, you can’t get the foot over the top of the stroke effectively. If you must enlist your postural and arm muscles to hold you in place, or contract your quads to unweight your body off of an uncomfortable saddle then you are wasting a lot of energy.

Get a Spin Scan done. Find out how balanced and circular your pedal stroke is.

Do isolated pedaling to see how strong and coordinated your hip-flexors and hamstrings are.

Be observant of unequal strength and coordination between right and left legs.

PEDALING CIRCLES SKILL DRILLS

The drill descriptions are based on the pedal stroke overlays the face of a clock with the crank arm being the hour hand. These drills are done with both legs clipped in and are perfect to do on any road/trail ride.

Focus on Stroke Clock Quadrants:

Push down 2-5 o’clock Scrape back 5-9 o’clock Lift/Drive knee toward Handlebars 9-11 o’clock Kick or flick over top 11-2 o’clock

Shift Quadrants by 1-2 hour positions occasionally.

SKILL DRILL #1a will bring awareness and coordination to each portion of the pedal stroke.

Around the Clock Same Quadrant

Single Quadrant Focus by both legs; alternating legs:

Push down L, push down R x 20 strokes each.

Scrape L, scrape R x 20 strokes each.

Lift/drive R, lift/drive L

Kick over R, Kick over L

SKILL DRILL #1b will bring coordination to each leg working together to simultaneously push/pull.

Around the Clock Coordinating Opposite Quadrants

Push down R AND lift/drive L” x 20 strokes each.

Scrape R AND kick/flip L” x 20 strokes each.

Reverse the legs and repeat for other side.

SKILL DRILL #2 will put it all together one leg at a time.

Single leg focus full circle

Focus on feeling and guiding one pedal in a full circle with other leg clipped-in but completely limp. Alternate 10, 20 eventually 30 strokes each leg with dominant leg first, non-dominant second, then meld into coordinating both legs together third. Repeat 3-6 times with some uphill.

This can then evolve into some single leg pedaling drills with 1 leg clipped out on an indoor trainer.

Left/Right Asymmetry Correction Drills

1. Do 30% more of Proprioceptive and one-legged drills with weak leg.

2. Ride up a hill or under any real load thinking “Left, Left, Left” [assuming the left leg is the weaker leg] on each left-leg pedal down stroke. Don’t push a lot harder with the weaker leg, just mentally count pedal strokes on that side. Simply mentally accentuating the ‘weak’ leg will eventually even out the torque curves of each leg.

In conclusion, efficient pedaling is a critical skill that takes time to develop. Efficiency isn’t the result of just cycling more. It requires a focused conscious effort toward enhancing technique. The bike masks our weakness. We can improve fitness, but if we ignore efficiency, we are not maximizing our performance potential.

by EDGE Endurance Training Center Owner and GCC affiliate Coach Dan Shelby, M.S.

Take Advantage of the Track!

JUNE 28, 2012 BY KYLEKNOTT

The Southeast is booming with opportunities for riders to get out on velodrome and take advantage of the track. Most riders are within a reasonable drive to one of the velodromes whether it be Dick Lane Velodrome (Atlanta, GA), The Mellowdrome (Asheville, NC), or the newest addition The Giordana Velodrome (Rock Hill, SC). Each facility has a weekly series that can be found on their websites (listed below) that would benefit any type of rider to try. Most will have you take a certification class so that you will know the track specific rules and safety concerns before being able to race.

A lot of people might shy away from the track thinking it is for sprinters or track specialists, but spending time training and/or racing on a velodrome will be beneficial for anyone willing to give it a go.

If you are struggle with maintaining fitness a weekly track workout or race will help you go beyond your usually capabilities without just doing intervals. Track races cause you to accelerate and maintain speed many times over each short race. A lot of times you are put in a position where you must bridge across to the winning move before it laps the field which will put you at VO2 max effort. This can be beneficial for a road rider who might not enjoy doing intervals alone and wants to mix it up with some weekly racing. The fact that you also do many races a night in an omnium style, you must be able to recover and get back out on track to do it again which does wonders for fitness.

If you enjoy time trialing the track would be great for you with events such as the 1K and the 4K. These events are tailored to different types of riders, but both will use a TT position. As a road rider or triathlete it can benefit you to go to the track and try some of these races for time in your TT position and strength on the bike workouts with the standing starts. The track is also a great place to tinker with your TT position because you can make minor adjustments then ride around the velodrome and come back in and make more adjustments without the boredom of riding a trainer or the fear of making adjustments on the side of the road.

For a rider who struggles with acceleration and sprinting the track would help with flying time trials or mass start events. As I mentioned acceleration over and over again are essential for success in track racing, so that would benefit a rider needed work in this category. Also most of the tracks will have a night where they do sprint events which you can get your time in the flying 200 and go back each month to these events to see the gains in your sprinting ability.

Overall I encourage you to check out your local or regional track for a way to mix up some training and improve weaknesses and maintain strengths. Each track has a different weekly series and one track might suit your needs better based on the events they have that week, so go ahead and give them all a try to experience the different scene and character that each offer.

KyleKnott

Kyle is a Greenville Cycling Center Coach. Focus: Road cycling and track. Education: Health and physical education teaching license. While competing for Mars Hill College he won the Division II Collegiate National Championships in the criterium, individual omnium, and team omnium.

Interbike – Pedal Chic named Best Bike Shop for Women

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012 BY PAMELA WOOD BROWNE

Greenville, SC is home to the first women-specific cycling shop and boutique in the nation. Pedal Chic. On Wednesday night, Founder Robin Bylenga received the BRAINy award for Best Bike Shop for Women at Interbike 2012 in Las Vegas. “We’re proud to be on the forefront of empowering women by combining fitness and fashion along with re-discovering the unique freedom of riding a bike.”

Bylenga is also one of the founders of SpokesWomen, a professional networking group for women in the cycling industry. Carolina Cycling News attended the networking eventhosted by SpokesWomen and the Outdoor Industries Women’s Coalition (OIWC) in the OIWC Women’s Lounge at the Interbike Expo. It was well attended, far surpassing last year’s numbers and spilling out into the surrounding aisles.

Pamela Wood Browne

Pamela, co-founder of Carolina Cycling News, writes our Slow Bike Upstate blog. She's a recreational/commuter cyclist and bike racing fan. Her background is in design, technology and urban planning

Interbike – globalbike Wipes Launch

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 BY PAMELA WOOD BROWNE

Tanzania

Carolina Cycling News stopped by the globalbikes Wipes booth to check out the new wipes Spartanburg-based Athletix Products by Contec has launched at Interbike 2012 in Las Vegas. There are three different specifically formulated presaturated globalbike™ Wipes products – globalbike™ Body Wipes (Fresh Scent and Unscented), globalbike™ Chain Wipes and globalbike™ Hand and Tool Wipes. The body wipes are compostable and biodegradable and the chain wipes both clean and lubricate your bike chain. A percentage of proceeds from the wipe sales will be given to globalbike.

“Our partnership with globalbike is a win-win for our company,” said Jack McBride, Contec’s CEO. “We are especially excited to give away a gbconnect trip for two. This is a week-long trip, which will give participants a first-hand view of how a simple bicycle can bring dynamic transformation to the lives of less fortunate people. We believe it will be a life-changing event for the winners, too.”

globalbike and Contec, Inc., are also partnering to offer two free trips to Tanzania during Interbike. The trips will give recipients a chance to participate in globalbike’s signature program, gbconnect, which is a week-long transformative tourism trip that allows participants to stay in scenic sites that are receiving globalbikes, while helping with person-to-person handoffs of donated bikes to see how the vehicles make a difference.

“We guarantee that anyone who travels through gbconnect will not return home the same,” said Curt McPhail, President and Founder of globalbike. “This trip will transform how you see the world and how you can make a difference with something as simple as a bike.”

The next gbconnect trip is scheduled for May 31-June 10, 2013. If you’re interested in traveling through gbconnect, email info@globalbike.org.

More Southeast Sightings at Interbike

Sunshine Cycle Shop – John and Catherine James

Robin Bylenga of Pedal Chic on the runway at the Interbike Fashion Show

Southeast Interbike attendees share how they are enriching their local bicycling communities.

Pamela Wood Browne

Pamela, co-founder of Carolina Cycling News, writes our Slow Bike Upstate blog. She's a recreational/commuter cyclist and bike racing fan. Her background is in design, technology and urban planning.





2011 BLOG POSTS

A Metaphor Heavy Cycling Post on a Serious Topic

If you know me, or if you have read this blog, it is readily apparent that I live and breathe cycling. I think it is the most beautiful sport in the world. However, cycling is a fickle and cruel mistress that will not think twice about chewing a rider up and spitting him out on the side of the road like a wad of flavorless gum. In cycling, everything can go wrong so fast, whether it be an inopportune flat that sees you drifting of the back of a group right as the leaders launch their bid for victory, a crash that leaves you broken and unable to compete, or, drawing from my personal experience at last weekends national championships, a cramp on the penultimate lap.

Cycling doesn’t care whether you have good form, if you are the strongest guy in the race, or if you have the best equipment. If you race long enough bad and disheartening stuff will inevitably happen to you. The sport of cycling was described to me recently and rather aptly as trying to fill a punctured bucket with water–sometimes you can get the bucket to overflow, but eventually the water is going to come splashing out of the bottom of the bucket and you as a rider are going to be lost in the pain cave without a flashlight.

So how do we as a community of bike racers combat the seemingly looming defeat that circles us like sharks around chum? The answer is we remember why we got into the sport in the first place. We remember the fun and the freedom that bike racing provides and the satisfaction we feel when we win, knowing we did everything clean and by the book and knowing that for once we overflowed the bucket, fought of the sharks, and turned on the light in the pain cave.

Andy Baker

Andy Baker is a 21 year old Greenville SC native who races for the Bissell Pro Cycling Team. He has been cycling for over half is life, and is a junior history major at Furman University. In his spare time he enjoys watching movies, reading books (comic and otherwise), playing video games and spending time with his friends.

Hey Andy, Where The Heck Have You Been?

Written by Andy Baker on June 20, 2011 -

The title of this blog is a great question in and of itself. Since collegiate nationals I have logged numerous miles in all modes of transportation, suffered through two of the hardest one-day races in the world and helped propel Bissell to results that have solidified our standing as the number one continental team in the United States.

First stop on my whirlwind tour of America’s great bike races was in my own backyard at the US PRO TT and Road Race championships in Greenville, SC. The TT went pretty well for me. I hit out of the starting ramp really fast and held a pace that would’ve propelled me into the top ten (and my biggest ever result) but unfortunately the distance of the TT got to me and I cracked during the last lap and lost a minute and half which ultimately slotted me into 17th place overall. I was happy with my performance, but really lamented the fact I cracked so hard on the last lap.

Next up was the USPRO road race, during which my job was to cover the early break and basically just be at our team leaders’ beck and call. After an exceedingly fast first time up the climb (which saw half the field drop out of the race), Bissell put one guy into the early break. I made it over the climb and proceeded to get bottles and position our guys into the lead for the second time up Paris Mountain. Unfortunately this time up the climb my teammate in the break succumbed to the crippling heat of the day and came back to the field; that meant it was time for Bissell to chase! From the time the field left town until the base of the climb, I, along with two of my teammates and some Jamis riders, set pace to bring back the break. At the base of Paris Mountain, the third time up, my job done, I pulled the plug and leisurely climbed up the mountain. (Thanks for all the cheers, by the way!) Kyle Wamsley eventually placed fifth for the day, delivering a great result for Bissell Pro Cycling.

The morning after USPRO I hopped on a plane to scenic Allentown, PA. In Allentown I spent a couple days recovering, watching racing at the world famous T-Town Velodrome and getting ready for my next race the Basecamp International NRC crit in Basking Ridge, NJ. Bissell raced aggressively on the technical Basecamp course, but a UHC squad that was firing on all cylinders outmanned our small squad. However, Basecamp was a small appetizer compared to the full course meal that was our next race, the 156 mile Philadelphia International Championship otherwise known to the cycling world as Philly.

Bissell Pro cycling warming up the day before USPRO



Bissell, fueled up by a delicious Italian meal provided by one of our gracious sponsors, had a plan to take Philly by storm. My teammates Andrew Dahlheim, Shane Kline, and Eric Young along with myself would be taking early break duties, with Dahlheim and I focusing on the dreaded “Wall” portion of the course–a half-mile section of pain averaging somewhere around 15%. The first time up the Wall, Andrew and I were in perfect position going over in the top twenty. However, the break did not go on the Wall and rolled on the flat portion of Kelly Drive causing Andrew and I, who were focusing on the wall, to miss the move. Andrew and I tried to force a bridge move the second time over the Wall attacking with an Exergy and Geox rider, but we were caught on the decent. I went back for bottles a couple times after that, and then found myself in a small group almost by accident with a Geox rider and a rider from the Asian team, Champion System. Our group was never going to catch the break, but I thought we would at least eke out enough of a lead to get caught later in the race after all the shenanigans up the wall played out. Unfortunately, the field never gave my group more than two minutes and we were caught the seventh time up the Wall and I was spit out the back. Bissell ended the day with bad luck with our four leaders all being caught behind a massive crash with 500 meters to go, but as they say, “that’s bike racing.”

So that’s basically the last several months of my life since winning collegiate nationals, next up for me is the U-23 time trial, criterium, and road race nationals in Augusta, Georgia, followed by the Presbyterian Hospital Criterium in Charlotte at the end of July. I’ll try to update more frequently in the future and I hope you guys enjoyed this blog.

About the Author: Andy Baker is a 21 year old Greenville SC native who races for the Bissell Pro Cycling Team. He has been cycling for over half is life, and is a junior history major at Furman University. In his spare time he enjoys watching movies, reading books (comic and otherwise), playing video games and spending time with his friends.





2010 BLOG POSTS

2010 Interbike

Written by Pamela on September 25, 2010

This past week Carolina Cycling News attended the 2010 Interbike trade show. Shortly after our arrival in Las Vegas, we headed to the 2010 Bike Tweetup for a great opportunity to connect with bike folks we usually just see online. There we ran into Chad Andrews (Charlotte, NC) with his Interbike TV film crew for the first [...]

Southeast Cycling Fans: Divas Tour France

WrittenbyPamela on July 19, 2010 -

We’ll be keeping up with the “Cycling Divas”: Anita, Barbara and D’Andrea (left to right in picture) who will be reporting live from the Tour de France. They arrived in France last night, made their way by train to Bordeaux and then headed by car to Moneinm. As we watched today’s stage, they were reporting [...]

This Week’s Events

Written CCN.com on June 15, 2010 -

Riders and cycling fans should have the following events on your radar this week. If you don’t see your event listed please let us know so we can update our listing. We love to get event reports to expand our coverage from event organizers,

This Week in the Carolinas

Written by CCN.com on June 8, 2010 -

Riders and cycling fans should have the following events on your radar this week. You can catch Neil suffering at the Caesar’s Head Challenge on Saturday. If you don’t see your event listed please let us know so we can update our listing. We love to get event reports to expand our coverage from event [...]

Carolina Cycling News now has a blog

Written by Pamela Wood Browne on June 3, 2010

This blog is a spot for updates about Carolina Cycling News, sharing additional local info and any random communications we might have.

While we continue to appreciate the numerous positive responses to having a website focused on local cycling news, we are only beginning to give the amazing number of events in the Carolinas the attention they deserve. As we are based in Greenville, South Carolina our coverage has naturally tended to give more attention to the Upstate. We look forward to expanding the reach of our coverage.

As we work to create a quality site that provides a great advertising opportunity for event organizers and local merchants, we must also devote our time to our income generating projects. We hope you’ll enjoy the journey with us as we work towards ultimately making Carolina Cycling News our primary focus.

Collegiate racing at Furman University

on March 28, 2010





Knott takes the sprint win

Furman University played host to collegiate racing this weekend which included a team time trial, road race and criterium. In sunny weather, yesterday’s road race was held on the Fork Shoals course, the same loop used during the Hincapie Spring Training Series. However the weather didn’t hold and the racers were subjected to sporadic rainfall, drenching the .75 mile course held on the beautiful Furman University campus.

In the men’s “A” race nine rider break went off the front and stayed away for the duration of the hour plus five lap race. With ten laps remaining an Emory rider shot away. Soon he was joined by a Lees McRae rider and the two escapees looked like they were going to stay away. But on the bell lap a determined chase from a hard charging Clemson rider brought the racers together and on the jockeying for position began.

Knott showing what it looks like to race in the rain

From around the final traffic circle the nine riders started their sprint for the finish line. Kyle Knott from Mars Hill College came out from the pack crossing the finish line with a clear victory. This was Knott’s first win as a collegiate racer.

“Honestly I thought it was going to be a sprint for third,” said Knott. “I was confident in fifth or sixth spot [in the break away] and I was able to come around for a clear shot for the sprint.”

CarolinaCyclingNews.com