The 2007 Tour of Virginia races into Charlottesville Sunday as fans track the progress of the three Cavaliers in the race. The race began yesterday at the Natural Bridge with a five mile individual time trial. The field includes a U.Va. composite team consisting of three members of the University club cycling team, two Virginia Tech students and one other rider. Third-year Law student Mark Hardman, senior Michael Esbach and freshman Stephen De Lisle, round out the Cavaliers participating. The Virginia Tech students riding with the team are Owen Nielsen and Reid Beloini. The final rider is Brian Buchholz, a Google employee in California.
"I thought it would be a great opportunity for some of the younger guys to compete in this event,"Hardman said, "so I set up the team, and it turned out that it was a better fit for me just to ride with the collegiate guys."
This year the Tour of Virginia field includes 29 teams and 150 riders from both the professional and elite amateur level. Professional teams include AEG-Toshiba, Priority Health/Bissell, Calyon/Litespeed, which is a development squad for the French Credit Agricole team, and VMG, which is a U.S. U-23 development squad. The winner of the 2003 and 2004 Tours, Scottie Weiss, returns to racing for the AEG-Toshiba team. Last year's General Classification winner, Brent Bookwalter, broke his leg last week and will not race.
The race is broken into seven stages, most of which is spent riding through the mountainous western part of the state.
"Those long, winding mountain stages of over 100 miles [are what] the Tour of Virginia has really become distinguished for," said Brock Foreman, the media relations director for the Tour of Virginia. "Its like a mini Tour de France right here in central Virginia."
The last stage is a 100-mile route that begins and ends near the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville. If the road rolls out right, the winner could be one of Virginia's own.
"The reason I set up this event for the U.Va. team is to increase our exposure within the cycling community," Hardman said, "We are funded in large part by donations, so the more we can increase our exposure, perhaps the more donations we can receive."
By competing in events such as the Tour of Virginia, the participating Cavaliers gain valuable experience, useful in tackling the high level of competition in their regular season schedule. Collegiate cycling is organized on a club level, rather than varsity, a situation that has its advantages. Such advantages include the fact that students organize the team and its events, creating a high level of participation among those who compete.
The Virginia team has experienced recent success on both a team and individual level. Hardman is the current U.S. Collegiate National Champion. Last week, the U.Va. Cycling Team won the conference season championship by placing first in both the road race and criterium sections. This is the Cavalier's first outright team conference title since 1998, although they did share the title with Navy in 2003. In addition, sophomore Cate McLean, won the women's conference title for the second year in a row.
The Cavaliers hope to add to that list of personal achievements.
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