Greenville Hospital System USA Cycling Professional Championships

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GREENVILLE, S.C. (September 3, 2008) – Huge crowds, strong community and corporate support and first-class event management are a few of the reasons why the Greenville Hospital System USA Cycling Professional Championship will return to Greenville in 2009. USA Cycling, Inc., which sanctions the event, extended the licensing agreement for one additional year with Medalist Sports after the completion of a third dual championship weekend in Greenville on August 30 and 31. The event will keep its spot on the calendar as part of the USA Cycling Professional Tour on August 29th and 30th, making the fourth trip to Greenville in 2009.

“This is a great community and the way we work in USA Cycling is to create a long-term relationship with the community and find a home. We are coming back here next year,” said Steve Johnson, CEO of USA Cycling, Inc. “This is our third year here, and these things just keep getting better and better and better. It’s the result of the support of this city and the community.”

In 2006, USA Cycling moved the Professional Road Race Championship from Philadelphia, Pa. to Greenville, after staging the one-day Road Race championship for 21 years in the northeast. That same year the Professional Individual Time Trial Championship was added to the lineup for the first time to make the event a dual championship for the top professional American cyclists. A three-year contract, from 2006-2008, was approved with the City of Greenville and Medalist Sports, a sports marketing company that specializes in planning, promotion and management of multi-day, multi-jurisdiction sports.

“The City is very pleased to have hosted such an exciting event for the past three years. The prestigious Professional Championships for road racing puts Greenville in the national spotlight and promotes our healthy community message to a very broad audience,” added James Bourey, City Manager of Greenville.

For a third consecutive year, numbers at the Greenville Hospital System USA Cycling Professional Championships continued to impress organizers. There were huge crowds in Greenville for race-weekend events, including tens of thousands of spectators who turned out for the championship events, Greenville Rocks concert and two fundraising events. Most impressive was a record $110,000 raised for cancer research by the Palmetto Peloton Project (P3) with a Stars and Stripes 5K Run and 1-Mile Run/Walk and the 3rd Annual Stars and Stripes Challenge bicycle ride. In the three years that the P3 organization has partnered with the Championships, it has raised $278,000. Funds this year will be distributed to the Greenville Hospital System Oncology Research Institute, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Activate Upstate.

“We are proud to partner with the city of Greenville for a fourth year. It is a testament to the City of Greenville, Greenville County, Greenville Hospital System and so many others in the business community to make this event possible. And the support from cycling fans in the Upstate as well as thousands who travel here from all over the country, make us very proud to continue the success into 2009,” said Chris Aronhalt, Managing Partner of Medalist Sports.

Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center, one of the largest not-for-profit healthcare providers in South Carolina, has agreed to continue its partnership with the cycling event as title sponsor. In addition, the Greenville Hospital System Oncology Research Insitute will continue as a major recipient of the recreational activities organized by P3 to raise awareness and generate funds to fight cancer.

On Saturday, August 30, the 20.7-mile USA Cycling Professional Individual Time Trial Championship was contested by 32 elite athletes at the Clemson University – International Center for International Research in Greenville. The Time Trial championship was won for a third consecutive year by Salt Lake City, UT resident David Zabriskie (Garmin-Chipotle presented by H30). On Sunday, August 31, a star-studded field of 108 professional cyclists covered the 115-mile course in and around Greenville in a little over 4 ½ hours. Thirteen-year professional cyclist Tyler Hamilton (Rock Racing) of Boulder, Co. won the Stars-and-Stripes jersey for the first time in his career by a margin of two-thousandths of a second.