The World's: Twenty-five years and counting...

That is twenty-five years since the cycling World Road Championships were last held in the United States.

Kind of hard to believe that they have not been able to make it back here at least once in that time. They came close when they visited Hamilton, Canada in 2003, but that has been it. In fact that has been it since 1927, the first year that a professional road race championship was held. Since that date, the road championships have only visited the States that one time. Of course it has only been within the past three decades or so, that American riders have had much of a consistent impact in the sport, but isn't it about time to come back here. Now, keep in mind that the Track World's are another matter (the road and track races are not always held in the same place), and as a result the track World Championships were held in Los Angeles in 2005, and even earlier in 1912 in Newark, and 1893 (the first) in Chicago.

One of the little bits of cycling memorabilia I have picked up over the years is this pin from the events of 1986, when the races, both road and track, were held at Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The podium for the men's road race was filled by Moreno Argenin of Italy with the gold medal, Charly Mottet of France with silver, and Guiseppe Saronni with bronze. The women's road race was won by the indefatigable Jeanne Longo, followed by Janelle Parks, the only American to medal that year, and Alla Jakovleva of the Soviet Union.

Funny how things work out sometimes. After I wrote this little post I stopped by the Velo and was shown a collection of cycling posters that had just come into the shop, among which was the Campagnolo  one marking the 1986 Worlds shown below. I apologize for the quality, although other than the Campy logo, there is not much to see in the central portion anyway.