US city to bid for UCI Road World Championships?

USA Cycling announced today that the city of Richmond, Virginia is preparing to bid for a "major cycling event" that has not been held in the US "for almost 25 years".

The world's most important one-day race, the UCI road world championships, was last held in the US in 1986 when Colorado Springs held the race, leading to the obvious speculation, supported by the soon-to-be published website richmond2015.com, that the announcement will be a bid for the 2015 worlds.

The Mayor of Richmond, Dwight C. Jones and USA Cycling's CEO Steve Johnson will hold a press conference on Tuesday, December 21 at 10:30AM to make the announcement.

When the championships were held in Colorado, the race was won by Moreno Argentin, while Jeannie Longo claimed the women's race. The UCI road world championships have not been held in North America since 2003 when they took place in Hamilton, Ontario in Canada.

Richmond, Virginia last hosted a UCI-classified race in 2007, when the US Cycling Open was held. It also hosted stages of the Tour Dupont in the 1990s.