US Open loses race director

By Tim Maloney

The U.S. Open Cycling Championships, slated for Saturday, April 7th, has run into some problems. Slated to run from Williamsburg to Richmond, Virginia, the ambitious event currently lists no sponsors on its web site and Thursday, experienced race promoter Tim Miller resigned as executive director of the the U.S. Open Cycling Championships.

Miller stated in an e-mail that "It is with great sadness that I write this email to inform you, the stakeholders and supporters of the effort to bring the U.S. Open Cycling Championships to Central Virginia, that I have resigned my positions as officer and director of Red Five Sports Group, Inc., and as Executive Director of the U.S. Open Cycling Championships. This has been an extraordinarily difficult decision. However, I have come to this decision because of irreconcilable differences concerning the production of the event."

When Cyclingnews subsequently spoke to Richard Durishin, President of race organizer Red Five Sports Group, he explained that "the U.S. Open Cycling Championship is still awaiting sponsor approval. We still hope to do the race, to air the race." We asked Durishin which teams might compete in the U.S. Open Cycling Championship and he said "we will have US based teams, Tim Miller faxed invites in February to many teams but we have none confirmed at this time."