Watch NCC's Sunny King Criterium live on Cyclingnews

Image 1 of 5

Coryn Rivera (UHC) on the attack (Image credit: Matt James)

Image 2 of 5

The Sunny King Criterium podium: Sergio Hernandez (Predator), Carlos Alzate and Karl Menzies (Unitedhealthcare) (Image credit: Philip Darden / www.philipdarden.com)

Image 3 of 5

Just a hint of irony in the Sunny King criterium taking place at night (Image credit: Brandon Andrews)

Image 4 of 5

The Women’s podium: 2nd place Erica Allar (Colavita-Fine Cooking ), 1st place Sarah Fader (Pepper Palace Pro Cycling team), 3rd place Laura Van Gilder ( Mellow Mushroom (Image credit: marcoquezada.com/nyvelocity/)

Image 5 of 5

Luke Keough (UnitedHealthcare) rode to a strong second place today. (Image credit: Jonathan Devich)

The USA Cycling National Criterium Calendar (NCC) will kick off with the Sunny King Criterium on March 28 in Anniston, Alabama, with the Women's Pro 1/2 race starting at 6:20pm (CDT) followed by the Men's Pro 1 race at 7:30pm (CDT). Watch the two marque events live on Cyclingnews.

Sunny King opens US national criterium calendar as Gasparilla cancelled

The women will race for a total of 60 minutes and a prize purse of $15,000, and the men will compete for 60 laps and the same prize purse of $15,000.

Carlos Alzate and Coryn Rivera took the wins in 2014 Sunny King Criterium. At the end of last season, Erica Allar secured the NCC's overall title in the women's category and Luke Keough won the overall men's title. In addition, Colavita-Bianchi won the women's overall team classification and UnitedHealthcare took the men's overall team classification.

Organisers of Tampa's Gasparilla Criterium, the event that was supposed to start the NCC on March 21, announced that their event was cancelled last week because a sponsor withdrew funding.