2016 USA Cycling Hill Climb National Championships Set to Run on Pikes Peak

USA Cycling and the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation are proud to announce Pikes Peak - America's Mountain as the premier course for the 2016 USA Cycling Hill Climb National Championships set for Saturday, August 13.

This is a brand new event and the first ever cycling hill climb national championship to be hosted on Pikes Peak. USA Cycling has named the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation as the primary organizing body to execute the inaugural event and both parties expect cycling's most elite national and international athletes to compete to challenge America's Mountain in 2016. 

Colorado Springs Sports Corporation (The Sports Corp), a 501(c)3 non-profit professional event management company, owns and operates the annual Broadmoor Pikes Peak Cycling Hill Climb and was integrally involved in the organization of past Colorado Springs stages of the USA Pro Challenge among many other major events in Colorado Springs. The Sports Corp is thrilled to be selected to organize and execute the event as it complements the company's underlying mission of attracting high caliber events and increasing the economic development of Colorado Springs. 

The Sports Corp's President and CEO, Tom Osborne, says "the national championship is another opportunity to showcase our great sports community and bring people to town. We are excited to work with USA Cycling on this event and look forward to another successful and unique event on the Pikes Peak Highway."

The 2016 USA Cycling Hill Climb National Championships will engage elite athletes competing in Pro Categories and will not require athletes to pre-qualify for the event. In addition to the timed and sanctioned competitive race, The Broadmoor Pikes Peak Cycling Hill Climb Gran Fondo events will be hosted concurrently as an opportunity for recreational riders to test their skills on the peak.

 Previous Broadmoor Pikes Peak Cycling Hill Climb competitors tamed the mountain with an impressive men's overall course record of 1:08:36 (LeRoy Popowski, Colorado Springs, CO) and women's course record of 1:28:46 (Suzanne Crespo, Golden, CO), both during the 2015 event.

The difficult course outlined for the national championship contenders is the exact course of The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC) - America's second oldest auto race. Like the PPIHC, the USA Cycling National Championship will take stage on the 12.42 mile public toll-road boasting 156 turns and climbing 4,720 ft. from the 9,390 ft. start line at the mile 7 marker on the Pikes Peak Highway to the 14,115 ft. finish line at the mountain's summit.

The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), also known as The Race to the Clouds, is an annual invitational automobile and motorcycle hill climb to the summit of Pikes Peak and 2016 will mark the event's 100th anniversary since the event was founded in 1916 by Spencer Penrose (also the founder of The Broadmoor Hotel, Pikes Peak Highway and El Pomar Foundation).

At an elevation of 14,115 ft., Pikes Peak - America's Mountain is one of Colorado's 54 fourteeners, mountains that rise more than 14,000 feet (4,267.2 m) above sea level, and the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The mountain is named in honor of American explorer Zebulon Pike and is a designated National Historic Landmark, making this event even more unique. Reportedly, the Pikes Peak Highway hosts 5.9 million visitors a year, making it the number one tourist attraction in the State of Colorado and the second most visited mountain in the world next to Mount Fuji.

Registration will open in early 2016. To learn more and stay up to date as the planning for the 2016 USA Cycling Hill Climb National Championships develops, visit ColoradoSpringsSports.org