CHARLESTON, W.Va. –Charleston Convention Visitors Bureau CEO and President Tim Brady says that residents will soon start seeing preparation begin for the 2025 USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships.

Tim Brady

“You will start seeing construction of the start/finish truss begin on Friday afternoon after five o’clock,” Brady said on 580 Live with Dave Allen Tuesday morning. “Friday evening you’ll see construction of the start/finish line area in front of the Four Points begin and fencing will start to go up over the weekend. So, you’ll really start to see it develop, Friday, Saturday, Sunday in preparation for racing on Monday.”

Races will begin on May 19th and last through Memorial Day on May 26.

Brady said that there are people who are already in Charleston preparing for the races.

“I can tell you we’ve seen teams and individual riders practicing on the hills on Bridge Road and over on Wertz Avenue,” he said. “There was a family from Europe that’s in the for the cycling races that were up at Lola’s over the weekend.”

He says that more people should be arriving later this week

The races get underway on Monday at 9 a.m. with the Para-Cycling Road races for all categories, they’ll have two days of time trial racing, two days of criterium racing and three days of road races.

Brady says that with all of the races going on, they are going to try and keep the disruptions to day-to-day life at a minimum like they did last year.

“Most of the road closures, unless you’re right down in the heart of it on the Boulevard, are not hard closures, there rolling closures meaning that when we have the opportunity, we can roll traffic,” he said.

However, he did say that those who live in residential areas such as Wertz Avenue, Oakridge, Greenbrier, Bridge Road and Louden Road will be closed when the cyclists are moving through on Saturday, Sunday and Monday of next week because of the climbs and descents.

Brady said that they have tried to keep the experience from last year but more fun for those watching the races.

“We go through last year and then figured out where we can augment this, where can we create some ancillary activities, create more fun environment so we can amplify what we did last year and make it more fun for the community this year,” he said.

He mentioned that on Thursday and Friday, during the Criterium races, V100 will have a designated watch zone at the corner of Quarrier Street and Hale Street, there will be a watch zone on Capitol Street, and a watch zone at Bridge Road. He also said that viewers will be able to watch the night races on Slack Plaza in downtown Charleston, and in partnership with Arts Amplified there will be live music in the park Thursday and Friday nights and then all day Saturday and Sunday.

To see more information on races and road closures you can visit the City of Charleston’s website here.

Photo: Last year’s USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships in Charleston