CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After a bit of a chaotic start traffic-wise, Charleston city officials say it should be smooth riding for everyone involved during the week-long USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships.
The event, bringing hundreds of professional and up-and-coming cyclists to compete in the Capital City got underway Monday morning, but with somewhat of a congested start as the newly-added para-cycling races kicked off right around the time of the morning commute for many. 
Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO Tim Brady came on 580 Live Monday morning talking about the unexpected congestion.
“Today is a bit of an anomaly, but the traffic pattern will be marginally different beginning tomorrow,” Brady said.
Charleston Mayor’s Office Chief of Staff Matt Sutton said the intense congestion was only going to be an issue this Monday morning for the week-long event that’s going to last until next Monday on Memorial Day.
He said they had to implement ongoing rolling road closures Monday along several downtown streets to accommodate the para-cyclists, because, a lot of those kinds of bikes are lower to the ground, making it more difficult for motorists to see them.
“We’re not going to have this problem over the next couple of days, this particular race with the para-cycling race taking place downtown today required an extra level of precaution as we have different cyclists who have different kinds of bikes, and they’re not the typical bike size,” Sutton said.
He said Tuesday morning may be a little more congested than normal as well, but for the most part, commuters who work downtown will be relieved to know they won’t have to deal with as many closures throughout the remainder of the week.
“I mean, the Kanawha Boulevard is going to be shut down, for the most part, right in the heart of downtown all week, but the streets getting into downtown Quarrier Street, Virginia Street, Washington, those will be much easier to get through over the next few days,” Sutton added.
On the law enforcement side of things, Charleston Police Chief Scott Dempsey said several months worth of planning goes into orchestrating the safety and security aspect of this event, and traffic is a major part of that.
He said despite Monday’s congestion, traffic seemed to be all cleared up and flowing normally even before the para-cycling race was to get wrapped up by midday.
However, even though traffic is easing up, Dempsey said your patience is still needed during the remainder of the event as keeping everyone safe is their number one priority.
“Obviously, we would ask everybody to try and take the extra time to get here downtown this whole week, but especially over the next couple of days, it’s going to be pretty busy here in the mornings, so we really ask everyone just to be patient, try to allow yourself some extra time to get here,” he said.
He said the police department has been working nonstop with the city’s public relations team as well as their public information officer trying to get the word out to everyone who works downtown of what to expect this week regarding the road closures and delays.
“Letting them know the routes that are available, how you can get into town, and those who are kinda stuck on the hotspots, we try to literally tell them, hey, you may not be able to go here but you can go this route,” Dempsey said.
Sutton said that as far as parking downtown goes this week, there is expected to be a bit more leniency with meter parking and ticket writing earlier in the week as parking enforcement is pretty taxed right now with everything going on, but as the week unfolds, he said to expect a return to regular parking enforcements.
“I wouldn’t use it as an excuse to park wherever you want for how ever long you want, because we will have to have more closures and stuff as it goes on, so we will have to keep people moving,” Sutton said.
Sutton added though, that most of the parking garages and regular downtown parking should be easily accessible for the rest of the week during the event.