For the primary time since 2001, Washington, D.C. will host a day of racing and actions for a rebranded Amazon Armed Forced Cycling Classic, the previous Crystal Cup turning into the Capital Cup and providing opening omnium factors for professionals within the two-day format.
Amazon broadened their sponsorship to incorporate naming rights for the weekend occasion, scheduled for May 31-June 1. The Clarendon Cup returns for a twenty seventh yr on Sunday utilizing a particular five-turn, 1km course positioned seven miles west of the nation’s capitol in Arlington, Virginia.
“I hung a clothesline over Clarendon Boulevard in 1998. Clarendon has been the unique, after which we had the Crystal Cup. We’ve been tweaking and adjusting and rising for all these years,” Rob Laybourn, race founder and govt director at Arlington Sports, instructed Cyclingnews in regards to the two-day occasion.
“I’m honoured to deliver racing again to D.C. now. Amazon additionally stepped as much as take over the naming rights of it.”
The Clarendon Cup has served because the opening day race in previous years, then switched with the race in Crystal City, Virginia and a Challenge Ride was added, which is now one of many nation’s hottest novice journey. The Challenge Ride presents a 21km closed course that welcomes biking fans of all talent ranges and can begin and end on one aspect of the Capital. Participants can goal for gold, silver, or bronze medals, awarded based mostly on the variety of laps accomplished through the three-hour occasion.
Laybourn expects greater than 30 firms to take part within the Challenge Ride on May 31, with eight of these companies aligning with elite groups for co-branding within the professional/am races. It is a really distinctive technique to generate help for the races, in addition to increase branding for the professional groups.
As an instance, the DNA Pro Cycling group was rebranded BlueHalo/DNA with a particular version equipment for the 2 days of racing. Laybourn has finished this for the previous 10 years, which has confirmed to be a win-win for each the group and for companies who in any other case would by no means be concerned in professional biking, like BlueHalo, a worldwide protection firm.
“I wish to attempt to create alternatives and media protection for a high quality occasion. We’re attempting to promote our spot outdoors of simply the individuals who learn about it. We get most of our help from company relationships,” Laybourn mentioned, saying he would have extra particulars quickly in regards to the group co-branding companions. “I believe we’ve got a really mature property that continues to develop and achieve success with the help we get right here domestically.”
Details on the course used for the Challenge Ride and the Capital Cup shall be launched later within the spring. The two-day occasion continues to thrive as a stand-alone omnium occasion and isn’t a part of a US criterium collection.
In 2019, Eric Young (Elevate-KHS) and Kendall Ryan (TIBCO-SVB) made historical past as the primary riders to win each days of races on the Armed Forces Cycling Classic, each sweeping omnium championships. Ryan repeated the feat for L39ION of Los Angeles in 2022, additionally profitable the Crystal Cup in 2024.
“Amazon has been a proud sponsor of this occasion for the previous three years,” mentioned Patrick Phillippi, head of neighborhood engagement for Amazon in Greater Washington. “The Armed Forces Cycling Classic displays so many key essential core values for our firm, together with well being and wellness, help for our army neighborhood, and interesting our workforce and local people, all happening in our yard.”
