Bike race, disc golf tournament planned for weekend
By Matt Caulder
Published in News on May 30, 2014 1:46 PM
Sections of Center Street and other surrounding streets will be closed Saturday as a USA Cycling Criterion race makes a stop in Goldsboro before heading on to Greenville for the next leg of the race.
Center Street will be closed in both directions from Mulberry Street south to Spruce Street with sections of Spruce, Chestnut, Walnut and Mulberry streets being closed as well as John and James streets.
The street closings are set to last from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. but the streets will be reopened after the last heat finishes, Goldsboro Parks and Recreation Director Scott Barnard said.
"Once that last heat is over I don't see any reason we'd have the street closed," he said. "The streets could be open by 4:15 p.m."
The nearly mile-long course winds through downtown beginning on John Street before turning west onto Mulberry Street.
At Center Street the course turns south and heads down to Chestnut Street where racers will turn south on James Street.
The course then turns east on Spruce Street before heading back up Center Street to Walnut Street.
Racers will then turn back onto John Street and head towards the finish line.
"It's our hope that this will open doors to other USA cycling events in Goldsboro," Barnard said. "Our goal is really to do what we did with Cycle NC and have these people come to Goldsboro and have a good time. My hope is that we will be humble and hospitable and that we can hold two of these a year."
Barnard said that cycling based tourism is a growing market across the state that Goldsboro can become a larger part of.
"It was very intentional that we put it in downtown," he said. "We want people to come and taste the local flavor of Goldsboro. Hopefully they'll book up the hotels. We hope that the citizens will enjoy getting out and mingling with the people here. They might see a little more spandex than they are used to but it'll all be all right."
The races will run in heats beginning at 10 a.m. and running until the last heat starts at 3 p.m.
Racers will have a set amount of time to run the course, vying for position, before the horn blasts signaling the last lap.
Racers will then have one lap to fight for first.
"This is more like roller derby on bikes," Barnard said. "I wouldn't say its a fringe of cycling but it is definitely for people that cycling wasn't enough. It's not what people think of when they think of a bicycle race."
Also coming up this weekend at the Goldsboro Municipal Golf Course and in Berkeley Park is the Spike Hyzer Stoney Creek Crusher II disc golf tournament.
The tournament will be played in two rounds over the weekend.
The first will be played on a temporary course at the golf course Saturday morning with the second round taking place in Berkeley Park Sunday morning.
Spectators are welcome to watch both the bicycle race and disc golf tournaments.