At first look Athens, Georgia might look like a small school city within the South. Within the music trade, it is called being the birthplace if bands like REM, Widespread Panic and The B-52s. On the planet of sports activities, it hosted the primary ladies’s soccer event in Olympic Video games historical past in 1996, utilizing the identical stadium that erupts every fall with record-breaking decibels of sound for College of Georgia soccer video games.
Earlier than the quiet of summer time when nearly all of the 40,000 UGA college students disperse from campus, downtown Athens explodes once more for what is taken into account greater than a motorcycle race, however the largest one-day bike race within the Southeast, the Athens Twilight Criterium. Now in its forty fifth 12 months, novice and professional races make it an all day, and all night time, social gathering.
Historical past was made once more in Athens on April 26, this time by Alexis Magner (Cynisca Biking) who turned the primary girl to win three professional races in a row. The California native who now lives in Athens brought about the massive crowds to amplify the noise across the four-corner course as she rolled away from the peloton with two different riders with 10 laps to go within the elite ladies’s race.
“The vitality of the occasion in Athens, it is electrical,” Alexis Magner informed Cyclingnews, making an attempt to seize the scope of the Twilight Criterium in phrases.Â
“Athens Twilight is a part of the neighborhood of people that stay in Athens, work in Athens and the 40,000 UGA college students. There are lots of people, households, a younger, vibrant neighborhood, who find out about Twilight as a result of it has a reputation. They arrive out as a result of they like to social gathering, they like to heckle and so they like to cheer. It makes it actually particular.
“Athens can get behind sports activities and so they can get behind music and so they can get behind occasions. The Twilight is an occasion for all folks.”
After Magner’s victory, Intelligent Martinez (CRCA/Basis) earned his first professional males’s win utilizing an aggressive transfer with Will Hardin (Group Winston-Salem) and the duo lapped the sphere with half the race nonetheless to go. He is now a part of a protracted listing of winners that features Olympic pace skating gold medalist Eric Heiden, Olympic observe gold medallist Steve Hegg, and Vuelta a España winner Chris Horner.
The big crowds alongside all corners and straightaways of the course make this race loud, with virtually each rider saying it seems like competing in a stadium. A victory in on the streets that go the Georgia Theatre and the county courthouse nonetheless eludes Georgia-native and former US Professional criterium champion Ty Magner, however he was nonetheless proud to compete.
“Rising up as a child I solely knew of the Tour de France and Athens Twilight. Everybody on the town is aware of of ‘Twilight’, and it actually is one of the best week of the 12 months in Athens,” Magner informed Cyclingnews.
At age 45, the Athens Twilight Criterium is now the anchor occasion for USA CRITS, positioned because the fourth of 9 one-day races throughout the US to acknowledge particular person professionals and elite groups. The race additionally offers factors in Pace Week, eight criterium races over 11 days throughout the southern US.
This is a glance from the lens of Adam Koble of the electrical atmosphere for the Athens Twilight Criterium.
Elite ladies wait for his or her call-up to the road for 2025 race (L to R): Shannon Koch, Aylena Quevedo, Peta Mullens, Alexis Magner, Kendall Ryan and Heather Fischer
Members of Athens First UMC Kids’s and Youth Choirs sing the Nationwide Anthem earlier than the beginning of the Professional Girls’s Criterium
The professional ladies wait to start out their 40 laps of motion
Heather Fischer (white jersey) would end fourth at Athens Twilight Criterium, then head to Spain the place she went twenty fourth at The Traka 200
Crowds collect on either side of the course in entrance of the Athens Metropolis Corridor constructing
Tatiana Dueñas (SCAD Atlanta) of Colombia leads the peloton
Riders nook on flip 4, headed to uphill straightaway
Kimberly Shoveled (Computerized Racing) leads peloton previous iconic Georgia Theatre
Three riders make a late-race transfer in decisive breakaway of elite ladies’s race: Alexis Magner (Cynics Biking), Arielle Verhaaren (Computerized Racing), and Kendall Ryan (L39ION of Los Angeles)
The chase behind the breakaway trio
Alexis Magner (Cynics Biking) wins from a late race breakaway, Arielle Verhaaren going second and Kendall Ryan third.
Announcer Chad Andrews interviews Athens Twilight Girls’s Professional winner, Alexis Magner, about her third victory in a row
Gene Dixon, Athens Twilight founder, poses for a pre-race picture earlier than the Professional Males’s begin. That is his forty fifth 12 months organizing Athens Twilight Criterium.
Professional Males wait to start out their race below the lights on Washington Road
Enzo Hincapie, simply 16 years outdated, takes the within line on nook considered one of Athens Twilight Criterium. He would end forty fourth within the elite males’s race.
Many younger spectators are college students on the College of Georgia, and fill their social media with scenes from the bike race, and the downtown events.
Males’s peloton sails previous the Georgia Theater, shoulder to shoulder into nook three.
A glance from above of race chief Intelligent Martinea (bib 143) in entrance of Ben Kolbie, Gabe Mendez and Lucas Bourgoyne.
Georgia Theater’s rooftop bar offers a wonderful place to view Athens Twilight. Under, spectators might be seen viewing from either side of the highway.
Sporting a particular purple jersey for the Twilight, Michael Garrison (MGR p/b Pace l Studio) communicates through radio.
Rooftops, window sills, and even couches are acceptable locations to hang around through the races.
Race favourites Robin Carpenter, Michael Garrison and Alfredo Rodriquez
The DCC crew rode arduous in Athens
After Will Hardin, eventual second place, and winner Intelligent Martinez lapped the sphere, the peloton raced for third place with one lap to go
Announcer Chad Andrews interviews males’s professional winner Intelligent Martinez, his CRCA/Basis teammates able to rejoice
