Fans and athletes ‘feeling the hype’ during Pro-Road cycling races

CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – It’s ready, set, race this Friday night. For the fourth day of competition of the USA Cycling Pro-Road National Championships, fans from across the country are watching their favorite cyclists race for gold.

Criterium races began on Thursday and will wrap up Friday night. The “Elite Women’s Race” and the “Under 23-years-old Women’s Race” kicked off at 6:30 p.m. while the “Elite Men’s Race” began at 8 p.m. on Friday.

The Day family traveled from Indiana to support former 2021 Olympian Coryn Labecki, who is aiming at defending her title on Friday as the reigning 2023 National Champion for the Elite Women category.

Kristine Day, Labecki’s sister, said she is proud of her sister for all of her cycling accomplishments.

“We are just so excited to be supporting her and just super proud of her,” Day said. “All hearts for her, and we can’t wait to see how she does today.”

Not just fans, but athletes themselves felt the hype during Friday’s races.

“We are feeling excited. It might be a chance of rain, so that’s good for us. But, we’re all real excited,” Elite Men’s Cyclist Kyle Tiesler said.

Tiesler and his teammate Will Seitz are competing together in the Elite Men’s category. They both referred to themselves as “the dynamic duo,” adding that they’ve been training for this criterium race for more than a decade.

“It’s a lot of time away from family and a lot of sacrifice, so to have homies like Will, it definitely makes the journey a lot nicer,” Tiesler said.

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