VCU news

By Tom Gresham

Joshua Griffin had little time to sit still in recent weeks and that includes to sleep. Emails were weighed and answered in the middle of the night, his mind perpetually rustling with the dozens of items on his to-do list. In the daylight hours, he was often on the move, racing from one side of town to another to address issues both expected and unexpected as they arose during the final preparations and staging of the 2015 UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, a complex and wide-ranging event that organizers now estimate attracted more than 645,000 spectators over a 10-day period that concluded Sunday.

Griffin served in the role of community liaison and staff support for Richmond 2015, the organization behind the planning and management of last week’s stirring series of races. Griffin’s relationship with the organization began when he was still a Virginia Commonwealth University student two years ago and volunteered at bike valet stations at community events. The valet arrangements were part of Richmond 2015’s effort to drum up local interest and support for the Worlds, and Griffin’s enthusiasm caught the eye of Monica Callahan, community engagement director for Richmond 2015, and led to an internship. That internship prompted a part-time job offer and his subsequent good work there generated a full-time post, which he assumed shortly after graduating from VCU in the spring of 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional studies from the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs.

In his role with Richmond 2015, Griffin has served as part of a core team of seven that acted as the local organizing committee for the Worlds. His responsibilities were extensive and varied, and he found it all thrilling. During the long run-up to the race, Griffin spoke to business and community groups, participated in planning meetings, responded to emails and phone calls from both out-of-town cycling fans and local residents, and contributed to any of a myriad of necessary preparations.

During the race, Griffin had many duties, but most importantly he assisted Callahan with the organization and management of the more than 7,000 community volunteers scheduled to staff the races and keep them running smoothly – a stiff logistical challenge.

As the races grew closer, and then began, the job became a 24-hour position that “follows you around,” Griffin said. Last week, during a break in the action, he admitted, “It definitely seems overwhelming sometimes. We’re constantly going 100 miles per hour.” With the races halfway through, he said, “I’m running on adrenaline and not much else.” However, he spoke not with a self-pitying sigh, but with a large grin. For Griffin – who can recall first reading about the Worlds and thinking, “Wow, this is going to be incredible for Richmond. I would love to be involved.” – the chance to participate centrally was “what dreams are made of,” he said.

It was the Greater Richmond community that got behind this, worked hard, and worked together to make the races happen.

In effect, the experience served as an extension of his VCU urban planning education. He sat in meetings with area business and community leaders and observed the machinations of regional cooperation, while offering his own contributions to the process. He was constantly applying lessons from his studies “in real time,” he said.

The determined collaboration of regional partners was a highlight of the experience for him.

“It was the Greater Richmond community that got behind this, worked hard, and worked together to make the races happen,” Griffin said. “The level of planning and cooperation was wild to me because this was something my fellow urban planning students talked about in theory while sipping their coffee. But this wasn’t in theory. It was real life, and it was happening right in front of me.”

Griffin said he was constantly impressed with the way local people, organizations and businesses found their own unique ways to celebrate the Worlds. “This was our Olympics,” he said.

“The whole reason I wanted to get involved in the first place … was to showcase our beautiful region to a world that was definitely going to be here and to show why RVA is our home and why it is the perfect place to live, work and play,” he said. “I couldn’t be any more proud to be a part of the RVA community.”

Despite the frenzied requirements of helping to manage an event on such a massive scale, Griffin occasionally found time during the week of the races to absorb the atmosphere and appreciate the event with a sense of perspective beyond the requirements of his work. For instance, he remembers on Sept. 23 when he turned on the live feed of the start of the men’s time trials, which commenced at Kings Dominion, and sensed the excitement of the crowds of people in Hanover who were camped along the course, enjoying watch parties and cookouts or simply standing at the ends of their driveways to cheer each of the passing cyclists. For Griffin, who after all was initially drawn to the Worlds by its potential to captivate the region, the signs of enthusiasm outside of Richmond were a powerful suggestion of the event’s local reach.

He also saw evidence of the event’s global impact, not only through the media and spectators visiting from around the world but through the participants themselves. On Sept. 24, which was a training day, Griffin rode in the passenger seat of one of the support vehicles to watch professional cyclists as they toured the road circuit course and prepared for the weekend’s races. As his vehicle journeyed down Lombardy Street, Griffin was surprised to see cyclists from the Russian and U.S. teams riding together, essentially training as a single group.

Griffin, who studied Russian at VCU and visited Moscow after graduation, understands the tenuous political relationship between the countries, and he found something hopeful in seeing the cyclists from the two countries working in an easy partnership. “I felt as though this moment was telling of what I hope our two countries could be and should be,” he said. Then, as the cyclists approached the turn onto Main Street, they were greeted by a horde of children who were cheering and playing musical instruments. The riders from both countries veered to the curb to high-five as many in the crowd as they could while they sped past. “That beautiful moment is seared in my memory,” Griffin said.

Perhaps most rewarding for Griffin was experiencing firsthand the excitement of the final day of the Worlds, when the men’s road circuit race was completed over a period of more than six hours. The crowds had been building across the week and reached a crescendo for the final competition, with large, exuberant groups forming along the course from the West End to Church Hill.

“The crowds on the final Sunday were unbelievable and the energy was nothing like I had experienced before,” Griffin said. “I had been all around the racecourse on Sunday, and there were masses of people everywhere. Everyone I was walking past, the crowds I saw on the live feed, all these people made plans, spent money, and took the effort to come to Richmond to be a part of this race I had been working on. It was a humbling feeling.”

Griffin is not sure what will come next for him professionally after his responsibilities with Richmond 2015 wind down, but he knows the experience of the Worlds will help inspire and influence whatever he does next.

“I am lucky to have been a part of this,” he said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  

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