By Damian Hondares, ’17<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cToday could be a huge day for Richmond,\u201d<\/span> the <\/span>Richmond Times-Dispatch<\/span><\/i><\/a> predicted in September 2011. \u201cMayor Dwight C. Jones is overseas in Copenhagen, Denmark, awaiting an announcement of the winning bid for the 2015 World Road Cycling Championships.\u201d Hours later, it was official: Richmond would host the championships, \u201c<\/span>cycling\u2019s pinnacle event<\/span><\/a>.\u201d Three hundred million eyes would be on Richmond, from all across the globe. The city’s UCI planning committee \u2014 consisting of local politicians and entrepreneurs \u2014 estimated the event, which ran from September 19-27, would draw<\/span> 450,000 visitors<\/span><\/a>. Richmond was \u201cone step closer to being one of the world\u2019s great bicycling cities,\u201d Mayor Jones<\/span> declared<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Expectations were high, but Richmond still needed to market itself and the event. That marketing was predicated on three central tropes. It relied on \u201cNew South\u201d boosterism to highlight a burgeoning Southern economy. It used<\/span> capitalist realism<\/span><\/a> and<\/span> social tableau<\/span><\/a>, contemporary advertising techniques that envision an unrealistically optimistic \u201creality\u201d and focus on social roles rather than individuals. And it appealed to transnational discourses of the \u201cglobal city,\u201d using sports to convey an aestheticized, apolitical vision of \u201cprogress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n