Now that’s its after Memorial Day and we can all safely wear white, the CCC thought we’d bring everyone up to speed on what we’ve been toiling away on since December in our evil CX lair (and if you need to ask… yes, we do have sharks with lasers on their heads).

– Our tentative 2010 schedule is up and ready for your viewing pleasure. We’ll have 12 races this year with all 10 of your favorites from 2009 returning for 2010. The 11th race will be hosted by 2008’s Hawthorne Woods promoter Ted Schweitzer at a new venue in Wauconda the Saturday before Carpentersville. The 12th race will be a 2nd day hosted by the South Chicago Wheelmen at the Hilton Indian Lakes golf resort.

– The 2010 race day schedule will be changing slightly too. We’re keeping all races in the same basic order as last year (the 4B carnival still gets the spotlight as the last race of the day), but in order to make room for even more riders on course at the same time (we’ve grown 30% each of the last 2 years) we’ll be adding an additional time slot earlier in the morning… so the 40+ Masters will start a bit earlier in the morning. We’re still working out exactly what time that will be, so stay tuned for details. Online PreReg will again be on BikeReg.com for all races, so bookmark the site and please make sure your rider profiles are up-to-date before September.

– Starting earlier in the morning means promoters will be working extra hard and will still need help to get courses set-up and ready for the old guys to rip each others legs off. In order to make sure all races start on time and run smoothly the CCC is asking for a little help. There are a few teams out there that participate in the CCC every weekend yet do not host their own races, so we are calling on you to help out. Any individuals willing to show up early and help set up the courses that need the most help will not only earn our deepest gratitude, but also get to race all day for only $5. That’s a pretty sweet deal for only 1-2 hours of work each weekend. Please contact us at [email protected] if you are interested.

– Payouts are changing for 2010 as well. All fields will be paid out in ca$h except for the 4B’s, which won’t receive any weekly payout at all. We’ll still score the 4B’s for an overall title, but there will be no weekly prizes… beyond the usual handups. We’ll also be watching closely and asking egregious sandbaggers to race in the 4A’s so as to give everyone else a chance to have some fun in the 4B’s. Fields already receiving cash payouts in 2009 will get a bump up in total dollar amount for 2010 and… wait for it… the Women 1/2/3 will receive equal payouts as the Men 1/2/3.

– The CCC will NOT be sending out a newsletter in 2010. All communications will be disseminated through the site here or on our brandspankyingnew Twitter account (@ChiCrossCup). So add us into your favorite RSS reader or follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with everything CCC. Facebook you ask??? We can only update so many social networking sites at once (plus our work offices block FB during the day), but we highly recommend friending The Pony Shop, Iron Cycles, Tati Cycles, Half Acre, and others around that time of the year. Still need more suggestions… you’re on your own… that why its called social networking!

– In this tough economic climate we at the CCC feel very, very, very fortunate and lucky to have so many gracious series sponsors who donate their time, money, merchandise, and good will that allows us to put on such a great series of CX races for all of you. Several 2009 sponsors including Mad Alchemy, The Pony Shop, Sheila Moon, and Main Street Cycles, as well as new sponsor The Bone Bell, have already stepped up for 2010, but we’re always looking for others. If you would like to be a 2010 CCC series sponsor, please contact us at [email protected] for details.

– For 2010 the CCC will once again be accepting donations through BikeReg for World Bicycle Relief (WBR) as our main charity. For those of you not around in 2009 the CCCCommunity donated $3,400 to WBR… but we think we can do even better this year! In 2009 we had an average of 400 racers at each event. If everyone donates $1 at each of the 12 races in 2010 we can easily raise $4,800… so we’re setting a GOAL OF  $5,000. If some of us can spend that much on a single bike, collectively we can surely help out those around the world without a bike at all. Let’s see what we all can do together this year!

– The ChiCross Photo Collective still needs to sell some 2009 CCC coffee table books. These books are well worth much more than the price tag would indicate and will bring you many years of fond memories. Plus, all of the profits go to World Bicycle Relief, so its a win-win for everyone.

– Our equally CX crazy friends up North in Wisconsin have released some details for their 2010 season. The WI Cycling Association website is still not updated, but CX Magazine provides details here. We’re glad to see WI races will be doing call-ups and promoting more consistency across their entire series. Starting after Jackson Park and ending before Montrose, with 4 double race weekends, there are a lot of overlapping weekends with the CCC, but that just means we all have plenty of options and chances to race all Autumn long. We highly encourage everyone to check out the UCI level USGP races in Sun Prairie the weekend after the CCC begins (Sept 26-27).

That should do it for now. We’ll have more news (there’s still more?) as we get closer to CX the race season. But as always if you have questions, comments, ideas, want to help out, etc… give us a shout at [email protected].