– The 2011 CCC Series Sponsorship Proposal is now available here. Since many of our sponsors went above and beyond last year we are now offering a new “Cowbell” category for those individuals/companies that want to be involved a bit more, but don’t want to stretch all the way to title sponsorship. Take a look and let us know if you’d like to be involved by emailing us at [email protected]. The New Year’s Resolution race will have its own set of sponsors which will be separate (but hopefully many of the same) from the CCC series. Look for that proposal in a few weeks.

– We’ve heard a few of you have already booked your rooms at the Hilton Indian Lakes Resort (ILR) for the New Year’s Resolution race. The more of you that book now, the more rooms ILR will open up at the discounted rate. Remember to use the group code “CYC” when you call or click for the discounted rate.

– Remember this guy? The CCC is again holding a t-shirt design contest for 2011… and this year we’re adding socks by SockGuy! Start working on your t-shirt and/or sock designs now… we want to start early this year so we can have all the clothing ready by September. You can submit as many entries as you want, but we’d prefer quality over quantity. Entries are due by the middle of August (specific date forthcoming) and the CCC populous will again vote on the winner(s). See full previous rules (which we’ll more than likely just copy & paste and change the dates) here.

– The CCC promoter’s got together last week for our annual 4 day summit in luxurious Caicos and Turks (okay, actually we just had a conference call with okay quality one night) and everyone is pumped and getting ready for the 2011 season. We discussed many topics and all agreed on the following:

  1. We will again use the same category schedule throughout the day as last year, with the addition of the 60+ starting with the 50+.
  2. All 12 races will again count towards the overall scoring. We realize some other series drop a race or your worst placing, but the CCC feels our series is a cohesive whole and the best performing and attending riders should win the series. Note that in 2010 only three categories were decided before the last race (Montrose) and the overall was decided on the last day for all other categories.
  3. Payouts (as well as entry fees) will remain the same as last year (with the addition of a separate 60+ payout). See the revised schedule here. We’d love to increase payouts across the board, but considering our (still) weak economy and the drop in participant numbers at road races this summer (sorry, sometimes we ride on skinny tires too) we prefer to play it conservative and not dig our promoters our ourselves into a financial hole.
  4. Juniors will again race for free throughout the entire series.
  5. All field sizes (# of racers on course at the same time) will be increased to 100 this year. We tried this out at the last 3 races of 2010 and things went fine. This should really only affect the Cat 4’s as we would be amazed to see a 100 person Men or Women Cat 1/2/3 field.
  6. There will be NO Category 4B overall winner awarded this year. Since the 4Bs are truly a beginner/fun/get-your-feet-wet category and we’d like to discourage sandbagging as much as possible we have decided to discontinue the overall series winner in that category. We will still score all 4B racers at each event (the 4B’s still count for upgrade starts/points), we will still have overall standings for call ups at each event, and you certainly are still welcome (and encouraged) to do all the crazy and fun stuff you do at each race… but there will be no cowbell at the end of the year in the 4B’s. If you have the most number of points at the end of the series you may proclaim yourself as the best of the worst for bragging rights, but if you want the swag you’ll have to race Cat 4A.
  7. Several other surprises are in the works outside of what we mentioned above, but you’ll have to wait at least until next week to hear about them.
  8. The CCC wants your feedback. What’s on your mind? What would you like to see different, the same, better, filled with more Twinkies? Post your comment(s) below or shoot us an email at [email protected].

– And finally… at least one new “team” is getting ready for the 2011 CX season with new kits. We’d tell you to look out for them, but we’re not sure how you’d ever miss them.