Photo: Luke Seemann

– Thanks again to Chris Henning, Jason Meshberg, Flatlandia, and the Northbrook Garner Bicycle Club for another successful and fun CCC race at the Decoma Day Camp in Northbrook. Chris/Jason and crew have some changes in the works for next year, but we’ll get to that next November. Thanks also to everyone who came out to race and video/photo the event. There are usually quite a few cameras with budding photographers attached to them running around, but we’ve never seen so many as this past weekend, which was great to catch all the action… which leads us to…

– Weekend Update: The usual cast of characters showed up early and pedaled their bicycles fast… then Sam Schneider won the W1/2/3 race, jumped into a car, drove to WI, and had enough left in the tank to win her state championship (congrats Sam). The Cat 3’s are shaping up to again be the closest overall competition of the series, and if Northbrook was any indication there will be fireworks at Montrose. The Women Cat 4’s had a very close race, mixed with some breakdancing, and the Juniors again battled it out to the finish line. Mike “Cupcake” Sherer gave the Cat 1/2/3’s a tutorial on bunny hopping (now, if he could just learn to pin his number on right side up), while The Hemme showed off his newest Blue Steel, and Brian Conant ascended into CX heaven to seal up the CCC overall title. Then the Cat 4’s started… oh man… some people can make it look pretty, but let’s just say we’ve never heard the term carnage used so many times in such a short span. While the rest of us were watching the sand pit, there was some action at the bunny hoppers. Dave Knauff again won the best Thanksgiving themed costume. From the WTF files… we’re still trying to figure out this, this, this, this, and this… and we’re not sure if this junior stopped to do a few push-ups… but we definitely know that Nick Guy_F_Ski knows how to catch some serious air… Jon Fairman too… as does Chris Jensen… but in all fairness his wheels do have anti-gravity devices in them (but what can you do?). That’s right, Ken Mitchell was in attendance… Audrey won a trainer, and Super Mario collected a few more golden coins. Sister Sprocket was up to her mischievous ways again, Super Girl took on Bryan Lee for best game face, and Greg T & Flannel Mike were back in action. Katie Isermann decided to shut down her hedge fund since she makes more money grabbing hand-ups in the 4B’s and junior Joe Sullivan won this week’s Flying Pig Award. And lastly… this makes us and Ted Berger happy.

– Psimet  Custom Wheels made it on to the SRAM Road Diaries.

– Lots of new USAC rules for next year, many regarding CX.

– Up next weekend… the CCC takes a breather (can you believe its been since the weekend before Elvis Cross since the CCC has had a weekend off?) and lets our friends to the West (i.e. Iowa) host their annual mudfest… Jingle Cross. We heard JC has a flyover this year, so all you CCC’ers should be well practiced. For those not racing… have a great holiday weekend.

– Two weekends from now the CCC returns for its final race of the year which also serves as our Illinois State CX Championship as Turin Bicycles hosts stop 12 of the CCC at Montrose Harbor. Yes, we will open the Cat 4’s fields up to 100 riders, but we have to take care of the paperwork first… stay tuned.

– Turin needs volunteers to help out at Montrose. Please contact George Vargas at [email protected]  if you would like to help out.  George will tailor your volunteer assignment to fit with your other plans for the weekend.  Who knows at this point what the weather will be like,  but the laughter, excitement, and fun will surely warm you. Bring your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, … make a party out of it.  Opportunities to help out include:
· Set up, either Saturday afternoon/evening, 12/4
· Course marshals during the day on Sunday (shifts are either 8:30 to 12:45 or 12:30 to 4:15)
· Floaters (do rounds and substitute while course marshals take short breaks)   (shifts at 8:30 to 12:45 or 12:30 to 4:15)
· Registration during the day on Sunday (shifts are either 8:00 to 12:00 or 11:45 to 3:45)
· Tear down/clean up after the last race on Sunday afternoon (4:00)

– And if you’re still looking for a party… the evening after the Afterglow… Orange Shoe Fitness‘ Newt Cole and Los Borrachos will be rocking a Christmas Spectacular again at The Elbo Room some time in the evening. We’ll go ahead and call this the 2010 CCC end of year Christmas Holiday Party. Red Sweater Vests get half price at the Door. Give aways too… not sure of the specifics but maybe a Piñata filled with Enzo’s and gel shots?

– Tickets will be on sale later this week for the CCC Awards Dinner. We’ll again be at EJ’s Place in Skokie from noon until 3 or 4pm on Sunday January 9th. Please reg/buy your tickets ahead of time to help us and EJ plan for the event. We hope to see everyone there for a great wrap up of the season.

– The CCC made it to VeloNews… sort of.

– And finally… we here at the CCC know we’re very fortunate to have such a great CX community of racers, spectators, friends, family, hecklers, promoters, sponsors, and everyone in between. We’re very, very, very thankful that all of you come out every weekend to spend a few hours with us at our little party, and at the end of the day we may be tired but are already looking forward to the next weekend when we get to do it all over again. Because of all of that, we at the CCC wish everyone and their families a very safe, healthy, and happy Thanksgiving… one of the truly great and unique American holidays… no coincidence at all its during CX season!