– Thanks again to Jeff Provisor and the entire Main St Bikes/Sasquatch Squadron for hosting yet another great addition of Carpenter Park CX this past weekend. Barriers, creeks, moguls even a petting zoo, Carpenter Park had it all. It was another sunny Sunday, a little crisp in the morning but warmed up nicely to the mid 50’s by the elite races.  Kelli Richter (PSIMET Racing) won the women’s elite race over Emma Swartz who won in week 2.  This gives Kelli her 2nd win in 4 races, widening her overall series lead over Sarah Szefi, also of PSIMET racing.  In the men’s race Joseph Maloney (KS Energy Services/Team Wisconsin) continues to make the most of his appearances in the CCC by winning his 2nd race in as many appearances.  David Reyes (Heritage) hangs onto the overall lead with another consistent podium finish. Results were uploaded to USAC & CrossResults and Overall standings were updated Sunday night.

– Next Sunday the CCC series heads slightly South to Sunrise Park in Bartlett, hosted by Athletes By Design and uber CX racer/fan Jim Nowak. Look for the course preview at the regular time on Thursday.

– Speaking of Sunrise Park… remember if you want to take half your CCC series points with you to the next category you must upgrade before Sunday’s race. And by before we don’t mean Saturday night. So get your upgrade requests into USAC now through the USAC website since there is absolutely no glory in sandbagging (looking at you Cat 3’s and Cat 4’s). Also note that we do review each week’s results and will be alerting the USAC upgrade coordinator concerning mandatory upgrades.

– The weather was a little less ideal, but a good size contingent of Chicagoland dirtbags were down at Big Marsh having a time this past Saturday. Read all about it on The Bonebell.

– Here’s some exciting news for Junior racers at the State Championships at Montrose Harbor. Thanks to some behind-the-scenes work by The Chicago Cuttin’ Crew, the Pony Shop, Ten27 Cycling Club, Spidermonkey Cycling, and the Illinois Cycling Association the event will award expanded age group champion jerseys. All the same rules apply (riders must hold an annual license, be an Illinois resident, and US citizen… races must have a 3 person IL podium, etc) and riders will be staged the same as other CCC races (i.e. Jr 15-18 and Jr 9-14)…. but jerseys will be awarded to both boys and girls in age groups 9-12, 13-14, 15-16, and 17-18. So giddy up and get ready to race in December!

– Speaking of Championships… Pro Bike Express is offering their “Pro Not Bro Service” at Cyclocross Nationals in Austin. This year PBE has limited the number of riders they will support, so space is limited. Register Early and “Travel Like You Train…” For more information please contact Wesley Smith/Pro Bike Express: [email protected] Registration is up on the website: www.probikeexpress.com

– A quick note on Waitlists. If you reg for a waitlist on BikeReg your credit card is NOT charged right away. You may see an authorization transaction on your credit card statement, but you are NOT actually being charged. If a spot opens up in the race before race day (i.e. a kind soul emails the race promoter and tells them they won’t be able to make it) riders will be transferred into the race based on their reg day/time. At this point only will your credit card be charged. So if you show up to the race and haven’t received an email through BikeReg stating you made it into the race… you are not yet in the race and your credit card has not be charged.

– And finally… remember all of this CX pedal biking stuff is just for fun, so tell your family, friends, mechanic, photographer, cat, race course designer, dog, pet turtle, GoPro drone pilot, etc, etc, etc… that you love them every day before its too late.