Since nearly all of us are hunkered down and inside watching the Internets due to the less than friendly cycling temperatures outside, here are a few weekend updates to get your new year started right!

– We at the CCC hope you all had a great holiday season and can’t wait to see you all at the annual awards banquet. The banquet will be held on Sunday January 10th from noon until 4pm at EJ’s place in Skokie. Please make sure to pre-purchase you tickets on BikeReg.com as this will help us make sure there is enough food and seats to go around.

– We’re still finalizing the schwag list, but as of right now we have the following items to hand out as awards and door prizes: CX Magazine subscriptions, Troy Lee Designs gear, Gore RideOn Cables, UberTunes from MOX Multisport, Trek apparel, Fizik Bar Tape, Courage Bicycles Apparel, CyclocrossWorld.com gift certificates, Craft apparel, Challenge Grifo tubular tyres, Mad Alchemy Embrocation, Sheila Moon apparel, Deuter hydration bags, Kenda tires, a SRAM Force grouppo, Blue NorCross framesets, and more. And as always… every series winner receives a custom Chicago Cyclocross Cup series cowbell so you can do more of this.

– We’ll also have the IL State CX Champion jerseys at the banquet. If you’ll be unable to attend please let us know and we’ll get your jersey out to you.

– Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of the 2009 CCC coffee table book to avoid shipping costs. All proceeds go to WBR. While they won’t be ready in time for the banquet we think its safe to say everyone is eagerly waiting to see what these books will look like.

– Need more CX sooner rather than later? Team Mack will be hosting their 23rd annual Tour de Groundhog on Sunday February 21st near St. Louis. This is a great event with a long history and all proceeds go to charity. Find a carpool ride on CBR.

– It might not be CX, but two cross heavy local Chicago shops are playing bikes insides. Check out Johnny Sprockets Gold Sprints on Thursdays and Iron Cycles Iron Training Center Grand Opening this Saturday.

– Snow may be on the ground here in Chicago, but that doesn’t mean lots of CCC’ers aren’t still riding offroad. Check out our friends over at TheBoneBell.com for updates on all the local dirtbagging action. And if you can’t wait to get back on the road (to of-course work on your fitness for the 2010 CCC), IllinoisCycling.org and ChicagoBikeRacing.com are your go-to sources.

– We still have a few CCC t-shirts that were ordered by not picked up. If you bought a t-shirt online and didn’t get it, please email us at [email protected] to arrange a hand-up. We’ll have the shirts at the banquet too and you can pick them up there. Please don’t make us store these shirts until next season.

– We also still have a bunch of clothing and gear that a few of you left at races over the season. If you’re missing a thermal jacket, jersey, gloves, sunglasses, etc we probably have them. Please contact us at [email protected] to arrange a time/place for us to return your stuff. All left overs will be brought to the banquet on the 10th and anything left over after that will be donated to the Salvation Army.

– Want to get rid of some 2009 gear or pickup some new/used gear on the cheap. Two bike swaps are happening soon. The Chicago Winter Bike Swap will be held at Harper College on Saturday January 16th, and for those a little further North, Brazen Dropouts will hold their swap in Madison, WI on Saturday January 9th.

– And finally… the CCC is looking for a little help in 2010. If you’d like to be part of the team in anyway (website, organization, announcing, etc) please email us at [email protected] to get involved!