– The heat came back in a big way this past week but we’ve seen plenty of you out and riding hard in preparation for THE CX season. Funny how cyclocross used to be what riders did in the “off season” to stay in shape and now so many people skip road and mountain bike races to get ready for CX. Not that we’re complaining.

– CCC superstar and series volunteer Ellie Blick recently wrote a riveting review on Chicago Women’s Bike Racing about this year’s changes to the Women Category 3 races. Ladies, if you haven’t heard or even if you have, please read Ellie’s summary.

– Don’t forget that before the official 2012 CCC #YearOfSpeed season takes off on Saturday September15th in Jackson Park there are two warm-up races in late August and early September. xXx Racing starts things off in a fun way with their Relay Cross race on Sunday August 26th, and Wildcard Cycling hosts Patriot Cross for the 2nd year on Saturday September 8th in Rantoul, IL. More info will be available as soon as the promoters have their race flyers approved by USACycling.

– Speaking of, Patriot CX promoter Karl C. has boulders (see at left) for sale. Please contact him directly if you’d like to purchase one (or more).

– A number of Series Sponsors have already signed up for the 2012 season. If you’d like to be involved see our proposal document first and then shoot us an email.

– Email us at ChicagoCrossCup at gmail if you’d like to stock up on SockGuy socks, Contigo coffee mugs, and/or Mad Alchemy embrocation. See the store page for details. 2012 series t-shirts will be available before the season starts.

– And finally…  We’ll repeat this before and during the season, but the CCC would like to remind everyone that we’re all just out there to have fun and ride our bikes with our friends. Sure we’re all competitive, but at the end of the day we’re all just amateurs (at least until CCCNYR) who have to get up and go to work or school on Monday morning, so there’s absolutely no reason to get yourself all in a tizzy about something silly. Keep it fun, keep it positive, and keep it realistic. If you have a problem with the series or a race, email us at [email protected] (we’ll get back to you within 24 hours, we promise) or better yet talk to one of us, the promoter, an event volunteer, or a USAC official at the race. Please don’t get all passive-aggressive on the Facebook, Twitter, some other social media site, or the comments section here on the site. That doesn’t help anyone and only makes you look immature. K, thanks… now let’s go have some fun!!!