The Bonebell and Robots <3 have secured viewing time at The Globe at 12 noon on Sunday (1/30/2011) to watch a replay of CX Worlds (both men and ladies). Come hang out, have an adult beverage, and watch the worlds best compete in Sankt Wendel.

Photo: Amy Dykema

– Thanks to everyone who came out to EJ’s Place and for the 2010 CCC Awards Dinner. Special thanks goes out to the entire staff of EJ’s for inviting us in and letting us use their restaurant during non-business hours on a Sunday for our little event. Everyone here at the CCC enjoyed seeing you the riders, racers, hecklers, supporters, etc one last time for the season… especially in a nice warm restaurant (we didn’t even need embro to stay warm). Amy Dykema was in attendance and nice enough to grab some snaps of the awards presentation. You can see them all here.

– Better late than never… the ChiCross Photo Collective (Liz Farina Markel, Chip William, and Luke Seemann) recently made a $70 donation to World Bike Relief from the profits of the 2009 coffee table photo book. Books will continue to be for sale on Blurb and now that the CCPC is in the black $10 from each purchase will go directly to WBR: Visit www.chicrossphoto.com for more or head right to the online store here.

– As we head into 2011 remember now is a great time to renew your USAC license and/or apply for that pesky upgrade. The fastest and easiest way to do both is in the My USA Cycling section of the USAC website. Just look for the “Purchase/Renew License” link in the upper/middle left.

– Yes, the rumors are true… no one at the CCC won the recent $350 million Powerball jackpot… but we do have some exciting things in the works for 2011 AND 2012. Those of you at the awards dinner heard a little bit about it, but the rest of you will just have to wait until we hear back from certain people in a small neutral country in Europe.

– And finally… this will likely be the CCC’s last post for a while (yes, realize Brian Conant’s image will be the first thing people see when they visit the site for a few months). We’ll have some news to share at certain points in the spring and early summer, but you’ll have to wait until at least July (maybe even August) for regular weekly dates. So until then, ride safe and have fun… and we’ll see you all soon!

– Welcome to 2011… we hope everyone had a safe, fun, and Happy New Year. From what we’ve seen and heard on the innertubes many of you rang in the new year in style… and then got up early the next morning to ride you bikes… no rest for the wicked!

– We’ve also heard from a few of you that you really miss cyclocross season and can’t wait for September. Well, we won’t disagree with you, but we would like to suggest that you get on your bikes and start training now. Besides the fact that CX Nationals is practically in our backyard (Madison), Masters Worlds isn’t too far away either (Louisville), we’ve seen a boatload of Cat 4’s and Cat 3’s (both men and ladies) upgrading, and there are several new Chicagoland CX projects currently in the works that will extend the season, make it more fun, and faster at the same time. We won’t spill the beans yet, but we’ll post notes as more info becomes available.

– But just in case you’re looking for more CX and a party at the same time, remember the CCC Awards Dinner is this Sunday at noon at EJ’s Place in Skokie. If you plan to attend, please pre-reg here by noon on Friday so EJ and his crew can order enough food. Thanks. We’ll have music, door prizes, and of course CCC cowbells and awards for the overall winners. We hope to see you all there.

– Still need more CX? Look who has a new blog.

– We’re still looking for a full recap of last weekend’s CAMBr Fundraiser which featured Jason McCartney, Christian Vande Velde, John Vande Velde, and Robbie Ventura. But from the few pictures we’ve seen the event was well attended.

– UPDATE: The CCC was mentioned in today’s WBR blog post here.

– And finally, CCC series sponsor The Bonebell has been posting some great content recently, including an interview with Barry Wicks and New Years Toast. While the CCC site sees plenty of traffic during CX season we’ll go dormant in a week or two while some of us ride around in smaller circles on the pavement. So for all your dirty news head on over to see what el Maya, Stiggity, Nevada Dave, DaDoubleG, and Julia Goolia have to say. And if you don’t want your roadie and trackie friends to know you hang out with us CX’ers while they’re watching large men play with oblong balls made of animal hides, keep Chicago Bike Racing open in your browser just in case.

So for those of you still following along at home, we have some really big news to report today!

What does the number 53 represent? No, its not the number of day, weeks, or month until the next CX race… its the total number of bicycles the racers, hecklers, promoters, and sponsors of the 2010 CCC just donated to World Bicycles Relief.

And what does the number 106 represent? With WBR’s anonymous donor matching all donations dollar for dollar through 12/31/10… that’s the total number of bicycles we’re all responsible for this year! The great folks at WBR tell us that’s enough bikes to outfit an entire school of children.

Through direct donations at races, series t-shirt sales, and series sponsor & promoter donations, we as a community raised $7,102 for World Bicycles Relief. At $134 per bicycle that equates to 53 bikes… all between September and December. That’s more than double what we raised last year and well exceeds our 2010 goal of $5,000. So cheers and thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who raced, donated, bought a t-shirt, or supported the CCC and WBR in any other way.

Photo: Nathan Schneeberger

– And we’re spent… thanks to Half Acre Cycling and the Cuttin’ Crew for hosting one last ‘cross race in Chicago. Temps were low but spirits were high, the sun as well as plenty of smiles and high fives were out to help warm everyone’s souls. HAC has a recap here. Congrats also to Natalie Evans & Mike Kirby (xXx Racing) who raised >$400 for West Town Bikes by “racing” in the tandem category and Mike Young who hosted the afterparty.

– No course preview to look forward to this week… but we’ve got some great big, big news about the CCC coming out this Thursday. Swing by at 9am to read what all the fuss is about!

– Already looking forward to 2011? CAMBR’s Cocktails with Christian event will be held on January 2. People can hobnob with Christian Vande Velde and Robbie Ventura at Tin Fish in Tinley Park and help CAMBR South raise funds for building trails. Details are at here.

– Speaking of upgrades… we’ve been seeing plenty of Men AND Women CX Cat 3 upgrades coming through… looks like 2011 will be much faster than this year! Congratulations to everyone who has requested and received their upgrades. For those of you sandbaggers who still haven’t upgraded… we’ll be watching!

– Is it the end of this IL CX season of the beginning of the next? Team Mack released their flyer for the Tour de Groundhog near Springfield.

– Now that the Chicagoland CX racing season is finally, totally, completely, 100% done… time to fuel up for next season!

– Congratulations are also due to Half Acre and xXx Racing for both being named Club of the Year by USA Cycling. Yes, both teams do lots of other cycling related activities, but just in case you weren’t paying attention this year, both teams helped to host two CX races each (Relay, Jackson Park, Hopkins Park, & the Afterglow). So kudos to HAC & xXx on some well deserved recognition at the national level.

– And finally… a short (really short) video from the Afterglow.

– And we’re back… The CCC took a short little break this past week to sleep in, watch some really, really fast guys and gals race, and to catch up on all the really important non-CX things we’ve missed since the middle of September… Did you know they found Fraggle Rock in Chile and more importantly Snookie is writing a book?

– We’ll have at least semi-regular updates but with a little less detail than during the season here on the CCC site until the middle of January, at which point we’ll crawl into our caves and hibernate until next August.

– First up, now that all the IL State Champion jerseys have been won, and even the National Champions have been crowned, its time to have a nice low key event. So who else but Half Acre and the Chicago Cuttin’ Crew could bring us the Afterglow – a Cyclocross Race. Online pre-reg closes tomorrow night at 5pm CDT and the ‘races’ are on Saturday (NOT Sunday) in Humboldt Park. Its not an actual CCC race, but its CX in Chicago… so of course we’ll still be there to cheer, heckle, and recruit for next year (we even made a special race specific playlist). Look for the usual course preview at the normal time right here on Thursday morning.

– Plenty of parties on Saturday as well. One up the street to benefit West Town Bikes and another at the Elbow Room w/ Los Borrachos to benefit old punk rockers singing rock songs in Spanish. The CCC will have its final ‘official’ party of the season on Sunday January 9th at EJ’s Place in Skokie to award the overall series winners… and give out plenty of door prizes. We hope to see you all there! As of this writing a time and place to gather and watch the St Wendel CX World Championships on January 30th has not been set.

– Its not technically CX, but online pre-reg for the Barry Roubaix is now open. We’ll hand this one off to our friends at The Bonebell for all the details.

– And finally… we’re terribly sorry this got caught in the CCC site’s spam filter (thanks Eastern Europe)… but a local vidoegrapher with mad editing skills (soon to be more famous than Antoine Dodson) documented an epic battle waged on the shores of Lake Michigan 2 weeks ago that few of us even knew about. So without further adieu, we present Andre Odendaal vs. The Chicken…

– A final thanks to Chuck Judy, Chris Mailing, and everyone at Turin Bicycle for hosting the 12th and final race of the CCC and yet another great Illinois State Cyclocross Championship at Montrose Harbor. Temps were freezing for most of the day, and the snow, ice, and sand made for a challenging course, but we still had the largest CCC race ever with 565 starters. We had several riders make it to the podium for the first time and it was great to see such sportsmanship and camaraderie before, during, and after each race. Even the down-staters had a good time. Thanks also to Todd Busteed for sharing the mic and calling out all the action.

– Congratulations to the 11 Illinois State Cyclocross Champions that were crowned jerseyed on Sunday. The competition was fierce and we had many races that were completely undecided until riders came around the last turn on the final lap… which always makes for exciting racing. Thanks for keeping all of us on our toes until the very end!

– Congratulations also to the 13 Chicago Cross Cup Overall Winners. Eight of those categories were undecided going into the final race and made for even more dramatic racing. Awards, prizes, and general showering of admiration will be presented at the CCC Awards Dinner on Sunday January 9th at EJ’s Place in Skokie. Great food, better friends, and even door prizes will greet everyone who attends.

– Weekend Update: The weekend update is taking a bit of a break this week as there are more than enough comments here to describe what happened this past Sunday. However, for those that weren’t there and are too lazy to read all the comments this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and who can forget this, this, and this (?) pretty much sums up the what went on at Montrose… oh yeah, and there was a bike race in there somewhere too.

– Speaking of all things CCC, if you want a 2010 CCC series t-shirt you’ve got less than 48 hours. REKLAIM apparel will be shutting down the printing presses at midnight tomorrow night (Wednesday) and won’t be making any more. Thanks to everyone who has already bought a shirt… all proceeds go directly to our year end World Bicycle Relief donation. We’ve already hit our goal of $5,000 but we’re still tallying up the t-shirt sales. Thank you again to everyone who has donated and/or purchase a t-shirt!

– Good luck to anyone and everyone heading out to Bend, OR for CX Nationals this week/end. If you still haven’t had your fill of CX after that, come hang out with Half Acre and the Chicago Cuttin’ Crew at the Afterglow on Saturday December 18th in Humboldt Park. And if that isn’t enough for you… there is a Benefit After Party for West Town Bikes (details here, please RSVP). And if metal/rock songs sung in Spanish is more your thing, Newt Cole and Los Borrachos are playing later that evening at the Elbo Room (no RSVP necessary!).

– The CCC has the 4B’s, the Cross Crusade has the Clydesdale Cyclocross Champions of the Universe. If you happen to be in Bend this week(end) for CX Nationals… check it out and takes some photos.

– Ever wonder why the CCC isn’t a UCI series? USA CX godfather Adam Myerson gives us a clue.

– And finally… a special shout out and congratulations to Mike Young for being awarded this year’s 3rd Annual Official Illinois State Cyclocross Awesomeness Champion presented by Half Acre Cycling and HRS/Rock Lobster. Mike won the award for not only supporting riders within the CCC, but more importantly for his work with West Town Bikes. Mike joins a veritable pantheon of CX awesomeness including the first winners, the Chicago Cuttin’ Crew, and last year’s winner Super Girl. Congratulations Mike, and thanks for being awesome! If you’d like to help Mike in his work at WTB please donate here.

Photo: Duano

– There was no “official” racing in Chicago, but area riders had a great showing this past weekend at Jingle Cross Rock with several podiums. Congratulations to everyone who didn’t stuff themselves silly with turkey and pumpkin pie and traveled to Iowa to race in the mud.

– Turin has announced that the Montrose Harbor total prize purse will total over $2,100. Team Kenda has also stepped up and will be providing additional Woman’s cash prizes. EJ’s Place, Craft, and Lake Cycling are also supplying cash and merchandise.

– Artist Jay Ryan is creating another original poster for this years State Championship. Posters will be available for purchase at the race and at Turin Bicycle in Evanston.

– In addition to the usual CCC announcing, for 2010 Turin is bringing in ace announcer Todd Busteed to lend a hand with calling out all the action as it happens at Montrose.

– Turin is still looking for volunteers to help make the day run smoothly. Any volunteer who works a 4 hour shift will have their race fee waived/refunded. Turin will tailor your volunteer assignment to fit with your other plans for the day of racing.

– In case you missed it the Montrose Harbor race not only acts as the final stop in the CCC but also the IL State Cyclocross championships. The CCC along with Turin and the ICA will be presenting State Champion Jerseys to the first IL rider to cross the finish line in every category (except the 4B’s). Remember that in order to win the state championship you must be an Illinois resident (we’ll be checking ID’s), a US citizen, and hold a valid 2010 USAC license. Look for the usual course preview at 9am on Thursday where we’ll again detail out the call up order.

– The original CCC founders are getting the band back together. Many of the original crew that began the CCC way back in 2004 are getting together for a reunion party at The Globe on Friday night from 7 to 10pm. Beer specials all night long and possibly bar heckling See details here. On Sunday the founders will be displaying a slide show in one of the warming tents showcasing cyclocross history in Chicago.  If you have any photos from the inaugural 2004 season, 90s Supercup, or early pickup races to share, please send them to mikecacciabondo(at)yahoo.com by Wednesday night.

– West Town Bikes and Ciclo Urbano will be out at Montrose as well supporting Chicago youth and adults.  WTB provides on-site adult supervision, equipment (bike, helmet, etc…), transportation, food, encouragement and coaching for kids and really anyone looking to get into bike racing. If you know anyone that can benefit from the program (even just a bike loan for the day) please contact Mike Young.

– CAMBr is having an end of the year party as well. Details are here or at The Bonebell.com.

– Still holding on to you CCC race numbers? If you don’t feel like spending the money to turn them into a jacket and would like to recycle, Rhythm Racing‘s Evan Jahn found a way to recycle Tyvek through DuPont. Bring your old numbers to Montrose and we’ll have a recycling bag for you to give back those bib numbers.

– And finally… don’t forget about the CCC’s end of the season awards dinner taking place on Sunday January 9th at EJ’s Place in Skokie. Tickets are the same price as last year ($30 adults, $15 juniors) for a delicious buffet dinner and we’ll hand out the coveted CCC cowbells and other fabulous overall series prizes donated by Tati Cycles, Mox Multisport, The Bonebell, and Main St. Bicycles. We’d love to see you all there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The CCC wishes everyone a safe, healthy, fun, and happy Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Good luck to everyone racing Jingle Cross, and we look forward to seeing you all again next weekend in downtown Chicago at Montrose Harbor for the CCC’s finale.

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!