Another Halloween and another great Campton Cross. Thanks to everyone who braved the cold temps in the morning, the mud throughout the day, the wind in the afternoon, and the spooky costumes all day long to race, cheer, really cheer, find their friends, and give muddy hugs!
Next up, racing takes us to Woodstock for the Keating Law Offices Illinois State Cyclocross Championships presented by PSIMET Custom Wheels and Begyle Brewing Co. This race is not part of the CCC series, but obviously guaranteed to be rad. Please make sure to read the event notes over here on BikeReg. Look for a special course preview tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. You may remember PSIMET coordinated the third race of the series at Indian Lakes (the 3rd time), and they are also hosting…
The 7th race of the series Groundhog PSI-clocross takes place this coming Sunday, also at Emrickson Park in Woodstock, IL. The usual course preview will be up on Thursday, but you’ll be able to see most, if not all of the course Saturday at the IL State CX Champs.
And finally… Get.those.bikes.cleaned.up. Its been a very wet and muddy CX season and we’re barely half way through. Go on git your bikes into your local bike shop and get ’em cleaned up and ready for our first (kind of) double weekend and the rest of the season.
Another great weekend hosted by ABD at Sunrise Park. A blue bird sunny day and a completely new course gave us all a little bit of everything… the originalHeckle Hill, turns, power sections, dry grass, slippery mud, even a water “feature”. Thanks to everyone who came out to race with us.
Next up, the CCC heads a little further West for the 6th stop at Campton Cross which is our traditional Halloween themed race. Will someone or a group of someones be able to top the marching band from last year? We’ll find out on Sunday. The normal course preview will be posted Thursday morning and Reg closes Thursday night.
We’ve received comments that some of you are NOT removing your bikes/wheels from the equipment pits after your race. Not all of our pits can be UCI regulation size, so please make a concerted effort to grab your gear from the pits to make room for others racing after you. Thanks!
And finally… here’s your friendly mid-season reminder that we’re all just a bunch of local amateurs hanging out in the park on a Sunday riding our bikes around in circles. We can all be competitive, we can all get excited, we can all have opinions. But if you can’t be a positive contributing member of our little CX community (making us all more awesome) without WRITING IN ALL CAPS… then take a week off, calm down, and come back the next week. We’ll still be here racing our bikes and enjoying each other’s company, and we’ll look forward to seeing you again.
That was fun!! No rain, no real mud, clear blue sky, temperate temps, and racing at the location we planned. The Main St BikesSasquatch Squadron never disappoints and put together another great Carpentersville CX. And you all showed up (largest attendance so far this season) to put on the real show. Thanks and congratulations to everyone who raced, supported, officiated, scored, announced, cheered, spectated, or just showed up to see what this CX thing is all about.
REMEMBER if you upgrade this week (from your USA Cycling profile page) and want 1/2 your CCC series points to follow you to the next category, please contact us at ChicagoCrossCup at gmail by Thursday. We will NOT automatically transfer your points. See the rules/FAQ page here. Also if you have been winning or hitting the podium the first 4 weeks of the series in the Cat 4’s or Cat 3’s, it time to cat up.
If you can’t wait until Sunday, our friends up North of the border are hosting their race on Saturday at CrossFire in Sun Prairie. It’s their Halloween race (ours is next week at Campton), and they’ve been kind enough to create the Reg discount code “outofstate” for $10 off for Illinois folks heading north. Online reg closes at midnight on Wednesday.
If you didn’t see it on Twitter, CCC super-fan Jordan Morrell put together this handy GoogleMap of self service car washes near all the CCC series events (although he’ll need to add ILR x 3) to wash off your bike, clothes, shoes, dog, etc. Check it out, and thanks Jordan!
That’s what we’re talking about!Pulaski Woods CX almost didn’t happen, but everyone made it happen. That was great. You all went above and beyond, and quite frankly that’s pretty much what we’ve come to expect from this little CX community we call home. Oh, and there was some pretty great racing as well. Links to all the results you are looking for are here.
Next up, we head to Carpentersville for the Woodland School Cyclocross. We’re not going to say it, and you shouldn’t either. Don’t jinx it. Look for the course preview at 9am on Thursday.
We’re sure there are some other updates we need to tell you, but we’re exhausted and going to sleep for the next 18 hours.
And finally… thank you. Everyone. Every last one of you. You know who you are.
Major thanks again to the entire Comrades Cycles crew for being flexible and hosting another great Hopkins Park CX, this time at Indian Lakes Hotel. Conditions were wet and soggy and grassy in the morning, but dried out as the day progressed, and the weather was absolutely cross-tastic! Congrats to everyone who raced and continues to make the CCC the Best Amateur CX Series in the Country.
Still looking for pictures of yourself from the weekend? Check out both SnowyMountain Photography and Mike Nauman for great pics from Sunday. See also the pics post for other rider galleries and videos. Thanks to everyone who populates those posts with #content!
Next up, the Beverly Bike and Region Racing crews take us to stop #3 of the 2019 CCC at Pulaski Woods in Palos… for the first time ever. Although Palos has a deep history of cyclocross racing, and as Kenny likes to remind us every.single.week. the very first USA National Cyclo-cross Championships were held there in the 1960’s. We’re just as interested as you to find out what the new venue has in store for us.
Online pre-registration on BikeRegcloses per usual at midnight on Thursday. Look for the course preview at 9am on Thursday morning. We’re also going to hold on to the previous #hashtag of #drwcx, just because.
As of right now there are no plans or expectations to change venues again (despite Internet Twitter rumors). That being said, there is rain in the Friday forecast, so check back here often, watch your inboxes for emails via BikeReg, and follow us on the Twitters for real time updates.
Does your bike need some love after 2 weekends of mud and wet? We know Tailwind Cycles and The Pony Shop have clean-up specials and we’re pretty sure any other local bike shop would be more than happy to help you out for a few dollars. Get those machines in to your LBS and cleaned up and ready to race again!
And finally… just a friendly reminder that everyoneneeds to check-in at every race, even ladies with series long bib numbers. Everyone also needs to check-in AT LEAST 30 minutes before their scheduled race start time, even if you pre-reg’d online. If you just show up to the start line without checking in you will NOT be staged properly and you will not be allowed to race. So please go see those nice folks volunteering at the Reg desk AT LEAST 30 minutes before you race.
Wow, what a day. Thanks to everyone who made it to Caldwell Woods Bunker HillIndian Lakes Hotel/Resort. xXx Racing made the 11th hour effort to make the race happen and you all made some incredible efforts racing in the mud. So thank you and congrats to everyone!!
Full and official results are on USACycling.org and all the links you are looking for are on the Overall Series Scoring GoogleSheet, including CrossResults and LapTimes (provided by One2Go). Please bookmark this Sheet for future reference.
Looking for pictures of yourself on the Internet? Friends of the series SnowMountain Photography were out on Sunday to snap some great shots. Please consider making a purchase or at the very least give them credit if using their photos.
Next up, the series heads West to Dekalb for Comrade Cycles’ Hopkins Park. Look for the usual course preview details on Thursday.
Just a reminder to sign your online USAC waiver in BikeReg so you don’t have to fill out a full waiver on race day. We’ll be sending email reminders this week.
Speaking of emails, please, please, please make sure emails from BikeReg are making it past your spam filters. Just in case we have any last minute announcements again. And always check our homepage or Twitter feed, either directly or over there on the right side of the page for last minute updates.
And finally… here’s a friendly reminder from our One2GoResults crew… please pin your bib number correctly on the side of your jersey/skinsuit… NOT your back. See examples below. #31 is perfect, the others, not so much. The finish line camera is set up to read the side of your body, not your back. And when things get muddy like these did on Sunday, it becomes even more difficult to read underneath mud on your back. Also, please put any long hair up in a pony tail. The camera can’t read through hair either.
Wow, the Trek CX Cup was full gas all weekend, and then the rains came on Sunday for race #2 of the World Cup. Congrats to everyone who raced, spectated, and managed to come home with less than four and a half gallons of peanut butter mud in their chamois.
So now that you’ve watched the best CX racers in the world tackle Iowa mountains and Wisconsin mud, now its our turn to have some fun! The Chicago Cyclocross Cup series officially kicks off this Sunday 9/29/19 at Caldwell Woods CX hosted by xXx Racing. Online registration will be open on BikeReg.com until Thursday night, but why wait? Look for our usual course previewThursday morning at 9am.
Speaking of online registration, you only have a few more days to take advantage of the 2019 CCC Season Pass. We’ll close this option at the same time as Caldwell Woods reg, because why would you sign up for past events? Remember however you can pick and choose races and you don’t have to sign up for all races in the series at once.
Speaking of BikeReg, there’s a little check box at the end of the registration process where you can agree to and initial the USAC online registration waiver. By doing so you won’t need to sign a physical piece of paper at the venue on race day. This is a great feature, new this year, and one we highly encourage. If you can’t remember if you signed the waiver, or if you used the Season Pass (sorry, no way around this) don’t worry, we’ll be sending out emails with links to the waivers (the week before each event) from BikeReg asking you to do so. So please make sure BikeReg emails are not getting caught up in your spam folder.
And finally… here’s your friendly annual reminder that we’re all out at these cyclo-cross races to have fun and spend some precious time with our friends, families, teammates, and fellow competitors… before the awful Chicago winter fully sets in. So while yes, we want everyone to be competitive, let’s remember to be excellent to each other and have a great time. See you all on Sunday!
Congrats to all the CCC shredders who melted faces at the Palos Meltdown over the weekend. If you’ve never seen it, friend of the series Chicago Aussie has a great video about the history of the area.
And finally… while we’re always looking for new long-term partnerships of the commercial kind, we’re also always looking to make new friends and get more people involved with the series. If you’d like to be a series volunteer and peak behind the curtain of how the CCC happens every year, email us and let’s chat.
A bunch of updates below about the upcoming season, so buckle up and please help spread the word.
Each year the CCC looks to implement small changes where we can to improve everyone’s racing experience.
As a way to achieve that goal and achieve parity between the Women and Men Cat 4/5 fields, this year we’re splitting the Women Cat 4/5 and Junior 9-14 categories into their own races. This also allows us to add a Women Masters 35+ field that will race with the Women Cat 4/5 for 30 minutes.
The Junior 9-14‘s will race by themselves, and this year we’ll try a straight 2 laps instead of 20 minutes. The time on course should be about the same (yes slower juniors may be finished at 1 lap on longer/harder courses) and since every.junior.ever. and their parents always ask us on the start line how many laps, we figured we’d make it easier on everyone. Is your young shredder not tired enough on the ride home? Remember younger juniors can always race up in age and can line up against the Juniors 15-18’s earlier in the day.
Splitting the Women and Juniors will also increase rider safety. The Women Cat 4/5 and the Junior 9-14 are two of the quickest growing fields in the series with some of the widest range in ability. Separating them will allow both fields to develop and flourish.
So you’re probably wondering where we found another 30 minutes of daily light to fit in another starting wave? To accomplish this we will start the race day 30 minutes earlier, at 8:00am. So masters will need to set their alarm clocks a little earlier.
Speaking of Masters… since the 45+ field has continued to grow while the 35+ has gotten a little smaller, we’re moving the 55+ F.O.G. to start right behind the 35+ at 8am to have a more even number of riders on course at the same time. This also helps out One2Go so they don’t have to score 3 start waves of multiple fields on course at the same time.
Even though we’re starting the racing earlier Registration will still open at 7am. However, unless the race has a huge reg staff, the first 30 minutes will be limited to the 35+ and 55+ until registration closes for those races. This will give the 45+ Masters a reason to set up the team tents.
The schedule page is updated with Race Day start times, so please adjust your schedules accordingly. Kenny will of course be back again announcing the entire series and is working on a master plan to make sure everyone gets their 15 seconds of podium fame. It might take us the first race or two to really dial everything in, so please work with us and pay attention.
Not a change, but the CCC is officially beginning its annual sponsorship drive. If you’d like to be involved with the Best Amateur CX Series in the Country, drop us an email and let’s figure out a way we can partner together.
Not sure how we didn’t mention this already, but the Montrose Harbor finalé race will also serve as the USAC CX Midwest Regional Championships. More details to come.
And finally… it is with great sadness we have to let you know that the Svens are not coming this year. Due to scheduling conflicts and a few minor races in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Belgium, Sven and Sven won’t be able to stop in at the hottest hotbed of hot CX hot that is Chicago. When you think about it, it really is their loss! Now, if we only had other European born CX professional in the area who could pick up the slack…
Oh hi there friends! Did you miss us? Expect regular (or at least quasi-regular) updates here until the series starts in September.
Its June which means we’re finally digging ourselves out of the CCC evile lair and ramping up for the 2019 season. Actually, the cave flooded and our landlord said we had to vacate while the repairs were being done. Anyway…
We hope you’ve had a good Spring and are getting on with Summer. September will be here before you know it (only 3 months away) and we’ll all be hanging out again next to the tape and in pop-up tents.
More details to come very soon concerning the 2019 season, but the schedule page is updated with fairly certain dates and tentative locations for the series. Remember as always anything can change with venues so keep an eye on that page and we’ll do our best to update you here on the main page with additional updates.
We put our heads together with all the race directors over the winter and decided on a few tweaks to the race day schedule. We’ll have a final update concerning those changes next week, but women, juniors, and masters should pay attention.
And finally… remember this year the Illinois State CX Championships will be hosted by Psimet and held Saturday 11/09/19 in Woodstock, IL, the day before Groundhog Cross, and on a different course.
Its going to be a great CX season and we’re looking forward to seeing you all out at the races!
