2024 marks 15 YEARS of Afterglow! 

From our friends at the “other” CCC… the Chicago Cuttin’ Crew and Friends of Big Marsh have come together to bring you a few warmup laps before the races begin.

Afterglow has always been about lifting each other up and empowering our community to THRIVE. It started as just a cyclocross race and has evolved into a bike-run-dance-party. We’re offering events for the whole family!

We’ve partnered with the Chicago Park District to bring the ‘Glow to Big Marsh Park for the second year in a row. Our best people are on the job of taking over the bike park, the Big Hill, and bits of flowing singletrack. Details on the courses… aww it’ll be awesome, just show up!

Registration is free on Bikereg, however, we highly recommend kicking over a donation to FBM’s MightyCause so we can keep Chicago’s only dedicated bike park accessible to everyone. Donate enough, and you’ll get a shirt and/or poster 😎

Donations will also go towards supporting our young friends from Boxing Out Negativity and Lost Boyz who will be rolling deep at Afterglow.

We cannot wait to celebrate bikes with you! 

USA Cyclo-cross National Championships starts today at Cantigny Park in Weaton! 

There are still a bunch of “volunteer opportunities“ (i.e. we NEED your help!) available this week, mostly for course marshals and course crossing guards. Remember, every volunteer receives an admission wristband good for the entire race week, plus lunch, t-shirt, beanie hat, cow bell and other goodies.

Pick-up of online wristband purchases, or in-person purchases, will be at the official host hotel: Sheraton of Lisle all week through Friday, December 10, 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Then at overflow parking at the DuPage County Complex on Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Thanks to everyone who has helped to make this event a reality and good luck to everyone racing, especially the Chicago Cyclocross Cup community!

Nationals is only two weeks away! It’s been a long road to get to this point and it’s actually happening, who’s excited?

Volunteer signup is open, We had over 100 people put their hands up to help and now you can. We need help both the week before the event and during. Remember, every volunteer receives an admission wristband good for the entire race week, plus lunch, t-shirt, beanie hat, cow bell and other goodies.

If you just want to come watch, you can purchase your admission wristbands online through December 6. Wristbands allow admission for all days of the event, ages 10 and up. Pick-up of online wristband purchases, or in-person purchases, will be at the official host hotel: Sheraton of Lisle beginning Monday, December 6 through Friday, December 10, 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Then at overflow parking at the DuPage County Complex on Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

And finally, we wish everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

• Thanks to everyone who came out to Wheeling this past weekend for the final race of the 2021 un-series this year. We really appreciate everyone racing safe and taking the ongoing pandemic seriously. Hopefully in 2022 we’ll get back to “normal”.
• Note that Region Riot CX is now the Midwest Regional Championships. The race is in 2 weeks over Thanksgiving weekend and Reg is open on BikeReg.

#CXNats is a month away! Volunteer roles/time slots were posted last week! If you haven’t signed-up to receive volunteer information, you can do it here: 
https://forms.gle/WpNdfq2ppPZ8eFTB6

Also, registration for team parking is still open. The regular spots (like you’d see at a CCC race) are available here.  But if you want to look or feel #pro, the large/pro team area is available to any team and can accommodate vehicles/trailers/etc… (sorry, no hot tubs).
https://forms.gle/RmHfpwqQuQL3oPVg8

Finally, sponsorships and/or space in the event expo is also still available. Get your company’s message to the masses, both in-person and on the live stream on FloSports!

Wow, its already November… that went fast! Thanks to everyone who has come out to race safely.

– Here’s a friendly PSA that as the weather turns colder and nastier, the officials need to see your bib number when being staged into the starting grid and One2Go absolutely must be able to see your bib number at the finish line in order to properly score you. So if you’re wearing a jacket at staging, make sure you pull it up so the officials can see your number, and if you’re wearing a jacket during the race make sure your bib number is pinned on the outside so One2Go can see who you are. Thanks!

– Unfortunately, Spidermonkey Cycling will not be running this year’s cyclocross race at Montrose. The team debated this decision for a while, and the reasons for canceling are multiple. Ultimately, the direct and indirect effects of COVID, plus the National CX Championships happening at the same time, all contributed to the decision to cancel. The Spidermonkeys hope the CCC community understands this decision and encourage everyone to pitch in and help out with the USA Cycling National Cyclo-cross Championships at Cantigny Park in Wheaton!

– That leaves 2 more local amateur races on the calendar, the first being Groundhog Psi-clocross hosted by Psimet in Woodstock this coming weekend and The George Garner Sr. Memorial CX Race host by the Northbrook Bicycle Club in Wheeling the weekend after.

– Speaking of, it takes a community to host a National Championship caliber event. The local organizing committee and the Dupage Sports Commission need some help. Plenty of volunteer spots available here, as well as info on hotels (ok locals will just in their own beds), sponsorship opportunities, admissions, and race info are here –> https://www.discoverdupage.com/sports/events/cyclocross-2021/

There are many updates about the 2021 USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships out today! 

First, on the DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau event site, admission wristbands for the entire week of the event are now available for purchase. If you are going to race in the event, your admission will be included in your registration fee and is good all week. This is for additional wristbands for spectators, family, friends, hecklers …  Also, for those coming in from father away, discounted area hotel info is posted. Additionally, spaces in the Pro and Amateur team areas, as well as vendor expo space, can be purchased. All of this goes toward the cost of hosting the event.

Over on the USA Cycling event page, race schedule and registration info is posted. 

Once again, this event will not be possible without support from the Chicago CX community. From helping with the course build the week before, to course marshals during the races, to staying warm and toasty in the registration room helping check racers in, the event will need all kinds of people. Let them know you are interested here. Volunteering will score you free entry for the week and some sweet swag!

The Cantigny Park course design is in the final stages and will feature something for everyone, especially spectators. Guaranteed there will be tanks involved, and we hear a sand wedge might be needed.

There’s a saying in jazz that sometimes, the best note is the one not played.

Due to the continuing and developing pandemic situation, the precedent of rising cases in the Autumn/Winter set last year, and to err on the side of caution, the CCC series is again cancelled this year.

Please note that while we will not have overall series scoring, staging, & awards, some race directors have already confirmed they are still planning to host their individual races as long as local regulations allow and it appears safe to do so. See the tentative Schedule page for specifics. Those situations may change so pay attention to the individual race BikeReg.com registration pages and we’ll post updates here on the site as we receive them. Update – The HICX made the same decision earlier this week.

Our first concern every season and for every race is safety, and it just doesn’t feel safe to host the entire series from September to December. As this COVID case counter shows, Illinois is already at the same case counts as October last year, which hospitalizations follow shortly after.

Besides people congregating in tents as temps drop and the weather turns foul, one our main concern is Juniors who are not yet old enough for a vaccination, compounded by the start of the school year. We know we can’t please everyone all of the time, but we’d much rather get a few disgruntled emails now than even one later telling us someone’s kid is in the hospital due to something completely preventable.

This obviously totally sucks, but we don’t think anyone paying attention to the pandemic was expecting a “normal” season this year anyway. We are fully aware that many of you (at least those with bikes) were eagerly awaiting the return of CX season and some sort of normality… we definitely were too! But we will be very happy if in January we’re saying to ourselves, “Yeah, we could have held the series” but currently the benefits do not outweigh the risks.

To reiterate, we will not be organizing the series, but some individual races are still planning to be held. Email us at [email protected] if you have questions.

So mask up, get vaccinated, stay safe, and 100% keep riding your bikes… and we’ll hopefully see you all next year for the 2022 Chicago Cyclocross Cup series!

If you’d like to help out at Cyclo-Cross Nationals this December at Cantigny (Can-Tee-Nee) Park, please fill out this online form.

xXx Racing-Athletico has opened up Registration for Relay CX over on BikeReg.com. Looks like Haley Engle and Jessica Steed in the Women Open category nabbed the hole shot in the team naming competition… but with 2 weeks to go until race day, its still anyone’s race and Emily Heavey and Monte Martin in the Coed Open appear to be gaining ground.

Expect more updates about the CCC series next week. As we mentioned back in June, with COVID cases increasing in Illinois around the country due to the Delta variant we may need to make some adjustments.

And now, a word from your local USA Cyclocross National Championships organizing committee…

Hello from the local organizing committee for the (now) 2021 USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championship. We are excited to be able to bring this event to the Chicago area and show-off how we do ‘cross here!

To say it has been a challenge to get to this point would be an understatement; but thanks to the DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau, as well as Cantigny Park and USA Cycling, it’s a go. 

We know there are a lot of questions about the event, and we will have answers as we learn them. USA Cycling came for its first site visit in late March and is working on the course design; but the canvas they have to work with is definitely exciting. For those that don’t know what Cantigny Park is, we encourage you to visit this spring or summer! (But leave the bike at home so we can keep it fresh for December.) The gardens and museum and great, and there is a ‘tank park!’

Many have asked about volunteering and helping with the event (some of you really like pounding posts!), and that is going to be a key component in the success of this event. We will be putting out a formal call for volunteers with a sign-up in the coming months as the event details come into focus, since most of these roles will be the week before and during the event. For anyone looking at helping at a higher level and earlier, reach out to the LOC.

Meanwhile, the biggest help the event needs right now is sponsorship to help with the expense of producing an event of this size and stature. It’s no surprise that the pandemic has struck the tourism industry especially hard, so the reliance on outside funding via sponsors is more important than before. Besides the traditional expo spaces there are major branding opportunities with the course features. Anyone interested in sponsorship for this unique event should contact the LOC for more information.

Our goal is to make this nationals one of the best to date, from a high-quality competition to the overall atmosphere and festivities that go along with it. Ideally, we’ll bring new fans to this sport that can also help our local series flourish. We know the Chicago cyclocross community is capable of helping achieve this goal. Stay tuned for more details!