Happy New Year to everyone in CX land.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 350,000 times in 2013. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 15 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

– xXx Racing kicks off the Chicagoland CX season with their Jackson Park Relay race. Reg opens on BikeReg.com tomorrow! Make sure to read the rules on how to register and how the high fives work. We look forward to seeing everyone there!

– Online reg for Patriot Cross is already open on BikeReg. This will be a great race just outside of Chicagoland to sharpen your knobbies ahead of the full CCC series. On top of the cash payouts promoter Wildcard Racing has secured over $2,000 of  extra prizes and tells us call-ups will be based on reg order. Special call ups for anyone in “patriotic dress”. We’re not sure if something like this or this would count, but we’re guessing it wouldn’t hurt.

– Speaking of online pre-reg, we’re sure you all are chopping at the bit to reg for the series. Online reg for all CCC races will once again be on BikeReg.com (same it with us… Reg… like REGistration) and will be open in the next few weeks for most races. While we would love to offer a season pass for all races, please remember each race is hosted by a different promoter and we’ve got too much going on to keep track of transferring money all over the place… so you’ll still need to reg for each race separately. Thank you for understanding.

– Half Acre Cycling hosts their Ladies Cross Skills Clinic on Saturday 9/10/11 in Humboldt Park. In addition to semi-local superstar Kaitie Antonneau, French CX National Champ Caroline Mani will help lead the clinic. Please RSVP on FB here.

– The CCC is still accepting 2011 series sponsors. If you’d like to be involved please drop us a message at [email protected].

– We know it might seem like there hasn’t been much activity here at the CCC, but we have at least a half dozen projects we’re working on for the upcoming season. We’re finalizing details this week on many of them, so check back next Tuesday for updates on things like… something new for overall series leaders, course previews, incentives for juniors, bib #’s, smelly smellies, food trucks, and more!

– 2011 CCC series T-Shirt & Sock design competition entries are due by midnight on Sunday August 14th (2 weeks from now). Anyone can submit designs and anyone can win.

– Apparently in France they have ‘cross races on the sides of mountains!

– And finally… we always like to think of the CCC as one big, crazy family… so we’d like to officially welcome the newest member of the PonyShop CX Team U1 Age group, Maxwell Klug, into the (CX) world. Mom Holly is doing great and Dad Kevin has already been back out doing interval workouts. Congrats to you all!

Well, we weren’t expecting as big of a turnout at Dekalb as Jackson Park, but you all have proved us wrong… on pre-reg at least. The 4As filled up again and a total of 305 of you are scheduled to show up this Sunday. We hope you’re bringing your swords to slay the dragons! Possible rain today and tomorrow should make the course fun, but the forecast is calling for pefect CXweather on Sunday!

Please note we are having a small last minute schedule change. The Women 1/2/3 racers will start after the Cat 3’s and before the Masters 50+ field.

And finally… we think the CCC needs more cowbell. So find one (or really anything that makes a lot of noise), bring it, and use it!

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend.
We’ll see you on Sunday.

A few local media articles about CX and specifically about the CCC.

Cyclocross is one crazy, muddy bike race Chicago Tribune article by xXx Racings’ Luke Seeman (thanks Luke!)

Follow up articles in the Trib:
10 Things to Know About Cyclocross
How Cyclocross Races Work
What You Need to Get Started in Cyclocross
And the seminal… How to be a Good Cyclocross Spectator

Another CX interview on the BoneBell of CCC Series Director Jason Knauff