- We were watching the results from Jingle Cross and there were more than a few CCC’ers who had some good results. See them all here. We also saw a bunch of Chicagoland natives in the background of the World Cup live stream. Congrats to everyone who traveled, raced, and represented the CCC well in Iowa.
- Up next, the cyclo-cross heads to Wisconsin, specifically Waterloo and the Trek CX Cup World Cup. This one is a little closer to home and now with one race weekend in the books, the racing should be even more
racey spicey! Good luck to everyone heading North to race at Trek! - … and then… the 2019 Chicago Cyclocross Cup officially kicks off at Caldwell Woods on Sunday 9/29/2019 hosted by xXx Racing. Reg is over on BikeReg.com and we can’t wait to see everyone there.
- The rest of the 2019 series is also up on BikeReg.com including the Season Pass.
- Lots of changes this year, so please take a few minutes to look back at our posts here over the last few weeks so you know what’s going on. Still have questions? Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we’d be happy to answer them for you.
- And finally… Chicago Magazine was kind enough to write an article about us. Check it out. Thanks Maria Larkin and Rory Jack for their comments and Cindy at Chicago Magazine for writing the article!
- Thanks to everyone who came out and participated in the our first annual Riders’ Forum at the Rapha Clubhouse. We received some great feedback and ideas, so thank you for helping to continue to make the CCC the Best Amateur CX Series in the Country.
- Good Luck to everyone heading out to Iowa City, IA this weekend to race at Jingle Cross. Race well and enjoy the spectacle that is UCI World Cup CX!
- If you’ll be around this coming weekend, Half Acre Cycling is hosting their CX Eliminator race on Sunday 9/15/19 at Big Marsh.
- Speaking of racing, online registration for all CCC series events are now listed and open on BikeReg, including the Season Pass. Pick all or some events, and register in one transaction.
- We have a new series sponsor to introduce to you. Please welcome coach Mark Payares of Lotus 1 MultiSport to the CCC family. Mike is a recent transplant to the Chicago area and knows a thing or two about coaching.
- Speaking of series sponsors, we have many returning sponsors including SRAM, Pactimo, PSIMET, Zeigler, Christopher B Burke Engineering (now on Twitter!), Main St Bikes, Spidermonkey Cycling, Michael Heagney, and VeloFix Chicago North Shore all back for another year. If you have a choice, please consider sending some of your business their way as they help make our little series possible.
- And finally… someone who has always made our series and cycling in Chicagoland possible is Mike Keating of IL Bike Law. And he will for a long time to come. As a way of showing his commitment to Chicago cycling, Mike and the CCC recently agreed to a 10 year sponsorship. Thanks Mike for looking out for us in the Chicago Cyclocross Cup, and all of us as cyclists throughout Chicagoland!!!
- Welcome to September!
- The first UCI CX race of the 2019-2020 season took place this past weekend in Virginia. So if you didn’t think CX was only coming, its already here!
- Speaking of, in about an hour you can register on line at BikeReg.com for all of the 2019 Chicago Cyclocross Cup events. Please note the new race day schedule, additional category, and other details. If you have questions, always feel free to email us directly.
- The new 2019 Season Pass is also available here. Reg for all of the events you want in a single transaction. Note the season pass link may not be live until later in the day.
- While you are on BikeReg registering for races, why not donate a few dollars to our season long charities? This year we will again be donating your donations to our 3 amazing cause, Blackstone Bicycle Works, West Town Bicycles, and Big Marsh.
- If you’re racing you’ll need gear. Check out long time series sponsor and host of the Goundhog Day PSI-clocross event, PSIMET Custom Wheel‘s new wheelset, the X. Celebrating 10 years in business, the X wheelset has the maximum possible width to properly support the 33mm UCI limit on tire widths, and provides the best contact with the tubular tire’s base tape – giving up to 60% more glue contact area than other popular wheels. The outer horn of the rim bed also has a wider and rounder profile to further eliminate pinch flats caused when the sidewall of the tire contacts the rim edges in competition. See psimet.com for more details and ordering info.
- And finally… this Thursday 9/5/2019 at 7pm the CCC will be hosting its first annual Rider Forum at the Rapha Chicago Clubhouse. Come out and interact directly with the series directors as well as other CCC participants. We want to know what you think and have to say about the series and how we can make it better for everyone. See you there!
- It looked and sounded like everyone had a great time at the Relay Cross. Thanks as always to xXx Racing for helping to kick the season off right.
- Join us at the next CX race in the area and first official race of the series at Caldwell Park on Sunday September 29th.
- If you need to work on your running form, our kick-off party partners at Rapha Chicago are hosting a couple of CX running events with a local run store early September. Check out details and RSVP here.
- Speaking of kick-off parties, the CCC’s official launch and kick-off party details will be posted soon.
- We’re still looking for some partners and friends to join us this year. We’ve already got a lot of great series sponsors back for the 2019 season, but those broken plastic step-in stakes don’t buy themselves. Email us if you’re interested in helping out.
- And finally… Have you thought about ways to improve cyclo-cross in Chicago and specifically the Chicago Cross Cup? Come share your ideas and join us for our first annual Racers’ Forum on September 5, 2019 at 7pm at Rapha Chicago at 1514 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL. Provide feedback to the members of the CCC board of directors on the series and your experience. We’ll be happy to listen to comments, suggestions, ideas, criticisms, whatever (just don’t throw rotten tomatoes). We’ll talk about lots of things but in particular we want to hear your thoughts about women’s racing/development, junior racing and development, and general topics such as race day schedule, courses, etc. See you there!
- IMPORTANT!!!! This year the Relay moves back to JACKSON PARK! If you show up at Warren Park there will be no race there.
- Most details are over on xXx Racing’s website here: xxxracing.org/relay-cross/
- As always, there’s some pretty darn good team names again this year: xxxracing.org/relay-cross/whos-registered
- Please remember to use the official hashtag #RelayCross so everyone can see our Chicagoland Relay CX in all its glory.
- Reg closes tonight at midnight and there are still spots available (but Coed is filling up fast…) at xxxracing.org/relay-cross. Please pre-reg!
- Weather for race day is looking beautiful, with temperatures in the mid-70s and cloud cover to reduce the heat. That said, please bring your own water/drinks and plenty of them. Do not drink the water from Lake Michigan.
- Did we already mention, we are be returning to our classic course in Jackson Park this year… DO NOT go to Warren Park.
- Parking: The CPD will not allow anyone to park in the boat ramp parking lot directly next to the course. You can drop off people and gear, but if you try to park there… YOU WILL BE TOWED! Let us repeat that… DO NOT PARK IN THE BOAT RAMP PARKING LOT right next to the course. Parking is available on the streets, the lot north of Hayes Dr., and the lot east of Lake Shore Drive.
- Also the parking lots around Jackson Park are metered, but only costs about $10 for the day. We don’t want anyone getting a ticket, so you’ve been forewarned. However, did we mention the boat ramp lot south of Hayes Drive and next to the course is off limits?
- Food: There will NOT be a food vendor for Relay CX this year, so in addition to fluids, please bring snacks if you want to hang out and watch the races. There are restaurants (McDonald’s) and markets nearby on Stony Island, but is just easier to bring your own food.
- Coffee: Blackstone Bikes isn’t far away if you want to visit, and Build Coffee right next door makes a great cappuccino.
- Please note the Chicago Triathlon will again be taking place along the Lakefront Path on Sunday morning. xXx and the CCC urge all CX’ers riding to Jackson Park to exercise extreme caution and courtesy when traveling along that route. If traveling by car, you should probably try another route besides LSD especially North of the city.
- Remember to reg for and donate to the Relay Roulette race – it’s cheap ($10!) and every $10 you donate beyond the reg fee will enter you into a raffle for great prizes, including a full fit session at Get a Grip bikes and other rad items. All proceeds will be donated to a local cycling-related charity chosen by the race winners.
- We don’t have a course map at this time, but its Relay CX. By all means be competitive, but let’s remember to have fun, enjoy each other’s company, maybe catch a crash on video and turn it into an Internet meme, and kick the Chicagoland CX season off on the right foot! See you Sunday.
- Fresh updates to start off the week!
- We’re got our events up over on BikeReg. We can’t open reg until the events are officially permitted with USAC, but all that is coming soon. Have a look at and familiarize yourself with the new raceday schedule.
- Some of you have been asking for it for a while, and since the folks over at BikeReg are so awesome, we finally figured out a way to offer a CCC Season Pass where you can reg for the entire season in one transaction. At least for this year we won’t be offering a discount, but you’ll save the equivalent of 1/2 a race on BikeReg service fees, plus the convenience of only having to reg once. Please use this season pass wisely, as switching you from one category to another after you register will cause some headaches. Thanks!
- Speaking of convenience, this season we’re also going to try series long cloth bib numbers, but… for the women categories only (except Single Speed). The total number of unique riders in the women categories make this possible. We still haven’t figured out how to make it work for the large Men, Masters, and Junior fields.
- Look out for details about a pre-season rider forum coming soon. But mark your calendar for 9/5/2019 at 7pm at the Rapha Club House.
- Online pre-reg opened this past week for xXx Racing’s Relay CX race on xXx’s website. PLEASE NOTE that Relay CX will be returning to Jackson Park for 2019, following some Cubs-funded improvements to the baseball facilities at Warren Park in the last year. Pick a partner and save yourself a race-day headache (and $15) and pre-reg now! Already a bunch of teams already taking the early lead for best team names.
- And finally… This weekend is the UPB CX Camp for Juniors. Join the UPB team and international cyclo-cross superstar Maria Larkin for a fun filled day of learning skills and putting them to use in hot laps. Make sure to register ahead of time here on BikeReg.
- Not many updates this week. Remember to check out the new race day schedule (more details here) over on the schedule page of schedules.
- We also updated the Wisconsin event schedule on that page as they were nice enough to list our races on their fancy new CX website. The new site looks rad y’all!
- 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.
- Back at it… glad to see and hear about so many CX shredders out riding and racing their bikes this summer!
- Please see our last post from 7/2/19 about the changes we’re making for the upcoming season, especially concerning the race day schedule. Please tell all your friends too.
- We’ve got a few other things in the works, but more on those later.
- The UPB Junior CX Clinic has been scheduled for Sunday 08/18/2019 at Pulaski Woods.
- The Half Acre CX Eliminator has been scheduled for Sunday 09/15/2019, again at Big Marsh.
- A venue change for the series! Unfortunately race #3 will NOT be back at Dan Ryan Woods this year. Instead Beverly Bike, and now co-race promoters Region Racing, will be hosting their event on 10/13/2019 at Pulaski Woods in Palos. More details to come as we receive them.
- Again, please review the new race day schedule which now starts earlier and adds a new start wave and category.
- And finally… the CCC would not be possible without the financial support of many companies, groups, organizations, and individuals that help us remain the best amateur CX series in the country (and probably the world). If you’d like to be involved again or for the first time, please email us (just click this link) and let’s figure out a way to partner together. Thanks!!!
- 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.
- Remember that USAC CX National Championships have been moved back to December starting this year, so if you’re thinking about going you’ll need to make travel for Tacoma this December 2019.
- And speaking of Nationals… if you haven’t heard, USAC CX National Championships for next year (2020) will be held here in Wheaton next December 2020 at DuPage County’s Cantigny Park. So get ready and giddy up!
- 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!
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