• Summer’s over… back to school… and cyclo-cross!
• Online registration is open for xXx Racing’s Relay Cross. This is a great, fun, and some-may-say silly way to ease yourself into the cyclo-cross season. Grab a partner, come up with a goofy team name, do-see-do, high-five, and get racing!
• Online registration for series events will be online on BikeReg.com in the next few days as soon as some paperwork gets processed. Our schedule is updated over on the schedule page… but it’s exactly like last season with a few venue changes which we’ll let you know about soon.
• Now is a great time to review our Rules & FAQs page!
• And finally… we’re always looking for series sponsors and some help running the series. Please email us if you are interested!

• Hey everybody, it’s nearly August… (and road is dead right?) so it’s time to think about cyclo-cross!
• The Schedule Page is updated for 2025. The easy way to remember the CCC schedule is to start with Montrose Beach on the first Sunday in December (after Thanksgiving) and work backwards from there. Note that the Trek CX Cup is 10/03-10/5 and the Chicago Marathon is the following weekend 10/12, so we skip those weekends. As always the event schedule is subject to change due to weather, park availability, etc.
• Don’t wait until late September, get your bike(s) and wheels ready to go now! There are plenty of local bike shops, many of which are Series Sponsors, who are ready and would love to get your whip into tip-top shape for the CX season.
• Speaking of series sponsors, we’re always looking for people, companies, and organizations that want to partner with the series and join the family. This little series doesn’t run on rainbows and unicorn tears, so please email us if you’re interested!
• And finally… remember the CCC has started a CX Mentorship Program. It isn’t coaching, and it’s not teaching… think of it more like helping and guiding. If you’d like to be a mentee and/or a mentor please email us at [email protected] for more information.
• See y’all soon!

Hey everyone, this Sunday 6/22 the Chicago Cuttin’ Crew and friends host Afterglow at Big Marsh Park. More details from the organizers…

Can you believe our little bike race is going into its 16th year?! With your help, we’ve raised over $50k to empower youth cycling organizations. On Sunday, June 22, you’ll be able to test out the brand new trails that we’ve cut at Big Marsh Park! And, new to this year, All Bodies on Bikes is hosting a summer solstice campout.

Registration is free on BikeReg, and any donation to FBM’s MightyCause will help us host this race AND keep Chicago’s only dedicated bike park accessible for everyone. Donate enough, and you’ll get a shirt!

Tailwind Cycles is generously dedicating their time and resources as our race support.

Not able to join us Sunday? We need help with the final trial build and putting up stakes on Saturday. Email [email protected] to let us know if you can join 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm.

If you ARE able to make it, we are in need of volunteers and all hands on deck to get our young people in their helmet and on their bikes. Let us know if this is you!

The weather is going to be perfect. We cannot wait to celebrate bikes with you!

Link to schedule of events

With gratitude,

Marie, Paul, Mikey, Katie + Chicago Cuttin’ Crew

• Hey gang, cyclocross season is right around the corner, so we hope you’re getting ready. In the meantime there’s a few CX adjacent activities you should know about.
• Half Acre Cycling is hosting a beach clean-up at Montrose Beach on Thursday 5/22/2025 at 2:30pm with an afterparty at 4:30.
• Afterglow at Big Marsh Park will be on Sunday 6/22/2025.
• The CCC is starting up a CX Mentorship program. This isn’t coaching, nor is it teaching… think of it more like guiding. If you’d like to be a mentee or a mentor please email us at [email protected].

• Thanks to everyone who partied with us at our Awards Party on Saturday at Specialized Fulton Market. We awarded the series overall winner cowbells, raffled off a metric ton of prizes, and the grand finale two Specialized Crux framesets (both winners were in attendance). Huge thanks to Specialized Chicago/Futon Market who hosted us, all the businesses who donated raffle prizes, and everyone who made the evening possible (looking at you Kenny!).
• Check out the amazing photos taken by Viktor Hilitski took during the evening. Also a separate gallery for raffle winners.
• With the awards party the 2024 Chicago Cyclocross Cup has come to a close. We’ll be back later this year for the 2025 season. If you’d like to be involved please email us now.
• And finally… the CX season continues to roll on in Europe and UCI Cyclocross World Championships take place in two and half weeks on 1/31 – 2/2.

• Happy New Year!!! We hope everyone had a great holiday season and you’re riding into 2025 full gas.
• Here’s a final reminder that we’re holding our end of season Awards Party this Saturday 1/11/2025 at Specialized Fulton Market.
• The main event will be awarding the coveted Chicago Cyclocross Cup series overall winners cowbells.
• We’ll also be raffling off not one but two Specialized Crux framesets provided by Specialized Chicago as well as tons of other prizes.
• Everyone who walks through the front door will receive one free ticket for the “other prizes”, but more tickets will be available for purchase at the party. Look for the always popular “wingspan” option.
• Purchase your tickets for the Crux frames now on BikeReg. All proceeds from both raffles go towards supporting the series’ future seasons and making it as rad as possible.
• Please use the free “attending” option on BikeReg to RSVP… so we know how many people to expect. We look forward to seeing you all on Saturday for one final time this season.

• Merry Christmas Eve! We know not everyone celebrates Christmas, but we do know that sending well wishes to someone, anyone, & everyone is rad and always a great thing to do. So whatever you celebrate this time of year or if tomorrow is just another Wednesday… we hope you are doing well and riding your bike! 🎄
• Congratulations to everyone who traveled down to Louisville to race at USA Cycling National Cyclocross Championships. Full results are here.
• Lost and Found – If anyone lost anything, especially something significant like nice jewelry, please get in touch with us. We throw out old water bottles (because who knows what’s living in them now) but hold on to clothing, helmets, shoes, etc. for a little while in case someone tries to ride their bike in early January and realizes they’re missing something.
• There’s still time to help those in our community that could use it. For many years the series has supported West Town Bikes, Blackstone Bicycles Works, and Friends of Big Marsh. The series just made it’s annual donation to each of these groups from the dollars you all donated throughout the season and the series matched those donations dollar for dollar. If you’re able, please consider donating here, here, and here. Thanks! 💪  
• And finally… don’t forget we’re holding our end of season Awards Party on Saturday 1/11/2025 at Specialized Fulton Market. We’ll be raffling off not one but two Specialized Crux framesets provided by Specialized Chicago as well as tons of other prizes. Purchase your “random drawing” tickets now on BikeReg. Please use the free “attending” option to RSVP… so we have enough food and dranks. Happy New Year!

• Wow, just wow… Montrose Beach never disappoints. We had tons of great racing, the largest turnout of the season, and more high-fives, hugs, cheers, and awards than we can keep track of. Thanks again to Half Acre Cycling, our USAC officials, the best announcing any sport anywhere is lucky enough to have, and of course mother nature for fantastic weather to close out the season.
• If you won your overall series category, please check your inbox as we just emailed you asking for some information. Thanks and we look forward to seeing you at the awards party (see below).
• Links to all Results are here for Montrose and the entire series. We pride ourselves on posting all kinds of timely and accurate data from the season, so please take a look, let us know if you have any questions, and if you’d like to see anything else.
• Next up, the CCC racing season is over, but we know several of you are traveling to Louisville, KY this week to race at  USA Cycling National CX Championships. Good luck to everyone traveling and racing!
• And finally… we’re holding our end of season Awards Party on Saturday 1/11/2025 at Specialized Fulton Market. Don’t miss out on the raffle for two Specialized Crux framesets provided by Specialized Chicago as well as tons of other prizes. Purchase your “random drawing” tickets between now and the close of the drawing on BikeReg in order to win any prizes. We also added a free “attending” option so you can let us know you’re coming to the party. Please RSVP!

• Half Acre Cycling is once again excited to bring you Montrose Beach CX – also once again the Illinois State CX Championship race. Please read all of the info below for some important notes (yeah, it’s a lot).
• Big thanks to our generous sponsors for helping make this event possible:
  • 46th Ward Alderwoman Angela Clay
  • Dr. Erin Ayala, Sport Psychologist, of Skadi Sport Psychology, sponsoring free reg for any BIPOC, woman, nonbinary or trans racers
  • Rehabit Concierge Physical Therapy and Dr. Aleks Kerzee-Stamatelopoulos onsite with free injury screening, manual therapy and cowbells
• Registration is still open on BikeReg, where you can also pre-purchase limited edition posters for pickup on Sunday. The weather looks to be dry but brrrrrrrrr… and as always, the wind coming off the lake can be strong; please make sure to secure your tents.
• Since this is both the Illinois State CX Championship AND CCC series finale, there are many, many, many podiums to get through. Please help the best announcer a race series could ask for keep things moving… if you are top three in the race or the series overall, report to the podium ASAP following your race. See below for how state champs will be awarded. Note the only real difference from last year is the Women Cat 4 state champ will be awarded from the Women Cat 4/5 instead of the Women Cat 3/4.
  • 
• Staging: As the race is part of the CCC, we’ll follow standard protocols — the front row is staged by series points, every other row by CrossResults points.
• PRELIMINARY staging will be posted here Saturday morning. If you see an error email us (we won’t be monitoring the comments here)
• Here’s your friendly reminder that Montrose Beach is technically within Lincoln Park — a large city park where civilians who have no idea what us weirdos are doing WILL be coming through on their usual Sunday activities (the lakefront path cuts through the course). Yes, we’ll be celebrating the local finale of the best amateur cyclocross series; probably with drinks** and food (trucks) and more dranks**, but please be on your best behavior and show the locals what a classy bunch we are; and always race with your head UP.
  • ** And now let us pause for the annual message from the fun police … it’s Chicago Park District property and alcohol is NOT permitted.
• We have two great food truck options this year with Aztec Dave’s tacos returning with veggie options, and Soul & Smoke BBQ. (Unfortunately Firecake’s donut truck Billy suffered a mechanical and is unable to attend this time, so BYO coffee/breakfast).
• Simonds Drive is closed to thru-traffic and parking* within the barricades is restricted. Regular parking is along Simonds Drive and Montrose Drive either to the northwest or southeast, exiting the way you came in. Per the Chicago Park District, NO DRIVING ON THE GRASS OR PATHS, ANYWHERE! We cannot emphasize this point enough and yet still have vehicles break this rule. Please adhere to parking marshals’ instructions regarding your vehicle parking and movements.
• Speaking of parking, a few parking spots within the barricades* are available with a donation on BikeReg to help defray the overall event costs. Entry for this is from the NORTH END of Simonds drive — check in with the nice volunteers and show your receipt. (If you have a trailer please count that as a second space).
• Teams may drop off tents/equipment at either end of Simonds Drive The driver must remain with the vehicle to expedite unloading and keep traffic flowing, just like at the airport. It’s usually a high-volume operation with everyone coming at the same time, so help your teammates.
• Speaking of team tent placement, please see the map below with areas designated for tent placement. We have reasons for this, some of which are specific Park District requests. Please help us in keeping this venue and stick to where we have marked tents.
• All are welcome to drop/place tents and other large items on Saturday afternoon! However, HAC, USAC, CPD, DCASE, et al. cannot and will not take responsibility for anything left overnight, so make sure it’s secured/laid down/tied down. And hey, stick around to lend a helping hand with course setup.
• Speaking of helping hands, every race could use a few more hands, especially for course marshaling spots required of the super important lakefront path crossings. Volunteers get free lunch! Sign-up here.
• We understand the desire to pre-ride, especially with so many CCC’ers living nearby. However, we kindly request you DO NOT RIDE the course before the event, especially during setup on Saturday, to enable course construction AND to keep it in nice condition for game day. Again, drop the bike and pick up some course stakes and tape to help — it takes a village!

• The course:
• YES, we are aware there is bridge construction. Because of this we have to shift the start farther southeast, and have a gentle curve before turning onto the grass via the ramp transition. Again, please stay friendly with your fellow racers at the start; remembering that you can’t win the race here, but you can ruin it.
• A full-size pit with race and change lanes, and neutral service provided by Ben and Steven from Tailwind Cycles. Bring cash for tips if they help/save your race.
• The loss of off-camber bits have been replaced by some fun use of the natural sand dunes. We will have a couple of course modifications for the young juniors and the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab Adaptive category.
• Finally, the finish has relocated to the walking path location used in the past, so heads up for spectators crossing, and please use caution when you are a spectator crossing.

• We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! 🦃
• The final race of the series is this coming weekend at Montrose Beach. More details on Thursday.
• There are specific rules about who can win a State Championships. See the event notes or our FAQ page for details.
• Half Acre Cycling needs a handful of additional volunteers to make Montrose happen especially the 9:25am, 11:25, and 12:25 shifts. Volunteers get lunch from Spoke and Bird and shifts are only an hour. Sign up here –> https://volunteersignup.org/QA38B
• And finally… we’re holding our end of season Awards Party on Saturday 1/11/2025 at Specialized Fulton Market. Don’t miss out on the raffle for two Specialized Crux framesets provided by Specialized Chicago as well as tons of other prizes. Purchase your “random drawing” tickets between now and the close of the drawing on BikeReg in order to win any prizes.