Since nearly all of us are hunkered down and inside watching the Internets due to the less than friendly cycling temperatures outside, here are a few weekend updates to get your new year started right!

– We at the CCC hope you all had a great holiday season and can’t wait to see you all at the annual awards banquet. The banquet will be held on Sunday January 10th from noon until 4pm at EJ’s place in Skokie. Please make sure to pre-purchase you tickets on BikeReg.com as this will help us make sure there is enough food and seats to go around.

– We’re still finalizing the schwag list, but as of right now we have the following items to hand out as awards and door prizes: CX Magazine subscriptions, Troy Lee Designs gear, Gore RideOn Cables, UberTunes from MOX Multisport, Trek apparel, Fizik Bar Tape, Courage Bicycles Apparel, CyclocrossWorld.com gift certificates, Craft apparel, Challenge Grifo tubular tyres, Mad Alchemy Embrocation, Sheila Moon apparel, Deuter hydration bags, Kenda tires, a SRAM Force grouppo, Blue NorCross framesets, and more. And as always… every series winner receives a custom Chicago Cyclocross Cup series cowbell so you can do more of this.

– We’ll also have the IL State CX Champion jerseys at the banquet. If you’ll be unable to attend please let us know and we’ll get your jersey out to you.

– Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of the 2009 CCC coffee table book to avoid shipping costs. All proceeds go to WBR. While they won’t be ready in time for the banquet we think its safe to say everyone is eagerly waiting to see what these books will look like.

– Need more CX sooner rather than later? Team Mack will be hosting their 23rd annual Tour de Groundhog on Sunday February 21st near St. Louis. This is a great event with a long history and all proceeds go to charity. Find a carpool ride on CBR.

– It might not be CX, but two cross heavy local Chicago shops are playing bikes insides. Check out Johnny Sprockets Gold Sprints on Thursdays and Iron Cycles Iron Training Center Grand Opening this Saturday.

– Snow may be on the ground here in Chicago, but that doesn’t mean lots of CCC’ers aren’t still riding offroad. Check out our friends over at TheBoneBell.com for updates on all the local dirtbagging action. And if you can’t wait to get back on the road (to of-course work on your fitness for the 2010 CCC), IllinoisCycling.org and ChicagoBikeRacing.com are your go-to sources.

– We still have a few CCC t-shirts that were ordered by not picked up. If you bought a t-shirt online and didn’t get it, please email us at [email protected] to arrange a hand-up. We’ll have the shirts at the banquet too and you can pick them up there. Please don’t make us store these shirts until next season.

– We also still have a bunch of clothing and gear that a few of you left at races over the season. If you’re missing a thermal jacket, jersey, gloves, sunglasses, etc we probably have them. Please contact us at [email protected] to arrange a time/place for us to return your stuff. All left overs will be brought to the banquet on the 10th and anything left over after that will be donated to the Salvation Army.

– Want to get rid of some 2009 gear or pickup some new/used gear on the cheap. Two bike swaps are happening soon. The Chicago Winter Bike Swap will be held at Harper College on Saturday January 16th, and for those a little further North, Brazen Dropouts will hold their swap in Madison, WI on Saturday January 9th.

– And finally… the CCC is looking for a little help in 2010. If you’d like to be part of the team in anyway (website, organization, announcing, etc) please email us at [email protected] to get involved!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!

Don’t forget to pre-purchase your tickets for the awards banquet next Sunday. So far there aren’t too many of you who have RSVP’d… and we want to have a big party (bacon & Twinkie are optional). So sign up and let’s have a grand ole’ time.

Merry Christmas to all of your CCC’ers out there!!!

We have a pretty good idea… http://chicrossphoto.com/

As promised 3 local photographers (Liz Farina Markel, Luke Seemann, & Chip Williams) have put together a fantastic coffee table book to celebrate the 2009 CCC.

The books will measure 10 x 8 inches with 120 full-color pages.  All profits from the project will go directly to World Bicycle Relief. Pre-order by 1/15/10 to skip the shipping charges!  After that, books will be available only through the Blurb print-on-demand service with a $7 shipping charge.

As noted on the site, pre-ordered books will NOT be shipped to you. Instead, The Pony Shop in Evanston has generously offered to hold the books for us. You can pick your book(s) up at the shop, and while you’re at it maybe strike up a conversation with a cross-crazy shop owner (and not a bad racer himself). Pre-ordered books will be available for pick-up at The Pony Shop by early February (we’ll post an update when they arrive). If you’d prefer not to or can’t travel all the way up to Evanston, wait for the books to be available directly through Blurb.

Happy Holiays!

Lots of Nationals videos all over the place. CyclingDirt and CXMagazine have a bunch and a simple search on YouTube brings up more than a few… so we won’t embed any here.

Also, this was forwarded to us as a great way to waste plenty of holiday hours.

But this time of year is truly the season of giving. We recently announced we’ll be donating $3,400 to World Bicycle Relief thanks to all of you that made donations and bought t-shirts. That’s enough for over 50 bikes. So many of you are probably wondering where all of the those bikes go and who actually rides them? The video below is a small example of how the children of Zambia share their thanks with us and everyone else who donates to WBR. There are many more great WBR videos here and here. Thanks again to everyone who helped out this year and have a great holiday season no matter where or how you spend it!

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1RTmvQ_QT8

Since we’re nearly at the end of the US CX season we’ll be updating the site a little less often. However, check back often or add the CCC to your favorite RSS reader since we’ll still be sending out updates every so often. Thanks again for a great 2009 season and Happy Holidays!!

– A few local CCC’ers traveled west for a chilly CX Nationals in Bend, OR. Congratulations to Holly, Scott, Ben, Mike, Steel, Kevin, and Bob for a great showing! Did we miss anyone? Full results are here. Congrats to Julie too. UPDATE: Amy Dykema was also out in Bend taking lots of great pix.

– A huge congratulations to SuperGirl for being named this year’s recipient of the 2009 OISCACA.

– A further congratulations to the winners of this year’s Yojimbo’s Fuji Frame Raffles… yes, those free raffles pay off in the end.
Juniors = Luke Arrigoni
Women = Brittany Barran-Stanley
Mens = Matt Bennett

– Please pre-purchase your tickets to the CCC Awards Banquet on BikeReg here. This will help us and EJ’s better plan for the event. Please remember that each “registration” is for one person… so if you’re bringing your significant other or kids you need to “sign up” more than once. Sorry, no dog or cats allowed. We’ll have more info about the event after the holidays, but we’ll generally follow the same format as last year; Overall series awards, Door prizes, Buffet dinner, Cash bar, and lots of socializing in a warm, cozy restaurant.

– Thanks again to everyone who made a donation this year to World Bicycle Relief. Through your direct donations and t-shirt purchases the CCC will be able to donate $3,400 to WBR! With WBR’s 1 for 1 matching of donations through January 31st that means you, the riders of the CCC, have contributed $6,800 to a great and noble cause. That’s enough for over 50 bikes!

– We still have a few T-shirts to get to their rightful owners. Please email us at [email protected] to arrange a hand-up (in either Wicker Park or the Loop).

– Word on the street is that 3 great local photographers are indeed assembling a 2009 CCC coffee table book. We’re sworn to secrecy, but let’s just say we may have seen a sample and if we actually did see that sample then… well… you will NOT be disappointed. We’ll post details as soon as we’re allowed.

– Itching to get racing in 2010? We haven’t heard any details yet, but we’re hoping Team MACK holds their annual Tour de Groundhog CX race in February. Did I hear “Road Trip”? If you’re done with CX (hopefully just for a while), then look for details on the ICA site soon about Half Acre’s Kevin’s Crits and Burnham Racing’s Spring Super Crit.

– Don’t forget this Saturday evening is the unofficial 2009 CCC End of Year party at the Elbo Room featuring Newt Cole’s band Los Borrachos. In addition to the great music we’re told there will be 1$ beer specials and CCC hand downs from stage. We’ll see you there!

– Standard dollar bills and cupcakes are sooo last season. Someone needs to show those New Englanders how its done… oh wait, you all already did this year!

– And finally, if you’re looking to get a head start on gear for the 2010 season then check out this crazy sale.

Congratulations to Holly Klug (Courage) and Scott McLaughlin (SRAM Factory) for winning the B Women and B Men 40+ races out in Bend, OR. Also congratulations to Kevin Klug (Courage) for taking a close 2nd in the B Men 30+ race. Full results are here.

OMG, where to begin…

Continuing with his 4th installment documenting the CCC, Paul Michna presents “Pain and Pleasure”.
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Bradley got some major air!
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Masters 30+ First Lap Carnage
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Men 1/2/3 First Lap Carnage. These guys are the Pro’s… right?
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And finally… Ted Berger shows us how its done!
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Montrose promoter Chuck Judy asked us to share the note below with all of you. Also, if you were in the money in the expanded prize list and didn’t pick up your reward, please contact Chris Mailing at Turin ([email protected] or 847.864.7660 x 16).

To all Montrose Illinois State Championship Racers and Participants

On behalf of Turin Bicycling Society as this year’s promoter of the Illinois Cyclocross Championships, I would like thank everyone whom helped make this race a wonderful success. This includes, The Chicago Cyclocross Cup for having an great series of events and providing me with their guidance through the race promotion process; Our sponsors whom came forward with their generous support; The Officials for running the races; The Volunteers who helped in every aspect of this event, to which no race could be possible without. The Spectators for your fantastic support and enthusiasm. Special thanks to you the Racers whom came out and gave it your all. What more can we say, its all for you!

I am also grateful to the clubs and individuals whom pitched-in helping us with the course breakdown and park clean up. Although not without a trace, we did tread lightly and the park looked better than I could have imagined. This goes along way in securing this park and other Chicago Parks for the sport of Cyclocross in coming years.

I’m not quite certain how Jason and the rest of the CCC gang do this week after week. I was exhausted in the end but this truly was a rewarding experience. I learned a great deal and received loads of appreciation and encouraging feedback on the race. I look forward to continuing my efforts with the Turin Bicycling Society to make this event even better in 2010.

Thank you all,
Chuck Judy
Turin Bicycling Society

ICC Committee:
Anne Barnes
Matt Hollihan
EJ Lenzi
Chris Mailing
Alex Randhava
Meredith Shull
George Vargas

– That’s right… give yourselves a big pat on the back. Following the last race of the year at Montrose we’ve been getting lots of emails and posts on the site about this person did this, and that person did that to make the season so great. Well, there would be no CCC at all without all of you who show up week in and week out to race, heckle, give handups, give postups, be awesome, do whatever this guy’s doing, crash, get back up again, and ride your bikes like there’s no tomorrow. If you look back at our very first post ever on this new site we said “The ChiCrossCup is all about you, the racers…” Well you all ran with that idea and transformed our little Sunday party into something truly special. So for that, we at the CCC THANK YOU!

– The 10th and final race of the CCC at Montrose was amazing. We figure there were probably 300 people watching and heckling the 4B’s at the end of the day… just crazy. Big thanks again to Turin for putting on another great race and for wrapping up the IL CX season in style.

– While we’re all winners at the end of the day… congratulations again to those riders who earned a few more points than everyone else in their respective CCC overall categories. We have something special for each of you at the CCC Awards Banquet on January 10th at EJ’s Place in Skokie. Tickets are on sale now here!

– Congratulations also to the IL State CX Champions.
Masters 40+ – Christando Lombardo (Verdigris Cycling)
Masters 30+ – Eric Sondag (The Pony Shop)
Masters 50+ – Wayne Simon (Verdigris Cycling)
Women 1/2/3 – Debbie Dust (Roscoe Village Bikes)
Men 3 – Ron Bridal (Bloomington Cycle & Fitness Racing Team)
Women 4 – Gina Champion (Team Mack)
Junior Boy – Brandon Feehery (South Chicago Wheelmen)
Junior Girl – Jessica Prinner (ABD Cycling Team)
Men 1/2/3 – Scott McLaughlin (SRAM FACTORY)
Men 4 – Jason Rassi (Proctor Cycling Team)

– In case you still want more CX before the holidays, CX Nationals are being held this coming weekend in Bend Oregon. We know at least a few CCC’ers are heading out west… so good luck to you (Holly, Scott, Ben, Mike, Steel, Kevin, and Bob) and anyone else we don’t know about!

– If you didn’t pick up a t-shirt you ordered or left anything else at the race (or any other race), please contact us at [email protected] to arrangement a handup (in the Loop or Wicker Park) . We have a very small random assortment of extra t-shirts left over. If you can fit into a Men’s XL (Blue) or Women’s M (Blue or Orange) we have a shirt for you. Main St. Bikes, MOX Multisport, The Pony Shop, and Tati Cycles have a small inventory of shirts on sale as well.

– And finally… would you like to be part of the team that makes the CCC happen in 2010? Please email us at [email protected] to get involved.

We leave you for now with a few pix from Montrose…

SuperGirl and Jacob

Photo: Amy Dykema

Flannel Mike

Photo:Liz Novak

The 3 stages of CX… Riding, Running, Falling

Photo: Arnold Klein

Pretty

Photo: Luke Seemann

Mmmm Bacon (see what West Coasters have to say here).

Photo: Luke Seemann

Betcha didn’t know a chicken could lay a dollar bill did ya?

Photo: Amy Dykema