Why is this race called Groundhog PSI-clocross? Well, in 1992 the downtown square of Woodstock, IL was used to film the movie Groundhog Day. Rob Curtis and the PSIMET crew have carried some parts of the movie into the venue.

• Registration closes Friday at 10pm. There will be day of registration available at a higher price but only through BikeReg.
• The race day schedule is different than usual. Novice/Cat 5 race is at 7:20am (reg opens at 6:30). Masters races have been split into 1/2/3 and 4/5. 3’s are now 3/4.
• The last race of the day is call the “Spirit of the Forbie” race. Pronounced “4B”. It is an OPEN race so all categories and genders may now experience the last race of the day. Staging is in reverse order. With so many racing it we encourage everyone else to stay and give them something to experience.
• Remember that Daylight Savings ends the morning of the race so be sure you have the right time!
• There is plenty of parking throughout the park. As with all previous years there is NO PARKING ON THE GRASS. This is the strictest rule the park and city have for the facility. This also means no vehicles on the grass to drop off gear early in the morning <looks at masters teams>.
• If you enter from either of the Park’s North entrances (Kishwaukee Valley Rd or Jackson St) then you can drive right up to the “tent city” field and drop off gear.
• This park has “always” had a “no alcohol” policy. So when you bring in cups for your soda and lemonade PSIMET asks that you pack out what you bring in. It helps PSIMET make sure the park doesn’t think we’re a drinking series with a cycling problem if there aren’t a lot of juice boxes laying around.
• Food: Mario Kart food truck will be serving between 11 and 2:30
• In “Groundhog Day” Diner fashion – Homemade pies made by Jill Stuck will be awarded on the podium to the winners. Team sponsor Begyle Brewing is also making sure winners don’t get thirsty.
• Equipment Pits will be single width and will not use the orange fencing this year. There will NOT be any water or washing facilities at the race though, so if conditions look to be getting worse then please plan your own support accordingly. There are a couple of water spigots around the park that may or may not be in service .
• There won’t be much if any daylight left after the last race ends, so please plan accordingly. Also if you can, please help PSIMET tear down the course so they aren’t doing it all in the dark.
• Kids Race will be hosted by Parker Curtis and held at 2:00pm.
• As another reminder, if you are pre-riding while anyone is finishing up, please make sure you are NOT inadvertently riding in front of people still racing. Just ride slowly behind them and offer words of encouragement or ring a cowbell. Thanks!
• If you’re interested in looking over the filming locations for the movie there is a great map for self-guided tours here: http://www.woodstockgroundhog.org/walking-tour/
• Remember to use #psiCX on Twitter and Instagram.
• The course: similar to 2019 run Clockwise. Barriers. Up Heckle Hill. Off Camber. Woods. No sand.

Map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1nnQZGYwTz3H_g9-59-byZP5Tu_G5DQnm&usp=sharing

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/

We haven’t done one of these in a while, but here goes…

The South Chicago Wheelmen bring a new venue to Chicagoland Cyclo-cross, on the grounds of Glenwood Academy.  https://www.glenwoodacademy.org/ 

Registration on BikeReg closes at 9:00am Saturday morning. There will be race day reg as well for $5 extra.

There will be a kiddie course set up for most of the day. 

Racers can park anywhere there are NOT cones. No parking in the residence lots, which will be blocked by cones. Parking on grass is acceptable. 

Race flyer and info: https://www.southchicagowheelmen.com/indian-lakes-weekend (yes this is the correct link, but the race is NOT at ILR 🤷‍♂️).

This race is a fundraiser for the Glenwood Academy. Consider donating either cash or by purchasing raffle tickets for a Psimet wheelset. One ticket for $5 or 5 for $20. 

There will be food (hot dogs and hamburgers) and beverages, adult beverages too, beer and wine, and water from 11am to 2pm sold by Academy staff.

DIRECTIONS: Race venue is located at 500 W 187th St. Glenwood, IL 60425 Enter at 187th and Chicago Heights Glenwood Road at the stop light on the East side of the campus.

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.

We didn’t cancel cyclo-cross, we’re just not holding the series.

Just a quick update to clear up any confusion about the CCC “series” vs. “races“. As most of you know, the CCC is a collection of CX events, each hosted by a separate and fantastic team/club/shop/promoter. The “series” does not actually run any of the individual events but sets minimum standards, coordinates race-day schedules/categories, maintains overall scoring, owns a very large quantity of plastic step in stakes, updates this website, awards series leaders jerseys & cowbells, hosts the after season party, etc. Think of the “series” as the NFL and each race as one of the teams in the league. You don’t really go to an NFL game, you go to a Bears game that’s part of the NFL. As Montrose Harbor race director Mark Zalewski notes, “It helps to think of the ‘series’ as not a race itself (bc it isn’t), but a collection of independent races (bc it is).”

Glenwood Academy (new SCW venue) and Groundhog Psi-clocross (PSIMET) plan to hold their events. Hopkins Park (Comrades Cycles) has already decided not to hold their event. The rest of the venues are tentative and TBD depending on how the Autumn progresses. We will keep the Schedule page updated throughout the season and have news updates here as we receive them.

In cancelling the “series” last week we did not cancel all Chicagoland CX races, just the overall aspect. If you were planning your big comeback this year to win an overall series title, then unfortunately you’re out of luck. If you’ve never really paid attention to the overall scoring and have never been on the front row of the staging grid, you probably won’t notice any difference if you choose to race this year.

If you have any questions at all please email us directly at [email protected]. Our inbox is always open. Enjoy the summer heat while its still here and keep riding your bikes!

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.

Hey’all… we’re back! Happy Summer and welcome to 2021!!

We’re still ironing out the details of the 2021 CCC season, but we’ll be racing this year one way or another (assuming the COVID Delta variant doesn’t stop us). Like a lot of things, racing this year will definitely be different than in years past, but the core of the series will still be the same.

The CCC always runs from late September to the first weekend in December (with a break for Thanksgiving) and you should expect the same this year. Currently there will be 2 less events this season (no Saturday race of the double SCW weekend and one other race) so we’re targeting 9 events total… but as with most things over the last 15 months, the situation can and probably will change. We’ll be updating the site this week with all the tentative info we have and going forward as additional details fall into place.

As with every year we’ll need some help to make the racing happen and pay the bills, so we’re looking for series sponsors (all those step in-stakes that get broken don’t replace themselves for free). If you’re interested in joining the CCC family, please get in touch with us as soon as you can. Also, buy some merch.

Thanks again for everyone’s patience as we get this ball rolling and thanks for racing with us. We’ve missed everyone terribly and we’re really looking forward to seeing everyone again this September. In the meantime, enjoy the brief Chicagoland sunshine and warmth and make the most of this summer. Autumn will be here before we know it!

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!