• The South Chicago Wheelmen again host the series opener of the 2025 Chicago Cyclocross Cup this Sunday 9/28 at Glenwood Academy CX in Glenwood, IL.
• On the South side of the city, set your GPS to 187th N and N Pleasant Street Glenwood, IL 60425. The entrance at the stop light we’ve used in the past is closed so this is a new entrance. Please drive slowly through the campus to the parking area. This is an active school with children, so please drive carefully.
• Registration closes on Friday night over on BikeReg.com. It is way easier to reg online as opposed to at the venue (which you still can do), and we’ll have your CrossResults.com points if you reg online. If you sign up at the venue you’ll be staged at the back of the grid.
• Look for preliminary staging here some time on Saturday. As this is the first race of the series, everyone will be staged by CrossResults.com points. Then on 10/19 at Big Marsh the first row of 8 will be staged by series points and everyone else by CXR points. See the Rules & FAQ page for more details. Please check the preliminary staging on Saturday and email us on Saturday if there are any errors as it’s a lot harder (if at all) to fix Sunday at the race. Thanks!
• Please renew your USAC annual license BEFORE Saturday evening before you go to bed.
• Weather looks sublime!
• Unbeatable Eatables sandwiches Food Truck will be onsite from 11-3. If you have dietary restrictions please pack your own food/drinks. There’s also plenty of stores on Halsted St just around the corner.
• Parking: You can use any parking lot. Plus use the grass. DO NOT park in any cottage (residence) driveway.
• Registration will be located near or next to officials at the finish line.
• Reg is NOT in Kenny‘s tent. If you are lost or not sure where to go and what to do… just listen for his voice.
• Bib numbers are always on your left on the side of your jersey. Not on your back, not on your butt, not on your helmet or handlebars. Please help our officials and timing/scorer place you accurately in the results to keep the day running smoothly.
• Staging will be at the North side of the access road at 187th St.

• Ok here we go, the 2025 Chicago Cyclocross Cup starts this coming Sunday at Glenwood Academy CX!
• Online pre-reg for Glenwood Academy CX will be open until Friday night over on BikeReg. We’ll have some additional notes up in the Course Preview on Thursday, but you can peruse previous years’ notes on the event’s page here. Glenwood CX is held on the grounds of the Glenwood Academy which works “to eliminate the impact of trauma and miseducation in children’s lives.” Proceeds from the event are donated the academy and you certainly donate more if you’d like.
• Concerning Single Speed categories… we’ll be folding the Men and Women categories into one Open SS category and then separating out results for Men and Women podiums and overall standings like we do in the Juniors.
• Our super not-so-secret CCC Whip-of-the-Week spies will be onsite at Glenwood and all throughout the season to find and choose what they deem worthy of the bike of the day. It doesn’t have to the most expensive or the fanciest bike, but something they find interesting or a cool backstory. Follow our Instagram feed to see what they find.
• We have a 2 week break after Glenwood before the 2nd race of the series, which will be xXx Racing‘s event at a new venue… Big Marsh. More details to come next week.
• Remember we have lots of initiatives happening this year from another new venue for the ABD event, to the revived t-shirt contest, to the the mentor program, to looking for an announcer assistant (women please apply!).
• And finally… concerning Women’s categories, this year we are adding an Open category to each of the Women start waves. These will be Open Cat 4/5 and Open Cat 1-4 with the intention being they are for women, transgender women, and non-binary racers who want to race together. The series and race directors discussed all our options at great length given what is possible within the USAC rulebook and think this is the best (or at least the least bad) option for the entire series. Our email address is always open if you have any questions. We’ll have the website and BikeReg pages updated as soon as we can.

• We hope everyone had fun at Relay CX. We sure did.
• Now get those bikes into your local bike shop for a tune-up before the series starts.
• The first series race is in less than 2 weeks at Glenwood CX. Reg is open.
• Then we take a 2 week break for the Trek CX Cup and the Chicago Marathon.
• After that the series starts up in earnest at xXx Racing’s event at a new venue at Big Marsh! More details to follow.
• Also note the ABD Sunrise Park race is moving for this year only to the Sycamore Speedway. Also more details to follow.
• The Illinois State Championships will be at Montrose Beach again this year.
• And finally… we’re still working on the Women’s categories. Please bear with us, we’ll have another update for everyone next week. Thanks!

• Hey everyone, xXx Racing Relay Cross is this coming Sunday 9/14/2025. Note there is NO SAME DAY REGISTRATION… and the weather looks great… so grab your partner and get registered today!
• Some series events are open on BikeReg and the rest will open as soon as our race directors finish up some paperwork.
• We’re bringing back the t-shirt competition this year. We’ll accept a bunch of different designs from you our riders and then everyone will have a chance to vote on the winner. So polish off those Microsoft Paint skillz and look for more information soon!
• Have you ever wanted to help out at one of our events? Do you want to be right in the center of all the action and spend all day running around watching and commenting on the racing while stuffing your face with candy and gluten free muffins? If so let us know as THE BEST SPORTS ANNOUNCER IN THE ENTIRE WORLD Kenny Labbé is looking for a sidekick to help manage the show.
• And finally… last week USAC changed it’s rules concerning women’s categories to comply with federal and Olympic regulations. TL;DR – transgender women can no longer race in Women’s categories. See here #3: https://usacycling.org/about-us/governance/policy-vii-competition-category-policy. The series does not take sides on these types of issues (we’re just here trying to host bike races), but we do permit/sanction our events through USAC and the series simply would not be possible without USAC (event insurance, officials, rider database, etc.). Accordingly the series will continue to follow USAC’s rule book and apply those rules fairly and consistently to the best of our abilities, just as we have always done. Also as we have always done, the series will continue to welcome everyone who wants to race with us and make the series better as a whole while following the rules of the game. The series directors and race directors are still figuring out how we can do that while complying with the rules, but we will keep you all posted… also as we have always done. Thanks for your patience. 🙏

• 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.