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!

Happy New Year!!!

While we haven’t been racing and high-fiving here in the states, CX racing has been taking place, albeit less frequently, in Europe. The culmination of the season takes place this Weekend at the UCI World Cyclocross Championships in Ostend, Belgium. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like NBC SportsGold is broadcasting the event, but we’re sure there are other ways to watch online (please post links in the comments), and you can always bet fake money on the event. Note also there will only be elite/senior Women’s and Men’s events as the U23 and Juniors were cancelled, because… COVID. But hey, at least Štybar is racing!

We like to think there is a silver lining to every situation, and the past year’s global pandemic is no exception. For example, we’ve been looking for a way to offer CCC merchandise in an easy and non-wasteful manner that directly benefits the series for everyone. So with a bunch (okay a ton) of extra time on our hands this past Autumn we put the pieces in place to have readily available merchandise all year long. Nothing super fancy (right now) and we don’t expect to finance the entire series… just having some fun with it.

We are partnering with Triad Logo Company to offer CCC branded merchandise, but all profits will go to the CCC and our affiliated programs. We want to be 100% clear here, no individual is profiting from this CCC merch. All proceeds will benefit the series (paying for website hosting, replacing broken step-in stakes, etc.) or the programs we support (Blackstone Bicycle Works, West Town Bikes, etc.).

Links to the CCC store on Teespring is here and on the merch page of our site. We currently have a handful of designs, starting with the soon to be classic CCC design, but there are many, many more designs in the pipeline and we will post on the merch page and Tweet when new deigns are available. We’d like to point out that all profits from the Blackstone Bicycle Works and West Town Bikes designs will directly benefit these two groups and not the series. We’ll also being doing several collaborations with CCC participants/groups/teams/memes, the first of which is the PMA design with Morning Bird Studio. We’ll be reaching out to other groups/teams over the next several months, but if you’d like to do a CCC collab, drop us an email.

We hope you like the designs but more importantly the ideas and fun of it all. And if you have an idea or suggestion our email inbox is always open, for merch or anything else. We miss you all, so cheers and here’s to 2021… maybe?

Hi all, its been over three months since our last update here on the site. Normally we’d be providing results from the previous week and getting ready for the next week, but… Covid.

Yesterday USA Cycling announced they are officially cancelling US Cyclo-cross Nationals, which had originally been scheduled to take place here in Chicagoland and then re-scheduled to take place in Iowa City, IA. This cancellation should not be a surprise to anyone. But in any event, while no one is racing this year in the US, we hope everyone is staying safe & healthy and still riding bikes.

Speaking of riding bikes, while most of us have not been racing and traveling, and spending that money fixing up houses or new bikes, not everyone is that lucky or has that luxury. So, if you have spare parts or money just burning a hole in your pocket, why not help out our friends at Blackstone Bicycle Works and West Town Bikes. Last season’s rain & mud did a number on everyone’s bikes, and the young men and women in these programs are still replacing worn down parts on their bikes. Both locations are still accepting donations (obviously with necessary face coverings and social distancing) so if you have anything to donate, please stop by and help these folks out.

Additionally, Ride Spot, along with the Newberry Library and the CRR1919 Commemoration Project, invite you to join their virtual event to benefit Blackstone Bicycle Works. Their goal is to get 300 riders to complete the 10-mile route before October 31, 2020. 

If successful, generous sponsors (and CCC series sponsors), SRAM and ABUS, will donate $7,500 to Blackstone’s work providing resources and opportunities to Chicago’s BIPOC youth through bicycle education and mentorship. 

The 1919 Chicago Race Riot Route, created by the Newberry Library and the CRR1919 Commemoration Project, visits 10 historical sites through the Bronzeville and Bridgeport neighborhoods of Chicago relevant to the riots and the events that followed. Download the free audio tour or purchase a limited edition 1919 CRR Route Guidebook to complete the educational experience and learn more about this historic Chicago event. 

Learn more about the route at crr1919ride.com and download Ride Spot to join the 1919 Chicago Race Riot Route challenge.

Hi all,

We here at the Chicago Cyclocross Cup hope everyone is safe, healthy, and doing fine. Cyclo-cross racers are no strangers to health issues, struggling, and adversity, but even by our standards 2020 has been a rough year and we’re not even half way through yet.

By now all of you are hopefully aware of the ‘Restore Illinois’ plan developed by the state government and Illinois Department of Public Health. The state of Illinois is currently in Phase 3 and under this plan groups of 50 people or more (i.e. CCC events) are not allowed until the state/region is in Phase 5.

“Phase 5 – Illinois Restored: With a vaccine or highly effective treatment widely available or the elimination of any new cases over a sustained period, the economy fully reopens with safety precautions continuing. Conventions, festivals and large events are permitted, and all businesses, schools and places of recreation can open with new safety guidance and procedures in place reflecting the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

We obviously cannot predict the future and we have no way of ensuring when we’ll get to Phase 5. But you know we love numbers and stats and we’ve been paying close attention since early March and find it hard to believe we’ll have a vaccine or Illinois will be COVID-19 free by late September.

So with all that in mind, as of today we are cancelling the 2020 Chicago Cyclocross Cup series. Without a vaccine or widely available highly effective treatment there’s just no way we could guarantee everyone’s safety. And we would need to be putting the finishing touches on lots of details right now in order to ensure the series is kept up to the standards you all have come to know, expect, and deserve. So postponing any longer would not allow us enough time to effectively organize the series.

We know this news will be sad news for everyone, and we never thought we’d have to write these words. But like several times in the past, we’d much rather write them now than an apology letter to someone’s loved ones later after they get sick or worse. Its a sucky decision but actually an easy one.

Most of you are probably unaware that the CCC doesn’t actually run any of the events in the series. Instead each event is hosted and run by separate race promoters/directors that agree to the same schedule, rules, scoring, etc. So with all that being said, there is a very, very outside chance some of the individual race promoters may still be able to host their events later in the Autumn if conditions and regulations allow. If that becomes the case we will of course post news here for everyone. But until that time the site will be mostly silent. Feel free to drop us a line at [email protected] if you have any questions or need additional info.

Until then, and most likely until 2021, take care of yourselves and each other. Stay safe, stay healthy, smile under your face mask even if other people can’t see it, and keeping riding your bike!!!