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!).
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.
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! 💪
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 twoSpecialized 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:
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.
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 Saturdayafternoon! 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 fromTailwind 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.
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
A great and surprisingly warm day of racing at Quarry Cross at The Forge. Thanks to EMC2 / Elmhurst Masters and the DuPage Cycling Foundation for hosting another fun event. Links to all Results are here.
This week the CCC takes a quick break for Thanksgiving. We hope everyone has a great holiday and gets to spend it with family and friends.
For those looking for a little extra racing, the USA Cycling National CX Championships are the week after Montrose (12/12 – 12/15) in Louisville, KY. Good luck to everyone racing at CX Nats!
And finally… the CCC will hold our end of season Awards Party on Saturday 1/11/2025 at Specialized Fulton Market. We’ll award the series overall jerseys provided by Pactimo, the coveted personalized cowbells, and raffle off not one but twoSpecialized Crux framesets provided by Specialized Chicago as well as tons of other prizes. The event is free to attend but you must purchase your “random drawing” tickets between now and the close of the drawing on BikeReg in order to win any prizes. We look forward to seeing you all there!
Saturday, November 23rd: Open Practice 10am-4pm. The course will be fully set up. A great chance to familiarize yourself and practice the unique features.
The Forge Zip Line Park will be open for normal operations. The Kids Adventure Zone adjacent to the race is $20 for an all-day pass.
Team tents Due to landscaping, last years’ reserved space is no longer available. Team tent space is very limited. However, The Forge has three huge permanent tents that can host up to 500 people. If there is one race to not haul your team tent to, this will be the one.
Directions: Please use 227 Heritage Quarries Drive in your GPS. Follow signs from there to the main parking lots. Please obey the 10mph speed limit on the mile plus drive in.
Parking: There is plenty of parking, please park in designated lots and do not block entry/exit roadways.
No vehicles are allowed to drive across the bridge. This is per the The Forge’s insurance policy. Also, please do not ride bikes on the fenced-in, re-seeded areas in front of the main stage. Let’s not jeopardize our welcome at this great venue.
Prizes: – All podium finishers will receive park vouchers compliments of The Forge. – Age Group and Category Winners will receive THE GOLDEN CROWN OF CHAMPIONS provided by Walden Florist of Downers Grove. – Juniors that make it to the Candy Podium will receive Thanksgiving Swag.
The winner of the Cat 5 race will win the second annual Golden Turkey Trophy sponsored by Honey Acre Woods.
All racers 21 and older will receive a ticket for a free beer provided by Pollyanna Brewing of Lemont. The tap is in The Foundry on site, where you can also find The Creamery where they sell concessions.
Food: Big Ed’s Shed BBQ & Grilling of Lemont. Award winning Texas Chili and Vegetarian Black Bean and Corn Chili.
Tacomotora of Chicago. The best Mexican Tacos. “Full Stop!”.
Racers will have access to a hospitality tent for stretching/massage before or after races courtesy of Rehabit Concierge Physical Therapy
The noon local event is a Adaptive Cycling Demonstration Race, in cooperation with The Shirley Ryan Ability Lab. If you pre-ride at this time, remember these riders have the right-away!
The Course: Runs counter clockwise. The course has developed, for the better. Gone are the the gravel turns and haybales! Every elevated wood feature has a optional bypass line. If the boards are deemed too slick, the “B” line will be the only option. The pit is accessible twice per lap. – The Runway = a long gravel start – The Bedrock Pond = a long off camber challenge – The Range = a series of turns on loose mulch – NEW BELGIAN STAIRS RUN-UP – The Arena + tree slalom. – The North Shore = A & B line singletrack choices ending with three wood plank banked turns. – The FINISH is now on a long straightaway.
Next up, the weather is getting colder and we head SW of Chicago to Lemont for Quarry Cross at The Forge is hosted by EMC2 / Elmhurst Masters and the DuPage Cycling Foundation. This is the second year at this venue and the EMC2 gang have made a bunch of improvements to the course. More details on Thursday at the regular time but just a heads up there will be an Open Practice on Saturday from 10am-4pm. The course will be fully set up and a great chance to familiarize yourself with the unique features of this course.
And finally… we’ve received quite a few emails recently about Lost & Found items. This seems to happen every season around this time when the weather starts to turn and it’s dark at the end of the day. Please make an effort to remember to take all your gear with you. But just in case you leave something behind please leave a comment in either the Course Preview post or the Tuesday update post, or both. There is a box of Lost & Found that gets loaded into the CCC equipment trailer each week, but the series cannot be responsible for everyone’s gear. Stay warm, race hard, have fun. Thanks
Please park in the North Parking lot east of the course to be closest to registration and the start. Please do not park in the lot adjacent to the Community Center to keep spaces open for folks heading indoors. All are welcome in the building where you’ll find additional rest rooms and hot showers, but please leave your bicycles outside.
The Cart will be put before the course once again with Mario’s Cartproviding midday Mexican food.
Lots of open grass and paved pathway for warming up, but as always, be mindful of pedestrians and other patrons of the park. Please refrain from riding on the playground surface and don’t set up tents in the pavilion grass due to underground electrical.
No drones are allowed to take flight within the park due to the proximity of the Chicago Executive Airport. PWK for those of you booking last minute arrivals.
Staging is in the northeast corner nearest the North Parking lot access road.
The course runs clockwise. Flat at the start and finish, but in between you’ll ride the camber along the pool embankment until you hit the course elevation; enjoy the views of the lake and surrounding area from the top before heading back. The two-way pit is just east of the aquatic center. It ain’t midway ’round so don’t get a mechanical in the techy sections. Get it ’em somewhere in the easy part near tent city. We’re toying with the idea of an A/B line option on the far side of the course. Opt for A longer unobstructed route that may or may not be rideable or a shorter Barriered route that may or may not be rideable. Be choosey (if it happens).
