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 ChicagoCrossCup@gmail.com 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!