Greetings, folks, and welcome to September 2021! It is hard to believe that it’s already September, and that our return to racing is just around the corner. That brings up a couple of items for consideration.
Club Renewals
If you or anyone in your club plans on racing collegiate track, mountain bike, or cyclocross, be sure to renew your club with USA Cycling. There are two forms to fill out:
If you cannot renew your club online because your club contact has either graduated or elsewise gone missing, membership@usacycling.org can help you get that sorted out.
Upgrades
Let me just start by stating that collegiate upgrades are a bit, erm, messy at the moment. That’s not to say that they can’t be processed, but the process is now taking longer than it typically has in the past. For that reason, priority will first be given to collegiate track upgrades and mountain bike upgrades. Please hold off on submitting collegiate cyclocross or road upgrade requests for the time being. Please also submit upgrade requests in a timely manner if you plan on competing at a certain event. Upgrades submitted the night before the event will be ignored, which will likely make you sad.
When you do submit your upgrade request, make sure to do so from the new license page. Please do not do so from the legacy system (for those who can still access that). If your upgrade button looks like below, your request will fall into a black hole, and will tie up your actual upgrade request, which will also make you sad.
Collegiate Track Nationals
For those unaware, collegiate track nationals are taking place in our backyard this year, at the Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis (right next to the Marian University campus). If you plan on participating, be sure to read the info posted on USA Cycling. For those who need upgrades ahead of nationals (see above), please submit them by the end of this week to ensure they are processed in time.
Mountain Bike Season
Lastly, it wouldn’t be fall in the Midwest without collegiate mountain bike season. For riders looking for one more start for nationals qualification, I am counting this weekend’s Copper Harbor Trails Fest way up in Copper Harbor, MI. Officially, our season kicks off September 18th at Lindenwood. See the mountain bike page for further details.
That pretty much covers it for now. I’ll have more updates once we move closer to mountain season, especially in regards to cyclocross (CX nationals are also slated for Wheaton, IL). As always, if you have any questions, feel free to email me at bryan.garfoot@mwccc.org. Take care, and I hope to (safely) see many of you on the trails this fall.