2024 Early News

With the 2024 season quickly approaching we have quite a few things to go over.

Applications for the 2024 State Championships are now open. Races can put their name in the hat for selection by sending an email to ilcyclingassociation@gmail.com and including their race name, date of event, a flyer if available, and a couple of paragraphs that will be sent to all voting teams for consideration. The following championships are now open for application through Jan 27, 2024:

  • Criterium
  • Road Race
  • Mtb
  • Gravel
  • Time Trial

Voting will then take place from Jan 28 through Feb 9th. Each registered club with USA Cycling will be allowed 1 vote as a club. The board of the ICA will be allowed to vote as a “club” with a total of 2 votes (discussed and confirmed during the last open board meeting). Due to the ongoing low number of races applying we will once again forego having a State Championship Committee for 2024.

Track championships will once again be a part of the programs at the Ed Rudolph Velodrome. Refer to https://www.northbrookcyclecommittee.org/ for any pertinent information as it develops throughout the season.

We will open applications for the 2024 Cyclocross State Championship in June 2024.

Speaking of the board we have 3 board positions that are currently up for vote:

  • Treasurer: Currently held by Brenda Feehrey (South Chicago Wheelmen) who will run for the position again.
  • Vice President: Currently held by Michael Kelly (South Chicago Wheelmen) who will run for the position again.
  • Secretary: Currently held by Kevin Pietka who has stated he will continue to fill the role if no one steps up but would like to see someone new step up to take it over.

To nominate someone please send your nomination in to ilcyclingassociation@gmail.com through Jan 27, 2024. Do us all a favor and please discuss your nomination with the individual you are nominating before submitting it and save everyone some time and refrain from submitting it if that individual has no intention of filling the role. Voting will take place at the same time as the Championships voting.

All Clubs must be in currently good standing with USA Cycling and a member of the Illinois Cycling Association as their Local Association designator in order to place a vote.

Our annual Race Director Meeting will once again be held during the 2024 Chicago Winter Bike Swap. Interested parties may attend in person or virtually. Please use the following link to RSVP for the event so we are prepared. http://tinyurl.com/ICA-RD-Meeting At these meetings we usually cover upcoming changes in store for race directors in 2024, answer questions and generally share ideas and contacts, etc.

Speaking of race directing a new web series is being hosted by USA Cycling for all who are interested. Topics and dates are as follows:

  • Tuesday, January 23: CHAMPIONING USA CYCLING’S SAFE SPORT PROTOCOL AT SANCTIONED EVENTS
  • Tuesday, February 20: DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION 101
  • Tuesday, March 19: EVENT INSURANCE
  • Tuesday, April 16: STRATEGIES TO ELEVATE YOUR EVENT
  • Tuesday, September 17: STRATEGIES FOR MARKETING YOUR EVENT
  • Tuesday, October 15: STAFFING YOUR EVENT FOR SUCCESS
  • Tuesday, November 19: BUILDING ROBUST CLUB AND COLLEGIATE CYCLING PROGRAMS

More information about the series as well as registering is available at https://usacycling.org/2024-event-organizer-webinar-series

Illinois Cup is being finalized but may see as many as 7 events take part in this years series so keep your eyes open for announcements.

Illinois Cup Update – July 2019

*** The Illinois Cup is drawing to a close with the last race being the Elgin Road Race which takes place on 7/21 and is a part of the Intelligentsia Cup. Illinois Cup director Chad Briggs took a moment to sum up some of the close competition that is still going on in many of the categories. Stop out and put your best effort in or watch the competition come to a close as we celebrate the season’s efforts with final Illinois Cup Presentations at the Elgin Race in real time. ***

The Jr Boys 17-18 category features a tight race with Alex Tantasook (xXx Racing) and Sam Cummins (The Pony Shop) in a tie for first place with 50 points each. Ethan Hansen and Julian Mejia (Team Veloz), however, are also within striking distance of winning the IL Cup with 36 points each.

The Masters 40-49 category standings are very tight with 6 riders still in contention for the Cup: Jason Knauff (Burnham Racing) is in the lead with 77 points, followed closely by Jose Rodriguez (INTENT, 71 pts), Rick Schopp (INTENT, 66 pts), Mark Nowack (Franco Factory Racing, 61 pts), Nate Iden (Burnham Racing, 58 pts), and Tim Strelecki (Franco Factory Racing, 52 pts).

In the Masters 50+ category, Aaron Katin (Burnham Racing) leads Dean Abt (xXx Racing) by 22 points with 25 points up for grabs to the winner of the Denis Jurs Memorial State Championship Road Race in Elgin.

Three riders are in contention for the Women 4 Cup: Margaret McGill (105 pts) and BFF Bikes teammate Donais Deetz (85 pts) lead, but Jacqueline Wunrow (The Bike Hub) is in a close third with 84 points.

In the Women’s 1/2 Category, Katherine Isermann (PSIMET Racing) has the IL Cup sown up, but there is a battle for the other two podium spots between Francine Haas (PACT, 76 pts) and PSIMET Racing teammates Allison Schroeder (71 pts) and Leah Sanda (61 pts).

The Men’s Category 3 Cup is wide open: First and second place are currently occupied by Craig Kielbasa (75 pts) and Ryan Beeson (University of Illinois, 63 pts), but both riders have upgraded to Category 2 and are no longer eligible to earn points. That leaves the IL Cup up for grabs among three riders who are closely behind: Kurt Druffel (Waukesha Animal Hospital Cycling, 62 pts), Chase Negley (60 pts) and Dominic Lopez (xXx Racing, 56 pts).

The Men’s 1/2 Category comes down to Michael Lanyon (Burnham Racing, 88 pts) and Craig Kielbasa (72.5 pts) who upgraded from Category 3 mid-season and promptly won his first race (the Region Riot Criterium) as a Category 2 rider.

 

Early 2019 News

We are attempting to test a new process for determining State Championship venues. The process will now include 3 parts – a Committee nominated by members and selected by the board form those nominations, a vote of the board, and votes of the club/team members. We are using this process to determine the 2019 State Criterium Championship venue. As such we are opening up nominations for committee members. We will need enough nominations to allow us to fill the 5 positions.

All nominations must be from a ICA licensed member (if you have a 2019 USA Cycling License that is valid and in good standing and your listed address on that license is Illinois then you are automatically a member of the ICA) in good standing and the nominated individuals must be members also. Please submit your nominations to the ICA via email at ilcyclingassociation@gmail.com

Last year the ICA board voted to shift the terms of some of the officers in an effort to allow gradual change as new officers come on board instead of a completely new board after an election as has happened in the past. It can take a long time to find all of the logins, accounts, information, files, etc so it is easy to understand why that decision was made. What that means is that the election last year for Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice President were for 2 year terms and will be up for re-election next year. The position of President (currently held by Robert Curtis) was only a 1 year term. The At-Large position held by Chad Briggs was held over from the previous board and will join the President in being elected in off years.

This means that these two positions are now open for election. Robert and Chad have both expressed that they both would like to serve in those positions again and will run. That being said we are still holding an election and are now stating that this will be the open nomination period for the positions of President and At-Large for the ICA-Board. As above if you are a licensed member of the ICA in good standing you are free to nominate any other member in good standing to run for either position. That member must accept that nomination in order to participate in the election.

As in years before – once the nominations have been made all teams will be allowed to cast a single vote in each race – as a team.

The nomination period for both the committee for State Championships and for the election will be open until Monday 3/4/19.