Due to the state of the pandemic across the country, USA Cycling has continually worked to adjust schedules and race formats in order to hold the remaining 2020 National Championships. Despite that, safety concerns and other challenges require changes to the remainder of the 2020 National Championship schedule.
USA Cycling has received notice from our Marathon Mountain Bike Nationals venue, Palo Duro Canyon State Park, that they are restricting the number of special event attendees due to the rise in COVID-19 cases. With the typical number of participants, we see for this event, we will not be able to comply with the updated regulations. When considering this restriction along with other safety concerns, we have no choice other than to cancel Marathon Mountain Bike Nationals for this year.
USA Cycling’s 2020 Cyclocross Nationals were due to take place in DuPage County, Illinois. The state of Illinois has made the decision to heavily restrict events as part of their reopening plan, resulting in the cancellation of events such as the Chicago Cross Cup. Due to these restrictions, we will not be able to hold Cyclocross Nationals in DuPage County. With the support of DuPage County and Cantigny Park, we have been working to secure another venue for this year’s Nationals.
“With the popularity of cycling and cyclocross in Chicago and surrounding areas, we believe this event will be one of the largest cyclocross national championships for USA Cycling, both in terms of competitors and spectators. Taking that into account, and our current environment here in Illinois, we feel the most responsible action is to postpone hosting the event until 2021.” said DuPage CVB Executive Director Beth Marchetti.
USA Cycling and Think Iowa City are excited to announce that Iowa City, IA will be host to this year’s Cyclocross National Championships to be held at the Johnson County Fairgrounds, home of Jingle Cross.
“We are excited for the opportunity to host the 2020 Cyclocross National Championships.” said Josh Schamberger, president of Think Iowa City and co-organizer of the recent Telenet UCI Cyclocross World Cups. “The CX community knows us well so we are thankful for this opportunity. We also very clearly know what our community, state and world is facing with the COVID-19 pandemic. To that end, we have already begun aligning local/state medical officials”.
The event date remains the same, with minor schedule changes. Based on the developing changes to the CX calendar in the US, USA Cycling will also modify qualification standards for elite racers. The adjusted qualification standards may be viewed here. Full eligibility, rules, and call up information and schedule for all categories will be available on August 15.
While hopeful that Cyclocross Nationals can take place in its new location, safety considerations will ultimately dictate whether the event takes place. As usual, during this time, we will not open registration until we are certain the event will take place. We will continue to update you on the situation as it develops.
