American Criterium Cup Season 2 Schedule Announced
Will it be enough to get teams to participate in the series as opposed to just the races?
In the race to create buzz as to what our 2023 racing season will look like, the American Criterium Cup is the first series to provide actual details into the events that will make up their competition. The ACC is coming off a successful first season of competition, which was not certain when it was announced. Following the implosion of USACRITS last year, we were left with the very real possibility that 2022 would be a season without a national series. The ACC filled that gap. We will shelve the discussion on whether we need one, and what it would look like in an ideal situation for a future article. Here is our first look at what the ACC brings in 2023.
The series will feature nine races drawn from already existing events running from May through Labor Day weekend. On the plus side, it will feature the addition of a race from the Tour of America’s Dairyland. TOAD has not announced a specific schedule of races; but the date listed suggests that it will be the technical Giro d’ Grafton course. Clearly this choice was made so as to not conflict with the U.S. Pro Criterium Championship in Knoxville on June 23.
While we are on the subject, the other dates suggest that Blue Dome from Tulsa Tough will again be a part of the series along with Lake Bluff from Intelli, Mass Ave. from Momentum Indy, and The Hill at Gateway.
Two events have been removed from 2022. The first was Rochester Twilight which last year was the smallest women’s field of the series at 28 riders. In addition, the men’s race was cancelled when a massive thunderstorm hit the area about seven laps in. According to the ACC’s Instagram, Rochester is simply not happening this year. The second race removed from the series was Harlem Skyscraper, which was the only event in 2022 which was not live streamed despite the series’ livestream guarantee.
What is nice is the grouping of races within existing race weekends/events. What we mean is that all of the events, except for two, are part of a local series. Boise and Littleton are the only standalone events, which means that at all of the other races, teams have more than one race opportunity. For example, if a team lined up for all of the races that are happening alongside an ACC race, they would have 27 other race opportunities. Admittedly, Intelli and TOAD account for 20 of those opportunities. This is a nice bounce for teams when they look to spend their limited travel budgets as they can get more bang for their buck by attending.
It certainly will be interesting to see how teams will respond, and to see if they vote with their feet by attending certain events at higher percentages than others. In 2022 there was clear fatigue as the season went along with a decline in the total team numbers attending the events, much less the number of riders that each team committed to sending.
It is also not clear how much communication took place between the series and the teams in designing this calendar. There is a heavy block of racing in July-August with four weekend’s in a row which require travel from Boise to Salt Lake City, to Chicago, and back to Littleton. That follows what is effectively only one weekend off after back-to-back weekends in Tulsa and Wisconsin. While the calendar actually says two weekends, you need to remember that TOAD is a full 11 days of racing so it will run till June 25. And if you are not at TOAD you will likely be at the U.S. Pro Criterium Championships. Either way, the only weekend actually off between Tulsa and Littleton is the Independence Day Weekend.
That is more travel away from bases of operation than an NFL or NCAA football team is probably capable of supporting. That is a big ask for teams who will need to move equipment, personnel, and riders around. Especially when you consider that the personnel and the riders are probably working jobs outside of just bike racing.
According to the ACC’s Instagram, the series will offer $400,000 in combined event and series earnings. There is no further information on how that prize money will breakdown. We do hope that there will be further press releases regarding live streaming, revenue sharing with the teams, and travel stipends or subsidies. There is also no information about any potential rule changes for the series’ sophomore season. We will clearly keep an eye out for that information.