Cyclocross may be five months away, but organizers and promoters are working hard on the upcoming season.The MAC (Mid Atlantic Cyclocross) series has released its schedule and now includes the high-profile Whitmore’s Landscaping UCI races in the Hamptons.
MAC ADDS NEW RACES FOR 2008
May 1, 2008; Conshohocken, PA, USA: MAC Cyclocross made what may be the biggest off-season news in U.S. cyclocross this year when Series Director Mike Hebe announced that the Whitmore’s Landscaping Super Cross Cup in New York’s “The Hamptons” was joining the series at the organization’s annual meeting. The two-day Whitmore’s event is famed as the richest women’s cyclocross race in the world, and last year also drew three-time World Champion Erwin Vervecken and no fewer than five defending national champions from around the world for the Elite Men’s race. With the addition of the UCI-sanctioned Whitmore’s weekend, MAC has programmed a 10-race schedule that stretches from the tip of Long Island to Washington DC – an area roughly the same as The Netherlands and Belgium combined.
The season also sees the addition of three very successful USAC-sanctioned events – including a season opening weekend consisting of the Nittany Lion Cross in the bike mecca of Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania and Baltimore’s Charm City Cyclocross (which has drawn record-setting entries for the past two years). The season will also see the return of MAC racing to the Equestrian Facility at Maryland’s Fair Hill Natural Resource Management Area (one of the Mid-Atlantic’s premier mountain bike destinations). The new races join five of America’s best-known UCI-sanctioned races: Granogue, Wissahickon, Beacon, HPCX and the traditional MAC season finale, the Capital Cross Classic. All MAC events feature a full slate of amateur races and a Pro-Am “Elite Masters” race, in addition to the Pro/Elite Men and Women.
According to MAC Series Director Mike Hebe, “With the explosion of cross on a National level the past few years, 2008 is the right time to bring in some established events that are new to the series. With the addition of these top-notch events, the MAC is poised to be the series where the Pro’s need to race, and the Amatuers want to race. We are keeping with the grass-roots, have-a-good-time feel, that has made the MAC so popular, while offering up some of the biggest and most influential races in the United States.”
2008 MAC Cyclocross Schedule:
- September 20 Nittany Lion Cross, Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania
- September 21 Charm City Cyclocross, Baltimore Maryland
- October 18 Cyclocross at Granogue, Granogue Estate, Wilmington Delaware
- October 19 Wissahickon Cyclocross, Ludwig’s Corner Pennsylvania
- November 1 Fair Hill Cyclocross, Fair Hill Maryland (near Newark Delaware)
- November 8 Beacon Cyclocross, Bridgeton New Jersey
- November 9 HPCX Cyclocross, Jamesburg New Jersey
- November 22 Whitmore’s Landscaping Super Cross Cup Day #1, Southampton New York
- November 23 Whitmore’s Landscaping Super Cross Cup Day #2, Southampton New York
- December 7 Capital Cross Classic, Reston Virginia (near Washington DC)
For more information on the 2008 MAC cyclocross series, contact Mike Hebe at [email protected]
