USA Crits organisers amplified the attain for his or her one-day US race collection by including three occasions to their 2025 lineup, now 9 races in 5 states. The collection, in a sixteenth season, focuses on established occasions within the south-east with a points-based calendar compressed into seven weeks.
For the primary time in seven editions, the gathering of races expands past the south-east with the inaugural Aksarben Tirc (Crit Nebraska) in Omaha, Nebraska serving because the penultimate cease on May 17, one week earlier than the finals on the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic (WSCC) in North Carolina.
The final time the collection had such an expansive group of races throughout the US was 2016 when there have been 10 races in 8 states. It is the primary time a race in Nebraska has been a part of the collection as nicely, USA Crits having been as far west as Vancouver, British Columbia when the Gastown Grand Prix was a part of the combo in 2014 and 2015.
The Sunny King Criterium serves because the kick-off occasion for a second consecutive 12 months, happening on Saturday, April 5 for its twenty third version in downtown Anniston, Alabama. Other returning occasions embody three in Georgia – Rock&Road Criterium, Athens Orthopedic Clinic Twilight, LaGrange Cycling Classic – and Spartanburg Criterium in South Carolina. Two occasions within the Spin the District assortment of races in communities south of Atlanta at the moment are a part of USA Crits, races in Hapeville and College Park.
A conflict with a brand new calendar place for the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships, May 20-24, might hinder athletes from electing to journey to Winston-Salem for the USA CRITS finale on May 24. Previously, the collection wrapped weekends of racing across the US Pro Criterium Championships, which had been on Friday night. This 12 months the US Pro criterium races are on a Thursday, two days and 360 miles away from the USA CRITS finale.
“Racers do have the flexibility to race the Criterium National Championships and attend different occasions of Memorial Day weekend, however in fact [it would be better] if on separate weekends. There are already a plethora of nice occasions historically held on the vacation weekend, together with Tour of Somerville [May 26],” mentioned Gene Dixon, founding father of USA CRITS and proprietor of Swagger LLC which produces the collection and Athens Twilight, who offered perception to Cyclingnews.
“In 2024 the Winston-Salem occasion moved again to Memorial Day the place it had been for a few years. Local scheduling conflicts stop a transfer to another date near that weekend. The closeness of Winston-Salem to Charleston does permit for attending each, although not very best.”
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Alexis Magner and Alfredo Rodriguez dominated the elite races for 2025 ladies’s and males’s titles. Magner, who strikes from L39ION of Los Angeles to Cynisca Cycling this season, received 4 of six races whereas Rodriguez earned a pair of wins and two different podiums to steer REIGN Storm Racing to the person and workforce prime rankings.
Swagger LLC additionally places collectively Speed Week, a extra compressed racing collection targeted in Georgia and South Carolina, nicknamed ‘crit camp’ by many groups. As in earlier years, the eight races that comprise Speed Week are tightly grouped geographically and ramp up the motion for an 11-day span. The 4 races in Athens, Spartanburg, LaGrange and College Park present factors for each collection.
Last 12 months a base prize purse of $200,000 was shared equally among the many males’s and girls’s elite riders in USA Crits, which included particular person race payouts and a collection bonus for the highest 10 elite males, elite ladies and groups. Organisers haven’t but confirmed the money prizes for 2025 to Cyclingnews, however did verify a key issue for groups will probably be dwell streaming for all 9 races.
“We are desperate to showcase the brand new Omaha course in our schedule of USA CRITS races this 12 months, all of which will probably be live-streamed in 2025,” famous Marilyn Cullinane, who can be the race director of the kick-off occasion in Anniston.
Cullinane returns to the organising employees of USA Crits because the livestream manufacturing supervisor and named Thad Fischer, former director of the UCI BMX World Championships and workforce director of the Cheerwine ladies’s professional workforce, as director of workforce engagement.
USA Crits 2025 schedule
- April 5 – Sunny King Criterium in Anniston, Alabama
- April 11 – Spin the District: Hapeville Criterium in Hapeville, Georgia
- April 12 – Rock&Road Criterium p/b 75 Jackson Properties in Newnan, Georgia
- April 26 – *Athens Orthopedic Clinic Twilight p/b St. Mary’s Health Care System in Athens, Georgia
- May 2 – * Spartanburg Criterium p/b Gibbs Cancer Center & Spartanburg Medical Center, Spartanburg, South Carolina
- May 3 – *LaGrange Cycling Classic in LaGrange, Georgia
- May 4 – *Spin the District: College Park Criterium in College Park, Georgia
- May 17 – Aksarben Tirc (Crit Nebraska) in Omaha, Nebraska
- May 24 – Winston-Salem Cycling Classic in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
- * denotes races in each USA Crits and Speed Week
Speed Week 2025 schedule
- April 24 – Greenville Cycling Classic p/b Prisma Health in Greenville, South Carolina
- April 26 – Athens Orthopedic Clinic Twilight p/b St. Mary’s Health Care System in Athens, Georgia
- April 27 – Curiosity Lab Criterium in Peachtree Corners, Georgia
- April 29 – Spin the District: Union City in Union City, Georgia
- April 30 – Hi Line Criterium in Suwanee, Georgia
- May 2 – Spartanburg Criterium p/b Gibbs Cancer Center & Spartanburg Medical Center, Spartanburg, South Carolina
- May 3 – LaGrange Cycling Classic in LaGrange, Georgia
- May 4 – Spin the District: College Park in College Park, Georgia