• » Enjoy the latest Leland Kermesse poetry. Online registration opens Monday.
• » Registration is open for the Tour of America’s Dairyland. Ten-race passes run $270, or $414 for the 11 P/1/2 races. Individual races are $30-$50 each.
• » The Illinois Cycling Association is having a leadership conference for clubs and promoters March 7.
• » The Allvoi Cup track series is set to announce dates of July 23-25.
• » Kristen Meshberg (Flatlandia) has already started racing and has a new blog with all the details.

USA Cycling announced today that its national criterium championship, previously a fixture in Downers Grove, will move to Glencoe in 2010.

Downers Grove has hosted the national championships on a popular figure-eight course since 1991, but the race’s demise has been speculated ever since the village council pulled $37,000 in funding in December.

Special Events Management will continue to manage the race, set for Saturday, Aug. 14.

This is a major coup for promoter Jon Knouse and his Glencoe Grand Prix, which in only three years has built a reputation for a well-run and well-funded operation.

“Once I saw Downers Grove decided not to renew,” Knouse said, “I called (ICA president and SEM event manageer) Steve Hansen and said: ‘We can help you. At least for this year, I know we can offer a great alternative and on short notice.’ SEM agreed, and we approached USA Cycling and they agreed.”

I’m looking to confirm details, but I’m told that the course will be altered

— no more Amen Corner, but a hill will be incorporated —

and racing will be limited to one day, meaning less amateur racing and no more twilight pro-am.

“This was really a lightning-in-the-bottle scenario,” Knouse said, “and we are totally grateful to SEM management and USA Cycling for having faith in us. We plan to deliver in spades.”

USA Cycling had previously announced the relocation of women’s and men’s elite national championships, which this year will take place in Bend, Ore., but Knouse says the Glencoe schedule will include a 1/2 race and a “big women’s pro race.”

Also of note: ABD this week announced that the Winfiled criterium weekend

— a fun, climber-friendly twilight crit on Saturday, ABR national championships on Sunday —

is returning to August on Aug. 21-22. That makes two consecutive weekends of big racing, and it means Winfield no longer conflicts with the popular Spring Prairie Road Race in Wisconsin.

• » Registration is open and brisk for Half Acre Cycling’s Gapers Block Criterium Series, this year with two men’s heats and a women’s Cat 3 race. In conjunction with the series, Half Acre has organized a women’s beginner road clinic.
• » While you are thinking about Half Acre Cycling and the great things it does for the community, send good vibes to Audrey Thibeau, who recently underwent surgery for a brain tumor.
• » The women’s Cat 4 field has sold out at Hillsboro-Roubaix, but a wait list is available. Just 35 spots remain in the Cat 3 field.
• » Local racer and former Olympian John Coyle (Wolverine) is on NBC’s production crew in Vancouver. He’s sharing some stories at his blog, including this striking tale of the torch. (Read to the bottom.)
• » Why it costs over $10,000 to put on an industrial park crit.
• » An interesting range of tests is available at the UIC Human Performance Lab.
• » USA Cycling has made available a free “My First Bike Race” online seminar.

• » Some new info for the April 17 Leland Kermesse. Longer laps, more gravel. Online registration opens March 1.
• » Good news for women: The Tour of America’s Dairyland has added a 3/4 field for you.
• » Hmm. USA Cycling now lists location for the national criterium championships as “TBD.”
• » The Illinois Cycling Association meets Satruday in Lisle.
• » Vision Quest is holding an indoor time trial in Highland Park on March 6, joining ABD’s indoor trials in the Mid America Time Trial Series.

• » Anyone who has raced an ABR race in Indiana has probably experienced the effusive hospitality of promoters Dan and Joanne Daly. It was heartbreaking, then, to learn that Joanne was killed in August in a freak traffic accident. Dan will honor his wife when his season starts April 17 with the Ceraland Joanne W. Daly Memorial Circuit Race.
• » The South Chicago Wheelmen have announced a March 28 criterium at the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet. Registration is open.  This race and Burnham Racing’s Spring Super Criterium will constitute COUGAR: Chicagoland Omnium Using Great Area Raceways, with to-be-determined cash prizes to be awarded to riders who place well both days. (Appropriately enough, both COUGAR races have women and juniors racing at the same time.)
• » Just in time for the spring races, Half Acre Cycling has organized a women’s racing clinic, with instruction from ace cyclists Kristen Meshberg and Leah Sanda of Flatlandia.
• » Wisconsin increases its masters ages to 35 and 45.
• » There’s a good lineup planned for Saturday’s Bike Winter Swap Meet and Urban Bicycle Expo.

Have your credit cards handy: Hillsboro-Roubaix and Spring Super Criterium registration opens in less than 30 minutes.

With local race support in jeopardy elsewhere, it’s more important than ever to be good guests wherever we race. When you register for Hillsboro-Roubaix, consider a small donation to the Montgomery County Cancer Association, which will be providing much-needed marshaling on the sprawling course. Also to note this year: Hillsboro’s Orpheum Theatre will be showing the classic documenary “A Sunday in Hell” Friday night. Popcorn and soda are included in the $7 ticket. Sounds like a more enjoyable way to pass the evening than hanging out at the Litchfield Ruby Tuesday.

Update: It’s 8:08 a.m. and the Cat 5’s have filled. Congrats to masters cyclocross state champion Eric Sondag (Pony Shop) for being the last to slide in.

Update: It’s 8:48 a.m. and the 4’s are 80 percent full.

Update: It’s 10:15 a.m. and that’s that for the 4’s. Daniel Pollard (Spider Monkey Cycling) was DFL.

The 3’s field is almost half full. I expect it to approach capacity by race day.

Wait lists are available, and older punishment gluttons can throw in their lot with the open-category masters slugfests.

Keep in mind also that the Leland Kermesse takes place the following Saturday. This should provide a similar quasi-classic experience and is closer to the city. Plus, it’s USAC this year. (I do not know whether online registration will be an option.)