By Luke Seemann

Scarletfire Racing and Wild Card Cycling are bringing at least one criterium to Champaign in July.

The city has approved a flat, four-corner course for Saturday, July 11. It's a downtown route last used in 1999 but will now be run clockwise. The event will coincide with a street festival featuring beer gardens and live music. The teams are working to secure a criterium on that Sunday as well. It would be located near Assembly Hall and feature some elevation change, plus more live music. "Riding around the course, it feels like it's uphill almost all the way," says Mark Swartzendruber (Scarletfire Racing). "It's a beautiful development and definitely not an industrial park crit. Real curbs and stuff on the streets." This competes with the first weekend of Superweek, but Swartzendruber says he expects to draw riders from Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky and Downstate. Swartzendruber also says he hopes to deliver bigger purses across the board. Depending on sponsorship, P/1/2 purses would be between $2,500 and $5,000 and Cat 3's between $900 and $1,200. (Superweek's 2008 purses were $2,800 and $900 respectively.)