The final USA Crits podium(Image credit: Matt James)
Team SmartStop-Mountain Khakis again won the USA CRITS team title.(Image credit: Dejan Smaic / SportifImages)
CRCA / Foundation rider Rafeal Meran works on Saturday night as a member of the winning break. Meran ended up placing ninth on the evening at the 2014 USA CRITS Iron Hill Twilight Criterium(Image credit: David Gill)
The pro women race along the tree-lined finish straight on Saturday at the USA CRITS Iron Hill Twilight Criterium held in West hester, Pennsylvania(Image credit: David Gill)
The men's peloton in action during the USA Crits finale at the Tour of Vail.(Image credit: Dejan Smaic / SportifImages)
USA Crits will return in 2019 with three new events to bolster the season-long US criterium series.
Next year's USA Crits Series will feature the new Birmingham HammerFest, a preseason event in Birmingham, Alabama. The series-proper will open with the inaugural Destination El Paso Criterium in Texas, and the Salt Lake Criterium joins the Series as another new event. The Saint Francis Tulsa Tough's Blue Dome criterium in Oklahoma will also return after a several-year hiatus.
Organisers have invited 24 of America’s elite men’s and women’s teams to participate in the seires, which will focus on the participating "D1" programs that will be announced on January 17.
“It is exciting to see three brand-new events join the Series for 2019,” said Scott Morris, USA Crits director of development. "We started 2018 with a goal of creating a more sustainable model for American road cycling and made great progress in that effort. We streamed more races than had ever been done in America. We saw an 11 per cent participation increase in our events and created a new platform to allow a broader audience to engage the sport."
The Series will continue to focus on a more team-oriented model in 2019, according to organisers, who say there will be a priority on supporting the growth of more teams racing a national calendar through travel stipends, entries and increased support from events for the D1 teams. There will also be expanded coverage of both teams and events via all media formats.
All USA Crits Series events will be live streamed on USACRITS.tv. Not only will subscribing fans have access to the event streams, but video-on-demand content will include D1 team and rider profiles, race recap, and full-length archived series races.
Returning to support the Series for 2019 is Bikereg.com, the official registration and results partner, as well as Specialized and Colavita. New industry sponsors include Jakroo, Feedback Sports and DeFeet. Other Series sponsors will be released in January.
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2019 USA Crits Series Calendar
March 16 - Preseason - Birmingham HammerFest - Birmingham, Alabama March 30 - Race #1 - Destination El Paso Criterium - El Paso, Texas April 27 - Race #2 - AOC Twilight Criterium - Athens, Georgia May 25 - Race #3 - Winston-Salem Criterium - Winston-Salem, North Carolina June 7 - Race #4 - Saint Francis Tulsa Tough - Blue Dome - Tulsa, Oklahoma July 13 - Race #5 - ASWB Twilight Criterium - Boise, Idaho July 20 - Race #6 - Salt Lake Criterium - Salt Lake City, Utah July 27 - Race #7 - San Rafael Sunset Criterium - San Rafael, California August 3 - Race #8 - Littleton Twilight Criterium - Littleton, Colorado August 10 - Race #9 - Benchmark Twilight Cycling Classic - West Chester, Pennsylvania September - USA Crits 2019 Finals - TBA
