American Criterium Cup returns with nine events in 2023

Maggie Coles-Lyster swept the sprint and overall title at 2022 American Criterium Cup (Image credit: Kai Caddy)

The American Criterium Cup (ACC) will return for its sophomore season in 2023 with nine events and an overall $100,000 series prize purse, organisers announced this week. While the number of events has been reduced, the significant change is that earning opportunities have increased, according to one of the race managers.

“The main takeaway for us was that [the significance] was not going to change even with a reduction in the number of events, the purse is going to remain at $100k,” Mike Weiss, one of three managers for the the ACC explained to Cyclingnews.

“The reality is being part of the ACC means you have a minimum of $50,000 split equally amongst the genders, the prize purse is a constant. Even though we’ve reduced the number of events, we’re going to have an overall payout of $100,000. Some promoters are doing more at their races, those totals over $135,000,” Weiss, who is the director of member-event Bommarito Audi Gateway Cup, explained to Cyclingnews.

Combined with cash prizes available to the men’s and women’s fields at individual races in the series, individual riders and teams could expect to compete for $400,000 in the one-day criterium events next year, according to the ACC. Each participating race must provide a combined minimum of a $15,000 prize purse for its pro races, which is paid separately from the series. ACC champions are awarded across multiple designations across men’s and women’s individual winners (sprint and overall), men’s and omen’s Teams and men’s and women’s U23 riders.

“Right now there’s nine solid events. We don't have a magic number. If it emerges that there’s an American event that has an interest in the American Criterium Cup, and willing to meet the criteria we’ve developed, we’re definitely going to have those conversations,” Weiss said about adding one, or more, additional races to the calendar. “It’s likely just going to be nine events. We still have 60 to 90 days to kind of bake our cookies.”

Absent from the calendar are a pair of New York races, the MVP Health Care Rochester Twilight and the Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic. Last year the Rochester event was the only race to be cancelled for the pro men, as inclement weather halted riders after a few laps. ACC managers noted that the Rochester event “isn’t happening in ‘23” while there was no mention about the Harlem race being added at a later date.

Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. She has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast). Her favorite road and gravel rides are around horse farms in north Georgia (USA) and around lavender fields in Provence (France), and some mtb rides in Park City, Utah (USA).