Richmond, VA — The Atlantic Collegiate Cycling Conference 2015-2016 Schedule is up, and there is a ton of races to start planning for! As your clubs start to come out of the Summer haze of a long break, you’re going to have to take a long, hard look at what is coming at the ACCC for the 2015-2016 Season. Not because you have to recruit new riders, and not because you need to figure out how to get sponsors. But because a very unique convergence of cycling events is about to take place that will never happen again in your collegiate cycling career!
First, there is the UCI Road World Championships taking place from September 19-27, 2015, in Richmond, Virginia. This event runs through Virginia Commonwealth University in such a way that the campus is closed for a week during the competition. If you haven’t had the chance yet, you need to find a way to get some of your club members into Richmond, Virginia during the event just to see how these mega-races are run. There are also volunteer opportunities that are a great way to have club members learn skills few people get to learn.
2015 Opportunities
- Sep 19-27 – UCI Road World Championships
Next, after a fantastic set of Mountain Bike weekends coming up, you’ll need to get ready for the USAC Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championship, taking place on October 23-25, 2015, in Snowshoe, WV. That is right in our own ACCC backyard! Hopefully, the Conference will have prepared your team with plenty of racing opportunities leading up to the event. Even if you’re not a CAT A rider, you should find your way out to Snowshoe, West Virginia to see this event, cheer for your Conference, and maybe get into an Open Cat race (if they have them this year).
- Sep 05-06 – William & Mary
- Sep 12-13 – Mason
- Sep 19-20 – WVU
- Sep 26-27 – Rest Weekend
- Oct 03-04 – NC State
- Oct 10-11 – ASU
- Oct 17-18 – VT
- Oct 23-25 – USAC Collegiate Mountain Nationals, Snowshoe, WV
Following the Mountain Season, you will have to put on your thermals to prepare yourself for a short, but intense, Cyclocross Season! With only three weekends on the ACCC Cyclocross collegiate calendar this year, you will need to have your team ready for yet another National Championships in our own backyard! If having the Mountain Nats nearby wasn’t enough, the USAC Collegiate Cylcocross National Championships will take place on January 09-10, 2015, in Asheville, NC!
- Nov 01 – VCU
- Nov 07-08 – VT
- Nov 14-15 – NC State
- Jan 09-10 – USAC Collegiate Cylcocross Nationals, Asheville, NC
But wait, that’s not all! Just when you thought having both Mountain and Cyclocross Nats within only a few hours of our campuses, the USAC Collegiate Road National Championships returns to both the East Coast and Asheville, North Carolina in May 2016! That’s not one, not two, but THREE Collegiate National Championships within easy driving distance from our conference!
- Feb 27-28 – William & Mary
- Mar 05-06 – Duke/UNC
- Mar 12-13 – UMD/JHU
- Mar 19-20 – VT
- Mar 26-27 – Rest Week
- Apr 02-03 – WVU (conf. meeting)
- Apr 09-10 – Navy
- Apr 16-17 – ASU
- Apr 23-24 – NCSU (CONF CHAMPS)
- Apr 30 – May 01 – Rest Week
- May 06-08 – USAC Collegiate Road Nationals, Asheville, NC
So when I say that your cycling clubs are going to need to take a long, hard look at the ACCC 2015-2016 schedule, I mean that the ACCC is about the experience the cycling version of “planets aligning”. This “Nationals Convergence” happens about once in NEVER! So please, please, PLEASE make sure you plan to attend at least one of these rare opportunities. Because the next time this Nationals Convergence happens might be when YOUR kids are getting ready to go to college!
Atlantic Collegiate Cycling Conference
The Atlantic Collegiate Cycling Conference (ACCC) is a collection of cycling clubs representing colleges and universities from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. We are one of eleven conferences that make up the collegiate program of USA Cycling, the national governing body of cycling in the United States. Our athletes compete in road, mountain, and cyclocross racing throughout the academic year at the conference level with hopes of qualifying for the USA Cycling Collegiate National Championships. For more information, please check out the ACCC website.
