To our community,
I hope you are all doing well. I’m writing to make the official unfortunate announcement that the ACCC will not be holding fall cycling events. This will include mtb and cx. While this may not be surprising, I know this is disappointing news to most of you. Please trust this decision was not made lightly. As you all are aware, the institutions that make up our conference have responded to the pandemic with myriad approaches for the fall semester including not inviting the whole student body back to campus, travel restrictions, ending the semester by Thanksgiving, etc. The several states making up our conference have also responded differently regarding group size and travel restrictions. Furthermore, coronavirus cases continue to rise in our region, most prominently in the state of North Carolina at this moment following reopening, and we do not foresee this changing with the opening of educational institutions. We have come to the conclusion that it would not be possible to hold mtb or cyclocross season in a way that is safe or fair to all our schools in different states. So far, the WCCC has also announced cancellation of fall events, and we suspect other conferences to follow suit shortly.
While our purpose as a board is to foster collegiate cycling through competitive events, more importantly, we value the holistic collegiate cycling experience. We feel it is within the best interest of our community to spend the fall season on the latter and support our athletes wherever they are physically and mentally during this time.
Regarding collegiate nationals- USAC has not yet made a final decision regarding coll mtb or cx nats. They are tuning in to the state of individual conferences and are aware that the current dates of collegiate nationals, especially mtb, are set at a time when cases are predicted to be spiking from student-student interaction, regardless of social distancing guidelines in the classroom and in dorms. We can assure you that if these events occur, we will support our student athletes in distributing allocations based on domestic results in this season (if those are even held).
Stay tuned for some fun opportunities to foster competition between schools such as strava challenges, virtual races, etc.
As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns.
Best,Laura Ann Leaton, ACCC Board PresidentKyle Helson, ACCC Conference Director
