For a third year, the American Criterium Cup will include six stops across the central and western US to determine overall individual and team champions among well-established criterium events. Races will take place from June 11 to September 5, with Saint Francis Tulsa Tough establishing the first leaderboards in Oklahoma and the finale at the Bommarito Audi West County Gateway Cup in Missouri.

The Tour of America’s Dairyland will host the second race in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 26, with the third race, the Bailey & Glasser LLP Twilight Criterium in Boise, Idaho on July 10. After the August 1 Fulton Market race with Chicago GRIT, the series swings back to the west for the Salt Lake Criterium in Utah on August 7, and then a month later, the winners will be decided in St. Louis.

The 2027 season marks the seventh for the ACC. Last year each event offered a $16,000 prize purse for pro women and pro men, with the series paying out an additional $44,000 to series winners across several classifications. Plans for any live streaming broadcasts have not been confirmed.

Skylar Schneider dominated the women’s competition this year, holding the red leader’s jersey from start to finish, while Justin Williams made it a L39ION of Los Angeles sweep in the individual rankings taking the men’s top spot. L39ION also won the team titles, the men’s team title decided on a tiebreaker against Team Cadence Cyclery p/b Waldo Racing at the final event in St. Louis.

Claudia Marcks (Pedla Racing Division) took the sprint classification across the six races by a single point over Holly Breck (L39ION of Los Angeles), while the men’s green jersey as best sprinter went to Owen Gillott (Chaney Windows and Doors Big Shark p/b Pastaria).

USA CRITS with eight races in April and May 2027

USA CRITS, the spring block of one-day races in the southeastern region of the US, will return for an 18th edition in 2027, anchored by the Athens Orthopedic Clinic Twilight in Georgia on Saturday, April 17.

Races in Greenville, Spartanburg, Suwanee and Winston Salem were expected to return following Athens, with additional events still “being nailed down” to bring the series to eight total, according to Gene Dixon, founder of USA CRITS and owner of series producer Swagger LLC.

The bulk of the calendar will focus on races across Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, the final calendar set in the coming weeks.

Dixon said the emphasis was to provide a compact 30-day window to simplify travel for riders and teams, especially those traveling from outside the US. A similar prize purse to this year is expected, totalling $200,000 for individual races and overall series classifications with equal payouts among the men’s and women’s elite riders. All USA CRITS races will provide live streaming, produced by Swagger.

Liza Ray (Kingdom Elite Racing) and Leonel Rodriguez (MC Cycling Team) won the individual titles in 2026.

Women’s races at Capital Cup, Clarendon Cup remain fixtures for Amazon Armed Forces Cycling Classic

Next year’s Amazon Armed Forces Cycling Classic, June 5-6, will introduce a UCI 1.2-level road race as part of two days of elite men’s racing and continue with back-to-back criteriums for elite women. Organisers confirmed that the equal prize purse of more than $30,000 would remain in place.

Last week Cyclingnews reported that the UCI calendar had added two new men’s races to the 2027 America Tour, Battenkill in New York on May 22 and the Amazon Armed Forces cycling Classic Capitol Cup in Washington, D.C. The long-running AFCC weekend will continue with a full schedule of USA Cycling-sanctioned criteriums, Capitol Cup on Saturday and Clarendon Cup on Sunday.

“This change reflects the vision we share with our partner Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.) for the event’s future,” said Robert Laybourn, president of Arlington Sports, Inc, and the event race director.

“Every major decision we make is guided by documented metrics and data. The event will continue to evolve and be refined as our budget and other constraints allow, pursuing changes that offer proven value to its growth, success and long-term sustainability.”

Organisers at Arlington Sports have not published a schedule yet, however, they have indicated to Cyclingnews that the men’s course will take place on a 20km (12.5-mile) circuit, the exact distance is yet to be determined. The race is expected follow directly after the early Saturday start of the Challenge Ride, where non-competitive riders have a three-hour window to complete up to five laps of the same circuit.

Then criterium events would be held on the same 1.4km course situated in front of the US Capitol building and the National Mall, showcasing the elite women as the final race in the afternoon.

Clarendon Cup events, now in a 29th year, will return to nearby Arlington, Virginia on Sunday. Last year omnium titles for the two days of racing were won by Marlies Mejías (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28/Deloitte) and Brody McDonald (Modern Adventure Pro Cycling).

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