The American Criterium Cup (ACC) will enter its second season in 2023 with nine events and $100,000 in prize money, it was announced this week. While the number of events will be reduced, the big change, according to one of the race managers, is that there will be more opportunities for prize money.

"The big takeaway for us was that even though there are fewer events, [the significance] will remain the same and the total prize purse will remain $100,000," Mike Weiss, one of the three ACC managers, explained to Cycling News.

In its first year, 10 competitions were held across the U.S., offering a total of $100,000 in support and prize money to men and women equally in individual and team categories.

The Pro Men's overall winner was Brandon Feehery (Project Echelon Racing) and the Pro Women's winner was Maggie Coles-Leister (DNA Pro Cycling). Best Buddies Racing and Colavita Factor Pro Cycling took top team honors for both men and women, respectively.

"Being part of the ACC means that at least $50,000 is split equally between the men and women, and the prize money is fixed. Even though we have reduced the number of events, we still intend to have $100,000 in prize money overall. Some of the promoters are organizing more races, and their combined total will exceed $135,000," Weiss, director of the Bommarito Audi Gateway Cup, a member event, explained to Cycling News.

According to the ACC, when combined with the prize money available for the men's and women's fields in the series' individual races, individual riders and teams will be competing for $400,000 in prize money in next year's one-day criterium event. Each participating race must have a minimum of $15,000 in pro race prize money separate from the series; ACC champions will be awarded in multiple categories, including individual male and female winners (sprint and overall), male and female teams, and male and female U23 riders.

As in its inaugural year, the Sunny King Criterium in Anniston, Alabama, will start the series on May 6, a month later than last year. The finale will be the Bonmarito Audi Gateway Cup in St. Louis, Missouri; in between the eight returning events is the 11-day Kwik Trip Tour of America's Dairyland in Wisconsin on June 17.

"There are nine events now. There is no magic number. If an American event comes along that is interested in the American Criterium Cup and wants to meet the criteria we have developed, we will definitely talk about that," Weiss said of adding one or more races to the calendar. "It's probably going to be nine events," Weiss said. We still have 60 to 90 days to bake cookies." [The MVP Healthcare Rochester Twilight and the Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic. Last year's Rochester event was the only pro men's race to be canceled after a few laps due to bad weather; the ACC manager mentioned that the Rochester event "will not happen in 23 years," but did not mention that the Harlem race would be added at a later date.

While the full schedule is not set, neither is the point system. According to Weiss, managers and ACC members are considering adjusting how points are awarded based on feedback from teams.

"We want to give players and teams an incentive to participate in this series. Until last year, the point structure rewarded finishers and was quite biased toward a few teams," Weiss said.

More details on the point structure, scoring, participation rules, and final schedule will be announced in the coming weeks. Organizers are also considering bringing back live stream coverage of all races.