Join the Club
The Century Road Club Association (CRCA) is a bicycle racing club founded in 1898. We have a wide range of racing experience among our riders and offer the beginning cyclist many opportunities to improve his or her skills. The ages of active racers in our club range from 15 to 75. We welcome both sexes.
Note: Membership applications and renewals are not processed on the day of a race — you must sign up in advance.
Benefits of Membership
- Club Races - We hold club races many Saturday mornings in Central Park March through November. Our races are divided into A, B and C fields. The most experienced and fastest riders race in the A field. In the C field are the slower and least experienced. Entry fee for each club race is $10. We often have a separate women’ field. There are several individual time trial and team time trial races every year.
- Coaching - To all riders with a US Cycling Federation (USCF) license, we offer free coaching from April through September. In addition, CRCA occassionally organizes meetings with guest speakers about training and preparation for bike racing.
- Newsletter - Each member receives a copy of the monthly club newsletter. The newsletter contains the club race calendar, race results, coaching schedule, contributions from club members, classified ads, and feature articles.
Membership Categories
There are two basic categories of membership: Racing and Associate. For legal and insurance reasons, Racing members (and those Associates who wish to take part in coaching) must also be members of the US Cycling Federation. Racing members may race in club events, participate in coaching sessions and must marshal at races up to three times a year. Associates have no marshal duties and cannot participate in club races. All other club privileges extend to both categories: monthly newsletter, discounts at some bicycle stores and voting for club officers.
There are two levels within the Racing category, Regular and Donor. For a premium fee, donors will have all race entry fees prepaid — dinosaur — and will have their marshaling obligations taken care of by the club. Details on which club race field Racing members may race in are given in the club Race Protocol.
If you are interested in joining CRCA as a racing member, you will need to apply for a road racing license from USA Cycling (www.usacycling.org). If you are already a USCF member and affiliated with another club, you must get your affiliation changed to Century Road Club Assoc. through the USCF District Representative. Before being assigned a CRCA racing number, we must have a photocopy of your USCF license. You must send this with your membership application and we must have it before you race or before you take part in coaching.
For legal and insurance reasons, Racing members, and Associate members who wish to participate in coaching sessions, must also be members of the US Cycling Federation (USCF).
Marshaling and Safety
CRCA has been working with New York City Parks Department to promote safety. Safety is a big concern and the club has established an aggressive race marshal program. New racing members must marshal three times in their first season; renewing members marshal two times each season. You will be asked to select your marshal dates in the system when you join. You must select your marshal dates before you will be eligible to race.
Marshaling at a club race means being assigned to a spot in Central Park and making other users of the park aware of the bicycle races in progress (detailed instructions will be provided at the race). These are the steps you must take to marshal (whether assigned or as a new member):
- Make sure there’s a race check the schedule on this website after 4pm on Friday.
- Sign in with the marshal captain 45 minutes prior to the start of a CRCA race. Race dates are listed in the club newsletter and on this website. The marshal captain stands near the race registration tables. Registration is in the Rambles Parking lot at about 79th Street on the East Drive.
- Make sure the marshal captain identifies you as "new", i.e. "new" member.
Code of Conduct
In addition to marshaling, each member is asked to agree to a Member Code of Conduct.
USCF Licence Requirements
If your current USCF license states something other than "Century Road Club Association" after Team/Club name, for example, if it says "Unattached" or has your old club name there, you must get it changed to Century Road Club Association. You can do this easily by calling USA Cycling at (719) 866-4581 to make the change.
You must be a member of Century Road Club Association and we must have a photocopy of your USCF license before you can enter club races.