Candy Stripe Classic in Bloomington Kicks Off the 2025 Road Racing Season

By Abner Miralda

​“There will be a lot of competition and a lot of people that really want to race.” -Bailey Wilson, President of the IUCC

The Candy Stripe Classic hosted by the Indiana University Cycling Club (IUCC) kicks off the 2025 Mid-West Collegiate Cycling Conference and the Indiana Kentucky road season on March 8th-9th with a full omnium weekend featuring an Individual Time Trial, Road Race, and Criterium in Bloomington, Indiana. 

“I think with this being one of the first races of the year it’s a great opportunity to come out and dust off the cobwebs,” said Bailey Wilson, president of the Indiana Univeristy Cycling Club. “...use this as a little rust-buster race with plenty of people and plenty of competition.”

This year’s race features both collegiate racing in its standard format of A,B,C,D men’s and women’s categories and non-collegiate men’s and women’s racing in the Pro/1/2/3/4/5 categories. 

In the last couple of editions, the event was held only for collegiate athletes, but the addition of a crit has encouraged the IUCC to open the event to all local racers. This has had the effect of swelling the event to over three-hundred pre-registered participants at the time of writing with four days to go before pre-registration closes on Thursday, March 6th. 

“There will be a lot of competition and a lot of people that really want to race. The men's 4/5 and Collegiate D field hit max capacity [on Monday],” said Wilson. “We're right at seventy-five for that field, but all the other races still have some availability left if any domestic racers want to come race.” 

If the registration trends hold, this would make the Candy Stripe Classic one of the largest road race weekends in the region. 

Both the Time Trial and the Road Race will be held at the Monroe State Forest, a scenic rural area neighboring Bloomington that features quiet roads and rolling terrain. The Time Trial will be an out-and-back with a gentle elevation profile, whereas the Road Race will prominently feature Bean Blossom Hill. The climb’s profile tops out at nearly 14% and will likely be the race-deciding feature of the 14-mile lap of the parcours. 

“[The IUCC] held a practice race out there last week and going up Bean Blossom was pretty tough, but it is scenic and really cool throughout,” said Wilson. 

The criterium on Sunday will be at the heart of the IU athletics complex, at the foot of Assembly Hall and Memorial Stadium. Wilson promises the 1km parcours of the crit won’t be pan-flat either, which is a break from traditional crit courses. 

Overall the weekend in southern Indiana will be a break from the stereotype that Indiana is flat and boring, which is proving already to be a huge draw for racers.

“I don't think it's that often in Indiana that you're able to get a road race course that has a lot of [elevation], so I'm excited that people are getting to come down and experience that. Also this is already one of the biggest turn outs that we've had for this race. I'd love to see as many people as we can get to come down and just race some bikes.” 

Information and registration for the Candy Stripe Classic can be found at https://www.bikereg.com/candy-stripe-classic25