Pan-American Cyclocross Championships

The Pan-American Cyclocross Championships are the continental title races in cyclocross for the Americas, held on one day in early November. Elite, under-23, junior and masters riders race for the titles. Since 2025 the championships have been held on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C., on the same weekend and course as the DCCX race; earlier hosts were Covington in Kentucky, Midland in Ontario, Garland in Texas, Falmouth in Massachusetts and Missoula in Montana.

The first continental cyclocross title outside Europe

The first Pan-American championships were held in 2014 at Devou Park in Covington, Kentucky, on the last of the three days of the Cincy3 Cyclocross Festival. The course was hilly and technical, with off-camber sections, short run-ups and a steep descent that the announcers named the Pan-Am Plunge. Katie Compton had mechanical trouble in the races of the two days before. On the Sunday she went to the front on the second lap, only Georgia Gould could follow her, and she won the first continental cyclocross championship held outside Europe.

Four Pan-American titles each for Katie Compton and Eric Brunner

Nobody but Compton won the elite women’s title until 2018. That year in Midland, Ontario, Maghalie Rochette rode alone to the win after Ellen Noble slipped up on the next-to-last lap, and became the first Canadian champion. Rochette kept the title in 2019. The men’s race of 2018 ended in a sprint between two riders, which Curtis White of the United States won from Michael van den Ham of Canada.

Eric Brunner then won four men’s titles in a row: in Garland, Texas, in 2021, in Falmouth, Massachusetts, in 2022 and twice in Missoula, Montana. In 2025 Andrew Strohmeyer, the United States champion, dropped him with three laps to go and won by 52 seconds. The women’s race that day went to Lizzy Gunsalus, who beat Rochette in a sprint between the two of them.

A cyclocross course at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington

In 2025 the championships moved to Washington, D.C., to the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home. Veterans have lived there since 1851, and President Lincoln’s summer cottage stands on the site. The lap is about 3.3 kilometers long and mixes pavement, brick, grass, gravel and hills, with a man-made barrier and a set of stairs. The titles are raced on the Saturday; on the Sunday the same course is used for the DCCX race.