Our Executive Director, Jennifer Cvar, co-founded the Indy Criterium Bicycle Festival in 2010. The annual Indy Crit takes place amidst a backdrop of food and beverage vendors, engaging exhibitors, and a full slate of crowd engagement events including children’s activities and community bike rides.
Shortly after the organization obtained its 501(c)3 designation, Indy Criterium, Inc. - our formal name - acquired another successful local bike race known as the NUVO Mass Ave Crit. The MAC - for short - was reimagined as a twilight race, playing on the natural setting of bars, restaurants, and nightlife entertainment options in the popular downtown destination. The new event added logistical challenges and new opportunities for Indy Criterium that our board and volunteers enthusiastically supported. These two events were combined into the same weekend for the first time in 2019 drawing thousands of people downtown to join in the festivities.
The inaugural Honor Major Taylor ride was also conceived in 2019 on the morning of the Indy Crit, drawing hundreds of riders to celebrate community and the legacy of Indy native Marshall “Major” Taylor.
With the 2019 event weekend being a massive success, our resident visionary, Jennifer, engaged the board in a discussion of “What’s next?” She challenged the board to dream bigger and think about how we could take the event weekend to the next level. It became apparent that we needed a roadmap - a strategic plan - that would take us to new heights. Before starting the process, we set out on a re-branding effort to name the newly expanded weekend. The outcome, Momentum Indy, encapsulates the spirit of our organization and encompasses our vision for the future of the event weekend.
In 2022, Momentum Indy joined forces with nine other events across the country to form the American Criterium Cup. The American Criterium Cup is a ten race criterium series whose purpose is to elevates the stature of criterium racing in the United States. The series is led by a group of independent criterium race organizers in collaboration with, and supported by USA Cycling, with input from professional and domestic teams and athletes.
Momentum Indy is truly a community celebration of bicycling and human powered movement!
For additional historical perspective, see this article The Indy Criterium and how it became a cause for kids (July 22, 2016).