Brad Huff will be facing some serious competition if he intends to keep his stars-and-stripes jersey at Sunday’s USA Cycling Professional Criterium Championship in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, Illinois.

National criterium titles will also be awarded in the elite men’s and women’s categories, while various amateur events will be held over the 1.2-mile course throughout the day on Saturday.

Although it doesn’t offer prize money like this month’s earlier top-dollar races in Charlotte, North Carolina or neighboring Elk Grove, Illinois - overall prize money for all 13 races held over the weekend in Downers Grove is $42,500 - the 100km USA Cycling Professional Criterium Championship remains the crown jewel of the domestic late-season criterium swing due to its prize — the national champion’s jersey for the top American.

Like the former USPRO road championship in Philadelphia, the USA Cycling Professional Criterium Championship remains open to riders of all nationalities. Foreigners have won the event in three of the past six years. Last year the race was won by Australian Hilton Clarke (Navigators Insurance), while TIAA-CREF rider Brad Huff finished second and took the stars-and-stripes jersey, which is to be worn solely in criterium racing.

Rain is forecast for Saturday afternoon’s 50km Pro/Am Challenge, with showers expected to continue into Sunday. At an event as known for its dramatic late-race crashes as it is for its daring battles to be at the front for the final left-hand corner with 150 meters remaining, wet conditions could make this year’s criterium nationals a race of attrition, daring and luck.

Defending champions Clarke and Huff (Slipstream-Chipotle) are expected to start, as is women’s defending champion Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Verducci Breakaway Racing), a former world inline-skating champion. Last year’s elite men’s winner Kayle Leogrande now races professionally with Rock Racing, but his participation is questionable for the Professional Criterium Championship due to an injury that kept him from racing Elk Grove.

Race director Hank Zemola told VeloNews that Predictor Lotto teammates Freddie Rodriguez and Chris Horner, who raced at last weekend’s Tour of Elk Grove, are not on Sunday’s start list. Zemola added that Discovery Channel’s Tony Cruz, who won the title as an independent pro behind Canadian Gord Fraser in 1999, has stated that he will attend, although his paperwork was not in as of Thursday evening.

The team most likely to find a rider on the podium is Health Net-Maxxis, which brings top Aussies Karl Menzies and Rory Sutherland as well as 2001 national criterium champ Kirk O’Bee and Frank Pipp, winner in Charlotte on August 4 and also the winner of the 2004 elite national criterium championship. Health Net director Jeff Corbett has won the race in 2005, with Tyler Farrar, and also in 2003 with 7Up-Maxxis rider Kevin Monahan. Monahan also took the jersey in 2002, when Aussie Henk Vogels won the race outright following a major crash in the field with four laps to go.

One rider expected to be in prime position coming into the final turn is Kelly Benefits-Medifast sprinter David McCook. McCook is returning to form after spending the first half of the season out with a broken hand, evidenced by his second-place finish last weekend at Elk Grove’s stage 2 circuit race.

McCook won the national criterium champion title as an amateur in 1992, and took the jersey in 1994 when he finished second to Polish rider Kris Wiatr. In 2005 McCook finished second to 21-year-old winner Tyler Farrar by the closest of margins in a photo finish.

McCook’s team director Jonas Carney won the race four times in his career — as an amateur in 1991 and 1993, and as a pro in 1997 and 2004.

“There’s probably no more competitive criterium in the world,” said Carney. “Typically it comes down to a field sprint, but it’s not just a sprinter’s race. I’ve competed many times and know you need to have incredible fitness to last in the Midwest heat and humidity in August and against the kind of field this criterium attracts. It’s going to be a tough race but we have guys who know how to battle for position and deliver a sprinter. And this criterium will come down to position. Five laps out you need great fitness especially as the battle becomes chaotic in the closing laps.”

Among the Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast roster heading to Downers Grove Canadians Ryan Roth, Martin Gilbert who won the Pan Am Championships in May, former Canadian National Champion Dominique Perras and new sprinter Keven Lacombe; plus Jonny Sundt, Dan Bowman and Reid Mumford. Mumford, a local resident of the Chicago area, is riding on his home ground for one of the first big races since he returned from a Tibial Plateau injury earlier this year.

Carney pointed out that this year’s domestic racing has lacked the depth of sprinters seen in years past, with riders like himself and Fraser and retired, while riders like Farrar, Greg Henderson and J.J. Haedo are now racing in the ProTour. Only one rider, Carney said — Toyota-United’s Ivan Dominguez — has been dominant in field sprints this season.

“McCook is fast, but he’s been a little inconsistent lately,” Carney said. “But he’s almost always in the top five. Field sprinting is strange in this country, when you try to watch who is winning. The only guy I ever expect to see winning is Dominguez. In other sprints you’ve seen guys like Ivan Stevic or [2001 national professional criterium champion] Kirk O’Bee, who are not real field sprinters. There have been 10 guys who can win any day, maybe more. The only dominant guy is Dominguez. Dave has as good a shot as anybody. If we have a good day on Sunday we have as good a shot as anybody.”

The way Dominguez sees it there are only two outcomes for the first riders who veer into the final left-hand turn.

“You either crash and injure yourself or you win the race,” the Toyota-United sprinter said.

Dominguez makes no secret of his dislike for the final turn on the 1.2-mile figure-eight course. Riders who safely navigate their way through the sharp left-hander only have 150 meters to go to reach the finish line. Oftentimes that means being one of the top two or three riders into the final corner is key to gaining a spot on the podium.

“If you really want to win, you really have to take a chance,” Dominguez said. “I know it’s a tradition, but I don’t know why they don’t move the finish line to another part of the course. That would open it up for a finish that involves a lot more good guys. Not just the first ones through the last corner.”

Last year, Toyota-United put its efforts behind Cruz, the best American sprinter on its roster. On the 50km “warm-up” race on the same course, Dominguez won and Cruz was second. The following day, Cruz finished third after a momentary bump with Huff opened the door for Clarke to take the victory.

Clarke told Zemola, who also directs Elk Grove, that he was nursing an injury and opted to skip last week’s race in favor of resting for Downers Grove.

While Cliff-Ryan returns as defending women’s champion, all eyes will be on Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home’s Tina Pic, who has won the elite women’s race a record four times. Last year, Pic’s race ended when Laura Van Gilder’s foot slipped and ended up in Pic’s front wheel in the final 200 meters. Pic crashed spectacularly, narrowly missing a face-first landing, while Cliff-Ryan shot past Van Gilder, who momentarily struggled to remain upright. All three women return as favorites.