Donations received go to support the annual Criterium held on Memorial Day. Money received goes to pay for rider awards, equipment rentals, facilities rental, and security.History of the Criterium: The history of the Quad Cities Criterium is interwoven with the Quad Cities Bicycle Club, especially in the early years. The seeds of the Quad Cities Bicycle Club were actually sown on a snowy November night in 1963, when three avid cyclists hatched the idea. Fred Blessin, an American; Rene DeLanghe, a Belgian; and John Hood Sr., an Englishman, sat around the DeLanghe kitchen table and conceived of a club to provide local citizens a vehicle for pursuit of widely varied bicycling interests. In September of that very first year, a race was held in East Moline, which drew more than 40 participants and an estimated crowd of nearly 3000 spectators. The race was called "The Kermess", Belgian for 'around the house', and although the name would prove to be temporary, the criterium in East Moline would eventually spawn into one of the club's biggest, on going successes in neighboring towns of Moline, Rock Island and now the Village of East Davenport.