Author: Dan Messina

Lawrence, Kansas – Revolution Racing has announced a partnership with Tricombe Skincare for the 28th running of the Spring Fling Criterium Series (permit pending).   The race is a five week, points based series held each year at Clinton State Park in Lawrence.

Revolution Racing founder and long time promoter, Jim Whittaker, is keen to get back to a normal racing schedule after two years of uncertainty, “Campground #1 has been a great early season training ground for many state, national and world champions. The smooth, fast and flat course is also great for juniors and new road cyclists. The atmosphere is family friendly and laid back since everyone is doing their first races of the season. It’s our 28th year bringing this race to the community and we are as excited as ever!“

While Tricombe Skincare is no stranger to the cycling community, this is their first time as a headlining race sponsor. According to co-founder, Joel Challacombe, “From my very first race (riding a down tube shifting bike, no less), Jim made his mark as an encourager, someone happy to give race advice and a fast friend. His encouragement and support continued as we started, built and have grown Tricombe. We love his passion for people and the cycling community. Supporting Jim and his Spring Fling was one of the easiest decisions we’ve made.”

Join the fun on Saturdays beginning February 26, 2022.   Check the USACycling and BikeReg websites for more information.

 

 

Name: Donica Goodwin

KCA Board Position: Women’s Racing Coordinator

A Little About Me:

I came late to cycling in my life and bought my first ‘real’ bike in 2009 to do a sprint triathlon. I found during training for the tri that I enjoyed riding the bike most of all and joined LocalCycling.com and then discovered cyclocross. Before I knew what was happening, I was ordering a ‘cross bike before I had ever been to a race and was suckered in to racing Worlds a few months later.

Riding and racing a bike has been amazingly fun and rewarding. I was quickly blown away by how incredibly welcoming and supportive everyone was to a new rider. So many ready for a tip on training, clothing, how to ride a challenging feature or helping with a quick bike fix.

While health issues have prevented me from racing recently, I’ve continued to ride for fun and stayed involved with the community by volunteering at races with registration, SAG, etc.

Like many others I would love to see a revitalization to the rich racing history in Kansas City. I’m focused on encouraging new women and juniors to join the ranks of KC racing and enjoy the same adventures, comradery and support I experienced.

Name: Dean “FOG” Parker

KCA Board Position: KBAR/Championship Coordinator

About Me:

2020 would have been the last year of my term on the KCA board, but we all know what happened that year. I decided to stay on and help re-start the KCA and bike racing in Kansas. Like many, I miss the competition and the people associated with racing.

I started racing mountain bikes in 1991. A few years later, I discovered road racing and then CYCLOCROSS. My passion grew when Overland Park hosted Cyclocross Nationals in 2000. I’ve been hooked ever since. From 2000 to 2021 I have missed racing Cross Nationals only four times, two of those because I was injured. While my results have varied from good to not so good, all of them have been worthwhile experiences. Why? Because of the opportunities to be with people who love the sport and the camaraderie with teammates and other racers.

That feeling is what I hope we can rebuild this year in the KC area.

 

Name: Dan Messina

KCA Board Position: Media and Communications Coordinator

A Little About Me:

I’ve been active in the Kansas City cycling community since 2006 when my neighbor encouraged me to ride a bike again after a 30 year hiatus. After dropping 50 pounds and working 15 years of heavy smoking out of my lungs, I discovered racing and became hooked on the energy and pageantry of race day.

In 2017, I combined my passion for cycling with my favorite store and joined the Natural Grocers Cycling Team. Within eighteen months, I was knee deep in our social media campaigns and sponsor management/development eventually performing team VP duties and having responsibility for our social media strategy. Then the pandemic changed everything…leading me to launch a podcast series interviewing cycling legends like Ashton Lambie, Brad Huff and Hannah Jordan Cyclist (to name a few), live streaming Zwift races and developing deep relationships with several local promoters – all planning for a new day – post pandemic.

I’m focused on reopening lines of communication with our local race promoters by understanding their needs, developing sponsorship dollars from likeminded folks and encouraging new race promoters to resuscitate our area’s rich racing history.

Let’s go do great things together….

 

Name: Sam Loring

KCA Board Position: Race Calendar Coordinator

A Little About Me:

I have been active in the KC racing scene since 2015 but have been an avid cyclist all of my life. I grew up here in the area and my first local bike shop was Leawood Bikes, where I would go in and listen to great stories of cycling’s glory days from Ariel Mendez. My interest in cycling continued off and on through college, moving to New York City, and moving back home where I now race for GripNRip.

We are all aware about the decline of road racing in the region over the past several years and my goal for this year is to get a race calendar out early to racers so that we can all plan our season. I plan to work with promoters to get events penciled in early so that we can start to build momentum to bring racing back to our community.

 

Got an upcoming event? Contact Sam at samloring@gmail.com

Last week, the KCA elected four new members to the board in addition to the dedicated folks staying on for another term. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be highlighting them starting with….

Name: Doug Campbell

KCA Position: President/Treasurer

About Me:

I became hooked on bike racing in Kansas in 2013 when I tried my first road and cyclocross races. As much as the events themselves I was drawn to our bike racing community. There have been many exceptional individuals who have contributed to creating this welcoming community, and my hope is to keep it moving forward. We’ve encountered a number of headwinds the past several years but I’m optimistic our new board can help facilitate a rebound after a couple of difficult years. All of us would like to see more events on the calendar and more racers enjoying them!

Got pictures from the 2021 racing season just sitting in your phone’s camera roll? Would you like to share them with us for a video montage year-in-review project?

Send them to us at kscyclingmedia@gmail.com Tell us your name, racing category, team and the event.


**All submissions must be received by 2/15/22 for consideration. If you didn’t take the photos submitted, please indicate who did for proper credit. Please do not submit copywritten material.