UPDATED Late Monday 2/14: Several interested parties are working on solutions to the potential loss of events in this story. Stay tuned.
Since the late 1990’s the Kansas City Metro has had regularly scheduled Training Races: criteriums and time trials. And even before those events there were seasonal offerings. But now the localcycling news desk has learned that local promoter, Chris Hess, is retiring his well attended NEET series which included monthly time trials and weekly criteriums. This leaves a gaping hole in development events for local racing.
Mr. Hess carried the ball, so to speak, for quite a few years, and before that a combination of racing teams, and before that the KCBC folks promoted these essential events. So where does this leave the racing community for 2011? A couple of local clubs host “members” only events AND there was some interest in a North of the River weekday criterium last year. But as of this writing there is nothing firmly established to replace these events.
If you have an interest in promoting a replacement training event similar to the prior series, give our news desk a shout: mark@localcycling.com In addition, to help jump start, we’ll donate some banner ad space on the site.