We’ve been watching the ups and downs of the road racing scene. Here’s a timely infusion for this summer and the future. Submitted by A.I. (nah, not what you think, a real human)
“Mike and Amy Ivancic started Midcoast Racing out of their shared love of bikes and racing. They first met at the John Brown Time Trial in 2016 where Amy was a volunteer. Mike has an extensive history racing bicycles: Road, Cyclocross and Gravel. Mike currently races road for The Lance Project and USMES for Cyclocross. Mike loves his involvement in the cycling community. He was a member of Cycling Kansas City, holding several roles, including President. Amy joined Women’s Free State Racing in 2016 and has dabbled in Cyclocross, but her real passion is the smooth pavement of road racing.
When Mike and Amy decided to move back to the Midwest in the fall of 2020, most racing had been halted by the Covid pandemic. Then in June of 2021, right after Mike had completed the gravel adventure race Unbound XL (on a single speed) he was diagnosed with Stage 1 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Shortly after Mike’s health issues, Amy needed knee surgery. During her recovery time, Amy was convinced to get a USAC official’s license as a way to stay connected in the race community while healing.
“When we started to reemerge from everything we noticed how many races we had lost during the pandemic. This really had us thinking more about promotion and Mike always has ideas floating around about different races he would love to put on and the timing just seemed to line up,” stated Amy.
Last summer they began a conversation with Revolution Racing about bringing back Wednesday Night Worlds and became a sponsor In September of 2022, Mike and Amy sponsored the Women’s Free State Racing’s Joules CX and paid for all Cat 4/5 Women entries.
Since Amy’s favorite discipline is road racing, they began to discuss putting on a road race which quickly progressed into a three day format: Time Trial, Road Race and Criterium titled “The Kansas Omnium.” The event is scheduled for July 7th -9th 2023. “We absolutely love the cycling/racing community here in the Lawrence and Kansas City areas and we are excited to give back to the community by having safe, fun and challenging races” said Mike.
With Amy being on an all women’s team her main focus is to bring more women into racing by offering equal payouts and opportunity. While The Kansas Omnium will be the initial race hosted by by Midcoast Racing, they have big goals. In the next 5 years, they hope to see the event grow in all categories with a regional/national draw.
It is important to them to give back to the venue communities. Amy notes, “the Baldwin City has been so welcoming for the criterium, we want to show our appreciation and work to wipe out the school district’s lunch debt.” They recently set up a fundraiser on Givebutter for anyone to donate to the lunch fund. Midcoast Racing’s website (midcoastracing.com), Facebook, and Instagram accounts are active to provide event information and updates.