Even though there's snow on the ground now, it's not many weeks before the Tuesday Night Criteriums and monthly Gardner Time Trials start up with some new features for 2008. Check out the flyer and the Masters category being offered.

Also in February, one of the more challenging weekly rides in the metro, The Wednesday Night Hill Ride will roll out from a new location: Bates City BBQ. The BBQ is on last year's route (at 65th and Nieman). Start time remains 6:30 PM. Watch for more info here.

Localcycling.com continues to lead the Monday No-Drop (a.k.a. Recovery) Ride from Tienda Casa Paloma (82nd and Metcalf). This is a great way to learn about group rides or just relax after a hard weekend.  The group stays together for a one hour tour with a different theme and route every week. Great food and beverage afterwards.

From the folks at TriKC:

THE BIG SPIN with MAX TRAINING: Open to cyclist, triathletes, runners, and all multisports athletes. TriKC's Big Spin Sessions is Kansas City's longest running spin class. Beginning January 8, over 100 athletes of all ability levels meet Tuesday nights to spin into shape! Spin with TriKC and you’ll burn between 700-1000 calories each session. TriKC's Big Spin sessions have been the key to success for many athletes and can be yours, too! Join us, as we take spinning to a new level. If you would like to experience even greater improvements in your own sporting performance, after each Big Spin Session, you can participate in TriKC’s revolutionary MaxTraining program which will improve your core, perfect your swim stoke, and improve your running technique. Getting Faster just got Easier. Register now at www.TriKC.org.  The 2008 "SpinMaster” will take home a Garmin Forerunner! Don’t miss it.

As we finish up another year of localcycling news for the Kansas City area, we'd like to point out the supporters of our site. Our advertisers are all important partners in our cycling community. We encourage you to click and visit (online or in person!) the businesses that believe in the importance of bicycling in our metro.

Some of the things these great folks do: Epic Bike and Sport is sponsoring the upcoming Holiday Cyclocross on December 30th. Scooters Coffee Shawnee hosts a great weekly ride every Saturday. Paceline Products help many local rides and races with items such as Chamois Butter and Maxxis Tires. Tienda Casa Paloma is the host restaraunt for a year round Monday Night No-Drop ride. Gina Poertner of Life Balance stood out in the cold this weekend at the National Cyclocross Championships as a volunteer. Matt Eastlack of Famous Dave's BBQ helped feed those volunteers (and raced the event). Bella Vita Italia Vacations is the brainchild of our teammate and super nice guy Mark Studnicki.  AND if you dig what we do enough to show our colors, we offer Localcycling.com gear. Great gifts from all the above for the Holidays.