From Chris Locke: "Over 200 athletes showed up on a near perfect day for the 5^th Annual God’s Country Duathlon.  Ranging from ages 6 to 68 all challenged themselves on the Lawrence River trails and all had seemed like they had a great time. 

Devil’s Revenge winner Brad Cole made it two in a row as he won over Colorado’s Will Kelsay.   Running together during the first leg, Cole and Kelsay put a small gap on the rest of the field.  Once they hit the bike, Cole opened large enough gap to cruise the final win and take the win in 1:26:25.  Kelsay kept the pressure on and finished just over a minute later in 27:55.  3^rd place was battled out between Ashley Oelschaeger and KC Multisport’s Brendon Jenks.   Ashley took the final podium spot in 1:32:28.

The Elite Women’s class was won by Amber Mounday.  Amber turned in a solid first run to lead 3 time champions Laura Elsenraat after the first leg.  Once on the bike, Amber used here cycling strength to open up a sizable advantage and was have to take the win in 1:46:22.  Laura held on to 2^nd in 1:52:07.  Age-grouper Kelly Carlton turned in the 3^rd fastest female time in 2:00:15.

The popular event almost didn’t take place. Earlier in the week the Lawrence area again got some heavy storms that caused severe damage to the trail system. There were hundreds of fallen trees along the 9 mile route. According to Event Director Chris Locke, “We were thinking we were going to either move or cancel the event, but the Lawrence Mountain Bike Club came to the rescue and put in over 24 hours of trail maintenance and cleaned up the trails” Together with the LMBC, members of the Cow Town Cycling Team, the hard working Lantern Rouge Volunteer Group the event turned out to be a great success.

Some great pictures are at www.kimmorris.com

Most times, I struggle to find the correct words to convey to you, the intense significance of the role that the Major Taylor Foundation of Greater Kansas City represents in the lives of young people. I struggle with the words, because the things I see happening to kids in my community are sometimes, unbelieveable at best, and exist in an environment that cannot easily be described by them.

And what is comes down to is...who is going to take responsibility to help someone's child who is obviously in need of it???  

With the increased popularity of reality based TV shows it was inevitable that televised cycling coverage would jump on the bandwagon. Cycling.tv announced today that it would premier it's new feature, "Trading Races" at Spring Fling Six in Lawrence, KS and simultanously at the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

The premise of the show is to take teams from two entirely different racing cultures and juxtapose them. So on Saturday morning at Clinton Lake, Tom Boonen and his Quick Step comrades will be lining up against mid-America's finest, while Walt Bleser and teammates from KCOI will sign in on Sunday morning at the Tour of Flanders.

Localcycling.com will carry a live interview from the start in Brugge with Walt. The Tour of Flanders is often charactarized as an "all out" race, but is actually, just as the name implies, a rather leisurely stroll through the Belgian countryside with periodic stops to sample the fine beers produced there. The Spring Fling series on the other hand is often used as a tune up for potential Tour de France winners. Of course that's also a touring ride. In fact there aren't really all that many races in Europe.
In a final note, Mr. Boonen told Localcycling.com that while he is worried that American racing may in fact be quite a bit faster than the 'touring' style riding he's used to, he's heard that the beer at Free State is "quite good."

Here's a press release for this weekend's off road fun:

"Past winners of the God’s Country Off-Road Duathlon include a “who’s who” of off-road racing in the Midwest.  Fat Tire Champion, Damian Almanza won the inaugural God’s Country back in 2002 when it was held at Clinton Lake State Park.   Xterra Champion, Tige Lamb won in 2003 when the event moved to its current location – Lawrence River Trails,   St. Louis Pro Ryan Pirtle showed he can run as fast as he can ride by winning the 2004 version.  And finally last years event was won by the 2005 Nebraska Cyclo-cross champion Darin Schlake.  This year’s field is will include Xterra Pro Will Kelsay, 05’ winner Schlake and Devils Revenge winner Brad Cole.