Growing the Community of Youth Cycling with Kansas NICA

Let’s start with the basics — can you outline the NICA season and how people access information to join a cycling team?

You can identify your local team through the KS MTB site’s interactive map. Reach out to the contacts for your local team to get started. All leagues also have a GRiT (Girls Riding Together) program, to specifically focus on getting more female student-athletes to participate. Currently, young women make up about 20% of the national league’s riders; in Kansas it is closer to a third. 

NICA follows a spring season, the season opens in January and runs through the end of May. The races are on weekends in April and May, throughout the state. Before the races start, teams practice riding, technical skills, bike maintenance, and getting to know each other. 

In the pre-season, we hold in-person info meetings. We discuss the league, what the season looks like, and find any available resources to help kids get the equipment they need. If you’re new to riding, we’ll teach you how to ride the bike. NICA is open to kids of all abilities and backgrounds, and it is our goal to make the sport more accessible. For more developed athletes, we help them learn mentoring and team-building skills, which we advocate as a more important skill than racing. 

Racing isn’t a requirement. Riders can show up to be part of the community and ride the course — you’ll be celebrated the same. Any skill level is welcome! Really, NICA is about 20% bike and 80% community. The true effort behind NICA is building a community and a place for young adults to build their own community, find freedom in riding bikes, and gain experience in learning that skill while being outside and away from electronics. The bike portion is the vehicle that gets you there.

What equipment do youth cyclists need, and how do you help people get bikes, etc., if they don’t have one?

To participate, you need a mountain bike and a helmet. Specific shoes, apparel, etc., aren’t necessary to join or ride. The league focuses on mountain biking because it teaches the fundamentals of balance and navigating rough and different terrain. 

Do not let equipment be a barrier. Local bike shops, including Sunflower, have offered discounts for coach and athlete support. We work with families to make sure you have the right bike and helmet — and can help you find equipment if needed. We offer scholarships to more than 20% of our league’s riders. We’ve never turned away anyone who wants to ride — the only scholarship requirement is to ask.

What is a NICA race weekend like? How much should families expect to travel?

Right now, all travel is within the state. Typically, on Saturday, coaches and athletes can pre-ride the course. Most of the teams then camp on-site, depending on the distance from home. On Sunday, there is a series of races that are loops on a mountain bike course, anywhere from 2 to 3.5 miles per lap. Different age groups complete anywhere from 3 to 9 laps in a race, depending on their age, the length of the course, and the technical difficulty of the course. 

The closed course option allows for better visibility for the spectators and safety for the riders. Spectators can be pretty involved in watching the course and finding the best places along the course to cheer. The biggest surprise, often, is how laid back the community is. People all cheer for each other, people have a lot of excitement, and even competitors are cheering for one another. 

For camping, people connect to share about camping and equipment. The closeness of the families is one of the real goals of the program; the keystone of the event is the camping and interacting with one another. It's hard not to fall in love with the whole experience. 

NICA is a starting point, we want to teach people how to safely ride their bikes and build a lifelong relationship with the bike. NICA is an entry into riding and racing and the hope is to allow riders the opportunity to grow beyond that and seek other endeavors when it comes to cycling. 

How do the local bike shops, like Sunflower, connect to the teams and the program?

Bike shops are the lifeblood of the cycling community; without them, it’s not just the NICA league but cycling in general that is at a loss. For the Devo team, Sunflower is the home shop where the team hangs out, holds meetings, looks at bikes, and engages with the full community of cycling enthusiasts. It’s Lawrence’s central hub for people to meet and share in fellowship with one another. 

When you’re racing and riding outside, especially for new families, in order to know how to fix a tire or do regular repairs, it is much more personal to learn through having a relationship with your local shop. One of the biggest things with local bike shops is developing a relationship where you can learn from them, and we work to facilitate that with each of our teams. 

Sunflower made a generous contribution to get the league started. Because of donors like Sunflower and private landowners, this league has been possible. The majority of the Kansas NICA races take place on private land or land curated by private individuals that are jointly vested in seeing cycling thrive in Kansas. 

What other ways can people be involved in supporting Kansas NICA?

Kansas NICA is currently run by volunteers. The organization needs people with skills to complement. If you are interested in starting a team, coaching, or otherwise volunteering to support, reach out through the email on our website. 

We rely on financial donations to help run the league, for everything from securing permits and porta potties to coming up with awards for each race. Beyond that, we are also working to fund league growth, which is a vital part of maintaining an active athlete base, and ensuring we have proper training and coaching for the athletes. Donations also provide additional scholarships for bikes, helmets, shoes, or to have some bikes in the stable available to loan for the team. 

In-kind donations are also accepted. We’ve never turned down bike donations, and they would be used by coaches or riders. Donations of time, like having people show up to help set courses, take down courses with the athletes, manage parking, and other event maintenance are always appreciated, too. 

Photos by Dan Hughes and Matt Gillhousen