An Interview with Kris Thompson of 303cycling

Hello readers: Its no secret, we haven't had much content lately. I thought an interview series would be a nice way to get back on the flow (of web traffic), so heres the first one.

A couple weeks ago I took a ride (a very messy one, still cleaning the mud out of my brake calipers) with Kris Thompson, the founder and one of the primary contributers to 303cycling. Afterwards we did a little Q&A, heres what he had to say.

1. When did you start 303cycling?

March 2008. Before that I was doing the same thing on boulderveloracing.com as a means to improve our teams exposure for our sponsors.

2. What was your motivation for creating 303cycling?
Primary reason was my lack of interest in pro cycling because of one scandel after another, I simply lost touch with those people and had a much strong interest in the cycling that was happening right in my back door. Another reason for starting 303cycling was to fill a void that was needed and that was helping spread cycling related news that happens in our community. Where did one go years ago to get this kind of information? I also started this project because mainstream media is failing, newspapers are dying and big corporations are buying up the dead and producing vanilla news or news that has no interests to me or our community of cycling. The future IMO is in targeted media outlets, not the one shoe fits all like Fox News, CNN, NYTimes, etc.

3. Road, mountain and cross racing seem to be the main focus of
303cycling. Do you not care as much about other types of cycling or is
there just not as much to write about things like BMX, advocacy,
commuting, etc.?
I care about all of it but in the end there are only so many hours in the day and the disciplines that I am involved in are the ones I have the easiest access to. I have a strong desire to have a larger non competitive cycling tone then what is there today and as a result we are constantly looking for others to help write or just ping us when something important in the cycling world happens like opening of new bike paths, local advocacy, bike polo events, etc. If anyone ever has news you feel is interesting please drop us a line at 303cycling (http://303cycling.com/contact")

4. Are there any other websites, based locally or elsewhere, that
serve the same function as 303cycling? i.e. reporting on local races,
rides, events, & general cycling news.
BikeDenver.org is close, I would love to have their content integrated into ours, would make for a good site. YourGroupRide.com is very similar to 303cycling but it covers Fort Collins area.

5. What is the future of 303cycling? Any big plans?
Short term, improve our resource pages like our climbs/rides page and our upcoming training/coaches pages. Also hope to bring on a few more writers and a part-time sales person. Long term, Site redesign, move into other related areas like triathletes and running and maybe merge with other related sites.



There you go, stay tuned for more interviews with people who contribute a lot to cycling in the Denver/Boulder area.