photo by: Journal-World file photo

Lawrence is hoping to host a large gravel bike race similar to what Emporia hosts each year. The Lawrence event is slated for Halloween, and organizers expect it will attract about 1,000 riders. Above, riders compete in the 2017 Dirty Kanza race in Emporia.

There’s a good chance the most popular Halloween costume in Lawrence this year will be a bicyclist. (Mine will be fully accurate, complete with defibrillator attached to my chest.) I say that because planning is well underway to host a bike race that is expected to attract more than 1,000 riders to Lawrence this Halloween.

“That probably would be the biggest bike event to ever happen in Douglas County,” said Dan Hughes, owner of Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop, who is an organizer of the event.

Sunflower is teaming up with a California-based cycling promoter to host what’s being called the Belgian Waffle Ride Kansas. It is one of a series of Belgian Waffle Rides across the country. All of them feature courses on gravel roads with rough terrain and lots of miles. For example, the Lawrence race is expected to have three divisions: the Waffle at 111 miles, the Wafer at 71 miles and the Wanna at a mere 35 miles.

And, yes, there will be Belgian waffles. The event has copious amounts of waffles available to riders at the start and at the finish. I read an account of the series’ California race that said after 110 miles of that 133-mile race, there was a station where cyclists could stop to get some bacon. (That would be handy. You don’t want to know where I store my bacon on my bike outfit.)

“The whole thing is kind of a party that happens to have a crazy bike race,” Hughes said.

The Lawrence event, which is still going through the permit and processing stage with the city and county, is slated to be a three-day event. Plans call for a fundraiser on Friday night to benefit the Steve Tilford Foundation, a nonprofit cycling organization named after the Topeka-based mountain bike champion who died in a car crash in 2017. Saturday’s plan calls for a “cyclo-cross” race — a type of racing that involves cyclists doing laps on a course of pavement and dirt and even requires cyclists to carry their bikes at times — at Burcham Park. Sunday — Halloween — would be the main race.

Hughes is starting to reach out to fellow downtown business owners in an effort to gain their support to have the Halloween race start and end in downtown Lawrence. That might require the closure of some streets as a thousand or more cyclists make their way out of and then back into downtown Lawrence.

Hughes said he’s looking for a way to minimize the traffic and parking disruptions while still allowing downtown to serve as the center of the race and all its festivities.

“We want this to be a good event not only for the riders but really the community,” Hughes said.

One Kansas community already has seen how a gravel bike race can boost its economy. For years, Emporia has hosted one of the largest gravel bike races in the country. It previously was known as the Dirty Kanza, but has since rebranded to Unbound Gravel. Hughes has been involved in that race, which this year was held on June 4. Hughes said that race attracts about 2,500 riders, and tourism officials have estimated it adds about $5.5 million to the Emporia economy.

Hughes thinks that race serves as an example of the type of impact the Belgian Waffle Ride can have in Lawrence as it gets established.

“I love Emporia, but it doesn’t have anything we don’t have here,” Hughes said. “We’ve got plenty of gravel in Lawrence, too.”

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The cycling stuff is all well and good, but maybe you are like me: Once someone mentioned waffles, you can’t get breakfast off your mind. If so, I do have some news on the breakfast front.

Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop has filed plans with City Hall to add a kitchen-like facility to the shop, 804 Massachusetts St. As we’ve reported, Sunflower opened a cafe in a portion of its store last year. That cafe has had a limited menu consisting of bakery items, sandwiches and other such fare that is made offsite at Cellar Door Cafe, another downtown eatery.

While that has worked well, Hughes said the popularity of the cafe has him looking for ways to prepare some food onsite, which would allow for a broader menu. He said the cafe was considering everything from burgers to pizza, but also wants to come up with a concept that doesn’t duplicate too much of what is already downtown.

But he said the demand for weekend morning breakfast appears to be great, based on the lines outside of downtown’s larger breakfast spots. Hughes said he thought some sort of weekday breakfast menu was a strong possibility for the project.

“I’m not sure where the menu will land, but it will stay true to the core concept of being a healthy, adventure-based type of menu,” Hughes said.

Look for the changes to the store and cafe to develop over the next several months as plans are approved.