On May 31, I drove into Kansas to prove up a route to Lawrence that Terry and I plan to ride in late June to the start of Border Raiders www.borderraiders.com/.
On the way back from Lawrence, I decided to drive by Cottonwood Falls to see how the “Dirty Kanza” bike race http://www.kansascyclist.com/events/DirtyKanza.html was going. Cottonwood Falls was not really on the way back to Bartlesville. It is in Kansas though, so hopefully you see my logic!
For those of you not familiar with Dirty Kanza, it is a 200-mile endurance race on gravel which starts and ends in Emporia, KS. The ride starts at 6 a.m. and has check-points every 50 miles at which you must arrive with a 10 mph overall average to qualify to continue doing the ride. This year the 50-mile checkpoint was at Madison and the 100 and 150-mile checkpoints were in Cottonwood Falls.
I arrived in Cottonwood Falls at about 5:15 p.m. and left there at 5:45 p.m. At the time I arrived, I met one of the race organizers, Joel, who informed me 13 riders had already checked in at 150 miles and were doing the last 50. While I was there another 4 cyclists checked in and went on their way. Two more checked in, but they didn’t “check out”, i.e. they accepted a DNF (did not finish). Joel said the race is limited to 75 participants and he anticipated about 40 of those would finish this year. I saw 3 young guys sitting around who said they had dropped out at 100 miles; they explained that after sitting in the shade awhile eating pizza, they couldn’t get motivated to finish the ride.
Race organizer Joel explained that most of the folks who finish the entire 200 miles are riding either cyclocross bikes or 29er mountain bikes. He encouraged me to come ride Dirty Kanza next year and said he knows several that have finished the 200 miles while only training up to 120. I thought to myself “I would like to see how far I can ride some time, but I’m just not sure I want to do it on gravel roads!” Here is a link to this year’s route for Dirty Kanza http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ks/emporia/418427684.
Anyway, after chatting with these folks for about 30 minutes, I headed back to Emporia and south to Madisonhttp://www.flinthillsdeathride.com/ . Keith and I and perhaps Randy hope to do this ride on the last Sunday in July. (Let us know if you are interested.) This is a 77-mile ride on oilfield and other gravel roads starting and ending in Madison. You can order a jersey but only if you finish the ride. Typically about 60% of those that enter the ride actually finish. Several of our Pedalers including Bob Lummis, Jack Tatum, Neal Johnson, and Bob Pinnick have ridden the death ride in the past. where I wanted to pre-ride some of the “Flint Hills Death Ride”
I parked my vehicle in downtown Madison and started riding from there. I had printed off what appeared to be the route from 2006 (http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ks/madison/945078819) and transferred this to Delorme’s detailed Kansas road map. My plan was to ride about 8 miles out, find a road to cut south on and come back on the return portion, getting back to my vehicle before dark. At 8 miles out, the roads look nothing like the map and the road names are completely different. I am learning that each county in Kansas has their own way of naming roads, so it becomes quite confusing. I try cutting south on a couple of roads but they either became dead ends or ran into private roads. Discouraged, I turn back and have to again ride past the two dogs that chased me on the way out. On my way into Madison, just inside the city limits, I see a cyclist, straddling his bike on the side of the road, looking at a map. This is where the story becomes interesting.
The cyclist’s name is Jason and he is from Kansas City. He was riding the Dirty Kanza and had been in 3rd place overall at the 150-mile checkpoint, with a chance to take 2nd place. Somewhere between 150 miles and the finish in Emporia, he made a wrong turn, and unknowingly got back on part of the previous portion of the route. (The route is marked with orange ribbons tied around trees, utility poles, and the like.) When I meet up with Jason, he has ridden 204 miles, looks discouraged and somewhat disoriented, and realizes he is off the course. I tell him it is 20+ miles back to the finish in Emporia and he states he is pretty tired and might not be able to ride that far (go figure!). So I load up our bikes (his was a titanium 29er with drop handlebars) on my bike rack and take him to the finish area in Emporia.
Needless to say, Jason was pretty discouraged. He had ridden 204 miles and all he had to show for it was a DNF. He explained this was the first time he had ridden 200+ miles in a race setting, but there were several times previously, he and a few buddies would ride for 24 hours, stopping to eat good meals along the way. I don’t think he realized what a tremendous feat this is and I told him so. I believe there is a big difference between the century rides we do on paved roads and the 200+ mile gravel-grinders these guys do.
I was really impressed this sort of ride takes place and there are people that actually can ride these distances. It’s just one more thing you can do on gravel roads! If you haven’t joined us on our Sunday and Wednesday gravel rides, you just don’t know what you are missing. I encourage you to dust off your fat-tire bike and come join us!