Dirty Kanza 200

I've read so many recaps of the Dirty Kanza it's hard to string together my own, but here goes.

Cornbread, MG, and myself left Lincoln shortly after noon on Friday for Emporia, KS, the start and end of the Dirty Kanza. We stopped in Nebraska City for a $5 sub (love the Italian) and made it to Emporia after a few wrong turns shortly before 5.

Almost immediately we started seeing other bikers and I noticed very quickly just how friendly almost everyone seemed to be. After checking in to the hotel and with the race organizers, we headed to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I filled up on two bean burritos smothered in a really thick cheese sauce.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel where the race organizers had a brief rider meeting and a raffle. I was one of the lucky winners and received a little CO2 pump. I then returned to the room full of nerves and tried to get some sleep. The previous week I had been full of nerves and hadn't slept well, and this evening wasn't any better. We woke up at 4:45AM and quickly got ready for the ride.

We gathered outside of the hotel shortly before 6 and my anticipation to actually get started was at an all time high. The race promoters spoke of the storms and almost postponed the start of the race by a couple of hours, but fortunately the weather was further south and they decided to get started at the normal time. We had a police escort out of town on pavement and then we took a right onto the first patch of gravel that was quite thick and tough to navigate. I was hoping the gravel wouldn't be like this for long or it'd be a really short day for me.

The different groups split up rather quickly. My strategy all along was to ride very conservatively to give myself the best chance to finish the race, as I had never ridden more than 104 miles before and that was over a year ago. Cornbread, knowing my desire to attack climbs, imparted great wisdom onto me with the montra 'Spin to Win'. That was the plan and I repeated those three words to myself, and to those around me, for the duration of the ride.

Another key for me was proper hydration and nutrition. This has always been a big problem for me as I just don't get that thirsty or hungry when I ride. I don't recall ever having to urinate during a ride, ever. Well, I took this very seriously the week before and the day of the race. So much so that I had to stop 3 times before the first checkpoint (~50 miles) to releave myself. I was very excited that I was obviously doing a decent job of keeping hydrated.

Now a more quick recap of the ride
Mile ~10: A very large angry cow starts charging cyclists as they try to get by. There was a group of 4 in front of me that go off of their bikes and the cow charged one of them. The individual ended up using his bike to seperate himself from the cow and he 'punched' the cow with his bike as it charged. The cow quickly bounced off and started heading straight for me. Fortunately I had remained clipped in and just waited until it got close enough for me to sprint around it without it being able to change direction. Luckily this was my last run in with angry lifestock.

Ended up meeting up with a group of guys, two of which I would end up doing the majority of the ride with. Aaron and Ron. It was great to ride with a couple of good guys that were going a similar pace. All three of us were new to the Dirty Kanza and none of us were really sure what to expect for the duration of the race.

My non-drive side crankarm fell off shortly after checkpoint 2. I thought I was down when the crankarm was attached to my shoe when I attempted to unclip. Fortunately it wasn't broken, I just hadn't done a good job of tightening it enough originally. Aaron let me use his 8mm tool and I was able to quickly get it reattached and off we were, for ~50 ft before Aaron got a flat. It wasn't a very good start to the second half of the race but we persevered.

We met up with another guy in the last quarter, Steve from IA. His lights rocked and he was riding strong. He picked up the pace on the home stretch and we had a fun little sprint into town and the finish at the hotel. I had quite a bit of kick in my legs left as I had ridden fairly conservative all day, so I really enjoyed increasing the velocity at the end.

Finished shortly after 1AM and slept poorly that evening. Woke up at 8 and hung out with the guys from the Lincoln single speed posse in the commons area of the hotel room. We shared a red chimay that I had brought from Lincoln at Jeff's request. Ate at VI, stopped at Starbucks (again) and drove home.

It was a great experience and I'm thankful for all the help and kind words from everyone. One of the rider's spouse and grandson ran the support wagon at the half way point which was a great help. I need to get their contact info and send them a thank you card. I apologize for missing any exciting details/events, but it was a long day on the bike with a lot of great stories.

Can't wait until next year.