Dirty Kanza 2016

This used to be called the 'Death Ride of the Flint Hills' and it wandered out west from this small berg of a town into the pastures and back roads - those first summers the temps reached 110º and the drought was fierce. We had many - first aide stations and twice as many hydration stations along the route, and saw groups of interested die-hard cyclist in the 100's ...now it's grown enormously and people fly in from around the world to take this route on.

Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016

Dirty Kanza 2016 sparks registration frenzy

By Celia Llopis-Jepsen
celia.llopisjepsen@cjonline.com
Within minutes of opening this year’s online registration at 8 a.m. on Saturday, organizers of the annual Dirty Kanza 200 knew 2016 was special.
About 1,400 cyclists with a taste for endurance gravel-grinder riding signed up within about a quarter of an hour. By 10 a.m., nearly all of the 1,900 spots for the June 4th Flint Hills event were taken, with some slots left only for the shortest of the three Dirty Kanza options, the 50-mile ride.
By about 11 a.m., those, too, were gone. Cyclists who overslept were likely kicking themselves.
Tim Mohn, co-owner of Dirty Kanza Promotions, said the speed of this year’s online registrations outstripped even last year, when 1,500 total openings for the 200-mile full course, 100-mile Half Pint and 50-mile DK Lite Fun Ride filled up within 36 hours.
“It was pretty amazing,” he said Saturday morning, shortly after registration closed. “It just started rolling real quick.”
The decade-old Dirty Kanza 200 is a grass-roots Emporia-based cycling event for enthusiasts chasing an extreme experience. Organized for cyclists by cyclists — and billed as “the world’s premier endurance gravel road race” — it started with 34 participants in 2006 and swelled as interest grew for long-distance riding on unpaved routes.
Demand may now far exceed the number of riders that Dirty Kanza organizers are allowing. Mohn said he wonders how many people would register if there wasn’t a cap on participation, but his group feels the restriction is necessary.
“We want to make sure we can handle the number of participants — that everyone is safe,” he said, adding that there are also limits to how much space the area has at hotels and campsites to absorb the annual influx of visitors. “We have to grow kind of slow to make sure we can accommodate that.”
This year participation is capped at 1,000 cyclists for the DK200, 600 for the Half Pint and 300 for the DK Lite. According to the list of registrants, the 2016 participants hail mostly from the across U.S., with a smattering from abroad — Canada, Germany, Ecuador, Mexico, New Zealand and Bermuda.
They’ll face whatever extremes the Flint Hills terrain and climate throws their way — from wind to high temperatures to mud.
“That’s the beauty,” said Mohn, a Topeka native who moved in 1996 to Emporia, where he owns a music store. “You never know what you’re going to get.”
Last year’s race was notable for monstrously muddy conditions on some sections of the course. Though this left many cyclists struggling to complete their rides, Mohn said some years heat has proved an even greater obstacle.
Still, he described 2015 as an “epic” year that produced stunning photography and likely fueled Saturday morning’s registration frenzy. He and other organizers had expected the Dirty Kanza would sell out faster this year, but “we were thinking more like 24 hours,” he said.
The Dirty Kanza routes usually change each third year — meaning the same course is used twice before adjusting it. However, this year the route will change a year early because of a rodeo in Cottonwood Falls on the same date. Cottonwood Falls won’t be a checkpoint for that reason.
Dirty Kanza Promotions also offers a training camp to help cyclists prepare for their Flint Hills adventure. Camp is from March 31 to April 3 this year, with training plans targeting the DK100 and DK200 events. Twenty-two people have registered so far and a few spots are left, Mohn said.
The Dirty Kanza 200 was founded by Flint Hills cyclists Jim Cummins and Joel Dyke.
http://www.dirtykanza200.com/

This year - this tiny community is the 'HUB' for both the light weight run and the 4 section longest race. The race will start and finish in Emporia, KS but the 3 sections branch off of Madison, KS.  For some really beautiful scenic sights of the Flint Hills.
It showered again over night but this morning has arrived with sun shine and partly cloudy skies, no high winds and expected highs to be in the 80's and humidity at 80%...so we might not have the number of emergency calls as previous years but there are always those accidents.
Since the section maps have most of these riders coming into Madison - right down my street; we've all been out putting up 'WELCOME' signs and sprucing up our landscapes to impress the riders as they fly~~by.

Just came in from doing my VOLUNTEER time at the 'TURN HERE CORNER' up the block from my house; quite the surprise for the number of 'gray haired' cyclist this year and tandem bikes too.
Over heard quite a few remarks from cyclists:
...WTH are my support team
...guess they've gotten lost
...I'm making better time then they'd expected
...but this sucks having to borrow equipment for repairs when my support staff can't read a dam map

Ted King talks about winning the Dirty Kanza 200
(Video by Shane Keyser | skeyser@kcstar.com). skeyser@kcstar.com
By Cindy Hoedel choedel@kcstar.com
Emporia, Kan.
At 6 a.m. Saturday, 1,098 cyclists from 44 states and 10 countries will pedal off from the historic Granada Theatre on a 200-mile endurance race through remote tallgrass prairie rangeland.
They’ve come to test their mettle and their machines at the Dirty Kanza 200, which top cyclists call the most grueling gravel race in the world. The terrain through the Flint Hills is remote and rugged, the roads strewn with fist-sized rocks made of flint that can lacerate tires.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/cindy-hoedel/article81784197.html#storylink=cpy
This year marks the 11th running of the event, which continues to grow in popularity, selling out in a record-shattering 2 hours in January.
Expected to be at the front of the pack this year are the defending men’s and women’s champions, Yuri Hauswald and Amanda Nauman. Other top competitors include Neil Shirley, Ted King, Tim Johnson, Rusty Folger, Lyne Bessette, Kristen Legan and Andrea Cohen.
Last year’s race was a chilly mud fest, with even the top riders having to carry their bikes for miles through ankle deep soggy clay. But this year, conditions are near ideal, according to organizer Jim Cummins: mild temperatures (for Kansas) in the low 80s, somewhat humid and less wind than usual.
[Cindy Hoedel’s Dirty Kanza diary: 36 hours of mud, grit and glory]
Recent rains followed by a couple of hot days have packed the roads, so Cummins is expecting a very fast race. The first finishers could conceivably roll back into downtown as early as 4 p.m., a full three hours ahead of last year.
The course, which changes every year, resembles a giant figure eight, with three checkpoints where riders are allowed to meet up with support crews. Otherwise, support crews are banned from the course, except to pick up riders quitting the race. The first checkpoint is in Madison, the second in Eureka, the third back in Madison.

200 miles, but those dedicated humans that take this event to heart aren't letting the fact that the race has been won - the winners checked in around 4pm diminish their need to finish the course - they just keep pushing on. 
Head lamps and flashers blinking as they cycle past my home.
 
There was one tragic event; someone took a really bad fall - head wound that was busted open and the life flight chopper was called to air lift him out; far to rural location on the gravel route to get an ambulance to him in time but thankfully there was a 'first aide/EMT station' close enough to radio for 'HELP'. 
That's never happened before, but lots more flat tires then last years event.

Saying prayers that the last ones make it safely back this last lag of the 200 mile course and no more tragic events.

Is this like a really long, gritty, but American, Tour de France?

Race Meeting Friday Night at the Granada - down town Emporia: Biggest group ever in the 11yrs that this has been called the 'Dirty Kanza' Race - nearly 2,000 signed up by race dead line right before the meeting began!
And people were still trying to find registration cards!


Showers fell over night Friday and some places on the course received as much as 1.5" of rain - on top of saturated soils from previous rains ...parts of the race course would be very muddy - expect to be filthy - expect to eat dirt!
BUTT-CRACK OF DAWN getting the starting line ready and all of the participants where they need to be and 15 minutes to 'AND THEY'RE OFF' ~~~

And here they come, rolling south out of Emporia early Saturday morning across the recent flooded Cottonwood River bridge >

Making that first turn, and the transition from pavement onto gravel ...sloppy gravel that had recently been under 3' of flood water >

Some avid cyclist 'buddied up with a VET's group' and offered to tandem bike with
them so they could participate in the event for their first time; that was one of the
reasons that the Dirty Kanza had so many more registrations for 'Tandem Teams'
then any of the previous years >


First turn - first transition log jam; notice the size difference in the tires ...some avid cyclists were expecting the swampy conditions the majority were not >


What is the 'HOLD UP', why is this back log taking so long - look how clean the riders outfits are ... >


Well, the initiation into 'Dirty Kanza' is just about to be realized >


An amateur photographer taking a photo of a professional photographer while he's working.  >
 
You'll see representation of: young/old/thin/stocky/women/men - all shapes & sizes taking this 'Gravel Grabbing Dirty Kanza' ride ...some make all the way some opt for the 100 mile course >

 


And while I cheered them on and 'WHOOT-HOOTED' as they passed by my volunteer position; SMH ...all I could think about was 'BUTT HURT' ...OMG, how my butt would hurt!

DIRTY KANZA - 100 course riders >




A very diverse group of humanity could be viewed in this group as well ...lots of competition challenge groups: police/fire fighters/EMT/Surgeons VS Physicians ...lots of 'Smak Talking' going on within this 100 course group. >


How about taking a child along '?' ...yipper, nothing like letting that little one eat the mud of the Flint Hills too LMAO >


2 blocks to the East from my home > curve past the ole Katy Depot and right into
downtown Madison, KS.
 
Down town Madison, looking towards the south and up stand pipe hill >


Yes, indeed ...for people that hadn't checked out this course in previous days - or assumed that Kansas is nothing to worry about because it's all flat land >
 
Elevation changes - 80% humidity and the endurance ...toss in some gusty KS winds and it started kicking butt at the very first check point.

The Madison News  18 hrs ·
EMS and deputies are on scene between 320th and 310th on H75 with a report of a Dirty Kanza 200 bicyclist down and bleeding profusely from a laceration to the head. A helicopter is on the way to transport the rider.

My neighbor Lyn {42yrs young}, rode in her first 'Dirty Kanza' and she didn't do the 100 mile course - nope, she took on the full meal deal and went for the 200 mile ride; this is her being congratulated for arriving safely into the finish line in Emporia, KS at 11:15pm last night.  And she has night vision issues >



The young guy that won, made the remark; 'wonder what my time could have
been had I opted for a wider tire & rim set instead to the ones I did chose and
had those 3 flats to change out?'  LOL