Congratulations to all who finished the
Dirty Kanza this year -both the 100 and 200 mile options.
Complete
2013 Dirty Kanza Results
Pictures:
Roger's House of Photos,
Clay Center Sports,
Dave Leiker,
MS Photos,
Adventure Monkey,
Cow Town gravel master Tim Greene recaps his adventure below as he succefully completed his 2nd DK200 in a row....
The DK 200 this year will be one for the books. It was
more like one of my Wind Howler rides with 135 miles of gravel into a 15
to 20+ mph headwind. Add to that over 12,000 feet of climbing and you
had a really physically punishing race.
The
first leg was mostly South and East with wind at your back and pretty
fast. I was riding with Jason Phillips and we made the mistake of
starting too far back and had to spend the better part of the first hour
picking our way through the mass of slower riders. Our thought was the
roads were going to be wet and muddy and we would let the mass of
riders pack the mud to conserve energy. Boy were we wrong. The gravel
was dry and our plan went down the tubes and forced us to work harder
to get back where we needed to be. Another mistake I made was
following Jason across a river on the bike instead of carrying it like
everyone else. By the last leg my bottom bracket was creaking so bad it
became annoying. Overall first leg gave us hopes of beating the
sunset. At the first check we refueled and headed out into the wind for
the remaining 3 legs.
For
leg 2 Jason was having trouble digesting his food from the first stop
and fell behind. That left me alone to deal with wind. I jumped from
group to group as the opportunities presented themselves, but I settled
down and went into managing my effort and not worrying about speed.
Needless to say leg 2 took allot of effort out of me. Hills we would
roll down at high speed and roll up most of the following hill in the
2012 race were now pedal down the hill against the wind, then pedal the
flat to the next hill and then pedal up again. I ran into Craig at this
stop and we took our time refueling. I was was waiting to see how
Jason was doing and Craig getting the energy up to push the single speed
out again. I would have never made it to Check 2 on a single speed, so
hats off to all of those guys riding them and finsihing the race on
them. Jason rolled in just I was rolling out. He was having enough
trouble that he thought he was going to bail.
Leg 3 was me
alone again. This time the field had thinned, so really no pace lines,
only individual riders. We started east, but this was to gain elevation
for the turn North. The turn meant dealing with the wind. By now I
was getting minor cramps every hour or so. I was following my nutrient,
fluid, and salt intake plan so the cramps had to do with effort. The
good thing from this exercise was that I learned how to hammer for a bit
to get them to go away. This still ended up being a slow hard
leg. The paved road into Check 3 was fast and my legs seemed fine now
and were no longer giving me cramps.
Once I got to the last
checkpoint, I found out that Jason was on route and did not stop. I
also ran into Jeff helping SAG for the rest of the Lawrence crew. He
informed me of 25 more miles of wind and then fast 25 into Emporia. My
hand were raw and right foot developing a hot point so I was resolved to
finish here and kick back and have a few beers with Jeff and Jason when
he got in. I refueled, changed and waited to see when Jason and Frank
would come in and see if they were continuing. Frank came in first and
was going back out, then Jason came in refreshed and riding better
now. He bribed me with a beer to continue, darn peer pressure. So
after getting a new fresh kit on, lights mounted up out we went. I do
better at night and felt good even going into the last 25 miles of
wind. Felt good to be passing people again as opposed to being passed
during the middle 2 legs. Also felt good to be in an organized pace
line again. The last 25 miles as it was last year were fast and fun.
Jason and I dropped all of the group we rode with going north and let
the wind push us into Emporia. Ended the ride exhausted as opposed to
how I felt last year. I also ended up with second degree sunburn on my
face and a few other spots. This was even with sunblock on, but more
due to the illnesses I had earlier this spring. It did feel good to
complete the DK 200 2 times in a row and definitely checked off one of
my bucket list items...
Equipment for this race is crucial. Rudy Project Magster sunglasses with Impactx Photochromic Multilaser Clear lense
on the cloudy day kept everything sharp and clear vision wise. Lens
even took a couple of rocks thrown at me from the rear tires of other
riders with no issue. These lenses were the trick in overcast condition
and into the night time ride. I was also sporting a Rudy Windmax
helmet. Very light and comfortable for the ride. No sore neck from
wearing a heavy helmet and even with light mounted on top was still
light.
On the bike I ran Ritchey Super Logic Evolution carbon handlebars, WCS Carbon Matrix 4 Axis stem and finally a Super Logic Carbon seat post.
These all took the edge off the rough roads and enabled me to endure
over 14 hours on a bike. From Crank Brothers I sported Candy 3 pedals
and these worked flawlessly.
Tires are critical for the DK 200 and I ran the Kenda Kommando Pro SCT tubeless. These tires rolled extremely well in all conditions on the day and I finished the race without having a flat. The Kenda Iron Cloak belt really did the trick and was the primary reason I chose this tire over the Kenda Small Block Eight with the Iron Cap. Both tires roll over gravel extremely well, but I think the Kommando will be my gravel tire with the Small Block Eight used for Cyclocross this year.
Though
not a sponsor, I tried Magicshine 2200 lumen ligth on the bars for the
night component. Very inexpensive light and MTBR rated it as best
dollar to lumen value. Not having much time with this light I paired it
with my Lupine Piko 600 Lumen light I used last year. Boy is this
light bright. I put it on 2200 going down the hills at high speed and
had no trouble seeing. Then for the climbs I backed it down to low
setting. I did that to conserve battery life, since we were going to be
out over 4 hours. The Magicshine worked so well I turned off the Lupin
and kept it as a backup. If you need cheap, but good lights you can't
go wrong with Magicshine. The only downside is the battery is heavy and
reminisant of older batteries from NiteRider.
