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I didn't know this race existed until early this year. In its 13 years, it has become the premier gravel grinder on the planet. 2200 riders this year and it sells out in less than one minute I'm told. I discovered the race too late so I put my name and address in a huge forum thread for folks hoping to take over other riders cancellations. Guy in Australia tweaked his knee and had to cancel, sold me his spot about 2 months ago. Now to plan the trip and start configuring my training for this monster.
Having registered late, all the hotel rooms in Emporia were sold out (pop 24,000). So I flew in to Kansas City, 120 miles away and stayed in Topeka, about half way there. Race starts at 6am so I get up at 3am to start eating. Load up my gear and start the hour long drive south to Emporia. Because I never race with a camelback, of course I forgot the damn thing and remembered only after I had driven 15 miles. Arggh!. Spun a semi legal u turn in the middle of the turnpike and blazed back to the room for it. I arrived just 25 minutes before the start. The event is so big now that the entire main street is clogged with the 1000 riders signed up for the 200. I shoved my way in from a side street about halfway down the field then shimmied and snuck my way forward past another hundred or so riders before the start. At the gun I was dismayed to realize I was still probably 300 riders from the front. Having pre-ridden the first 15 mile or so I knew the roads were flat and wide enough for me to move up along the sides. So I did. Channeled my inner Belgian, riding in the "gutter". KOM'd the first 20 miles in the process. That was a few matches I didn't want to spend but I knew the front group would provide a huge draft to get sucked along for the first few hours. I was sitting comfortably in the top 20 with good legs. 2 miles later I got my first flat, in a section of the course aptly named "flat alley". Small cut on the shoulder but still sort holding air. One Co2 sorta worked. Rode a few hundred yards and it was soft again. Took the pump out topped it off. Still too low but stable so I took off in pursuit. By now, maybe 150 riders had passed me, all slower riders so no one I could get a draft off of. I was usually going 5-mph faster when I caught them so it was more like slalom. At this point I'm pretty gutted mentally. I feel like any chance for the class win is out the window.
Aid station #1 at 49 miles
First thing I do is crank the pressure up and tilt the wheel over so it the sealant is over the puncture. Keep pumping, keep the tire tilted, keep pumping, finally it stops spitting sealant out. I roll out. Over the next hour or so I started catching some stronger riders who had been dropped by the front group. Maybe there is still hope for the 50-54 win. I can tell I'm the strongest in the group that's formed but we're making good time and I'm getting some rest when I'm not taking pulls.
Then I got my second flat. This one destroyed me. I started planning how to drop out, how far the next aid station, etc. This time the sidewall had too big a slice for the sealant to cure so I put a tube in it. I was carrying a smaller section road tube. In retrospect, not a good idea. In no real hurry now, I take my time and pump it up as hard as I can with my two stage mini pump. Roll out and find that my legs still feel pretty good. Rhythm comes back and I start picking off clumps of riders and feeling strong. OK so maybe I'll finish this thing. That's when I got my third flat. Pinch flat this time. Cut sidewall, no more tubes so I bust out the patch kit. Trying to find the snake bite on a dusty trail with sealant and dirt all over everything. Yeah,that was fun. Kanza is entirely unsupported. If you break down, you might have a very long walk or 6hr wait by the side of the road until your crew is allowed on the road to fetch you. That is assuming you get cell signal on your phone which is highly unlikely.
Tube patched, on my way to second aid station at around mile 120. While there I ask the support crew if they have any spare tubes. They don't but another racer has a huge storage bag on his bike and tosses me one of his many spares.
Restocked on food and water, I head out. Legs feeling surprisingly good considering its now 95° at around mile 135. That's when I got my fourth flat. At this point, I don't care. I'll just ride as hard as I can for as long as I can and finish this damn thing. The remaining 70 or so miles are mostly uneventful. Mind numbing fatigue and total body pain. Just another day in the office.
I ended up 4th in class with a 12:33.14
50-54 class winner was 12:00.53
Overall winner was 10:49.08
Analyzing my Strava data, it looks like I lost roughly 44 minutes fixing flats. Looking at the flyby trace of the class winner and mine, I was always going faster the whole day. That plot also shows me about 15 minutes ahead minus all the flats. That theoretical gap doesn't factor in the time I spent chasing in the wind by myself, maybe 80% of the race. As a bike racer, you have to rationalize a bit to keep yourself motivated. Yes I got beat but I was probably the strongest 50+ guy there and would like have made top 20 without the flats
1. Show up on time
2. Get hardier tires
Next year!
Much gravel
The guy in the SDG kit is Jason Siegle, a so cal fast guy. He was in the front group of 8 riders when he flatted at mile 130. He sat up and waiting for some riders he coached and cruised
in about 2hrs down.
Emilio- you think the mountain bike would be faster/better disregarding the flats? seems like the roads were super smooth so maybe not?
Good question. I've been thinking about it quite a bit. Because there are no steep hills, you rarely need to get out of the saddle. So the extra weight and pedal bob are not a factor. Front and rear suspension would pay dividends in reduced ride fatigue and much less rolling resistance over some of the really raggedy sections. I'd still fit drop bars with clip on aero bars, MTB bars would be heinously uncomfortable and not aero. On the flight home I was thought exercising a built with my Pivot 429 Carbon. I'd run a 45mm tire, drop bars, Di2 with buttons on the aero bars, a bit more storage on the bike.
It would be cushy and fast everywhere. A tad more aero drag than a CX bike but the bulk of the drag is the rider anyway.
The aero bars were huge. I'd consistently go 1mph faster in them, at least. That's about 45 minutes saved and they allowed me to rest my upper body so I wasn't getting as tired as riders with just drop bars. I spent probably 140 of the 206 miles in the aero position.
I'm flexible and have narrow shoulders and am pretty good on a TT bike. All day long I'd come up on a group in a paceline, pull out, roll past a few mph faster and no one could hold my wheel. I wouldn't even be doing big watts but the drag difference to a rider on the tops was huge.
Suspension would reduce flats just by reducing the peak loads on the sidewalls. I saw a few hardtails/front suspension with 45c tires but they all had MTB bars. I may experiment with the setup locally to see if it works before DK200 '18.
That's because discs on a road bike undermine the moral fiber of haute road cycling fashion and create contempt in our hearts. When we start putting disc brakes on road bikes, the next step is leg hair and we cannot have that.
2017 Cervelo S3 Disc 61cm
Original plan was an SRM power meter. My original contact person and SRM turned out to be a monkey. Ignored my questions about chainline then ignored my requests to return it. Had to file a credit car dispute and call them literally 10x before I could get my Lightning carbon cranks back which had been shipped there for fit check. So I ordered the last remaining (NOS) Power2max spider based meter from Canada which was promptly lost by UPS. Threw in the towel and ordered a the clunky C1 ring based meter from Powertap. Everything works now though.
Discs = awesome. Controllable one finger brakes in any weather, hot or cold. Living in a place where I ride hills and mountains all the time, this upgrade is transformational.
D/A Di2 derailleurs now. Shifters and calipers have not been released yet so I built it up with RS785 bits in the interim. It's about 17.3bs now and should be around 17.0 when the rest of the D/A shows up, and maybe 16.9 if the lost Power2max meter ever surfaces.
I can't say enough good things about this bike. On 25c Schwalbe One tubeless and those teeny seat stays, its rides almost as buttery as my cross bike. Worlds smoother than my old S5 on 23's. What surprised me was how much stiffer the tapered steerer head tube and huge BB shell make the frame out of the saddle. Again, a huge and very noticeable difference to the S5 (gen 1). I love this bike.
That story about the dirty kanza is epic Emilio. I typed up several responses basically giving kudo's and expressing awe... none of them did the effort justice. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing you attack this thing next year with some experience behind you.
I did a thing... 2017 Hightower S+ build. I've got a set of carbon 29r wheels coming, along with a rear shock and carbon bars and cranks. Currently trying to source a boost 2017 rct3 damper but everyone is out of stock. any help @dcamp2 ?
That story about the dirty kanza is epic Emilio. I typed up several responses basically giving kudo's and expressing awe... none of them did the effort justice. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing you attack this thing next year with some experience behind you.
I did a thing... 2017 Hightower S+ build. I've got a set of carbon 29r wheels coming, along with a rear shock and carbon bars and cranks. Currently trying to source a boost 2017 rct3 damper but everyone is out of stock. any help @dcamp2 ?
You're just looking for a RT3 shock for that bike? Is that a RT right now (2 position lever moves 90 only)???
You're just looking for a RT3 shock for that bike? Is that a RT right now (2 position lever moves 90 only)???
The fork that came on this thing is an RC Pike. I'm going to convert it to an rct3 damper but QBP is showing out of stock. I think BTI is out of stock too.
As for shock, I have many ideas which I'll pontificate about later (to no ones interest).
charger 2? I'm riding a RC charger 2 in my Lyrik (same damper as pike) and it's good. Unless you need a firm lockout- there is really no difference in performance.
charger 2? I'm riding a RC charger 2 in my Lyrik (same damper as pike) and it's good. Unless you need a firm lockout- there is really no difference in performance.
Does the charger 2 fit inside the gen 1 (2017 MY Pike)? I was going to just put the RCT3 Charger 1 damper in it. I have no use for a lockout, but I like the low speed compression adjust that the RCT3 has. Wait, does the RC damper compression adjuster affect LSC only?
06-04-2017, 11:25 PM
Dirty Kanza 200
7
