the real dirty kanza story

well jim wrote a very good story of the race. but that only covered 5 guys at the front of the dirty kanza.most of the front pack died a ugly death of dehydration & headwinditus. so i will tell the tale of the rest of us fools that thought we could finish dk this year.

steve & liz rode as a couple all day. to ride 180ish miles by eskridge then call it a day.not bad!
all the riders were smiling & looking forward to a good day in the saddle.little did they know that the wind & heat was coming. we rolled out of town in 60 degree mild weather. all looked good the frontrunners were eyeing each other . i knew things were going to be hard , it was going to get hot today. the first right turn onto the gravel was telltale of what some people thought they were going to do, race! i slowly fell back thru the field thinking this is too early to go fast.

i stole this photo from guitar teds blog, thanks. this is the crux of the problem in the first leg there were two of there huge honking climbs this is mt ventoux ( named by the locals) at the start of this climb i put my brain on autopilot to finish mode .put in my i pod ( i don’t do this much but it helps sometimes.) strangely enough the pixies song wave of mutilation came on first.with the single speed there was no riding anyone else’s pace. i met up with liz & steve at the back side of mt ventoux with a sweet tailwind. as i passed them i figured out the westerly next stretch would be a 6 mile climb with a 20plus mph headwind . i let steve know we were in for a family size can of whup ass.
trudge , trudge, trudge.

the pace for climbing is like this on a singlespeed is trudge , trudge all the way up at&t hill . half way up the drive by truckers came on with the song,
steve mcqueen just before josh stamper wizzed by me. at the top of at&t hill at the radio tower i saw for the umpteenth time the radio transmitter that crashed to the ground like a space capsule& said damn i need to take a picture of that one of these years. pretty cool, they just left it there . on the way down the hill i was looking forward to a cross tail wind for the next 100 miles.
trudging north towards bazaar i was wondering when it would get easier. that tailwind would kick in anytime now. well , H E double hockey sticks there was a cross headwind & i’m about out of water & 10 miles to go to cottonwood falls. my day was looking grim at this point. so i turned off the brain & rode. the smashing pumpkins songs , today & siva kept me up & flowing.
somehow i limped into town. got what i thought was enough for 40 miles to the next stop. got out of town before anyone knew i was there. 5 miles before diamond springs i was out of water. i had drank 3 large bottles & a small camel bak full of water in 15 miles. something was going wrong . somehow i found a farmhouse & used their water pump to fill up. now it was time to go slow & finish somehow. survival time. the ipod came off so i could monitor all body functions . last thing i needed was to get amped up with ac-dc hells bells & cramp up like a baby in the grass along the road.
the only thing that would not make my stomach cramp was a caseys burrito & cliff bloks. any sports drink or gels were not doing me any favors. so get your ass riding joel, was the mantra. up the diamond springs hill there was some nasty gravel it looked like i could shave with it. up top people were having all kinds of trouble . one rider had a fully black kit & it looked grey with salt. as i passed i let him know the obvious drink man drink!all the way into council grove i followed dennis grelk . i couldn’t catch him or loose him. that sucks. i was just 100 yards back.
council grove should have been my finish spot, but the mind was in cruse control . i was in finish mode. i got my 2 bean burritos a cold coke downed a cool bottle of water packed up & left. i was feeling better so the ipod went on again to start playing aerosmith sweet emotion not bad for a start. the way out of town felt like it was up hill for miles & hot. about 10 miles in a couple of super nice guys cought me & tried to tow me to alma.

greg bachman & chad minert these dudes were all for pulling my sorry butt to the finish. they were great. thanks guys. i couldn’t stay with them i had just figured out my body was done.if i would try to finish i would do big damage to myself. so i walked the hills ,cursed ,sang beastie boys songs. tried to eat , tried to drink but the body didn’t like either of these ideas. about 5 miles from alma ,david a student from ku on his second gravel ride took pity on me & rode slow to alma with me. we were done. cooked, stick a fork in me.
when we got to alma, skip from the lincoln crew was there . he was done about the same as us. the heat & wind finished off most of the riders. a very nice lady from texas gave david & i a ride to emporia . her husband finished. good on him.
when we got in there were good bunch waiting around for the finishers. i should have gotten some sleep but i wanted to know the finish count.

jim & guitar ted plotting in the background. probably telling lies about gravel!we all thought the finishers were going to get in late i was thinking after 9. so when the news came in a little after 8 a man was coming & fast. i was floored.

mike marchand ,wow !he owned this race . troy krause 2nd place & he finished well faster than i thought it could be done this year. i stayed up until the last men came in. but the incredible finish was chris van alstyne

this man rode a cannondale road bike from the 90S with 28c specialized armidillo nimbus tires. wow. he decided to race after talking to camron at the shop 4 weeks before. wow a real sweet finish.incredible.

everyone that finished dk this year is amazing this was the year all will be compared to. hot, wind & hard course. thanks all.

big grin…joel

dream beautiful dreams