I rode for a couple hours yesterday and then drove the hour down to the finish of the Dirty Kanza. It has become a famous 200 mile gravel road race, through the Flint Hills of Kansas. We got down there with about an hour to spare before Dan Hughes, the winner, came rolling in. Dan owns Sunflower Bicycle Shop in Lawrence and has won this event 4 times now, I believe.

I was surprised how fresh Dan looked when he got to the finish. Let me tell you, it was super windy, probably more so out on some of those Flint Hills, and after riding a little over 12 hours, I would look like hell I assume.

This race has been going on for over a decade. Jim Cummins and Joel Dyke started it and it has grown ever since. The downtown mainstreet of Emporia Kansas was closed down after 4 pm and then the street party began.

Anyway, I just went down to experience some of the flavor of the event, plus support a great local event. I didn’t hang around long enough to see Tom Schuler and Lindsey finish on the high dollar, carbon, Calfee tandem or Keith Walberg roll in. Plus, many others. I wanted to, but have been feeling pretty shitty for two days now, so headed home to hang with the sicky, Bromont. He is super slow and tired from surgery and all the weird surroundings at the vet school.

I’ve been taking sudafed to keep my sinuses from draining into my lungs. It works, but makes my head all dry and feel weird. I didn’t feel nearly as bad riding yesterday as two days ago, so maybe this will just be a bump.

Here are some photos from the evening.

Dan rolling across the line after 12 hours.

Dan, poster boy, after the race finish last year, I guess. Nice mug shot.

Looking over the map trying to figure out exactly when to go over to the finish.

This guy rode the short 100 mile gravel race with an arm cast. He broke it last week.

Jim Cummins, czar of the DK200, and a blog fan, that nearly ripped my arm off shaking my hand right after he crossed the finish line.

Bromont and I wandering the venue.

Collin, Dan’s support, popping the bubbly right after the finish. Collin was crazy nervous before Dan actually cross the line.

Dan Hughes after Winning the DK200 from Steve Tilford on Vimeo.

I wasn’t going to post anything about this, but then Jonathan tweeted below, so I figured I might as well, since everyone is already asking.

Anyway, Jonathan called a couple nights ago and we did have a nice longish talk. I really didn’t know what he wanted to talk about initially, we had to do a couple back and forths, but eventually we connected.

The guy is very quick mentally. Of course I know him casually, but I’ve never ridden on a team with him or spent any time with him one on one, so didn’t really expect such a lively conversation.

I think/know the reason I got the call was because of some of previous posts I’ve done here that have rubbed Jonathan the wrong way. He said something towards the end about me being a little “brash”, which I readily accepted. I don’t normally pull many punches in that regard.

We talked a lot about the current situation of doping in the sport and also history of doping in cycling. I listened to his take on it and he listened to me. We are sort of coming from opposite sides. Maybe not so much so, but to me it seems like he is on the inside looking out and maybe I’m on the inside somewhat, looking in, but mainly on the outside looking in.

Jonathan does seem to know a lot about blood values and power numbers. I know very little, mainly what I’ve read.

Whatever, it wasn’t an adversarial conversation at all. I truly enjoyed it. I do understand his concerns and believe that he is trying to address the situation as best he can, considering his position. It is very complicated with so many people, entities involved, that the process seems nearly broken to me.

Anyway, the end result of the whole deal, and mainly the reason Jonathan called, was to invite me to go out to Colorado in a couple weeks and talk to a few of his people that are involved in the physiology and testing of his riders before the Tour. I guess Tommy D. is going to be doing some testing in Denver and I can watch the whole procedure and see what I think. He even offered to test me if I so choose. I’ll probably take him up on it, to just to try to understand the benefits of what they are doing scientifically to try to evaluate and identify what they are specifically looking for during these tests.

There is no downside here. I’m glad Jonathan decided to pick up the phone and call. I’ve got a lot of questions and I’m pretty sure that he has some of the answers.