The Dirty Kanza attracts a wide range of riders, including seasoned pros like 2016 winner Ted King.
King recently blogged about his DK200 experience over on Strava and talked, in part, about the race’s uniqueness as well as perhaps inevitable comparisons to another well known race, the Queen of the Classics, Paris-Roubaix.
Of the Dirty Kanza 200, King said that “this race is hard for so many reasons—the distance, the heat, the level of preparation required—and [it] is virtually impossible to prepare for the actual race situation. It’s not a race as much as it is a test. You can focus all day on the big details. But everyone shows up fit, everyone has double, triple, quadruple-checked their equipment. It’s a test of one’s will and desire to plod on in spite of the trying circumstances.”
And in comparing the two challenging events, King noted that:
Roubaix isn’t Kanza. It’s not nearly 10,000 feet of climbing. It’s not almost entirely off-road, not 2,000 competitors, not self-supported, and not 90 degrees with a return leg featuring 100 miles into a seething headwind. And Roubaix certainly isn’t 200 miles.
It’s an interesting and perhaps unique take from, as King said, “I believe…the only person to have competed in both” the Dirty Kanza and Paris Roubaix.
You can read King’s full blog post over on Strava’s site here.
