2019 Edition of The World’s Premier Gravel Race Brings 2700 Riders to Kansas’ Flint Hills
Emporia, Kansas: Colin Strickland and Amity Rockwell were crowned the 2019 King and Queen of Kanza, winning the 14th Garmin Dirty Kanza 200, owned and produced by Life Time, the premier healthy lifestyle brand.
This is the first DK title for both Strickland and Rockwell, they bested the most competitive men’s and women’s fields the Dirty Kanza 200 has seen to date, which included a number of WorldTour professional cyclists; Olympians; and national and world champions in cyclocross, road and mountain biking.
The 2019 course, regarded by organizers as the toughest they’ve created, covered 201.7 miles through some of the Flint Hills’ most beautiful and remote roads, challenging riders with chunky gravel and deep ruts (made deeper by recent rains).
“Each and every one of the 2700 riders that pinned on a number at this year’s event has our admiration,” said longtime organizer and Chief Gravel Officer Jim Cummins. “As they always do, the Flint Hills served up a number of challenges that Amity and Colin overcame with the skill and perseverance required of a DK champion. We’re proud to name them as the Queen and King of Kanza.”
Garmin Dirty Kanza 200 Women’s Top Five
1. Amity Rockwell (San Francisco, CA)
2. Alison Tetrick (Petaluma, CA)
3. Sarah Max (Bend, OR)
4. Kae Takeshita (Itasca, IL)
5. Olivia Dillon (Fairfax, CA)
Garmin Dirty Kanza 200 Men’s Top Five
1. Colin Strickland (Austin, TX)
2. Peter Stetina (Santa Rosa, CA)
3. Alex Howes (Louisville, CO)
4. Lachlan Morton (Louisville, CO)
5. Payson McElveen (Durango, CO)
A full list of official results, including race results for the DK100 and DKXL (350) is available via Athlinks here.
More Dirty Kanza Highlights for 2019
- DK100 Men’s Winner: Ashton Lambie
- DK100 Women’s Winner: Lauren Stephens
- DKXL (350 Miles) Men’s Winner: Jay Petervary
- DKXL (350 Miles) Women’s Winner: Lael Wilcox
- DK High School Men’s: Lucas Stierwalt
- DK High School Women’s: Oona Nelson
Interesting fact: Both DK200 winners were aboard Allied Cycle Works’s all-new Able gravel bike. Catch the scoop on the Able at this link.
Select Images by Linda Guerrette Photography
That is going to sell a lot of those sweet looking elevated chain stay bikes!
Why doesn’t the XL get more coverage? Barely a mention, but they were out all night and most of the day…
This was the press release I received and all the info I have available at the moment. However, I may have a rider report from XL coming soon… stay tuned.
Gravel Cyclist used to be about grass root cycling. Now it is about press releases, pro gravel racing and industry insiders. I miss the old site with videos of guys beating each other up on gravel rides.
Hey Tim, thanks for the feedback, I do appreciate it. I try to cover a lot of the big events, and as you point out, some of the grassroots stuff I have done in the past has suffered. The site has grown massively in popularity to the point it is now an informational source for gravel cyclists from all over the world.
I haven’t recorded any of our winter antics rides for a while, nor attended any smaller events for much of this year. I never want to lose sight of what this site began as… mostly a silly repository of stories and videos about riding around and attending small, grass roots events… the site has definitely taken a different direction of late, but I will do my best to keep the content varied to include more of what you mention. With that said, I do have a ton of video content of me stooging around various parts of the countryside, just finding time to edit it all whilst holding down a job and so on is the challenge.
Segue for a moment to DK itself… I have a ride report and video to produce from my perspective, mostly a mega fail of epic proportions complete with knackered stomach, puke and naps. I think readers will find that of interest, I hope you do as well.
JOM, you raced this event, didn’t you? How did you do?