Dirty Kanza is Holding a Virtual Gravel Camp, and We Think It's Awesome
After Dirty Kanza canceled its camps amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Life Time decided to put on a virtual camp the first weekend of April.
In addition to virtual rides, the camp will feature ride challenges, bike mechanic tutorials, on-course video tours, and more.
The global spread of COVID-19 has created a lot of unrest in the cycling community. Spring races are falling like dominoes. People are scared and stressed (but here’s a few tips on how to combat that). We miss our cycling friends.
So when Life Time, which owns and produces Dirty Kanza, realized it would have to cancel its two in-person camps scheduled for March and April, they decided that we needed something to turn our collective frown upside down: The Garmin Dirty Kanza Virtual Training Camp Experience.
The camp, scheduled to take place April 2 through 5, will host virtual rides free to anyone via the Dirty Kanza Facebook page. There will also be motivational, instructional, and educational video content hosted via an online portal, which is free to those who are already registered and available to the public at large for a $10 fee (a portion of the fee benefiting local businesses in Emporia, Kansas, where the legendary gravel race is held).
“We all need something positive to lift our spirits right now,” Kristi Mohn, Life Time’s Dirty Kanza marketing manager told Bicycling. “The gravel community is hurting. We wanted to show up for them and just have a little fun together right now. It will be a great way to take a break from Netflix and spend a few days with our gravel family riding bikes and doing what we love.”
All camp programming, including the hours of rides along Emporia’s legendary Flint Hills, will be made virtual, and registered campers will receive training suggestions for indoor or outdoor rides, based on their current circumstances.
The camp will feature online ride challenges, bike mechanic tutorials, on-course video tours, nutrition tips, and live streams with cameo appearances by sponsors and previous race winners Yuri Hauswald and Colin Strickland, among others.
To kick off the experience, Dirty Kanza founder Jim Cummins will host an online welcome dinner party for campers, and they will be joined by Life Time Foundation board member Emily Akradi.
Dirty Kanza, which is generally considered the Super Bowl of gravel racing, had expanded its field to 3,800 riders for the 2020 edition. The Life Time Dirty Kanza team will be announcing its decision regarding either canceling or rescheduling the event by May 1, 2020, four weeks out from the planned May 30 race day.
In the meantime, it will be nice to be able to have a great big gravel family gathering where we can all share some virtual ride and hang out time while we shelter in place.
“One of the best advantages to going online is that our capacity, for athletes and partners alike, is pretty much unlimited,” Mohn said in a press release. “Even though this is new to our team, we promise it will be entertaining and educational, and help keep us all motivated as we work to the finish line of this pandemic.”
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