Here’s how Colin Strickland broke a 14-year record in the Dirty Kanza 200 last weekend

Welcome to the “gravel-grinding capital of the world.”

Emporia, Kansas — the home of the Garmin Dirty Kanza 200 — welcomed 2,700 bikers from all 50 states and 28 other countries to make the trek across hundreds of miles of Kansas’ rolling Flint Hills last weekend.

And, as you can imagine, like a sunset over the Kanza Prairie, the event did not disappoint. Colin Strickland became the first competitor in the race’s 14-year history to average north of 20 mph and the first to finish in fewer than 10 hours, clocking in at 9:58.49.

“It’s a threshold that I didn’t think we would ever see broken,” said Jim Cummins, 61, co-founder of Dirty Kanza. “To average 20 miles per hour on a bicycle — on gravel — for any distance is a very very difficult thing to do. And to do it for a distance like 200 miles is almost super-human ... that performance is nothing short of stunning.”

Strickland went home victorious alongside Amity Rockwell.

The duo finished first in the men’s and women’s divisions, respectively, of the annual Dirty Kanza 200, a roughly 200-mile gravel bike race that included professional cyclists, Olympians and national and world champions in cyclocross, road and mountain biking. Strickland and Rockwell were crowned the 2019 King and Queen of Kanza.

Rockwell, a San Francisco native, completed the race in 11:59.53.

“I’m still a little bit in shock,” Rockwell said. “Winning didn’t really come into my head until the last 50 miles.”

Last year’s winner, Ted King, finished eighth overall with a time of 10:38.40.

Competitors biked 201.7 miles, with a cumulative elevation gain of 9,601 feet, the most in race history, and checked in at mile 64 (Alma, Kansas) and mile 151 (Council Grove, Kansas), where they hydrated.

They crossed the finish line, as is tradition, at Emporia’s Granada Theater near the Emporia State University campus.

The participants included former NFL cornerback Jason Sehorn, retired WNBA shooting guard and Claflin, Kansas native Jackie Stiles and Payson McElveen, a two-time U.S. Mountain Bike Marathon national champion.

Neither Strickland nor Rockwell earned any money for their first-place finishes — nobody did, in reality — but to those familiar, that’s part of the allure.

“This race is as much about the 2 a.m. finisher as it is the champion, and that will never change,” race organizer Lelan Dains said in a news release. “Dirty Kanza was created to be a pure and true test of one’s self. If nothing else, the quality and diversity of the field this year are evidence that we’ve been successful to that end.”

Michael Morgan, who hails from Columbia, came in 23rd in the men’s heat, finishing in 11:52.31. El Dorado, Kansas, native Neal Harrison took 12:14.55 to cross the finish line, good for 33rd in the men’s heat.

The course was hailed as the most challenging it had ever been. It included a two-mile stretch on Little Egypt Road around mile 93 that offered deep ruts, steep hills and rock, and a new starting line that led racers north up Commercial Street toward Emporia State.

The event also included the DK 100, which was won in the men’s heat by Ashton Lambie and in the women’s heat by Lauren Stephens.

Jay Petervary captured the men’s title in the DKXL, a 350-mile race, and Lael Wilcox was the women’s champion.

Lucas Stierwalt (men’s) and Oona Nelson (women’s) secured the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, in the DK high school competition.

Though impressed by the bikers’ 200-mile feat, Cummins said “the most important stories that come out of Dirty Kanza are told elsewhere.”

Cummins choked up as he recalled a story from this year’s 25-mile race. He said a local woman, crossing the finish line where he was waiting to congratulate participants, threw her arms around him and wept without stepping foot off her bike.

“She had faced her [personal] challenge and she … had won,” Cummins said. “People who had faced a challenge at 25 miles, people who had faced a challenge at 50 miles or 100 miles. That was their personal challenge and they had come out victorious. And that is what Dirty Kanza is all about ... allowing each individual to experience their own victory.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2019 at 4:10 PM.