10th Anniversary Of "The Mud Year".

L-R: GT, Matt Gersib, Andrea Cohen at the DK200 Expo in 2015.
 

Applying Lessons And Support From Friends To Gain Something I Never Imagined -

Ten years ago at the Dirty Kanza 200 it was wet, muddy, and pretty darn extreme. I know folks think the 2023 year was the mud year, but their perspective is probably skewed a bit towards recent events and does not take into consideration the awesomeness that was The Mud Year at this Emporia gravel event.

2015 was a very different time at Emporia than it is now days. Now the event is called "Unbound Gravel". It is owned by Life Time Events, and not run by its founders. It also is an event which has grown exponentially since those days. Now Unbound binds up the entire city. Extending to every nook and cranny, the city cannot escape the effects of the event these days. This simply was not the case ten years ago.

Then it was more of a slight inconvenience, and most Emporia folks were just beginning to notice this gravel cycling thing, which at that point had already been happening there for ten years! A decade of DK200's was a big deal to us who had been there over the years, but what is ironic now is that these days are largely forgotten by Unbound riders of 2025. They have little to no connection to the past gravel days.

If they only knew what was awaiting them.... The start scene. Note the "16" card on the left designating the start area if you felt it would take you 16 hours to finish.

  "The Mud Year" was a turning point in this event's history. It was a spectacle which probably will never be repeated again. It was the day I might have ridden my second longest ride in one sitting I've ever done. (There is debate whether it may have been my longest ride, but this is another tale for another day) You might be surprised to learn I'd ridden in events with worse conditions. This was pretty rough, but if I am honest, wet, cool days are when I ride at my best.

However; I think there are things I saw on that chilly, wet, misty morning which I do not think I'll ever see again. A marching line of humanity with bicycles so long you could not see the beginning or the end of the throng of people,. There were broken bikes with riders nursing their broken dreams trudging through the mire. I saw dozens of derailleurs, in one area the size of ten square yards, smashed into the mud by humans trampling them down as they marched by.  Expensive Di2 derailleurs left in the clay of Chase County. You'd have thought folks would want to salvage them. Actually, Ari Andonopoulos and I had that very thought as we rode by the scene.

Dreams being shattered here.... (Image by Ari Andonopoulos.

 Ari was my riding companion for the first third of the event. He coached me, encouraged me (and others), and he even carried my heavy Fargo while I carried his much lighter Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross bike along those three-plus miles of mud. Ari helped me tremendously in the opening stages of the 2015 DK200, and I will always be in his debt for doing so.

This is what is good about events like this with great adversity. You can forge bonds with people sharing the same or similar experiences. Sure, you may have an attitude which causes you to be very negative about finding yourself in a pickle such as we found ourselves in during the 2015 DK200. This would be totally understandable by most people looking at things from a selfish, monetary-driven, self-imposed results driven viewpoint. But sometimes it might be best to take the "K.C. Franks approach" instead.

That's me on the lower left. Image courtesy of Ari Andonopoulos.

 This approach was something I learned from an art class teacher in Junior College at North Iowa Area Community College. K.C. Franks was an older professor at the time, and he once shared a tenet of his which has been useful throughout my life. He stated the following, and I am paraphrasing for a more broad appeal here:  'When you have a plan, and the plan seems to be going sideways, don't "throw it in the trash". Run with it instead. Go where it seems to be taking you. Find a way to finish it, and you will end up with something remarkable which you never dreamed of in the first place'.

Had these folks who were disgusted with the mud, the "trashing of their plan", and who had a negative attitude about the day taken a different approach, such as the one K.C. Franks suggested? Who knows how the day may have turned for them. One such individual who could have just walked away and left was my brother Matt Gersib. His day ended on the bike early, due to mechanical failure, which was inoperable out in the field. But instead of going back to Joe's house and just wallowing in negativity, he rebooted, made a new plan, and became my de-facto ride support. Matt met me at the first checkpoint, got me things to eat, lubed my chain, and encouraged me. He was there at the last checkpoint to give me support too. He took what the day gave him and ran with it. It wasn't what he expected to have happen that wet morning, but it was awesome all the same. Ari and I were also more in the K.C. Franks camp, and I think this served me well on this day.

(L-R) Ari's friend Phil Ellsworth, who we caught up with going to Checkpoint #1. Guitar Ted feeding his face. Image by Ari Andonopoulos.

 Unfortunately after the first 'optional water stop' at the top of Texaco Hill, Ari and I parted ways. I left on my own, and it was a harder road for me because of this. However; I stuck to a steady pace, a plan of nutrition, and I steeled myself against the elements, the course, and the distance left to go. I was, and still am, pretty proud of how I rode that day.

However; there are those things beyond one's control which, again, can cause you to wad up your plan and toss it in the trash, or you can reconfigure the plan, regroup, and do the best you can with what you've been handed. Such was the case later on as I hit the "optional water stop" two thirds of the way into the course. This wasn't really an option, from a rider's standpoint, as there was no way to resupply on water for many miles until riders would eventually reach the Cottonwood Falls final checkpoint.

So, I waited for water, because the tanks were dry when I got there and a line was already forming to get the precious liquid which was promised "at any time now". Unfortunately for me, it wasn't until 20 plus minutes later that I was back rolling again with a full compliment of water onboard my Fargo.

Only about five miles from Cottonwood Falls I mistakenly thought I was out of time.

 

Matt Gersib putting my bike up on the rack at 3:00am in the morning in Cottonwood Falls. Image by Ryan Dudley.

I missed the checkpoint two cutoff by two minutes. I could have been really angry. I was delayed at the "optional water stop" too long. I maybe could have ridden faster. I spent too much time fiddling with my lights when it got dark out. But no..... This was not the way.

 I think the final stint was something like 44 miles, so I had already ridden a long way.  I had ridden for nearly 20 hours or so. I had done everything I could do to be successful. I put in a great effort and I was pleased with what I left out there on those wet Kansas Flint Hills roads. I'm not a great athlete, nor would I ever be considered "one of the fast guys", but this wasn't about those things. I was competing against myself, and in my way of looking at this, I had "won".

This was the last time I rode in this event. I've no reason to go back to compete in it again, and there are a ton of reasons I would not consider Unbound a good fit for me. Instead of doing the DK200/Unbound again, I went down with my friend, Tony McGrane, for the next few years and did my own rides. These ended up becoming some of my favorite experiences in the Flint Hills.

But I do not discount my 2015 experience at all, make no mistake. I learned a lot on the trip, and I met a lot of great folks. I got to ride with Ari, and experience an unbelievable day on the bike. I spent a lot of time with my brother from another mother, Matt Gersib. I got to stay at Joe's home, a then new acquaintance. It's hard to believe it has been ten years ago, and in a way it seems like it was 100 years ago. So much has changed since then, it is crazy.

I am glad I was able to experience those days, and I am happy I was able to persevere through much adversity to accomplish what I did. Thanks to K.C. Franks, the support of Matt Gersib,  and my friend Ari for making a mental and philosophical difference which made that day, and many since then, more than I could have ever imagined them to be.