BICYCLING: Were you surprised to win, given the field?
COLIN STRICKLAND: Honestly, not totally. When [EF
Education First] announced their plans to do these alterna-
tive races, I said at the time that it was like throwing a wolf
pack into a crocodile pond. Sure, they are these cycling
super-predators. But the rules are different here. In the case
of Dirty Kanza, it was the heat and terrain. I don’t think they
were totally ready for the toll it would take on their bodies.BI: So were you the strongest guy or the most experienced?
CS: I have no idea, because I peaced out early, while all those
guys were still holding their cards. If there were a bunch of
sustained climbs, they would obviously put time into me
because of their superior power-to-weight ratio. The fact that
there was a tailwind for the last 50 miles also made it possible
for me to hold the gap I’d established. And I think heat and
fueling had a huge effect on those guys. Riding at your limit
for over 125 miles on gravel is really hard.
But I’d never raced against guys of that caliber before. I don’t
know if I could have stayed in the group all race, so I made a
move that put things on terms I am familiar with—being alone
versus having my opponents around me. You don’t have to get
caught up in the group dynamics. You can go slow when you
feel like going slow, and hard when you feel like going hard.BI: Five hours riding alone. What goes through your mind?
CS: A lot of different emotions. When you’re dragging into a
headwind, you start asking yourself what the hell are you doing.
If you’re getting pushed by a tailwind, you start feeling better.
I tried to not think about winning and instead just focused
on being efficient, getting my fueling right, choosing the right
lines. One of the things I love so much about gravel racing is
that there is always a best line, that one-centimeter stripe downthe road that is a little faster than anywhere else. I’m always
trying to find that line, and that keeps the mind occupied.BI: You train alone a lot. Why is that?
CS: Most of my riding buddies have real jobs and can’t ride
their bike all day. And the kind of training rides I do don’t really
make sense if you’re not trying to race these types of events. A
lot of people don’t have that mindset to push themselves mile
after mile for no apparent reason.BI: You fractured your pelvis last September. Seems you’ve
recovered!
CS: I was on my mountain bike in a parking lot, just messing
around, and ended up falling funny, where there is no protec-
tive muscle mass, and I fractured the acetabular. I was in a
wheelchair for a week and I couldn’t walk or put any pressure
on it for two months. It would take me 20 minutes just to
scoot to the edge of the bed to take a piss. But fortunately it
was a simple fracture that didn’t displace, so I’m all good now.BI: With this high-profile win, will you focus more on gravel?
CS: I prefer long-distance gravel races because I think I’m
better at them. There’s more chance to take advantage of
genetics, how much your ancestors hunted and gathered versus
farmed. I think my ancestors did a lot of hunting and gather-
ing, and that helps me ride bikes really long distances. But I’m
doing this full-time and treating it as a job, and part of that is
to get exposure for the people who support you. In the United
States, criteriums get a lot of exposure. That’s good bang for
the buck when you’re talking about a 75-minute race. Is it the
best marriage with racing long-distance gravel events? Not
really. But it’s a job, so I can’t be a princess about it. I have to
do races because I’m a bike racer.BI: You have a fairly scientific approach to racing, and you used
to be an environmental scientist. Is there a connection there?
CS: Yeah, on some level. For Dirty Kanza I definitely tried to
analyze the wind patterns for the day, and knew there would
be a headwind and crosswind early and then a tailwind later,
and that knowledge played into my overall tactics.BI: You didn’t start racing bikes until you were 24. Ever wonder
what could have been if you’d started earlier?
CS: Sure, I’ve wondered just based on physiology and how I
respond to training. But it was never a legitimate dream. It’s all
so front-loaded where you have to be on one of those high-level
development teams at 15–16, winning national championships.
My parents were organic farmers, not endurance athletes, so
that door was never opened for me. And that’s fine. I’m having
fun and enjoying the ride. When it stops being fun or lucrative,
I’ll move on. But so far I’ve been lucky. The moves I’ve tried
have worked. The camera has happened to be on when I’ve had
a good result. And sure, maybe the Spring Classics would have
suited me, but I’ll never know and that’s okay.COLIN STRICKLAND
became the first rider to finish the 200-mile Dirty Kanza in less than 10 hours, power-
ing free from the elites who many assumed would crush the pack and change gravel
forever. It was an inspiring victory for the two-time winner of the officially unofficial
Gravel World Championships (hosted by the Pirate Cycling League)—and the rest of us.With a 95-mile
solo breakaway,
the 32-year-
old Strickland
finished in 9:58:49,
more than nine
minutes ahead of
second-place
finisher Stetina.82 BICYCLING.COM • ISSUE 5