200-mile race four times. Contested the weekend after Memorial Day each year, the race winds through the Flint Hills near Emporia. Hughes’ success in the race also has earned him a spot in the pages of magazines such as Road Bike Action. In his Outside Magazine feature, Hughes said he emphasized the importance of having the right bike for gravel. Skinny tires are a death sentence, Hughes said, as is a wonky nutrition plan.
Hughes’s dominance in the Dirty Kanza faces its biggest challenge this year. He recently learned that a retired professional cyclist, Neil Shirley, will enter the race and ride a Dan Hughes edition bike. «It’s nice to have done well at the Kanza,» Hughes said. «At the same time, Neil Shirley is coming to clean my clock with the bike I helped design.»
Hughes, who purchased Sunflower with his wife, Karla, about 13 years ago, said gravel riding’s allure also extends to more casual riders wary of dodging vehicles on city streets. Gravel grinding, Hughes said, is the “twistiest and turniest” style of riding.
Hughes said Signal Oak near Baldwin City, where the first warnings of Quantrill’s raiders originated, and Buck Creek near Oskaloosa are good spots. Otherwise “it’s all about going and finding a squiggly line on a map.”
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