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Dirty Kanza brouhaha
Last Post 07/09/2020 08:23 PM by Cosmic Kid. 22 Replies.
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 06/22/2020 05:49 PM |
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Lifetime Sports fired the founder of Dirty Kanza over comments he made on Facebook
https://www.velonews.com/news/dirty-kanza-boss-fired-over-inappropriate-and-insensitive-comment/
Social media has completely melted down over this and LTS is getting excoriated.
In light of this and other insensitive words and actions I sent the following email to LTS and received a nice reply.
Lifetime Sports,
The comments on various forums and Facebook pages seem to miss the larger point and I thought I'd offer my thanks and understanding for your recent, and likely painful decision to terminate the employment of the founder of the race.
A few years ago I was part of a race team looking for one more racer to fill our roster. We pulled up the race results for those in the area we race and invited one of the top racers to join the team. He was pleased to get the invite but when we reviewed his social media posts it necessitated a frank discussion about his choice of words and photos- many of which were misogynistic, bigoted, and crass. We told him those run counter to the public face of the team sponsor (a major player in the bike business), and asked him to edit his posts and refrain from posting similar. He said his posts are just who he is so we rescinded the invitation and offered it to some else. We raced cyclocross in 13 or 14 states over several years and were proud to showcase our sponsors name and products knowing that in our social media and racing we did nothing that did anything but put them in a favorable light.
You made a painful, but morally correct action. Thank you.
Best regards,
Dale
Good morning Dale,
Thank you for reaching out and for sharing your kind words. I have to say this is the first one I've read today so it was nice to take a break from the no so positive mail. Yes, we are sad that Jim had to move on but the rest of the original team is here and ready to move forward with a great event! Hope to see you at our event in the future! Have a great day!
(name deleted)
Athlete Service Manager
Life Time Events – Dirty Kanza, Big Sugar, Crusher in the Tushar, Lutsen 99er & Chequamegon Mountain Bike Festival
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 06/22/2020 06:41 PM |
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| Thanks Dale, both for posting this which I hadn't seen yet and the paragraph on your roster and giving that spot to someone else. We need more of this. |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 06/22/2020 07:18 PM |
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Yes the Facebook meltdown really showed a lot of people’s true colours although it also appeared there was a lot of frustration with the event’s commercialization in the mix.
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 06/22/2020 09:07 PM |
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They are also now looking into changing the name of the race, as well....Cummins had been resistant to changing the name and the Kaw nation had given their approval to the continued use of the name.
Now, they will hopefully change it.
Pretty simple, really...just change it to Dirty Kansas and call it a day. Everyone can still call it DK, etc and the names are so close, the change will be forgotten within 3 years. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 06/22/2020 09:08 PM |
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| And great letter, Dale....props for writing it. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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longslowdistance
Posts:2886
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| 06/22/2020 09:41 PM |
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| Agree |
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longslowdistance
Posts:2886
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| 06/22/2020 09:42 PM |
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| The only color The Money sees is green. The Money makes our world go round. Well played. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 07/07/2020 12:38 PM |
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Race officially cancelled for 2020.....looks like my redemption ride will have to wait until 2022, since I'm gonna assume most will just defer to 2021.
https://www.velonews.com/news/gravel/after-postponing-life-time-cancels-2020-dk-due-to-coronavirus/ |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 07/07/2020 01:04 PM |
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I’ve definitely removed this from my to do list.
I have found new goals. With the direction to ride solo and the purchase of the Norco Search, the “Search Habitat” gravel ride series was created to explore local gravel routes. I am now staring at a to do list that will likely take three years to complete and the list keeps growing. The 11 rides to date have been beyond awesome and absolutely stress free. Volume 12 coming up this Friday and looking like another stellar adventure. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 07/07/2020 01:15 PM |
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| I wish I had more gravel options around me.....sounds awesome, OC! |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 07/08/2020 11:56 AM |
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Yes we are very lucky here. BC is nirvana for gravel riding.
You can ride along ocean, river trails, remote forests, alpine, canyons, desert. The variations are endless. Heck even in the middle of a major metropolis you can find gravel.
Your area seems like "it should" have a descent amount of gravel, perhaps not the same variation but still. When I lived in Ontario there was a lot of farm related gravel roads (that I never rode). But perhaps that is more like Kansas. |
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longslowdistance
Posts:2886
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| 07/08/2020 10:49 PM |
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Minor rant and future prediction: Current "gravel road" bikes are racing bikes with room for fatter tires, or fat pigs intended for bike packing.
Both are great for many riders, but there is demand for something in between: fat tires, option for some front suspension, comfortable riding position, mtbish gear options. Not POS sidewalk trail bikes with sloppy suspension forks and entry level frame and gears, and not horizontal torso racers with road gearing. Real bikes, with a relaxed position and mtb range gears. . . . I've seen this show many times before, e.g. with the slow evolution of mass production mtn bikes from road bikes with fat tires in the late 70s , after many iterations finally into functional trail bikes. I snow ski a lot and it's the same. It was obvious in the 70s that easier turning and shorter on all snow, and on western snow fatter was the way to go, but it took decades to break the hidebound mold and advance. |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 07/08/2020 11:46 PM |
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| LSD most of that evolution has already happened over the last 2 years. There’s a vast difference between my first Diverge, basically just a road bike with minor adaptations, and my current Norco Search which is far more capable. In fact that old Diverge was the poorest equipped bike at OTGG last year by some margin. If you look at this years version of same bike, it’s a complete metamorphosis. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 07/09/2020 09:03 AM |
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Your area seems like "it should" have a descent amount of gravel, perhaps not the same variation but still. When I lived in Ontario there was a lot of farm related gravel roads (that I never rode). But perhaps that is more like Kansas.
if I go west about 90 min, I can get to some great gravel riding. Endless farm roads, no traffic and even some great hills. But in the immediate area, there is really only one option, which is the Des Plaines River Trail. Now, it is very long (runs from just south of O'Hare up to the Wisconsin border), so if I did the whole thing, it would be ~120 miles (round trip). But it is not technical at all, mostly packed pea gravel / kitty littler, and dead flat.
There is also the Millennium Trail, which is more mixed riding, but I can make a pretyt long loop from it, espeially if I link it around to the DPR at the north end....but that is pretty much it. Just too much development around here. You would think there would be more options across the border in Wisconsin with the farming, but all those county roads are paved now. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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longslowdistance
Posts:2886
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| 07/09/2020 10:05 AM |
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Thanks OC, checked out the Diverge. How well does that head shock work?
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