Dirty Kanza Rebranded as ‘Unbound’

Dirty Kanza Rebranded as ‘Unbound’

Dirty Kanza, the biggest gravel racing event around, has a new name. Founded in 2006, the race rolls over the flowing hills in Kansas and attracts riders from around the world.

This summer, race founder Jim Cummins made indefensible comments on his Facebook page about a police shooting. Cummins was dismissed and riders demanded that the Dirty Kanza name go with him. Kanza is a term that can refer to the Kaw Nation, indigenous to Kansas and Oklahoma. Dirty Kanza is unnecessarily offensive to Indigenous people. So, the race has been given a new name.

The biggest gravel race around is now known as the Unbound Gravel.

Unbound is planned for June 5, COVID-depending, of course.

“[Unbound] represents the free-range cattle, wild mustangs and native bison in the prairie of the Flint Hills (Kansas), who move freely and live wild,” said Michelle Duffy, director of off-road events marketing for Life Time. “It’s synonymous with our participants who experience a sense of freedom on the gravel roads outside of Emporia, in those moments unbound from anything else. Just the rider and the tire-shredding, sun-baking, breathtaking Flint Hills gravel.”