EF Pro Cycling's Alex Howes, the 2019 U.S. road race champion finished third and was scheduled to run again this Saturday, as an "ode" to the postponed Dirty Kanza Gravel Race, which he was scheduled to run on Thursday from his home in Colorado to Kansas, 355 The race will cover a distance of 355 kilometers from his home in Colorado to Kansas on Thursday.

The Dirty Kanza was originally scheduled for May 30, but Howes will again compete in the race as part of the team's "alternate calendar."

EF riders, especially Lachlan Morton, spent last season competing in the WorldTour team's regular road program and began a trend of participating in various off-road events alongside the WorldTour team's regular road program.

Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Dirty Kanza has been postponed to September 12.

"The timing of this all worked out," Howes said in a press release Wednesday. 'This is sort of an ode to Kanza. I mean, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that riding Dirty Kanza was one of the coolest events I've done. It was the coolest thing I did last year and the coolest thing I've ever done. So it's a shame that it has to be postponed. So this is the replacement for that. This is just lighting a little sparkler for Kanza."

Howes hopes to run 355 kilometers with friends, covering "60 to 70 percent" of the gravel roads in about 12 to 13 hours.

"I have a buddy in Colorado who is basically training at the same level as me," Howes said. He's a wildcat." His name is Spencer Powlison. I pitched him this idea, and we were noodling around for a while, and then he found out about it, and he was like, 'Hey, man, I'm going to do this. Then he found out about it and said, 'Hey, if you're going to do that, I'm going to be there. So I looked at his quarantine schedule, and he was in the mountains, too, and he was holed up as well. So I thought, 'Okay, well, let's make some plans here.'"

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Besides the desire to more or less recreate the postponed Dirty Kanza, Howes said he would do the ride simply because it was something he had always wanted to do.

"I think every cyclist in Colorado has experienced a windy day at least once. If I could find a way to turn east and get home, I bet I could make it to Kansas in three hours," he said. Unfortunately, I think it will actually be a headwind the whole way, but we have time. I figured I'd run all the way to Kansas."

For the necessary return trip, Howes asked his wife to meet him on the other side.

"She's going to drive me there. The Kansas/Colorado state line is only two and a half hours away from Target, so if you want, you can go over there."

"And she was up for it. She said as long as I put a cooler in the car, she would meet me at the border with a cooler full of drinks and a change of clothes."

Howes will also be carrying a Garmin InReach Mini satellite communicator so she can follow Howes and Powlison's journey online on Thursday using the Garmin Explorer map app from the EF Pro Cycling website.

"Part of it is for the public and part of it is in case my wife wants to pick me up earlier," Howes joked.

The page also details the equipment Howes will be using and the supplies he will be taking with him, as he hopes he will not have to stop to interact with anyone else due to the ongoing risks associated with the coronavirus outbreak.

"The idea and plan at this point is to not stop for supplies, not sure what will happen. 'I've mapped out a few places where we could get some water, but we don't know what it's like out there. But I hope we don't run into anyone. That would be great."

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