Dirty Kanza Founder Jim Cummins Moves On

Life Time Fitness and Dirty Kanza founder Jim Cummins have parted ways and Jim recently shared this statement with us:

I have dedicated the past fifteen years of my life to serving the cycling community.  A strong community is a diverse community… made up of people from all walks of life, from all races, all religions, and holding a wide variety of views.  I support them all.

A recent social media post of mine had one singular purpose… to show support for our men and women in blue.  Unfortunately, I chose my words poorly.  As a result, my words caused division and pain.  For that I am deeply sorry.

In light of this, I have agreed with the fine people at Life Time that the only proper course of action is for me to end my association with the company and with their events.  I wish Life Time, and the entire cycling community well.  And hope that, some day, I can help to heal the wounds that I have caused.

Most Sincerely and Regretfully,

Jim Cummins

Cummins ran the race from 2006-2018. He sold DK to Life Time in 2018 and continued to oversee race logistics with the title of Chief Gravel Officer.

On Friday, Cummins shared a video involving a shoot out that took place in 2017 between police officers and Daniel Clary. He related it to the recent killing of Rayshard Brooks .  Cummins’ post said “Watch this ENTIRE video. Then if you still believe the Cop who shot Rayshard Brooks, after he stole the officer’s taser and then used it against him, was not justified in shooting Mr. Brooks… then unfriend me now.”

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Life Time’s statement regarding the status of Jim Cummins following yesterday’s comments. As an event, we commit to continuing to learn, listen and grow toward making our sport a more inclusive and progressive place where all feel welcome and represented. We have an opportunity to do better and be better, and we plan on doing just that. Thank you for your support during this time.

A post shared by Dirty Kanza (@dirtykanza) on Jun 20, 2020 at 7:59pm PDT

Life Time released this statement on Dirty Kanza’s social media platforms.

“Following a review of the post made by the founder of Dirty Kanza, we found it to be inappropriate and insensitive, and we stand against it as an organization. As an outcome of our investigation, we have parted ways with this individual.

“One of our core principles is to provide safe, trusting and respectful environments for all our members, customers, and team members, while rejecting all actions of prejudice or injustice toward others.

“We will continue to take all matters like this with the same degree of seriousness by conducting thorough reviews and acting any time we believe our company principles have been violated.”