I only did BWR once, but it is one of the Top 3 hardest days I've ever had on the bike. Probably #2 after the ride from Hilo to Mauna Kea. It's hard for me to imagine BWR being a "warm up" for anything. Kinda like asking if Norseman is a good warm-up for Kona. Or if the NYC Marathon is a good warm-up for Boston.

YMMV.

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
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I hear you, but ~135 miles / 10K climbing / 50%ish? offroad versus ~205 miles / 10K climbing / 100%ish? offroad...

Someone who has done both BWR and the DK200 should weigh in here, but some of the offroad sections in BWR are fairly technical, and my ride showed 11,400ft of climbing in 135 miles... Not sure if DK200 has "real" climbs or if the 10K elevation is rollers/false flats, but BWR definitely has "real" (i.e. little ring) climbs and the final climb of Double Peak is particularly cruel and unusual punishment.

With that said, if you've never done BWR, you definitely should, you'll have plenty of time to recover and continue to build/prep for DK200.

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
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I can only speak to BWR, which i have done the past 3 years, so take with a grain of salt. It would be a good prep race in terms of spending a full day on the bike, nailing nutrition and hydration and mental toughness. BWR is not a traditional gravel race. over 2/3 of the day will be on pavement. some of the off road will be gravel fire road, particularly Black's Canyon. that seems similar terrain to Kanza. But much of the off road is steep up and down and somewhat technical, for a road bike. that is the best part of BWR. setting up bike that is fast enough for road but yet can handle the different off road sections.

I’m in for DK200 and will be interested to hear takeaways from anyone who has done both. BWR was early season for me last year (as a Chicagoan) and I thought it was super tough - I did Lotoja in the fall and found them reasonably comparable, which is hard to believe given that Lotoja was almost 70 miles longer. I do think BWR is deceivingly challenging for a variety of reasons.

The problem is that, based on 2019 dates, you're looking at a very different scenario than in 2018.

In 2018, they were seven weeks apart. In 2019, they are four weeks apart - BWR is 2 weeks (ish) later and DK is 1 week (ish) earlier. And that's a massive difference.

I still think you could do both, but I'd approach them very differently than I did last year. I was able to do a full recovery week after BWR, then another build of four weeks, then a full two week taper into DK. Now, you'd really want BWR to be your last "big" day, but it's a bit too far out for that. Not totally problematic, but just maybe further out than "ideal."

The key will be taking proper rest after BWR and then making a smooth transition into your DK taper.

You really need a week of recovery after BWR. You really need two weeks of taper for DK. But that - this year - only leaves you with one week. Bringing the load up but not burying yourself in that week will be critical.

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