Transcontinental Race (London - Istanbul) - #TCRNo4

100k in the lead almost, surely will have to sleep for a bit soon?

Sleep/Rest analysis at http://45.55.173.141/transconrace15

He mentioned to me that he plan 8 days but from the sound of his voice its not certain.

7 days likely.

I was half-joking. Let's see, there's a lot of riding left to do still, and as his first day showed, unexpected issues can arise at any time.

Following this is a lot more exciting than I thought it would be!

skinny

Accepted.

In to win. Or nothing.

Post 165 from @skinny I thought was a throw away remark, amazing keep strong.

Conclusion?

It's not just skinny; Emilia seems to be first woman (as far as I can tell; this tracking thing seems rather strange). Go forum!

Here are some provisional rider distances, after 72 hours, based on actual route tracking:
(the gps tracker only gives distance between the points)

75 @skinny 1484km (20.5km/hr)
2 Josh Ibbett 1393km (19.2km/hr)
17 Bourgeonnier Alexandre 1291km (17.7km/hr)
59 Ultan Coyle 1206km (16.5km/hr)

All four have climbed about fifteen thousand, two hundred and forty seven metres. Each.

I had a look at the route earlier and it struck me as nothing short of bonkers.

I have no conclusion, more confusion, as some of those profiles look well out - Ultan? No way.

Will they take the ferry? If so the Venice- Pula ferry goes at 17:30, local time, so does that mean that his lead will be eliminated?
If they do it would be a great time to catch up on sleep.
There's also- Ancona- split/ zadar, which leave in the evenings (roughly 20:00), but require an italian detour, though provide maybe a better route on the Croatia/ Bosnia + Herzegovina side...

Is it that bad? Must ride now...

Probably not as bad as many but I have discovered that I have an irrational fear of descending when above the tree line and also have increasingly arthritic hands which interferes with braking on a long descent. Sadly, what goes up must come down.

Emily Chappell appears to have spent an hour at the top of Ventoux before a descent in the middle of the night and then had a kip near the bottom before ploughing on. She is making good progress.

@skinny is about 75 km up on second place.

Because people are using different routes, distance covered is not a perfect measure. Distance to ride is a better one. That said, it seems that the top riders are all using similar routes.

@eyebrows Are you sure they take ferries? I would have thought they would cycle round the coast.

Is the ferry allowed? I had guessed they were cycling all the way through Slovenia. I hope skinny knows the rules!

Turns out the rules say ferries are allowed with approval of race director.

Ferry is allowed. It doesn't look like it will give any kind of advantage, other than a chance to sleep whilst on the move.

Easy one this, not pedalling but not outside assistance either and totally fine. Bear in mind in some editions ferries may be of no use to you whatsoever. Ferries are there where permitted to allow for more route options. They will rarely make for a shorter ride.

TCR Verdict: Not outside assistance.

I'm fairly sure skinny is heading for Venice (well, just north of it). I think he'd be further south if he was heading to Ancona.

Even if it is allowed, I'm not sure it would give much advantage as Jon says. By the time you'd gone down to Ancona you could be halfway into Slovenia with the same distance, and once you'd successfully got the (slow, 11 hours or near enough) ferry and risked a big wait for it, you'd have to do Split to Vukovar, which isn't massively shorter than mid-Slovenia to Vukovar (maybe 50-100 miles shorter).

Keep going @skinny - amazing effort so far!

A super brief google search suggests that there is only one ferry from Venice to pua per day leaving at 5:15. Clearly skinny will make that sailing with time to spare as will the guy in second. What about the guy in 3rd? Too far for him to go?

I think last year someone got a much shorter ferry across a lake and had to go back due to the race director not approving it. Although that might have been because it cut out a significant bit of specified climbing, I can't remember.

But basically I think when it says "allowed with approval of race director" it means only in unusual / exceptional circumstances

There are a couple of ferry routes allowed, but not one from Venice

Probably worth noting that even after correcting the mistake riding back and then around the bay and re-climbing Kotor he still went on to win...

Did Ultan suffer a mechanical? any news on this?

Slashed tyres https://instagram.com/p/5pZLv6IF2e/
and busted tubes... https://twitter.com/ultc/status/625805365536518144

https://twitter.com/JamesMarkHayden

https://twitter.com/transconrace

https://twitter.com/ultc

A few to follow on Twitter.