Ultracycling

Yeah some 'chat' here http://road.cc/content/news/160466-bike-mechanic-attempt-record-cycling-land-s-end-john-o-groats-and-back-again

Follow Penny Barker, I am on her support crew, great race. Good craic.

Is she the British woman? I think it was her website I was looking over the other day. She wants to do RAAM yeah?

I watched the video of the Czech guy riding it last year. Looks properly grim and that was with nice weather! :)

This been posted already? http://www.transatlanticway.com/about/

2500km, mix of TCR-style plan-your-own route and TransAm-style pre-specified..

That's cool. Looks like fun, and not too long either.

Good effort by him to set that up.

Just seen price though...
Shame about the date too. Bit earlier and could have been viable.

@andy_k yeah it should be a good race. I'll either be riding it or helping with organisation.

@skinny you reckon its pricey?

TCR was £150. (probs be more next year but fair enough)
Trans am is $40 but no tracker.

I dunno if it's pricey, but others are cheaper. So just basing it off that. And the price might put some people off.

I'd pay the price fine. But compared with others it's more. Was more of an observation. The box/bag transport is a nice idea. Also allows people to stuff some normal clothes and things in the box for at the finish. So I think that's really good.

Ha, that's Adrian's ride! He was talking about doing one.

"Bag / Bike box transport from start to finish"

How much did that cost TransAm'ers?

Yep, Penny Barker
Sadly Shermer's has struck and we are currently by the side of the road near Limerick trying modify the bike and tape up her head. It isn't looking great though.

She took the Czech video too literally. Too low on the bike?

First ultra endurance event and too big a leap from what she has done before to this I think.
Her position wasn't too low but when she switched from her road bike to her TT bike she was immediately having neck trouble and we have watched as it slowly developed.

Why didn't you move her off the TT bike? Why isn't she riding the TT bike all the time?

#hindsightiswonderful

I hope she can continue but Shermers doesn't look fun to me. If it happens to me I'm out. No fucking way I'm taping my head up and/or ruining my neck to finish a ride.

Tour Divide is free.

Cost me about £5k all in.

Including bike?

http://felixwong.com/2015/07/how-much-does-it-cost-to-do-the-trans-am-bike-race/

$3000-4000 depending on how you cut it. Other people will be more/less expensive depending on their airline tickets, how often they bivvy vs. hotel, how fast they ride it - faster riders might have more expensive kit but they will be riding/eating for fewer days and possibly using fewer hotel stops. Short answer: no idea, but probably pretty expensive for me.

Don't tape the head up. Find a towel, fold it so it's the right width to have her head in the eighth place and use it as a neck brace. Then tape around or string around so it doesn't come undone. Should hold her head up.

And sorry! Sucks.

Including bike?

Yeah. Rough breakdown:

Flights £850 plus £150 to change the return flight date (British Airways, LHR > YYC, PHX > LHR)
Food, Lodging and Mechanicals en route: £1600
Extraction from Antelope Wells to Phoenix £400 (shuttle ride, and cousins hiring car for a few days).
Bike, bags, dynamo kit, etc £3000ish

Worlds most expensive free race.

Bike, bags, dynamo kit, etc £3000ish
Bikes don't count though, they're for life man :P Plus you can do what Felix did and sell stuff you won't use again.

World 24hr probably cost me more... well the boozing, eating and gambling with the gf afterwards did anyway :D

She used a road bike on the difficult climbs and the TT bike on the easier roads. That might have been a mistake as the positions weren't that similar. Anyway we have modded the road bike and she is back on it, heading for the halfway point.

Yeah Transatlantic is Adrian O'Sullivans race. TCR and TransAm finisher last year and this year respectively. The price only looks high as the others are so cheap. He's not out to make money, just cover his costs and give people more race options. Your right @skinny, the time of year is tricky as there are lots of different factors.

I didn't for one minute think he was trying to make money, tbh he should for organising such a thing, I'd want to make money from it. I'd have no issue paying it, but it might turn some people off.

The best thing to do is leave entry open after TCR closes and people who don't get a ride there may well come and ride Transatlantic.

If it were in April/may I'd be keen to riding it, but it's way to close to TCR.

I hope it takes off, Adrian seems a really nice guy!

@skinny I know you didn't. I wasn't getting at you, just explaining his reasons.

I don't think he will struggle to get riders. If anything I think he will be overwhelmed with entries. With all this dot watching and hype self supported endurance racing is definitely growing. As long as too many people don't hear how badly you suffered then I think they will give it a go.

I suggested 8 weeks post TCR for those who drop out or want something later in the year. More of a challenge also as you'd have to deal with adverse weather.

I've never been to Ireland, so would have been a fun way to see it!