Transcontinental Race (London - Istanbul) - #TCRNo4

For 90kg of me 3000k into a 400k ride, it actually does.

That's one vote for staying north and skipping Greece.

vs.

Pretty sure a lot of people said Macedonia was great, but I don't want to get fucked up at a dodgy border. No idea about where the border controls are - does RWGPS actually take them into account?

Go through Plovdiv on your Bulgarian route, should save a few miles.

Macedonia was great, this is what I what I roughly came up with for that goes through Greece.

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https://goo.gl/maps/bDQhpprK44t

It's "sort of" on the way. It's fucking boring though.

Yeah, I've not smooth any lumps out of any of these yet, or checked if they're even roads. I have no idea about border crossings, etc. Still, bit better than nothing, right? :S

I'll reroute the Bulgarian option.

What's your general feeling for routes though - Bulgaria or Greece the better option? I've never been to either so have no idea.

Hippy it's a race not a sight seeing tour.

I think this year Greece might be the shorter option because when you enter Turkey you've got to go due South anyway.

Bulgaria pros:
Flatter, simpler to navigate, lots of petrol stations

Bulgaria cons:
Boring, some dodgy lorries but there was a decent hard shoulder for most of it

Greece pros:
Shorter and it'd be more interesting for me as I did Bulgaria last year so I'd get to check it out.

Greece cons:
Bumpier, hotter (?), mosquitoes

Looking at the last 3 years most of the serious guys all went through Bulgaria and I think people generally chose Greece as they felt more safe and familiar with it. However, seeing as it's not continuing onto Istanbul maybe the Greek route is quickest.

What are you doing about the CP3 to CP4 part? I'm currently deciding between through Bosnia again or going up the Croatian coast for some variety

Plovdiv reroute, just saved me 80k :)

Though that whole route is longer than the southerly one by 110k

Um, who said anything about sightseeing?

Better = faster.

Which way are you going, tourist?

My southerly option goes through South Slovenia, then spends a long time in Croatia (not the coast so much though) then across Bosnia and up Montenegro.

My northerly route is similar but cuts more across Croatia and spends a lot longer across the middle of Bosnia across Montenegro.

Modifying my southerly route to head up and around Kosovo adds another 220k.

I read that Kosovo was a risky option but riding straight through it probably gives the most direct route.

The main issue with Kosovo is that you can't go into Serbia from it. I think the other borders are ok.
When I did a route in December, I did something pretty similar to your Greece version - it was shorter and flatter than Bulgaria.
For 3 to 4 mine was mostly a mainish road quite close to the coast, then a little bit of Bosnia. It seemed flattest.
For 2 to 3 I was mainly planning on staying in Switzerland and taking my punishment in the Alps, but going by some Facebook chatter, some people are planning to cut South into Italy a bit sooner and doing something slightly longer but flatter - I'll have to re-visit that bit.

you can't go into Serbia from it.

My route goes straight into Mac from Kosovo so perhaps not the issue I'm imagining it to be? I'm sure I heard of fighting or something near borders though.

Flat but coastal winds?

I have high and low routes across the alps - Italy isn't flat up there though is it so I have no idea which way to go. This whole thing is a rough guess, never having cycled any of it.

My main thing is just avoiding stuff that will require on the fly rerouting. I don't care how long my route is I just don't want to get to an illegal tunnel or something and then have the stress of working out how to continue.

Through the tunnel.

• A lot of tunnels have cycle paths around the side.
  
  
  

** I went through a super illegial tunnel in montenegro. IT was really long. We got picked up by a guy in a flatbed truck half way through, he was cool, but the securtiy guard was not. Fun tunnel.

Is it flagged on the TCR map? Or is it unlikely we'll come across it?

I've cycled in that part of Italy a lot, so if you want some help in deciding a route let me know and I'd be happy to advise.

Nah it's off route, when I was riding back after race.

@andyp Might send you my route for a look ;) Don't show hippy, he hasn't paid me yet.

Ta. Are you on RWGPS?

Of course. That offer is open to anyone who's doing this.

Yep.

Don't show hippy, he hasn't paid me yet.

You had your chance, now I've wasted my own time coming up with two routes! :P

I keep thinking it'd be cool to club together to scan routes from both ends to remove illegal/non-existant roads. I keep asking my missus to help but for some reason, clothes shopping is more appealing to her.

How do I share my routes with ya?

^ Not something many Aussies would say...