Transcontinental Race (London - Istanbul) - #TCRNo4

I'll add you when I'm not murdering bicycle retailers...

No stress dude.

If you can see my stuff then, ignore the one that's the whole thing, that's my old 'northerly' route. I think I'll try the one through Kosovo that's in pieces.

You're not public so it won't let me send a fiend request.

http://www.cycling-challenge.com/grimselpass-both-sides-and-furkapass/#prettyPhoto

Is that all you got Switzerland? Pfft

Looks stunning. I'm sure I'll be thrilled about it with 1000k in the legs...

Grimselpass? Very scenic. Bit of a schlep from the North though. Nice descent, mind you.

Who doesn't like 30k of climbing... oh, that's right, me!

#flattrackspecialist

It's the first of 5 climbs on the Alpenbrevet Platintour - and it's not the longest, or the highest. The longest is the Lucomagno/Lukmanier. 41km of climbing from Biasca. Normally into a headwind.

I take it your route goes up the Grimselpass, down to Gletsch, then up the Furkapass into Andermatt/Realp?

Yeah, oh. What's your profile number. Just pm me.

Booked a flight back from Istanbul. Shit's gettin' real(er).

I didn't do that. Not sure if I will. Might just book one when I get there.

Figured it's gotta be cheaper booking in advance and might be an incentive to finish :)

Yeah. I might look at it.
What date did you book for!?

What's you plan for Can>Istanbul leg?

14th

Hoping to get to the finish before the party and then I'll probably just box the bike and bus to Istanbul.

I'll have a beer waiting for you.
Or 10.

Ta,
10 sounds more my style :)

There's discussion in fb about a group ride to Bandirma and taking a ferry from there to Istanbul on the 14th.

I saw that and thought 'good luck to them!'
A 100-mile ride to Istanbul might not be top of my 'things I really want to do right now' list at that time...

I saw that too and thought about it but I'd much rather have the bike boxed well before getting to Istanbul and the airport (there's two bike shops in Cannakale that hopefully will be able to help out with cardboard or tools).

I mean, where do you get boxes from in Istanbul and have you seen me pack a bike before - it's never been pretty...

All that trouble to get to the edge of Asia and miss the opportunity to ride there.

Or possibly one might be so full of cycling that one doesn't care about the pretty packing.

Turkish airlines doesn't require the bike to have a box.

Don't want to plan too much details about that yet. My flight leaves on 17th. Could be nice to ride to Istanbul. Or might not be.

All that trouble to get to the edge of Asia and miss the opportunity to ride there.

Been there. Saw the traffic. Couldn't give a crap about riding in it.

pretty packing

Oh, it's not pretty, the whole process just makes me angry. Maybe I could leave the bike there for sale...

Turkish airlines doesn't require the bike to have a box.

Which does still leave me with the option to ride there and maybe wrap the bike in a plastic bag, like the CTC ones.

Selling might be an opportunity. Could get a good price if you advertise it as a tcr bike, with all the street cred attached to it. Maybe auction.

Nah, I need it for TransAm. Pancakes!

Ahh yes, pancakes.

A shop that built me a rear disc brake wheel recently had this problem. Everything in the specs and packaging said 11spd road but when it came time to fit it wouldn't work. Everyone was quite astounded.

The prick I bought it off argued with me about it, basically calling us idiots and telling me to get mechanic to check for spacers. Really, like no one would notice a fucking spacer behind a cassette after it had failed to fit on the freehub?

Dickhead. This was after I specifcally asked the knob for the 11spd ROAD version and sent him a separate email double checking that it WOULD DEFINITELY WORK WITH ULTEGRA ROAD CASSETTE? Arsehole.

He's told me the 11spd road freehub won't work but Madison have said it will work. I've ordered one and will get it to Scherrit asap to see if it works or not. If it doesn't work then it's wheel rebuild time I guess.