Transcontinental Race (London - Istanbul) - #TCRNo4

Who here is @NestorIsHere on Twitter?

I've just seen Jayne Wadsworth has arrived at CP2 (2nd woman). do you think she's doing it with clipless pedals this year?
Last year she did it with platform pedals and quarter clips!!!

Hippy's at the end of the valley. Will he turn left or right?

Looks like it (https://twitter.com/JayneWadsworth/status/758583920304721920). According to documentary about last year's TCR she was only invited to join her pair 2 weeks before the start!

No point turning off there, it only leads back the way he's come. All will become clearer when he gets to Lugano. Does he go round the top of Lake Como or carry on down to go round the bottom?

There's another brave soul (46 - Jurgen Knupe) headed south in hippys wake...

doesn't he have to go right down to Como to make the detour remotely worthwhile? It looks like if he goes left he's just going north to Chur.

edit. doh! beaten to it...

Shot of @hippy right at the end, beers in the title is misleading though...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBsE8oSzY-s

Knee feels like someone is trying to saw into it going up the Fuckerpass. Not sure how much more climbing I can be bothered to do plus it's too cold for any night cycling

Least it's nice looking

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Good effort Joe. Dont stop!!

Joe you are performing excellently. Love how you always manage a smile for any passing camera rather than the despairing 1000 metre stare that most riders have now adopted.

Stu-bo headed for Bellinzona, tattered gooch in tow...

Ha, getting a bit carried away there, didn't zoom out for the bigger picture!

@Thrasher @WornCleat Cheers!

The photographers are getting annoyed about that, they keep asking for people to pretend there no camera but I can't keep a straight face.

ha! their problem innit. great to see you're actually (looking like you're) enjoying this ordeal

Zooming out is the scary part. Total respect for all involved.

Fantastic! Well done and keep smiling!

I strongly suspect that hippy had to go down to the plains. There was probably a pass somewhere that he just wouldn't have fitted through.

Slightly mad thought, but I'm wondering if anyone will go from cp3 to Bari and get the ferry to Bar, seems unlikely as you would lose some time and go back on yourself slightly (but you could get a good rest), route would be about 190km longer but would cut out around 22,000ft of climbing.

If I wasn't at the pointy end, I would be thinking about it.

There is only one ferry a day at 22:00, bit too risky, another 55,000ft of climbing it is then. Fuck.

I'd have thought ferrys are out of bounds?

surely your just smiling the whole time anyway? even without the cameras! Keep up the good work.

Some ferries are allowed, and Gareth Baines (and others) used them last year (although in the documentary he also said it proved to be a bad decision).

I think there is an approved list of ferries, but I don't know which are ok and which aren't.

Can someone re-link hippy's twitter here? I'm having trouble finding it and it's required reading for my apprentices. It's nice to have a little bit more of a human feeling to watching a race like this.

firsthippy

https://twitter.com/firsthippy