Transcontinental Race (London - Istanbul) - #TCRNo4

Absolutely. In a world where everyone is looking for the singular 'best', its great to see how many different, successful, approaches there are. From classic steel frames with twin ortleib panniers to a Pinarello with carbon aero-luggage.

I am genuinely surprised to see a lack of behind-the-arse hydration though. I know @bananaskid gone for it and I think I probably would too. Some of those bottles look either crazy difficult to get to or open to disgusting wheel crud over the course of a few thousand km. That said, I've never ridden across Europe and I'm sure everyone riding has put more thought into it than me.

venge :)

Hippy's overnight ride has bumped him up the rankings, he'd dropped to ~25th last night but pulled back 10 places as he heads towards CP3.

Skinny shot up to 24th! Expecting to be at CP3 before the end of the day...

Double ascent of Stelvio Pass, just for giggles!?

Absolutely. In a world where everyone is looking for the singular 'best', its great to see how many different, successful, approaches there are. From classic steel frames with twin ortleib panniers to a Pinarello with carbon aero-luggage.

This is part of what makes it fascinating for sure - my latest bike was partially inspired by this race, I'd love to make a bike that was focused purely on being the fastest thing to ride for 4,000Km over this terrain.

As someone who has been planning on entering next years race since late 2015...

Fastest is a hard term to define. Over that kind of distance I find comfort will come in to play (as many current riders are discovering).

Current plans are for a TI frame, carbon fork plus wide tires/wheels. Relatively relaxed geo but with TT bars.

Good to see that people would rather a gobful of Central European road shite than look like a Triathlete.

Haha!

I'm guessing through the pass at Valdobbiadene to Feltre, past Belluno and up through Agordo to the control. But, I'm completely guessing.

Looks like Frank is taking a similar route to Stu

Kristof Allegaert now 300km clear. Looks like he could be finishing early Friday.

Absolutely amazing.

@Thrasher said semi lizard ... more like half titan.

Armstrong minus the douche.

Beautiful and inspiring post 3h ago on IG from Demian Barlaro:

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Amazing! Anyone can do this race. Mind over matter.

He could get 8 hours sleep in Zagreb and still be 100k in front.

A trail of stragglers has followed the Hippy/Jurgen flatlands route. I expect as we get to the slower riders more and more will take this option.

Will be interesting to see how far behind Andy Sallow/Ultan Coyle he is at CP3. They were close together at CP2 but have had very different journeys since.

and also how much toll the extra elevation costs them later in the race.

Ultan's nearly at CP3, Andy Sallow took a bit of a detour last night and I reckon him and hippy will be at CP3 around the same time.

Hippy setting the trends so everyone else can follow.

This top 10 battle is hotting up. Backing Skinny to make it.

Remember that hippy also stopped for longer than planned at cp2 to sort out his gooch. Ultan and co. were hours up the road by the time hippy turned south.

Hippy at Vicenza, Allegaert just crossed Croatian border!

Apart form trackleaders, what are the best other visualisations for this race? (if any)

Allegaert's lead is unfathomable