Transcontinental Race (London - Istanbul) - #TCRNo4

brilliant stuff dude. been a joy following you on this adventure.

Unfortunately the saddle drop wasn't an option for me. My knees are a weakness (5 surgeries) and were my biggest worry going in. I'd had a slipping post on a training ride and it caused serious problems. Glad to hear it worked for you though.

I only did it with some trepidation as I'd had a slipping seat post on PBP (my fault - dropped it slightly half-way round to help with saddle sores and didn't tighten it properly) and my knees were very sore at the end. Luckily they didn't rebel against this adjustment though or else I would have been stuffed.

The other thing they say to do is to move cleats back, but it sounds like you couldn't do that either (nor could I - mine were as far back as they could go).

Midfoot, bitches.

All the cool kids (me) are using it these days.

I need to do this race. Well done all.

I forgot to bring a drill

Also might cause problems with my mudguard, then I'd get shit all over my transmission from scenic off-road detours!

Problems with achilles seems to be something pretty much every long distance cyclist expirience at some point, I've had it pretty bad before but not on this trip or at PBP, so it can be solved. For me it's having the cleats far enough back, don't use too much force, keep them warm, saddle low enough and I think it's also good to have the spd release mechanism set pretty loose. And still, who knows they might come back in future.

Cheers to everyone that were riding, quite an adventure.

You have time to implement it before next year's :)

It's an interesting one. I've only had mild achillies issues this one time so wouldn't rush to do it just yet. However, I did recommend it to someone else a few months ago who got ankle issues when he rode all day (made him DNF the 24). If the achillies thing became a regular issue, I'd definitely think about asking Scherrit to get his drill out and as it could be a good fix.

One reservation I've got about it is cold feet. I've got Reynauds / circulation issues which mean that, in the UK at least, my feet are numb with cold much of the time I'm riding. I once put my cleats on new shoes a bit too far forward. It buggered up my shins but at least I had warm toes for a ride in March as they were moving slightly. With mid-foot I'd imagine that your feet are just completely hanging in the wind, getting frozen solid. Do you find it worse from a cold feet perspective?

I had a really great time this year, I think Mike and Anna did it a great job with the route this year.

The finish in Cannakale was much better and a lot of fun getting to meet/hang-out with @frank9755 @hippy and @skinny plus all of the other people not on the forum.

Anyway whilst at the airport yesterday I got bored and did some stats comparing last years event:

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Magnums as your main food group?

Where do I sign up? I am really, really good at eating ice cream.

Interesting stats.
I had loads of time at the airport but just lolled around eating stuff and trying to nap!
Mot interesting is the on/off bike, off bike and not sleeping (ie wasted time!) and average speed stuff. My hypothesis is that most riders have far more to gain by optimising the wasted time bit than by riding faster. Hence training should include practising packing / unpacking routines at least as much as riding.
You did well to lose weight! I'm the same but now trending upwards and @hippy reckoned he'd put on weight.

Longer and with more climbing but faster. Impressive.

no doubt to tweet or instagram

Hah

TCR version of this next year?

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/249474/

Woops the distances are in the wrong columns! Last years was longer and flatter

So the lesson here is train less and eat more magnums and go faster? ;)

Great job. Are you going to do it next year? As a few people have said you should get better at it as you get older!

Nice statistics!

Well I'm back in UK (Sunday Butuntil now I didn't turn on the laptop).

I read all the post... really long. Thanks for cheering and follow the race.

Some thinks that you "lost" or nobody comented here...

The last 3 nights I had issus with my bleeding nose. I thought was it normal becouse with altitud (it's not the case) or presuse/stress normaly bleed it. But in this case was bleeding a lot. When close onne hole contnue for the other and didn't stop for hours... it wasn't very massive, but if you uncomfortable and dirty.

Neil cared about me when watch me bleeding and he almost forced me to wipe in a bar (scary to watch me red).

Here have a video...

https://vimeo.com/178151522?ref=fb-share&1

Nobody shared!

so, I'm really happy to finished 3rd and with my perfomance. Less than 10 days was all of my aspiration... good feeling any issus (a part of the nosebleed that prevents me perform 100% the last days), any flat tires and any mechanicals (only problems with my front deraileur to charge the big ring).

Have some navigation mistakes and issues with the route. The most important before CP3 when I took a road cut by works.. i try to save with other... but finally found a tunnel close and I need come back to the main route and rode 15k and 450m more! I lost 1h 30 more or less...

Then in CP4 need to connect the garmin because it didn't charge the following tracks!! I lost one hour to download the tracks and charged on the edge...

impolite ;-)

I always have cold feet and hands relative to the rest of me but the only reason midfoot is 'worse' for it is lack of overshoes. Have to get a bit creative. I eventually went with full on winter boots drilled midfoot.

I have had a week of eating and drinking post-finish though, with zero riding. I'll go down again shortly now I'm eating normally and riding.

Cool stats. Wish I could work similar out.

It was supposed to be shorter than last year?!!

excellent stuff dude. really impressed.

trying to make sense of the average height per day stat. is this the average amount of climbing? or the average altitude ridden at?

massively impressed either way.

and loving the consistency re. puncture stat

Is that average moving from trackleaders or your files?
Not sure how accurate trackleaders is?
Maybe free route?

I'm looking forward to someone pulling all teh cool stats out of free route into a visable chart.