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From tomorrow, I will try and update the positions of everyone still on the road. My estimate is that Mattia Biffi and Alberto Varni will not challenge the record set last year by David Coulon. Also, riding as a pair must be an advantage as time passes (provided you have not decided to kill and eat each other) as the lonliness of riding for over three weeks must be a stress in itself, with no prospect of anyone at CPs or the finish.
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I almost wish I was still riding: very hard to focus on work today. Much easier to eat and have little naps #workingfromhome
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Looks like they will be getting on the ferry together.
The next placed rider, Steven Pawley, is 80km from the finish. He stopped an hour or so ago. It is 7:15pm out there. With only 80km to go to the finish, I wonder if he is resting up for a gentle ride in the daylight tomorrow, or prepping for one last big push.
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Nice, yes, but I've managed to ride the PX over everything so quite doable. The descents weren't as steep as a lot of British roads, though they were longer. Could pad out the brake levers a bit to help if it became an issue. Now I have the 4SD though I'll not bother trying to fire up a TT bike for it. It's cheaper too. Not sure how comfortable I'd be leaving the £££ Shiv outside shops :)
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What worked / didn't work, lessons for next time, etc
Worked well
- Bike overall - got position and set-up mostly right
- Hope lights. Bright enough and built to last anything. One of mine flew off at full speed when I hit an expansion joint on the last descent in Montenegro. It really needed a bunny hop but I was on the aerobars. It landed about 30 yards down the road from where it flew off. I stopped and went back for it. Had a little scratch on the case but worked fine.
- OSMAnd on my phone as back-up navigation. This was excellent and I had to rely on it a couple of times when the Garmin was in a sulk.
- Tubeless tyres. I'd use them again even though I had to bin one as I got the worst puncture I've ever had on tubeless just 2 hours into the ride. Limped as far as Switzerland mostly with just 30psi in the rear tyre and wasted a couple of hours trying to fix before I replaced it. But then got 2 punctures in my new tubed tyre that the tubeless would have prevented.
- Dura Ace hubs with minimal spokes (18/24). I loved riding these wheels and they are still perfectly true.
- Mudguards. I'm in a tiny minority on this, and I only had rain twice, but they kept me dry when it would have been a pain to have got completely wet (Croatia below) and kept the transmission a lot cleaner
- 2 x 1 litre bottles - this was a good amount of water carrying capacity. When I saw @bananaskid putting 5 bottles on his bike I did wonder if I was missing something, but I was only in danger of thirst once - on the first night in France.
- luggage - loads of trade-offs here but I was broadly happy with mine. 2nd bar bag at the front for food worked well. Least happy with the Apidura saddle pack as a pain to access. Would look into using a rack pack as alternative (although minor weight penalty and bike doesn't handle as well with one)
- sleeping kit. Bivvy bag + silk liner + half-length foam pad and down jacket. This lot was warm enough every time I needed it, and wasn't too bulky or heavy.
- route. I had two plans to improve on what most people did - going slightly further west in france where I knew it was much flatter by the Loire / Allier (did the route on my honeymoon!) and going into Italy to dodge the mountains in Switzerland. Both worked well and gained me time. I missed the one with the local border crossing before Durmitor, and I didn't consider Kristoff's routes further East (towards Zagreb then via Bulgaria) so don't know if they would have made sense. Didn't check my routes thoroughly enough so ended up having to backtrack off 3 bridleways in France and take 20km of pain by the railway in Macedonia.
- Energy drinks - took 1.5kg of energy drinks with me. Made finding food in the first couple of days in France / Switzerland less of a challenge than it would otherwise have been. Would try to carry more another time.
Could be better
- Battery charging - I didn't want to use a dynamo but I would try one if I did something this length again. Needing to recharge my battery packs every 4 days created extra stress. Also losing a wire that I needed to recharge DI2 and phone from AA batteries reduced my options. Had to buy 2 more battery packs to make up for it.
- Booking.com. I booked a guest house in Croatia when it was the thunderstorm. Got there at 12:30am. Could I find it- could I fuck. No answer when I phoned them. Looked for 45 mins then gave up and found bus shelter. I found it far better to just grab a hotel when passing than try and book ahead.
- Mobile phone. Got cut off by the tossers at 3 for using my phone too much and had loads of hassle getting connection reinstated. Would take a back-up sim (or two) in future and look into the small print of things like roaming limits beforehand.
- Food. Was really sick of cream-filled croissants. Might try to research alternative food options a bit more beforehand.
- Bike overall - got position and set-up mostly right
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@frank9755 in agreeance about the food. I was sick of petrol station stuff after about 2 days. The food along the race route is isn't great if you're short of time. I did enjoy all the Slovenian and Croatian bakeries though
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Yes, birek was the highlight. I took five wtih me from our local shop for the first night, and was keen to get back onto them as soon as they reappeared!
I ate everything (apart from one McDonalds and one Pizza in Italy) while on the bike, which limited my options a lot, but saved a good bit of time. -
This year I got rid of my gloves - last year I used them for the first few days and they just became too much of a hassle so they remained in my bag for the last 10 days.
My handlebars/cockpit area got pretty gunky at times as, like Frank, I tried eating mostly on the bike. I found a piece of kebab from day 2 several days later in one of my food pouches
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thanks @frank9755 - that list is really helpful for somebody planning on it next year!
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OsmAnd sucked for me. RWGPS app was great when Garmin got water in it. I ate a lot of big stuff sitting down because it meant I wasn't sitting down on that saddle! :)
Three SIM also fucked my race up. Fucking useless.
I had mitts, long finger gloves and gore over mitts. Could've got away without them.
cliveo
jonny
frank9755
bananaskid
bertocq
gillies-
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About
Transcontinental Race (London - Istanbul) - #TCRNo4
Posted by
@hippy
One of the great aspects of the TCR is the ability to hear from riders first hand, whether it is during the race by Twitter or Instagram or after the race in blog write ups and posts on here. So much awesomeness. Just amazing. Somehow, following a dot does not convey the true heroism of the riders.
@bananaskid So impressed by your improvement. By the time you get to @hippy 's age, you will be uncatchable.
Admid these tales of riders who have finished, let's not forget those still on the road.
Nine or ten riders finished yesterday and still more will finish in time for the unofficial party tonight. Half a dozen are already in Turkey.
Looking at those with the furthest to ride, now approaching the end of their 17th day on the road:
Mark Hunter #118. Appears to have jumped from Macedonia to just over the Turkish border. Presume difficulties with tracker. Should finish today.
Simeon Jurukov #113 Close to the Greek border with 350 km to go to the end.
Rose McGovern #136 has been having a difficult day. Puncture and lost her Garmin charge cable but still in amzingly good spirits. Has overtaken Simoen and is now in Greece with only 300 km to go. Should finish tomorrow. Brilliant ride.
Laurent Carlier (a former pair but now solo) #205Just in Kosovo. 586 km to go.
Pierluigi Talamona #126 Just past CP4. Looks to be taking the Serbia/Sofia route. 660 km to go.
Cheng-Hui Hseih #92 Still in Bosinia with 85km to go to CP4
Daniel Nicolas Munoz and his pair Guillermo Nicolas Munoz #209 Better progress than Cheng-Hui and have now arrived at CP4.
Finally the #228 pair of Mattia Biffi and Alberto Varni have made a little progress. Now 285 km shy of CP4 still on the Croatian coast.