Transcontinental Race No. 5 - TCR5 - #TCRN05 - 2017

Everyone else used illegal roads so it turns out I won. Who knew?!

:P

Best share your route with us so we can make sure you're doing it right.. .

hah - the only advantage I have is that I have relatives near CP1, who might be able to help me out with route planning for that area. None of 'em owns a bike, though so maybe not.

Other than that, I wouldn't be looking to me for route tips (isn't that verboten in race rules anyway)

Wife-to-be has agreed trip to see them (ie, for a route recce) in spring next year though...

I have relatives in Australia. They're as much use for route planning as most locals who only drive places.

"Oh, yeah that's flat, it's only about a 20min ride"
Cue: 4hr climb over a fucking mountain.

The race is unsupported - sharing route tips was actively encouraged by the organisers before the last race. They want to keep it safe so were requesting border crossing info and/or dangerous roads be highlighted etc.

Depending on what they mean by High Tatras, that could be quite close to my partner's parent's place. Time to grab a bottle of vodka and head over again :)

Haha, yeah, I've had similar discussions with pals who don't realise what it means to be climbing 6% for an hour. In their heads its just 'we just whizzed up on that in the car'

I have heard that staying in the High Tatras at night is also verboten because its full of bears and wolves n shit.

As for route sharing, fair enough. Hopefully there'll be less fuss with border crossings this year but who knows?

Indeed they encourage to share tips about dangerous or forbidden roads etc. but the race manual page 30 also advices to not share exact deetails of a route, so that no idiot can blindly follow a line someone else drew :)

staying in the High Tatras at night is also verboten because its full of bears and wolves n shit

I'm a motherfuckin' Australian. Bear pie with wolf jus for dinner sounds wonderful dahling. There isn't a damn thing in Europe that would cause me even the slightest pause for concern.
Oh, except maybe a pack of wild Torys/UKIPers. Those fuckers are vicious and I've heard, bad eatin'.

I couldn't even blindly follow the lines I idiotically drew. :P

fair point - fuck australian wildlife. My sister is over there right now and seems to have somehow adopted that blaise attitude towards snakes n spiders. Urgh.

How much of the new route looks like it's off road/gravel paths?

None that I'm aware of.

The route is up to the people.

If anyone has started looking at satellite imagery already to check road surfaces, when we don't even know official checkpoints, they're mental or at least wasting their time.

or procrastinating....

None yet but i'm absolutely suspicious that Mike and the gang will have something sneaky up their sleeves in the Tatras.

Better off eyeballing distance vs. elevation requirements for different route options and worrying about road surface much later on.

Mike does love his gravel. I guess a rocky parcours at CP3 is a very real possibility. Especially as the climbing has reduced.

How much less climbing is there this year?

@gillies you may also find yourself going through the best scenery at night or in a cloud or both

true - though I've thought a bit about this and where possible I guess I'll try and sleep before the biggest/best climbs if possible and do it during the daylight

VERY roughly, it looks like it could be ~10,000m less.

best climbs

Are they similar to unicorn tits?

tbh if a climb is between 4-7% and on perfect tarmac i'm actually quite happy - that's why Majorca is so nice.

edit: then again the longest climb on majorca is about 14km so i guess we'll see if I change my mind or not later...

I think you might be right. 'negotiating with the national park authorities' sounds like it would be about using one of the tracks that go higher than the road.
I recall that the main climb on the road is long and gentle, so going a bit higher on a track would spice it up a bit.
The low tatras has a nice col which goes to a similar height and is a bit steeper. Also it has a cafe at the top where we stopped so my wife could have an ice cream while I had a beer

I know Mike is happy with the difficulty level of No4 and a 1/3 scratch rate. He's also got a gravel-boner. If he's reduced the climbing I suspect he'll look to balance things some other way.

How many times have you climbed Puig Major after riding a week of 250k+ days beforehand?

I had quite enough gravel this year and this year was supposed to be 100% tarmac.

Fucking maps, how do they work?!