Trans Am Bike Race / TransAm / TABR

Yeah, the coverage of IPWR isn't the norm. They went all out to launch the next big self-supported race after TD/TABR/TCR.

TABR had more coverage the first year while Mike Dion was out making the film. It's hard to do that more than once though unless you start charging riders and chasing sponsors etc.

Got to remember too that this is an established race, there are records to be broken, personal goals to beat, most people are there to push themselves. Other than the odd moan (and a few overly-sponsored riders), their focus will be pedalling rather than posting.

Anyway, the 'glamourisation' of ultra racing is probably a discussion for elsewhere...

Hippy booked into a hotel and eating real meals, the luxurious bastard.

Benjamin Colwill appears to be going better than Mike Hall's record.

Love all the photos though - hippy is keeping the twitter hashtag pretty.

If riders had their twitter/instawhatevers linked to their profile on the tracking site you could do a lot of things quite easily.

Pretty sure Mike was stopped/asleep at this point (click the record and the last equivalent update was 3h ago), expect it'll overtake Ben in the next few hours.

Benjamin could get mike's record, but I would not be putting any money on it for a long time yet. It is early days and a lot could go wrong!

Zing!

1 Attachment

A little poking round the top riders credentials...

Ben C - vet, finished 5th last year (21 days) and took 2nd place in the Route 66 race last year in a little over 11 days.

Jon Lester - race rookie, seems to have put some miles in on Strava but I can't find mention of him in any other ultra race results, just a local news article about this ride

Peter Andersen - race rookie, again not much info to be found

Evan Deutsch - vet, finished 2nd in 2015 (20 days), 3rd last year (18 days), believe he's raced TD before too

Rob English - rookie, needs no introduction

Sofiane Sehili - rookie, 3rd place in last year's Tour Divide (16 days), started but scratched the Route 66 race, bike messenger by trade, insta: https://www.instagram.com/sofianeshl/

Michael Wacker - vet, scratched in the previous two editions, rode TCR last year and finished in the top 10, back this year for TABR and TCR - https://www.facebook.com/AdventureRacerMichaelWacker/

That's enough for now...

Sofiane has a strava too. He isn't too much of a rookie anymore as far as riding fast, far and light is concerned :)

I don't think hippy listened to my advice on consistent sleep early and not getting caught up in the race too soon.
He's in trouble.

I mean rookie in the context of TABR (as per roster)

Hopefully he can get his head together tonight, sounds like he's pre-booked accom, probably a good move.

Yep, I meant in the broader bike riding sense. Nice to see he's doing well !

It may also be that it doesn't get updated very often. It hasn't been changed for more than eight hours now, so it looks as if Mike's record is still way ahead.

hippy's tracker hasn't given an update for more than six hours now, too.

It's night time there, I'd think he's sleeping.

Sure, but the tracker hasn't updated where he is. It still shows him travelling along a road. Perhaps trackers need their sleep, too. :)

He's got his tracker set to only update every 30 mins. Most of the others update a lot more frequently: Evan's updates every 10 minutes and Donncha's every 5.

e: almost certainly at Lochsa Lodge just up the road from his last track point.

Can they turn their trackers off at night or are the sparse updates because they don't have signal in buildings?

You could see BC was just slumming it behind a hedge last night. He seemed to wake up and got going just as Jon Lester whizzed by. Race on.

Sure, but the tracker hasn't updated where he is. It still shows him travelling along a road. Perhaps trackers need their sleep, too. :)

The "Main Map" link that shows multiple people doesn't always show a completely accurate status.

If you zoom in on him though it does show him just off the side of the road in a designated camp site.

If you look at his individual tracking page http://trackleaders.com/transam17i.php?name=Hippy_Hippy you'll see it has him stopped (the tent symbol, nothing to do with him stopping at a campsite although he has). This kind of extra annotation isn't done on the page with everyone on it.

Been following with great interest and pride in hippy and Rob English, even though I don't know them personally...but seems like they're now both having a bit of bother with Hippy still stopped from last night with surrounding riders in front and behind making progress the last few hours. Followers now only 2 miles behind. And Rob doubled back an hour and a half ago and is now stopped in Darby...hope I am missing something and they're actually powering through. #getuphippy

As @skinny will attest, you have to ride your own race and not get caught up in racing others.

Yeah hippy has had a bad start and just needs to keep it steady, he might catch back up in the latter part of the race.

I would guess Rob realised it's teh last town for a bit so went back for a good feed.

Jon lester is smashing it, I think he will win. He's sleeping well and consistent. I stalked him on strava and he's trained well and is strong. So barring issues, he looks good.

He's got his tracker set to only update every 30 mins. Most of the others update a lot more frequently: Evan's updates every 10 minutes and Donncha's every 5.

Sure, I was just confused because his still shows travelling speed, suggesting it wasn't a signal sent when he stopped, although that may, of course, be irrelevant.