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

Trying to work out where the riders on the northern variation will make up what looks like lost ground on the more southerly routed folks? By caning it down the Rhine? Or are there more gentle routes to chekpoint1 that way?

I wonder, too. It's fairly quick to ride along the Rhine (except for the bend near Boppard), but we'll have to see whether that gives them much of an advantage. Of the southerly riders, skinny certainly doesn't seem to notice hills a great deal. Perhaps having done that part on the flat will leave them less exhausted in the later stages, who knows.

There are some good riders up there, though, @Keiway#152, Nelson Trees, and Michael Wacker.

Further south, skinny and Ian To now seem to be pursuing routes quite close to each other, whereas in the main thrust direction Jonas Goy and Geoffroy Dussault seem to be the front-runners. Björn Lenhard is some distance behind. Geoffroy did well last year and seems to be going for it this time. I haven't heard of Jonas Goy before, but I suppose he's probably won something incredibly hard somewhere.

James and Ian seem to be aiming for crossing the Rhine at Strasbourg, the others probably at Karlsruhe, then Pforzheim, Stuttgart, Reutlingen, which isn't too lumpy. Coming from Strasbourg, it's considerably more lumpy until you get to the Neckar valley.

Of the women, Melissa Pritchard seems to be best-placed so far, but Emilia isn't far behind. Karen Tostee, taking a slightly different route, is just ahead of Emilia. Shusanah Pillinger is quite far behind.

Some seem to have taken their first rest, but not many yet.

It looks as if there are more stronger riders in the race this year. Last year the frontrunners were well ahead by this stage.