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

Two streams of riders emerge. Beautiful.

Hadnt clocked Shu Pillinger was racing, might give Emily Chapel a run for her money

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.

Two streams of riders emerge. Beautiful.

Except for modan (252b), who seems to be somewhere in the middle of the Ardennes. Where's his partner, too?

Michael Wacker has already passed Koblenz, so that's some good going.

Yes, noticed that. Don't see his partner showing, could be tracker issue. Instagram has a recent picture of them rested I think.

Goy did TCR3 I believe. The Swiss had a crack at the Guinness round the world record last summer but abandoned the attempt after crashing twice. He´s in his early 20s. More in Francophone Swiss media.

It's fairly quick to ride along the Rhine (except for the bend near Boppard)

How sharp is the bend that they lose significant time? Could they risk leaning to take the corner faster?

Worth bearing in mind those taking the route east (Wacker's group) will be having a cross/head wind when they turn more southerly to CP1 whereas the more southern group (led by Goy atm) will basically have a tailwind on their entire approach. At least, according to weather data.

You know perfectly well that that's not an option.

Also, hippy did a spot of moaning 14 hours ago but disappointingly now seems to have stopped. We expect better service.

Uber-Hero seems to be going well. He's already through Düren (as part of the northern lot).

Yes, no marker for him (Aedewan Adnan) at all, not even stuck at the start.

Maybe that lot bet on a smooth and fast route with little navigation worries versus one that looks more direct but is also more challenging in Skinny's group. Michael Wacker is flying since he hit the Rhine.

We expecting people to hit CP1 tonight?

I wonder if Michael Wacker and co. will go Bingen-Sprendlingen-Alzey-Worms. That's the route I would take through this area. It gets a little lumpy around Alzey, but it's not too bad, and it's a lot quicker than going through Mainz.

Without any doubt. Not many, but some will get there.

Probably. Looks like a very good choice. And since when has @hippy given up riding around the hills?

Between 5-10km/h faster.

Michael Wacker is flying since he hit the Rhine.

Aquaplaning?

Don't see his partner showing, could be tracker issue.

For pairs only one has a tracker. Usually, but not always, it is the b rider who has it

Looks like Skinny´ll cross the Vosges via Col de Saverne and then blast along the D41 to Strasbourg (three bridges and congestion) or Illkirch (one fast bridge). Once on the east bank of the Rhine, will he cross the Black Mountains via Kehl and Oppenau or Offenburg and Haslach?

Shame that we have the first scratch after only 12 hours:
https://frrt.org/tcrno5/r/268a-kevin
https://twitter.com/Blackhound59

Oh right, thanks!

#IGotSchickd