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

Mike cannon and partner going the 1-3-2-4-5 gambit?

Or bailed?

Edit: and with one of the race official's cars with them.....

Look forward to seeing how skinny gets on with Ian To on the Southern route. Followed Ian on strava for a while, smashes out some fast long rides,a lot

Damn, looks like cannon and co are in the car, was getting flashbacks to the cross Adriatic ferries from a few years ago.

#InSkinnyWeTrust

I may be imagining this, but is skinny purposely avoiding bigger, straighter roads where he can?

I started wondering about it because of the way he approached the Vosges, and was again thinking about it as he went through northern Italy.

I'll ask him when it's over, I don't expect he'll be posting during the race.

Carrying the smallest of emergency phones I recall. When questioned by hippy with his 32 hd plasma.

He's currently on the same route he did in 2015, so maybe it is familiarity too? Ian To has diverted from following skinny now.

He said that he'd only have a small emergency phone to avoid social media stuff and getting distracted from his plan worrying about what the other dots are doing... But he's been on twitter a bit so clearly has some kind of connectivity.

I spoke to him earlier today. Says they are just winging it with gmaps and have given up getting to cp1 before it closes. He is in good spirits despite saddle sores

Seems a much closer race this year, am sure last year already before CP3 it looked like kristoffs to lose. This year, there are four within a 100km of each other at a similar point in the race, very exciting

I'm getting tired and thinking about going to bed, and hippy is climbing up Monte Grappa in the dark by the look of it.

Funny the life choices people make.

David Coulson has just tweeted

@David_uber_hero on twitter.

He has been tweeting, something he appeared to dismiss before the race. Maybe he is taking it in a more relaxed manner or simply letting everyone know he is OK. Either way it is good to see his tweets.

I was wondering if his sponsors had vetoed his plan to just carry a Nokia brick.

I can't copy his little pictures across, but he just said:

'People questioning Slovenia has got me (three little fires) up. Time to race (a bike and two arms flexing biceps).'

(Small picture of a closed fist with the thumb pointing upwards)

(poo with eyes)

(an aubergine)

@skinny is on a mission tonight, he is still ploughing ahead. Dang he is fast! By tomorrow he will definitely be in the lead if he keeps this up!

hippy, Ian Walker, and Sönke Meyer are climbing Monte Grappa at night. I hope the descent will be OK.

Plus he's done all the climbing for a while. It's a long decent into Ljubljana followed by a decent stretch along the Danube and then into the flats of Hungary.

Fucked if I can understand the tracker.

So I'm going to bed.

If they haven't bailed, that is a much longer approach. Surely either bailed or tracker is wrong

Skinny on the attack, he's going again having slept shorter than Bjorn last night. On Freeroute he has reeled in a few km already.
Ian To on his shoulder, but looks like he hasn't slept yet so will drop back.
Geoffroy and Jonas have slipped back so looking more like 2 way race at the front now.

Freeroute

I like that much better than the once on the official site.

Thanks.