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

Yes, this. Dismissed social media interaction during the race a few months ago. Complaining of a sore arse this morning. Hippy is not alone!!

We even had Strava updates earlier. So impressive.

Looks like he had a good bit of rest last night, Ian To seems to back on his tail.

Bjorn has climbed 3,200m more than skinny so far.

It looks like a lumpier few hundred kms ahead of him today as well.

I only tried dotwatching for the first time yesterday morning, and now I'm checking in at 8am, argh.

Skinny only something like 60k behind Björn!

Surprised @hippy is following the north route... would have thought the flat(ter) route that @skinny is doing would have suited him more?

Still; up to 14th according to the latest tracker!

I think Björn has a fairly flat day today too going down the Mur Valley.

Presumably, both will converge somewhere near Bratislava.

I found myself checking the tracker at 3.30am while letting the cats out. This stuff is bridging the gap to the start of the championship very nicely. It's also a lot less depressing than following AVFC. Go Skinny!!

Surprised @hippy is following the north route... would have thought the flat(ter) route that @skinny is doing would have suited him more?

Yes, he did the lumpier route on the first and second days too, via Ardennes and Black Forest, then there were tweets of regret!

Same. A prolonged spell of restless legs/aching arms in the middle of the night put into perspective by some dotwatching. (I'm enjoying the dotwatching dotwatchers in this thread too).

It's looking really close at the front between Bjorn and Skinny. If I had to pick a winner I think @skinny is looking marginally stronger. However, I don't think there'll be much change in their relative positions today.

Skinny has had more sleep and done less climbing than Bjorn and is winding back in the lead as he has been riding slightly faster. However, their average speeds for today so far are exactly the same, 24.4km/h! But Skinny has been going longer and done more climbing.
Skinny did a massive day yesterday, 426km. That was based on a good sleep during the storm. Shorter rest for him last night so I don't think he will manage the same today as he will get more tired.
Bjorn did 388km yesterday. Today for him is flatter with a bit of downhill so he might manage at least a similar distance again, with a faster average speed.

Apparently Jonas Goy in 4th place spent 12 hours at CP1 debating whether to continue which was why he slipped back. He might not be out of the race yet as his actual average speeds have been faster than both Bjorn and Skinny. Yesterday was a monumental day for him, 473km at 25kmh with 8000m of climbing
Hard to say as much about Ian To as the tracker outage breaks up his stats, but he is slower than Skinny today on a similar route.

The first three have all done over a hundred miles already today*...!

*NB the days cut off at 10pm so that includes last night's later riding.

Like you say it's looking really close and hard to pick with so many outside variables, unless one blows up it's just as likely to come down to a dodgy route choice, weather or mechanical catching someone out

Imagine them duking it out on the last climb to Meteora. Does it ever really come to that?

That would be good but we'd not really get to experience it unless the film crew gets there and shows it after the fact.

Current placings in bold, yesterday's placings in brackets.

skinny, cap 75: (3) 2
Stephane Ouaja, cap 12: 12
hippy, cap 142: (17) 14
Michael Wacker, cap 72: 23
Samuli, cap 84: (41) 35
Swissy, cap 167: (63) 42
boomboom, cap 209: (61) 82
Emilia, cap 7: (80) 94
gillies, cap 190: (103) 168
abbilondon, cap 201: (235) 219
David Coulon, cap 130: 239
Wiesia, cap 53: (252) 248
Modan / Aedewan Adnan, cap 252b, 252a: (257, 256) 258,261

gillies had a 10/12hr stop in Inzing which I think accounts for his position shift.
24 scratched overall in the race.

Interesting to look at the tactics at the back of the field. Chris Davies is riding very gently. 8 hours on the first day, 7 the next and then 6 yesterday. He was up early and moving today and so may be aiming to wrack up some Ks today. That said, he is averaging around 100k a day which would mean a six week ride.

David Coulon, on the other hand started with a strong first day but is now riding 10 hours and around 150k a day. This is considerably more sustainable.

We are in for a long period of dotwatching.

David Coulon has the fantastic Friskies bicycle judging by his Twitter.

Yeah long night

Fucking mental it was. Woke all of Italy with brake squeal

14th though, at least until the arse

Mama-hippy, @PollyBirnie1 is tweeting wonderful encouragement to her wayward son.

And a lot more kit than those at the front. He has packed for a three or four week journey.

Keep up the good work @hippy!

14th though, at least until the arse

Doing well, in spite of the arse

Rather you than me. Great work.

Everyone else who is just following and not racing, are you also finding yourself being drawn into the idea of one day doing this, or are you watching and thinking 'fuck that'?