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

'waiting out storm' is the new euph for drinking beers. safe rolling dude

@hippy - you're a frickin inspirational lump of beer-fuelled awesomeness. "What he lacks in straight line speed he makes up for with entertainment and banterage". Keep the faith (whatever the fuck that means).

Nope. Bjorn's tracker failed to send a couple of updates.

Bjorn's 18:36 trackpoint is right next to Skinny's 19:04 trackpoint, so he's definitely caught up 25 minutes or so since leaving CP3. This was mostly due to Bjorn's stop in Poprad.

Wondering where their routes will diverge...

Keep it up! We are praying for your gooch.

Go skinny go! He has sounded so collected on the soundcloud things he's been posting. Hope Jonas Goy and Ian To get into the mix as well.

LFGSS watch updates:
Current placings in bold, previous day's placings in brackets.

skinny, cap 75: (3) (2) 2
Stephane Ouaja, cap 12: (12) 10
hippy, cap 142: (17) (14) 22
Michael Wacker, cap 72: (23) 30
Samuli, cap 84: (41) (35) 31
Swissy, cap 167: (63) (42) 42
boomboom, cap 209: (61) (82) 81
Emilia, cap 7: (80) (94) 142
gillies, cap 190: (103) (168) 159
abbilondon, cap 201: (235) (219) 212
Wiesia, cap 53: (252) (248) 235
David Coulon, cap 130: (239) 241
Modan / Aedewan Adnan, cap 252b, 252a: (257, 256) (258,261) 247,262
37 scratched overall in the race.

your gooch.

Pics?

@hippy

Skinny should be able to see Bjorn soon.

This really needs to be on the telly.

Yes, sorry, no interest in your gooch.

Skinny just taken lead ? Edit: false alarm, he's breathing down Bjorn's neck though.

I think I see Bjorn up ahead 😆

@skinny 17min ago

@hippy

@modan and @hippy are my heroes!!!!

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(Sad emoji)

Wonder who's gonna stop for the night first, Skinny or Bjorn. Judging by what he looked like at CP3, Bjorn's haunted by the fear of Skinny going past him, so expect he'll go on well into the night. He'll get payback later. Skinny's more likely to ride his own race with better pacing.

I think I might be talking bullshit... vague assumptions based on insufficient data and some classic projection.

That's one screaming descent they're on right now. The motorway actually takes a tunnel through the mountain!

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It'd be silly to blow yourself up pushing on later/further than originally planned just because someone is close behind/ahead of you. Still a long way to go, they're only just over half way.

They need to stick to their original plans. Sleep is more important than being temporarily ahead.

The Bjorn/skinny race is fun but I think I'm getting more enjoyment from the ones posting on social media so I can pretend I am there eating cheese and snickers for breakfast and bodging my latest bike disaster. Particularly enjoying hippy on twitter and thisisgrace_ on Instagram.

Edit: hadn't seen skinny's latest on IG when I posted that... top marks

Grace lambert riding up grappa this morning and Eleanor in tears with the suffering.

https://twitter.com/eleanor_ceindeg/status/892716515761565696

What are the rules on drafting? Can skinny and Bjorn pull a 2up TT and put some extra miles on the chasers tonight?

No, one of the rules is 'no drafting'

I've scratched. Too many wank drivers and close calls. Nearly every rider I speak to complains about shit driving, especially in Italy and Austria. I was literally inches from hitting an overtaking car descending monte grappa today (on a fucking corner) and that was the last straw.

Decision made easier by knee getting pretty consistently sore and 40c heat/hairdryer wind.

A bitter decision but , especially with firstborn due in October, I know where my priorities lie and it ain't under the wheels of some sleepy truck driver.

Edit - other takes of collision, near misses and unfortunately, death meant it was quite difficult to ignore my fear.

total respect dude and massive chapeau for getting that far

Real shame to hear that but understandable, lots of riders on the Facebook group commenting on the same issue and feeling unsafe in Italy in particular

Well done @gillies.