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

In 2016 I rode 350km with a hamstring tear to finish 4th. Imagine what I'd suffer to win. GREECE I'M COMING. #TCRNo5 #tcrno5cap75

I knew skinny was ill in the early stages of last year and then had a storming ride up the table, but I didn't realise he also did his hamstring... nuts!

LFGSS watch updates:
Current placings in bold, previous day's placings in brackets.
skinny, cap 75: (3) (2) (2) (1) 1
Stephane Ouaja, cap 12: (12) (10) (13) 10
Samuli, cap 84: (41) (35) (31) (19) 16
hippy, cap 142: (17) (14) (22) (23) 22
Michael Wacker, cap 72: (23) (30) (30) 33
Swissy, cap 167: (63) (42) (42) (53) 65
boomboom, cap 209: (61) (82) (81) (75) 92
abbilondon, cap 201: (235) (219) (212) (204) 192
Wiesia, cap 53: (252) (248) (235) (239) 236
David Coulon, cap 130: (239) (241) (246) 240
Modan / Aedewan Adnan, cap 252b, 252a: (257, 256) (258,261) (247,262) (242,262) 239,262
Emilia, cap 7: (80) (94) (142) (197) SCR

59 scratched overall in the race.

@hippy still moaning, so all is right with the world.

As if it wasn't hard enough already https://www.meteoalarm.eu/en_UK/0/0/EU-Europe.html

I just wanted to say, every day I wake up, and every time I look at the dots, I look to see how 102 Chris Davies is doing first. Then I have a look at the leaders.

all day today I've been saying: aaAAaa aaAAaa aaAAaa. Thanks for this post. Made my day!

Emilia, cap 7: (80) (94) (142) (197) 204

Emily has scratched :-(

Yeh I have no idea how they are doing all day on a bike in the heat wave they are having, as if it wasn't hard enough, without having to ride in a furnace

Geoffroy Dussault has had a fantastic 24 hours.

Made my shoes more breathable.

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Stunning progress in the last few days @Samuli - good work!

Thanks, will update.

Looks like Ian found a reason to stop racing.

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That's a shame, strong rider. Enjoyed following his dot.

Thats a shame. I` trying not to judge him too harshly as it must be extremely frustrating to see a re-route of this sort which effects you. Especially when so sleep deprived etc.

Seems a shame and I doubt the penalties for those in his situation will be that onerous

Given that the time penalties for using the E81 haven't been announced yet, as far as I'm aware, isn't that a bit premature?

Think the lack of sleep is getting to him...

He's tired and probably very sore, hungry and grumpy. What might not bother someone otherwise could probably make them incandescent with rage in that state so you may be right vis. being premature but I guess a lot of people will have been thinking about their safety anyway and debating whether it's worth it so maybe this just pushed him over the edge.

FWIW I didn't think that the statement made by the TCR was very clearly worded so might have contributed to annoyance.

Yep. He makes it sound like this will ruin his race. Maybe he should look at his route planning instead.

penalties to the front two

What's with penalties here, unless the road was banned before they took it? I thought skinny reported it to be awful, then decision made?

Confused.

I can see why it would be a lot more annoying to hear just as you were about to go onto the road than a day or two beforehand.

Forcing route changes for followers after a rider has already been through is rough. No way to please everyone - eg what if they had a car trace the route back and verbally inform everyone, then give a penalty (handicap) to the lead rider who has already been through to compensate?

vvv - oh

Apparantly skinny suggested the penalty himself. This is from Juliana on FB:

Actually James Hayden who called us to let us know how dangerous the road was as he was riding it, is himself accepting (and in fact suggested) the small time penalty to reflect the massive detour and extra climbing other riders will have to do to avoid this road.

That's proper sportsmanship there