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Bob_Thod
cliveo
Anyway, with the race at the front drawing towards its conclusion, focus must turn to the true heroes of the race, those who will still be riding in a couple of weeks' time.
The field as a whole is looking a little like a bell curve. The outliers at the front like @skinny and @hippy; a significant hump in the middle and then outliers at the back.
It is these latter riders who encapsulate the true spirit of the event. All very good cyclists but not super human elite athletes like skinny and hippy.
While it may be possible to survive on three and a half hours sleep a night for eight or maybe a dozen days, that is impossible to sustain for three or four weeks. These riders have to ride, recover and ride again and those that make it will have restrained any urge to press on. Ultimately they will end up higher on the leader board than quicker cyclists who succumbed to the heat and to exhaustion. Tortoise and hare.
While there are a number who fall into this category, I am going to focus on three for now. These are three riders who I think will make it all the way. Already all of them have made it onto page 5 of the leader board, leaving page 6 to scratched riders.
Let's start with the lanterne rough, Chris Davies, cap no 102 and currently sitting in 247th place. I don't know anything about Chris and his name is not one that lends itself to easy googling.
He has taken a careful and gentle approach throughout. This leads me to conclude that he has time to finish at his own pace. This is a key element.
While others shot off fom the start, he took it gently, stopping after a couple of hours for a good kip. He rode for a totaal of just under 8 hours on that first day and covered 130 km. The next day he rode with a little more caution. Only 7 hours and 118 km followed by 6 hours and 97 km the third day. Day four saw him put on a bit of a push and he covered over 160 km in 9 hours. before easing back to 101 in just under 8 hours and then 117 in just under 7. Yestrday he moved faster but still only 109 km in under 6 hours.
He has dropped into a pattern in which he rides from around 08:30 until 18:30 or 19:30 which shows that, against his moving time, he is also stopping for a good lunch and perhaps a little sightseeing.
He has just entered the Alps and this may affect the way he rides. He has 321 km until CP2. Expect him there on Monday or Tuesday. His anticipated end date must be in exxcess of 30 days. This could be a record.
The last record holder is David Coulon, cap no 130 and currently in 234th place. Between Chris and David there are four active riders who we will look at over the coming days.
David was the "uber hero" of TCRNo3. Injured and barely able to pedal, he persevered. It might have taken him 28 days but he got there and in getting there finished half way up the field. Last year he scratched. I am not sure why. This year he is riding a very clever race.
He started strongly, riding 325 km in the first day by going through the night. Since then he has put in some big days. One at 200 km and another at 185 km. OK, these are nothing compared with skinny of hippy but stop and think a moment about all those road warriors, 35,000 of them, who rode the London 100 last weekend on closed pretty flat roads, with feed stations and homes to come from and go to. You. A greater distance climbing and totally self supported after having just riden the same the day before is really something special. He is averaging about 175 km a day, every day.
He riding around 9-10 hours a day but appears to be riding more at night than Chris. I remember from the TCRNo3 that he would sometimes rest during the day and ride at night. With the current weather, not a bad idea.
He is currently just approaching CP2. I would estimate that he will complete the ride in a total of 21 or so days.
Jumping over the next four active riders we come to Wiesa Kiczai, cap no 53 and sitting in 222nd place. One of our own. I hesitated before writing about Wiesa as one of the back outliers as she is an extremely good rider who has been beset with all sorts of mechanical and other issues. She has battled on and she certainly deserves following and support.
She is currently at CP2 and so 29 km ahead of David. It seems that there are around four of five riders at CP2 at present.
She has been riding sensibly and solidly 260 km in the first day but then settling down to distances between 1890 and 130km. Her stopping pattern evidences her mechanical issues.
She is riding betwen 9 and 11 hours a day. If she can maintian her discipline, she should finish around the same time as David or slightly earlier, that is in a fornight's time.
I do hope that the cluster of riders currently at CP2 manage to inspire each other to get back on their bikes and to ride. It is nice that there are a number of them close to each other so that they get to see friendly faces at petrol stations and cafes.
Oh well, two or three more weeks of dot watching ahead.
Come on skinny and hippy, let's end the distracting part of the competition and let's focus on the real battle: riders against the road and the elements.