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

So where did they fly out of?

I've apologised to them.

I'm going to stick to being the quiet person I am and riding bikes. Easier.

Yeah @HoKe grab and go. Buy everything and stuff it in your jersey and just ride off and then start eating and drinking.

I don't think any apology was necessary. I think the comments from you and others have made the guys stop and think about how they went about both the race and scratching from it, I also think it has made them stop and think about what this race means to so many people, competitors, organisers, relatives, or dot watchers, and with more sensible heads on they have issued their own apology. Good for them, but it would have been better had they given the matter that level of thought, before they put their entry in.

Yeah but it's just easier to apologise and move on. If they've realised then that's all that matters. :)

Hippy already up, tweeting away. Looks like his last day in the saddle today, so I guess he's got to get it all out.

Go go go @hippy

beers and cheers await

Yeh front tire down valve goosed . Nursing it in . I dont think he will go deep section again .

Go go go @hippy go! I hear @skinny has a keg waiting for you 🍺

@hippy really storming it today.

Early concerns over David Coulon's tweet:

I scratch you scratch he/she scratch es and i save my face. Erving goffman #

Have dissipated and he is making good progress.

His tweets are becoming more frequent and more surreal.

Watching people slowly lose their grip on sanity via social media is probably the most troubling part of dotwatching. But it does seem quite common, which is perhaps unsurprising given the heat and the effort.

It does make the race a considerably more personal experience even if one cannot see the athletes. Wieisa's struggles, expressed is an almost matter of fact way, have shown her huge strength. Hippy's woes have amused us all. I would like to think that David's tweets act as a window into the soul of a man whose resolution and endurance is simply legendary. Sadly, they merely add to the connundrum.

@hippy keeps talking about stopping at a "servo" so while he's not necessarily lost his mind, he has lost his sense of decorum.

Aussies init. No class.

Of the bunch at the back, we lost Christian Fitcher #227 as a scratcher yesterday but the other seven ride on. The lead among this group changes as they enter Slovakia towards CP3. All other riders have passed CP3 now. Wieisa, the leader of the pack, is currently only 226 km away. David, at the back, 371 km away. Wiesia had a miserable experience when booking.com screwed up her hotel for last night but appears to be up and fighting strongly today. She covered 200 km yesterday and has alreaady done 60 km so far today. David on the other hand only managed 100 km yesterday but in just under 4h30m has managed 89 km already this morning.

Other than David who is still in Austria, the other six are in Slovakia. Three on a more northerly route and three, including Wiesia, a more southerly route which came through Hungary.

What we really need is some @skinny YouTube analysis of the race at the back, discussing routes, strategies and tactics.

Current placings in bold, previous in brackets.
Hippy, cap 142: (17) (14) (22) (23) (22) (23) 23
M Wacker, cap 72: (23) (30) (30) (33) (34) 29
Boomboom, cap 209: (61) (82) (81) (75) (92) (73) 81
Anisa Aubin cap 186: 137
Wiesia, cap 53: (252) (248) (235) (239) (236) (207) 149
David Coulon, cap 130: (239) (241) (246) (240) (213) 155
124 scratched overall in the race, 12 days 12 hours in.

Edit: I noticed that frrt.org doesn't remove scratchers from the list so some of these placings will be better than they look! Recalculating...

Indeed, Wiesia is on course for a top 150 finish.

What is David Coulon's Twitter Worncleat?

https://twitter.com/David_uber_hero Which is a fucking great twitter handle, imho.

Wondering if tweeting in a second language accounts for some of his more esoteric musings?

I still can't work out left from right and up from down. It would be terrible!

g'wan @hippy

I still can't work out left from right and up from down. It would be terrible!

While I generally get up and down right, I'm not foolproof on left vs right. I was pushing off at my club TT a couple of weeks ago, and I saw one of the riders had two labels on her bars, either side of her stem. One said 'left' and the other 'right'. It was reassuring to know others also have problems with this.

Has hippy's tracker stopped working? Can't see why he'd stop there, there's no "servo" there, no source of food I can see at all, just the most enormous open cast mine, unless he's found the keys to the works canteen.

@skinny, sounds like you are sticking around for the party?
Very good of you to do that - will mean a lot to the other riders who make it by Saturday night.