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

From following TABR and TCR this year, there does seem to be a few levels of racing going on out there. Ultra-racers (skinny, hippy, samuli et al., know what they are letting themselves in for and stop to "grab and go" as skinny said), semi-ultra (checked off the aero gear list and have a plan that is then challenged by lack of strategy, endurance or the harsh reality of it), fast touring (people pushing personal goals while aiming to meet time cut-offs and stopping at times to enjoy the surroundings) - some of the most fun to follow!

There was a top ten racer in TABR who said he couldn't understand people still 1,000 miles back posting Instagrams because "it's a fucking race, man!" and you also have a rider like Grace who, from reading that, gains a huge amount of credit for going beyond what she thought previously impossible:

I probably should be proud. I rode 1700km in one week in six different countries without a single mechanical or tumble.

And it sounds she really attacked the challenge in the right spirit. If there was a qualification then you would lose some of the human element, but you might have more of a tighter 'race' instead. In the best scenario maybe all these different racer types can co-exist?