Trans Am Bike Race / TransAm / TABR

I'm awed by her resilience over the past many hours, and the fact she decided to press on after only 40minutes of rest, but I find this a little disappointing.

Slower or not, rules are rules and it doesn't seem like the first time she's missed a bit of the course.

I feel bad for her but navigation and problem solving is a huge part of the race.

Perhaps she was told or knew that because of her previous route deviations, she was heading for a DQ, anyway and now just wants to have a ride. Still, it would have been good to show willing by retracing the route.

I don't feel bad for her, it's part of learning how to race these races. If you miss a bit, go back and do it all, end of.

She missed multiple bits, so is clearly shit at navigating, and like has been said before, it's more than what you've got in your legs.

If you're unsure of the route, plan for it, pore over it in every detail, make your own route files with cue points that will work on your garmin so that you know how far the next turn is, how far the next town is, etc etc. I must have spent dozens of hours doing this for Tour Divide, I had zero navigational issues. I had 2 garmins and back up paper maps. One turn every 30 miles is hardly rocket science either when you're used to densely populate Europe.

I would consider her earlier route deviations more worthy of punishment if as has been suggested an advantage was gained. I can’t see how anyone could perceive this to have been advantageous, which is surely the purpose of the rule.

I thought that too, but would have thought she'd take a longer rest to reset before pushing on if that were the plan. Seems hasty.

How on earth are you able to follow whats going on??

Keep on pedalling and make sure you don't make a mistake at Lost Trail Pass!

Go @hippy Go @DarrenFranks !!!

The purpose of the rule as I see it is that everyone rides exactly the same route, with the same (zero) level of support. Level playing field. Deviation changes that, however small.

This kind of racing is for real purists, if you don't like it, meh.

I would consider her earlier route deviations more worthy of punishment if as has been suggested an advantage was gained. I can’t see how anyone could perceive this to have been advantageous, which is surely the purpose of the rule.

Disagree. It's not about a subjective judgement of whether or not a particular deviation created an advantage (that would be impossible to judge in many cases), it's about racing the whole course unsupported. If you miss a bit then surely you have to go back and cover that ground also. If you want to find your own way, ride TCR.

It's still not too late for her to turn right down Big Lane Creek Road and then she can head back west over to Gibbonsville and up to Lost Trail Pass via the 93.

She won’t be DQed. Nathan is pretty cool and this race is far larger than slavishly following a line- every competitor will digress at some point in any case.

The fact that she’s soldiering on is awesome.

Valid point about its difference from TCR.

However using terminology that is perhaps emotive like purism, is a little absurd. All rules are applied subjectively by referees trying to be as objective as possible. I’ve said before that a lot of the rules that I’ve read seem slightly ill thought out. This will undoubtedly change as they evolve.

For what it’s worth I think she should go back but like I said before her small deviances that were perhaps to her minor advantage are a bigger issue to me.

It's still not too late for her to turn right down Big Lane Creek Road and then she can head back west over to Gibbonsville and up to Lost Trail Pass via the 93.

This would be a legendary thing to do.

In other news, I'm slightly amused that Peter Andersen seems to have snuck past Kraig Pauli while the latter was enjoying a quick detour to Old Faithful!

Tanja probably just been overtaken by Simone. Yesterday's shenanigans and lack of sleep obviously taken their toll on Tanja.

And they both have Hippy to keep them company. Expect mass abandonment any minute now.

It is irritating that the Race Flow only shows Leaders, Men or Women.

No way to see mid pack men and women together on it.

Yeah, i want to see Darren's but he is outside the top 21..lame

When I quit bike racing

I keep saying that too - I'll stop when I don't enjoy it anymore, but I'm in my 28th consecutive year as a BC racing license holder. It's grip doesn't relent.

She has a1030

Glad I didn't upgrade

Feeling good/okay/bad? Any thoughts? Stay strong!

I’m a coiled spring, waiting for the right time.

Apologies. I’ll crack on.

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Just got finish up first.

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Winning.

Like a boss.

Nicely done Darren.