Trans Am Bike Race / TransAm / TABR

I wonder if it's a boring story or an interesting one.

Indeed, nothing else on FB and I couldn't find him on Twitter.

It cost him almost exactly 24h.

According to his coach, he had a split/cut to the sidewall of one of his tyres so he had to backtrack to a town with a bikeshop

Good spirit by Marcel:

1 Attachment

I’m going to steal that to post on Twitter.

What a good bloke.

hippy's stopped at Big Daddy's Diner, entirely unpredictably.

(In Cañon City.)

Sounds like he's having fun. Sabine is almost challenging Lael's pace, hadn't noticed that before. Could be one to watch.

Looks like Darren's new bike is due for delivery today (according to his twitter) and he hopes to be back on the road by sundown.

wait, why is hippy wearing a wig?! Aero?

To allow him to go into all the places he got barred from last year.

I wanna know how he got barred from big daddy’s

From FB: "First Stephen Haines backtracking to Pueblo due to a cut tire. He had a large slice on his rear tire and wasn't risking moving into the plains. "

Definitely bringing an spare tire to the TCR.

Sabine is almost challenging Lael's pace

You must mean Simone.

I do, sorry.

Really feeling for Darren Franks, must be frustrating. Looking forward to watching his dot as he engaged beast mode and gets moving again.

hippy back up to 14th, having overtaken Heath Ryan. Several other people resting just ahead of him, including Simone Bailey, who no longer seems to be challenging Lael Wilcox' pace, or at least not today. hippy should be able to advance some more places.

hippy just over half way now. Go hippy.

Allez Hippy!!!

Really feeling for Darren now. His frustration must be incredible. His preparation was meticulous. Is is so sad to see his effort finish in this way. *

On a positive note, he is young and will be able to ride and complete the TABR in the future.

• Not that he has scratched yet but the chance of him making it to the end on time now must be really remote.
  

Go hippy!

I think hippy's stopped at Eads even though it's not called 'Eats'.

If you want the asterisk to show in the footnote (and don't want it indented), you have to put a \ in front of it.

Dave Lewis catching Marcel in the race of the velomobiles?

Yes, always rough for people who have to scratch, whether it is mechanicals, injuries or other factors. I expect Darren will make the best of it, though, and attack the next couple of days with the benefit of fresh(er) legs.

I can't remember how many days he has left before his wife starves, and what his km per day requirement is / is it possibly acheivable - it would be great if he is able to pull it off.

It is hard psychologically, though, to chase a tight deadline. I had time pressure on the latter stages of my IndyPac - simply from riding too slow + minor problems, not a major bike issue like this - and it is psychologically very hard. I found myself spending a large proportion of each day wrestling with two problems:

1. working out the maths on how average km per day needed had changed and what I could manage, given the potential to throw in a couple of long days to close it out
   
2. trying to decide what order to do things in when I got to Sydney, between going straight to the finish, picking up clothes I had mailed ahead, going to a hotel, drinking beer, going straight to the airport. However many times I thought it through, there was never a good solution to that one!
   
   

I expect Darren might have some of the same brain-noise. It doesn't sound like a big deal from the point of view of the challenges to be dealt with in normal life, but things take on a different quality after a week or two on a bike!