Transcontinental Race No. 6 - TCR6 - #TCRN06 - 2018

Neck is starting to give after all the steep climbing yesterday. Putting my hands on the armrests to sit up as much as possible. I hope it will get better cause riding 2600kms like this...

local Glasgow lad Dario not too tired for some skills

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl73JB5ng-V/?taken-by=dariodemarco

Maybe a repost, but some coverage here from the start:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg5sjrI9iyE

Thanks

Skinny's secret seems to be his route (and his strict sleep schedule and meticulous planning):-

According to FRRT's estimates of route distance:-

skinny has ridden 2031km with an estimated 1471km to go.
Bjorn has ridden 1955km with an estimated 1741km to go.

So skinny's lead is at least 1741-1471 = 270km.

Taking that off what he's ridden means he would have ridden just 1761km to be where Bjorn is, so 194km less than Bjorn.

its a shame there is no easy way to compare elevation

Luft, how is volunteering at CP2 going?
Have you had a chance to ride the parcours?
Any pictures to share of those tunnels and views?
Any stories to share?

FRRT has estimates of climbing but only for what they've done. I don't have Skinny's climbing figure for when he was at CP3 in order to compare against Bjorn when he gets there.

FWIW the figures are now:-

Skinny: 29036m
Bjorn: 27949m

Skinny has obvious been up to CP3, down the other side, back up again and then back South.

The climb up to CP3 is 1000m vertical gain alone. We'll see what Bjorn does (whether he goes up and over or round the side to the bottom of the CP3 parcours.

Skinny's secret seems to be his route (and his strict sleep schedule and meticulous planning):-

....and the fact he’s a complete beast.

Thanks for compiling that! Very helpful.

Looks like skinny is 275km in front of Björn and had maybe 4 hours of rest whereas Björn had something like 7.

275km is quite a lot of cycling.

This is one of the things I love about this race. Yesterday was a normal day for me; home after work, tea, bit of TV and bed. Get up, come to work, log on to catch up on TCR.... 275km have been smashed and skinny is now in the lead!

Luft, how is volunteering at CP2 going?

I bet the air is nice up there.

Hippo seems to be in about 24th. Does one count the fast pair among those ahead of him or do they belong to a different category for that purpose? (I'm aware they will be counted in a different one at the end.)

170 vs 127 route from cp1 to current location.
170 added the Stevlio pass.

I did some preliminary comparisons from CP1 to CP2 of those who did the Grossglockner route and those who didn't. Quite a big spike that Grossglockner.

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The estimated distance to finish is not that accurate. If you stick Skinnys route from the bottom of the parcours to his current location, its about 75km. Bjorn is about 40km from the start of the parcours, so ~105km ahead, not 270km

Frrt gives a basic leaderboard table, it's really rough I think. It can't be too accurate based on all the different routes etc. I'm not sure if the paired riders should be included in the main 'rank' or not? What are the advantages of pairing if you are pushing around the top ten? Drafting? Moral support? Sharing supplies, information, tools? I previously (incorrectly) assumed pairing was to mean that each rider would ride half of the journey which I think happened in the 'teams' situation in IPWR (?).

It's in between, a rough route on RWGPS makes is 133km between them on the road. But there is a lot of climbing in that which Skinny has already done.

Ah, thanks. Makes a bit more sense, I should have checked it out properly I suppose!

I guess frrt isn't using the direct route up to CP3 that skinny took but going round the side of the big lump adding on 50km+ each way.

We'll see what Bjorn does (whether he goes up and over or round the side to the bottom of the CP3 parcours.

I think most riders will do what Skinny did. When I looked at it there didn't seem to be an obvious alternative that saved any climbing without being far longer. The advantage of going down the parcours is, of course, that it puts you in exactly the right place to start going up it!

I'm not sure if the paired riders should be included in the main 'rank' or not? What are the advantages of pairing if you are pushing around the top ten? Drafting? Moral support? Sharing supplies, information, tools?

They'll be put in their own separate category at the end.

The advantages are all of those that you mention. However there are drawbacks like:

• having to stop or ride slowly when you are going well / having to continue when you want to stop
  
• twice as many punctures / mechanicals
  
• getting sick of the sight of the same person 24x7!
  
  

I think riding as a pair would be harder than doing it solo

Skinny's secret seems to be his route

Skinny did a shorter but hillier route on the first day. Yesterday it seemed to be the other way round with Bjorn doing something a bit hillier.

Skinny does put a lot of care into planning his routes. Knowing that, when I was planning my route for this year I looked at his route to CP1 from last year as it was similar. But I ruled it out as it was hilly and I thought I'd go better on something a bit flatter. That doesn't mean it's not the right option for him as he is such a strong climber.

I'm getting worryingly tempted to consider next year's TCR.

I've just about forgotten how miserable LEL was....

do PBP next year!

LEL was great fun. I don’t know what your talking about ;)

Am I too late to try qualify for PBP, when is it and what are entry requirements?