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

Björn is moving a few km/h faster than Skinny atm on average. Taint over yet by a long shot.

It wouldn't be over then anyway :)

The vast majority of the dots I'm watching are in Austria still and are only now thinking of CP3.

Skinny and Bjorn are awesome, but the fact that so many people from different athletic backgrounds take a stab at this ride is what makes it interesting. Just trying to sense what they're going through.

Most of the ride has only just cleared CP2.

Roger Seaton is clearly the very best kind of bonkers... but what else is happening back there?

The CP2 parcour is a beast:

This bit at the start of it:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@46.4331637,13.5863732,3367a,35y,90h,38.54t/data=!3m1!1e3

This bit at the end of it:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@46.3730017,13.7424206,4916a,35y,38.39t/data=!3m1!1e3

Interesting, I know nothing about Alfine hubs. I assumed the sheer impractically of trying to ride on a heavy, flexible, uncomfortable, non-aero frame would be what would make him scratch, but from that it sounds like the hub could pack in.
It's all very well trying to do it on a comedy bike for laughs and sponsor attention but if you want to make it harder, what most people do is take the best bike they've got and ride faster.

Alfine hubs are famed for their unreliability. But they are much cheaper than a Rohloff so don't totally destroy the price of a new bike fitted with one.

@frank9755 the 8 is more reliable than the 11 as it’s greased rather than oil bath. They have their place, on hybrids/Dutch bikes/commuter folders... they are all inefficient though and don’t handle watts. I killed a nexus 8 in a few months of commuting. Mrs TM has an affine 8 on her tourer and it has been great.

Yeah. 11 speed risky, eight speed fine but a touch draggy.

Rohloff would be fine for this unless placing meant everything to you. I’ve seen what @BareNecessities puts his through....

@frank9755, That wasn't his intention from what I gathered. He says that riding the Brompton during his commute always makes him smile. He rode last year on a standard road bike and decided to switch up to the Brompton for this TCR in order to enjoy whatever happens. It could be smart marketing, but taken at face value, his uniqueness in a sea of identical bikepacking setups is refreshing I reckon. It's mad, in the same way Joseph is (still?!!) riding around all of Australia on a fixed Dolan. He must have had in the back of his mind how awful it could get, but fair play for Roger having a shot on something different. Plus a lot of people were happily mocking the velomobiles at TABR until one actually won, then they had to have a separate category immediately for... reasons! (Not saying the Brompton offers any advantage.) Of course my opinion is not sat on a currently broken Brompton going up whatever hellish mountain TCR have planned today...

My 11 speed has been problematic on the fatbike.

:-(

Gears slipping and destroyed the first one.

Of course my opinion is not sat on a currently broken Brompton going up whatever hellish mountain TCR have planned today...

This is the truth of this whole thread.

I use an eight speed for commuting. It's a great hub, but it's already lunched one set of innards after about 8,000km, so I wouldn't regard them as reliable. It's OK as a commuter hub, but I don't think I'd want to race on it. Ironically, although the Rohloff is expensive, it would be cheaper than a high end derailleur set up!

Is anyone on a really hi end derailleur setup?

Most of the bikes I've seen seem to be di2 ultegra, as it's more robust than DA.

“More reliable than the 11”

Rohloff makes a lot of sense it’s just all that weight in the back wheel and a slightly different style of riding.

Using Ultegra instead of DA is not really because it's more robust. It's just good enough and offers great bang for buck.

When I was racing I could afford the best (Campy Record at the time) but you don't buy the best as race bikes have a shelf life and you fully expect to only use it for a few seasons at most and you know the chances of you destroying major parts of it are reasonably high or that wear and tear will take the rest.

Ultegra offers such a sweet spot on price and the difference to DA is so small and the money saved so important (no matter how much you earn, training and participating in events costs a lot in travel and accommodation if not gear), and spares are so common.

It's just a great balance.

I have DA Di2 on my Seven, but were I to be doing events like this I'd go Ultegra.

Plus a lot of people were happily mocking the velomobiles at TABR until one actually won, then they had to have a separate category immediately for... reasons!

This one should've been obvious to organisers. Such an enormous expanse of mostly flat land with head wind.

There’s some etap’ers out there

I don't see it that way. Taking the history of the event and the approach of the guy who started it, it's meant to be a race. Virtually everyone races it as hard as they can. If someone doesn't do that, either through equipment choice or approach, they are not taking it in the spirit it was intended. And they are preventing someone who would have raced it properly from having a place.

No-one can argue with riding fixed because that is what all bikes were at one time, and velomobiles are faster than an upright, so they are a valid racing choice. But a folding bike is neither of those, it just looks like taking the piss out of the race.

So I've just googled chpt3 Brompton and the first result is a link to the Brompton site which says they have just launched another batch of the bikes! It's a sales promotion exercise:
https://www.brompton.com/CHPT3#

Nathan has a pretty laid back approach. Mike was a bit more clear about what he wanted so velomobiles/recommend are banned in TCR.

I expect folders would have been too, if it had ever occurred to him that someone would try and use one!

Understand and agree with that viewpoint. Torn because I love the idea of it as well, as a one off in 250(?) riders. Also he mentioned that he scratched last year after the early accident to Frank, so I wondered if that had an element in this decision this time. Nifty marketing exercise if it is because it got some attention.

Plus a lot of people were happily mocking the velomobiles at TABR until one actually won, then they had to have a separate category immediately for... reasons!

This one should've been obvious to organisers. Such an enormous expanse of mostly flat land with head wind.

I thought that too, but one of the velomobiles was in the lead before they'd got to the flat land, Marcel was at the front before they got to the highest point at Breckenridge. I certainly didn't expect that.

Yeah mash chas is on an Etap Low//
Pretty hip hop bike actually

Chas other half Nico is on etap too I’m sure

Not great advertising having a shitty Alfine hub which fails after a couple of thousand kms, though.

Knowing Roger he's most definitely not doing it for laughs or sponsor attention, he's there to complete it and 'enjoy, he's always been up for a different kind of challeng! And, having ridden across big chunks of Europe with a bunch of Brompton riders (I wasn't on one!) it's incredible how sturdy and practical they are on long rides

There's always a few on PBP. I remember descending on the dark, in pissing rain, and being overtaken by someone on a Brompton in a super aero tuck!

It would be interesting to see what causes the most failures for these ultra distance rides.
Tyre sidewall tears and rim failures seem pretty common, much more so than I remember from audax.