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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#
frank9755-
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.
Squaredisk
@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...