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

I had dinner with him pre ride. Didn't really realise how much of a legend he was until reading comments about him here. Met him again on the CP1 parcours. He really wanted me to take a pic of him but my phone was off at the time. Here he is a couple of switch backs up by the time I turned the phone on :)

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It's a keg, obviously.

Please congratulate him for me if you can.

Little sidenote: 0 punctures. Conti's really are the best.

He'll be at the Royal wedding.

I note you waited until @hippy had left Greece before making this controversial statement.

Phew. I reckon a flat would definitely have tipped you over the edge at various points.

Plus one for four seasons. All other Conti no thanks

So now that the party is over and the over achieving athletes are packing their bikes and jumping on a train to Athens, it is time to turn our attention to the real heros of the race: the riders still out there on the 17th day of their ordeal.

119 riders have finished. A number more will complete the race today, including the heroic Jason Smith #106 whose attempt to make the finishers' party was thwarted by a nasty crash a couple of days ago. He expects to arrive this afternoon and seems in good spirits despite leaving a significant amount of skin on an Albanian road.

There are 31 riders making their way between CP4 and the end. 16 of these have 200 or fewer km to go and so should, let us hope, be on their last day. The others will come in over the next three days.

One rider is clearly having GPS issues. James Illman is listed as not having moved for 10 days but is tweeting that he is past CP4 and so should be added to the list above.

My interest lies in those those not yet at CP4 but who are fighting on. There are 9 of them.

Rafael Martinez Gonzalez #33 is 93 km from CP4 closely followed by Alina Killan #53 at 99 km and Michel Vandermeerschen #184 at 114 km.

The next "group" comprises Denis Uzdiaev #163, at 280 km to CP4, Beate Welland #196 at 356 km and Stephane Molliet #94 at 393 km.

We then have a bit of a jump to Lionel Bobb (a dot I am sure that we followed in the past) #44 at 816 km.

And then the really interesting ones.

John Cooke #227 is still 130 km shy of CP3 and Neil Matthews #171 has only just completed CP2 and has 690 km to CP3 and around 2392 km to the end. I was worried that he might have scratched as he had a rest day yesterday but he is moving again now. His daily rides are not massive.

He started with a reasonable 12.4 hours and 169 km, dropped to 81 km and 5.3 hours on day two and has been riding for under five hours a day for many of the days. His longest day (other than Day 1) has been under 160 km (100 miles). At this rate he could beat the 28 day mark.

I am not sure if he is suffering or just determined to get to the end and taking his time over it. I know nothing about him although I have, while typing this, just found him on Twitter @NeilMatthews73

He is from Manchester and if the 73 means anything, 45 years old. He cycles, skis and takes photos. He only tweet about the race is from 12 July where he say s "can't wait to be racing this fella from dawn till dusk" and posts a picture of the shadow of his bike. He rode LEJOG in 2016 in 4 days. None of that points to someone setting out to stroll across the continent. Hopefully he will keep going and we will discover more about him.

I've found Neil Matthews on Instagram and he's been quite active there. He is using the hash tag #neverquit which is very encouraging.

He's riding a 36-29 gear which, on a heavy bike is tough. He had his cap stolen while he slept but there is nothing else to point to any particular difficulty. His photos are fairly arty. @nmatthews73

Just seen some tweets from James Illman who, sadly is living up to his name.

"12 minutes ago "Stopped at med centre. Did quite a lot of vomiting. Now on a drip. Today will be a low mileage day. Apparently last night's hotel is notorious."

All of things to loose the cap is up there.
Seems and odd thing to steal given the other stuff that would be with him.

Also worth a look is #44 Lionel Bobb. He’s one of the nicest people on the race. This is his third attempt at the race and this is the furthest he’s got (past cp3) - I think he’s got this one in the bag.

Thanks Joe. I knew I had seen his name before.

Cheers for the roundup!

Cheers for the roundup!

Yep, thanks for that.

I can more readily identify with this end of the race, thanks for the roundup!

Coolio :)

People often say stolen... When they mean lost. Easier to blame someone else. Who would take a cap?

171 Neil Matthews is definitely interesting. Maybe he's enjoying being last rider as lots of available evidence points to him being naturally quicker? And as you say, it doesn't look like he's suffering mechanicals etc.

Jason Smith on the final parcours. Should be very nearly finished.

He’s finished.

He's riding a 36-29 gear

Ooof. Campag I guess. Good luck to him. Perhaps he's taking a relatively flat route..

I've seen him arrive, in great spirit even with his injuries.

Brilliant. Pass on good wishes.

Meanwhile, Bjorn is already in Bishkek for the start of SRMR
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