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

My money and dot watching will be on paul quirk as he built the ladies steed .

Rob Quirk you mean.

Lee Craigie will smash it and no one will be near her. She's another class to anyone there.

Ultra chat >>>

This.

OK, yesterday saw 14 finishers and we are now up to 133 who have completed the race. I was particularly pleased to see Jason Smith #106 come in.

There are 6 riders within 153 km of the finish and then five riders between 237 and 556 km. Assuming anyone who appears not to have moved for 3 days is scratched, there are then four other rides between 612 km and 684 km. These are:

#177 Sheila Woollam 621km
#184 Michel Vandermeerschen 641 km
#91 Caroline Item 682km
#53 Alina Kilian

Add to these names that of #131 James Illman whose tracker is not working. He has passed CP4 and is reporting fewer than 700 km to go. After CP4 he contracted food poisoning. Ended up on a drip in hospital. Thrown out of hospital and had to cycle 50 km to hotel in pouring rain and under attack from dogs. He is amazingly positive saying that at least the rain washed off the vomit.

#35 Rafael Martinez Gonzales is close to the horror of CP4 with only 35 km until he gets there but has been stopped for 22 hours. Will have to watch what happens to his dot.

#163 Denis Uzdiaev is only 47 km from CP4 and moving today.

#94 Stephane Molliet hasn't moved for a day. 393 km from CP4.

#44 Lionel Bobb, TCR veteran is 650 km from CP4

#227 John Cooke has only 56 km to CP3 . He is moving and covered 88.7km yesterday and so one would hope that he will achieve that CP today.

#171 Neil Matthews has 634km to CP3. He appears to have riden late yesterday covering around 100 km between yesterday and the small hours of this morning. He hasn't moved for 8 hours and so is presumably still kipping.Yesterday was one of his longest rides recently and certainly, with 8.7 hours of moving time, his longest in the saddle in a while. No Insta posts from him recently.

So movement among the back markers but some thinning out. The next day or two could show us who is in this for the long term.

Really appreciate your updates - they add a real human dimension to the latter stages of the race (that us lesser mortals can somewhat relate to).

OK and so we enter day 19.

138 riders have now finished. Three are within 150k and so realistically finish in the next 24 hours. #175 Dimitry Kumundzhiev is 238 k away and has been on the road for three hours already. That said, unless he makes a massive push today, expect a morning finish tomorrow.

#246b Petra Scherer scratched yesterday only 260 km short of the end. Very sad.

#91 Caroline Item 452 km
#127 Sheila Woolam 481 km
#184 Michael Vandermeerschen 488 km
#53 Alina Kilian 490 km
#163 Denis Uzdiaev 652 km

Are passed CP4 and on the final stretch. #131 James Illman is also there but not being tracked. His latest Tweets indicate that he rode just shy of 160 km yesterday and has 550 km to go. He bumped into #184 Michael Vandermeerschen yesterday.

And then we have #33 Rafael Martinez Gonzalez who is 135 km away from CP4. He has slowed significantly over the last three days although may be properly underway again today.

#94 Stephane Molliet hasn't moved for two days and his dot has now shot over to Italy so we will take that as a scratch.

#44 Lionel Bobb ploughs on. He did a solid 212km yesterday and has covered almost 60 km already today. he has 469 km to CP4.

#227 John Cooke was only 15 km from CP3 14 hours ago. After the first four days his average dropped to around 100 km a day. I hope his lack of movement only indicates a rest.

#171 Neil Matthews managed 80 km yesterday and a further 20km to 03:00 this morning. He seems to be riding about 50 miles a day in the evenings and wee hours.

Thanks for these updates clive, really enjoying it.

Yes, always look forward to Clive's Tail End Tales. It's the only dot watching I tend to get into.

Thanks for the updates! Do you have any more info about Petra Scherer (246b)? I can see that her partner seems to be at CP4 but is also marked as scratched.

Edit: meant to reply to @WornCleat

Aw shucks blushes

Can't find anything. It seems as though she rode on without him but, after four days alone and not too far from the Greek border, she packed in. She had been putting in some 200+ km days to that point.

Watching @skinny on the local news. Hit the big time now.

I think he is going to sack us all off now ! After all what advice can we offer him now.

How to get fat? Bet he doesn't have a clue.

Thanks!

Hippy is teaching me to drink and celebrate.

What does @hippy know about winning these days?

He still celebrates just as much.

I can see this apprenticeship taking some time.

1:30 of fame 16min in.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bdw0n3/look-east-evening-news-17082018

Nice! You came across very well, James.

The latter stages of the race are developing into a rhythm now. More people finished yesterday but the number of people finishing daily is starting to drop. We may have one cross the line today.

#175 Dimitry Kumundzhiev is 210 km out from Meteora. He hasn't started to ride yet today but it is still early. Yesterday he rode only 88.1 km but in previous days has gone between 114 km and 264 km. It is possible that he will have one last big push.

#127 Shiela Woollam is up and riding early. She still has 317 km to ride. In the last week, she has varied between 60 km and 223 km in a day. I think that it unlikely that she will be making a last push today but hope to see her across the line tomorrow.

#91 Caroline Item is 335 km out. She has just set off at 6 am local time. She has been riding pretty much at the 200 km a day level and so one would hope that she will arrive tomorrow as well.

#184 Michel Vandermeerschen is 348 km from the finish. He hasn't started for today yet. His typical recent day has been 150 km to 220 km and so there is a good chance that he will cross the line tomorrow as well.

#163 Denis Uzadiaev is a little further back with 489 km to go. He has just set off on his 20th day. He has been covering between 83 km and 219 km per day. With luck, he should finish on Monday.

#131 James Illman is somewhere between CP4 and the end. His tracker isn't working but he is tweeting. He stopped last night at a hotel near Gurez 410 km from the finish. He has had a torrid time recently. Food poisining, hospital admission, a drip and then having to drag his weakened body onto his bike and ride a further 50 km through a storm to a hotel. He has been suffering the effects of the medicine he received and has been complaining of agonising constapation. I am pleased to report that his bowel movements appear to have reignited but the balance has swung a little too far in the other direction. We all know how awkward it is to wrestle with bibshorts behind a bush (don't we?).

His twitter feed is worth following. It is a little harrowing at times but shows an incredible determination. He tweeted late yesterday "Starting to wonder if #TCRNo6 will ever let me finish. My body has clearly decided it has had enough." But ends with the hashtag #NeverGiveUp. He is late back for work but appears resolved to fight on. Go James!!

Still on their way to CP4 are the next two riders.

#33 Rafael Martinez Gonzalez is 319 km off CP4 and around 1028 km from the end. He is already moving today. Yesterday he put in a big 227 km but had two quiet days before that. Hopefully he is firing on all cylinders now but remember he has the nightmare parcours to come. We are now almost three weeks from the start. He ought to finish within 28 days but still have a way to go.

#44 Lionel Bobb is a veteran TCR rider. He is not far behind Rafael. 1060 km to go. In recent days he has been putting in some solid hours and has been covering round about 200 km a day. Sadly I can't find anything about him on social media but will keep looking.

#227 John Cooke scratched at CP 3 yesterday.

#171 Neil Matthews. The last rider on the road still on his way to CP3. He has 509 km to get there and approximately 2211 km to the finish. Given that he has covered 1711 km so far in 19 days, it seems that, unless something remarkable happens, he will either scratch or set a new record. Clearly we must hope for the latter. He posted a picture on Instagram taken outside a cafe yesterday looking fairly cheerful. We need to discover more about his ride.

So we have nine riders left but by Monday will be down to a group of maybe four. The end is still quite a way off.

Thanks for that, these are really brave people, I have the utmost admiration for them.

I mentioned to my girlfriend last night that people where still out there looking for an all night garage.

I also want to thank you for the research you put into this.

Seeing the daily amounts really puts into perspective both their efforts and the ridiculous rides of the early finishers - the people who still haven't finished are still riding further than I could in consecutive days.

Just one thing Clive - shouldn't you be out doing your annual rides between London and Cambridge? I was hoping that was going to be a feature of the end of the TCR.