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

Lionel Bobb is still racing. He is calculating carefully the effort that he can make to ensure he completes the race. He is not risking a scratch. In so doing he will end up with a better result than all of those valiant folk who raced fast but were forced to scratch. Tortoise and hare.

Neil Matthews is a conundrum. We don’t know why he is going so slowly. He has done LEJOG in four days and so can race at speed. He seems determined to complete the full course but is doing so very slowly. No indication of issues but there might be some. Somehow he can take six weeks off work and pay for hotels every night and so he might be racing around a job. If he is, he isn’t touring. Worried about access to Wi-fi later on the route though.

Lionel has just reached the summit of the CP4 parcours.

this is great news. I like to think it is all down hill to the finish. but of course it is not. we can at least hope Lionel has the wind at his back. great stuff

Unless I suddenly move up the wait list I won't have a ticket for the talk at Rapha Soho tonight. @skinny, reckon there's anything i'm missing out on?

Moar 7 day croissants. Skinny's secret diet.

It's going to be shown live on Instagram on the TCR feed

He (Neil Matthews) reminds me of those Japanese soliders found in the jungle in 1958 or thereabouts who didn't realise that it was all over a long time ago

I've left it too late, then. I just sorted it out with my wife that I could go, but sounds like it's ovebooked. I'll nip round to the Polish shop and buy some plastic croissants and watch the online feed.

Capacity: 280

Capacity with hippy in the room: 12

No chance of any free nibbles then

Lionel back to CP4 after completing the parcours.

I must confess that, had I been in his position, I would have been very tempted to leave most of my luggage at the CP and to travel up as unladen as possible. Indeed, I might have left my bike and just walked up and down without it as an incumbence.

I thought of doing that at one of the check points in TCR4 and asked and apparently its not really allowed

Some poor idiot shared a story of him attempting this before the climb to the start of the second parcours. It wasn't until he returned to the seat pack that he remembered where the spot tracker was attached to, it had enjoyed a nice rest at the bottom of the climb.

It was a funny story but not sure he should have shared it in front of the race directors.

Not if you want to keep your limbs.

There was a rider walking up the parcours with only his tracker in hand when I did it.

Someone said Kristof unloaded his bike for the parcours in a previous edition.

You have to take your fully laden bike.

Excellent, I wonder if they will accept questions though it too...

Well I guess it doesn't matter, assuming he did the parcours again, properly?

I grassed on the rider walking up without his bike, I also dobbed myself in for a possible route infraction. There was at least one rider in front of me that didn't do the required parcours and I know non-pair riders were sharing kit but I didn't mention that to anyone. Basically, I'll just take 3rd place and we'll call it even, yeah?

I'm pretty sure Mohamed El Alami #214 left his bags and spot tracker at the bottom of the parcour 2 and 4. In fact it sounded like loads of people were emptying things out of their bags at CP4.

2 Attachments

Obviously, it would be very silly to do it if you are among other racers, particularly the eagle-eyed hippy, and have race officials at the CP. But, and please note I am not for one moment suggesting this is what Lionel has or would do, what if you were all alone at the tough end of the race; exhausted after 23 days of riding. You were determined to complete the race and the parcours but life would be so much easier if, instead of riding, puncturing and pushing a fully laden bike, you could just stroll up with your hands and transponder in your pockets. Would you do it?

I'm an idiot. I filled my water bladder and put another half kilo of food on the bike before doing CP4 parcours.

If he fessed up and didn't attempt it again then I'm happy and will leave the finer application of the rules, and spirit of the race, to the judges.
I just wonder if he told the organizers before he started his tale of trying to cheat.

Congratulations on the bronze.

Would you do it?

Of course not. Otherwise, why would you fuck about with controls, parcours, or any other rules for that matter? No one would choose to ride that shitty road so if you're racing the TCR why ditch the rules because no one is watching. Sure, less likely to be caught doing so, but then you know you've not followed the rules and that will burn a hole in your pathetic soul for the rest of eternity...

Anyone have any idea of how many rode all the way up CP4?
Or % that could be ridden.
Said at the time people were arriving there, that it seemed an odd choice to include something that couldn't be ridden in the context.

I just don't get how people can cheat like that. Fuck them, really.

In hindsight I wish I'd had a bigger breakfast at the CP4 hotel and used the walk up to help digestion!

I also wonder if TCR used this video (from 45 seconds) to make a bit of a point. https://youtu.be/w_1TLkDYP4M?t=43s