Transcontinental Race No. 7 - TCR7 - #TCRN07 - 2019

Good thought. If I were not tired I'd back calculate their location.

1 Attachment

ISO power?

Constant power (I googled it)

Who is it?
Power is strange, day 12 is not mountains, elevation figure is low and average speed is high. Looks like he just gave it a bit of a lash that day, then collapsed the next day.
But his power on day 3 is higher than day 1.
His distance per day is low for his power and speed, looks like someone who rode fairly short days /had lengthy stops.

That's because I'm a militant pothole reporter :)
Reported another one and some loose rocks yesterday.

It does make one wonder what causes all those potholes and loose rocks on hippy's routes. :)

Did you fall off the rowing machine again?

#bringbackrep

I still don't know if smashing the start and decaying in these is any better than trying to isopower it.

I've thought about this quite a bit and I don't know either! First thought is that it should be like a TT, steady power is fastest. But I think it depends on the context. And it often seems that those who get towards the front early on tend to stay there.

On pbp you have to smash it from the start. I screwed it up completely last time by trying to hold back and ride to power. I put it down to drafting but maybe there's more to it.

On indypac Kristof came screaming past me at high /unsustainable speed (I later learned he had deliberately set off last). Mike responded, screaming past me almost a fast a couple of minutes later. I got the idea it was a planned move by kristof and Mike felt he had to respond as he couldn't afford to give him a gap. But maybe he would have been better to have let him go and ridden his own race? Sarah played it differently, probably she didn't have the speed to chase. She went steady at the start. I rode close to her for an hour or so (ie until the first hill) and it didn't cost her.

But I also think of @skinny in 2015 and, Stephane last year, they both dug very deep to get to the front and held on for most of the race.

In 2018, Stephane came past me in the 2nd hour of the race, I was doing around 270W average (sustainable for me for a bit), he's a lot lighter, and was well into the red.

You can push a bit while you've power but not too much. It's sleep that messes with you also. If you're sleeping 7h a night, you can push more, or won't degrade so much. Whatever I do, I will degrade. Though pushing more power at the start I'd degrade sooner.

I could average 240W (ish) the first 24h+, however I keep a lid on it and only do 200W. It's a race to the finish not CP1.

He said he set out conservatively, and felt good on 12, but paid for it on 13!

Spurred by the party and being close to the finish?

So the key is optimising the degrade curve. And there are two levers - how hard you push and how long you push for - but it get's messy as they are related.

The figures from the guy above tell me he rode way too conservatively for the amount of power at his disposal. Without knowing anything else I feel he could have been a couple of days quicker. (I did similar on PBP 2015).

Stephane clearly went into the red on day 1, but was that the wrong strategy? Until he got lost in the goat tracks, he was still in the mix for the podium.

In Indypac my hunch is that Mike might have been better to let Kristof go, then try to reel him in over a few days, Froome-style. I think that is what you would do now in the same circumstances, But Kristof would have reckoned Mike's would be more instinctive and try to chase him down.

I would expect the final day to yield somewhat higher power. Finishing surge innit.
Last day, pushing harder knowing you don't have to back it up the next day.

If you have anything left to give, sure you might lift for the finish. But it might not always play out that way, depending on how you plan to close out the race.
In 2016 I was physically (and mentally) spent on the last day, as I'd already upped my effort to close it out about a day and a half earlier! My PM battery had run out by then but my last 3 days power profile might have looked like that guy's (with proportionately lower numbers).

All the ladies know that I'm a fast finisher...

I dunno, I'd need to look at the power figures but in all my ultras I at least feel I'm going harder on the last day. Same case with the 24hrs I'd finish strong but then they were perhaps ridden more conservatively given there was only one race a year and I wanted to win it.

Flights booked! To save money I’ve decided to fly into Bucharest on Sunday 21st July and then cycle the 300km allowing myself 2 days.

Good to acclimatise like that if you have the time, and you'll have chance to see a bit of the area before setting off.
assume that's from the UK not Australia?

Groovy baby!

You'll be fucking pinging after 300k of Romanian driving and dogs. You'll start like a rocket :)

Yep, it’ll be from London. I’m probably going to get in from Australia in late June to give myself some time to prepare my kit.

@hippy Romanian driving isn’t that bad, is it? I’ll probably take it relaxed and do it over two days.

If you take the back roads it's just fine. Just plan a nice route.

What skinny said. I was run off the road and into a rock garden with a fucking ridic overtake about 5min into Romania so my experience didn't start well. The dogs and trucks on the main roads took its toll.

Should be nice. If it was me and had all week I might spread it over 3 days rather than 2 to keep it gentle. I think the coast down from varna is meant to be pretty, dk about traffic though, or I guess you could cut through and recyy cp1

Today was a new one :) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuPQ-kDAP0Y/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1646nuc170rzl

I was run off the road and into a rock garden

Frankly, if I wanted to convert my rock garden into a gravel garden on the cheap, I'd do the same.

Haha - I must have had intuition that he was planning another - or maybe he does them every week and just happened to post that one!

Got a nice email from Anna last night - Look forward to meeting some of you at the start.