Race around The Netherlands

Arrived in Holland, shifter for rear derailleur not working. Not cool.

Edit: I'm an idiot

Bad luck. Is it fixable?
If not, what is this forum called again...?
;)

Yeah, a Di2 cable came loose in my shifter. Don't know how it happened but I checked all connections except for that one. It took 3 bikeshops to figure it out.

Sounds like it is fixed.
Good luck tomorrow everyone riding!

Hippo seems to be lying in fifth at the moment, leading the main field behind Daan Marsmans (good name), who is in the lead, and then three riders who seem very close together, only a couple of kilometres ahead.

Don’t worry, it won’t be long before he’s whingeing.

#goochwatch

Oh, but I am worrying. I can't wait. :)

He's now in second. I think there are infrequent tracker updating issues again, causing the leapfrogging between him and that group of three at the moment. Just nearing Apeldoorn.

Given his past record of riding into canals, what are the chances of a repeat?

third now

Not sure. That's after a tracker update for Sam Thomas when hippy's was over five minutes ago, with about a kilometre distance. It's probably all too close together still to give any certain positions (although I'm aware I started that).

Either way, they seem to be getting very close to Daan Marsmans.

and Jas is not far behind.

Depends on what he had for breakfast I guess...

What I worry about a bit is where hippy is going to bivvy. It's easier to remain inconspicuous in the Balkans, but in the Netherlands the sudden appearance of a major hill rising above the flatland might attract a good deal of local attention.

Also, and sorry if I've missed something that's already been said, but are those blue bits route variants that riders can take if they want to avoid the off-road bit? Number 15 just seems to have made up a lot of ground that way.

Weren't those blue roads ones you had to pay an entrance fee for to use them?

From the manual
"At around kilometer 126 you will enter the National Park Hoge Veluwe from the North.
You can Enter the Park until 20.00 local time. Entry fee is 10,- Euro!
More info about the Park here: https://www.hogeveluwe.nl/en
Please be extra respectful with the wildlife in this area and other visitors of the Park!
In case the Park is closed we advice you to take the detour you see in the small map below.
There will be no gpx file from the detour! "

So they look to be longer detours if somewhere might be closed.

Thanks!

It still seemed to me as if it worked for Number 15--the others really seemed to slow down in the National Park. I assume he might end up getting penalised for that, as the park clearly wasn't closed?

Indeed, and hippy did complain that navigation was difficult at one point, I suspect that the twists and turns going through that national park slowed people down.

Well, let's wait to see if any sanctions will be announced.

No tracker update from hippy for more than 45 minutes. Has he eaten it?

He’s chatting shit on twitter.

I expected that not having his dynamo so needing to conserve his battery power would mean he wouldn't be on twitter so much. Guess I was wrong!

The park was beautiful but not made to have a race pass through. Narrow twisty paths full of people on little rented bikes.

Doing awesomely... Keep at it :-)