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

It looks like Gary Boyd from Hub Velo (cap 246b) has had to scratch.

A post from the Facebook page from earlier on today mentioned him passing blood and waiting at a doctor's. Sounds like it's probably best he stops - but it's a shame, as he's a good guy and has overcome quite a lot of cycling-related adversity in the last couple of years already.

Keep at it. Massive respect for keeping going. Stick at it - it'll get better.

Fiona Kolbinger appears to have found a hotel. Ben Davies' dot has stopped next to one as well. Just 50km between them.

Awesome stuff dude. Hope you can continue to recover. You are still doing great

I didn't even realise Gary was doing it.

Not really. #16 Lulu is one of the very few riders to go through Bosnia (and she's still here).

Here's my interview with her :)
https://m.facebook.com/groups/706929922691019?view=permalink&id=2526906340693359

Tl;dr, scratched, neck probs, train home.

I've just scratched.

Riding a few hours after tweaking my bike to raise the bars yesterday told me what I didn't want to hear, which was that, however high I got my bars, i was finding it increasingly hard to look down the road.

What finally convinced me was reading this account from Felix Wong, linked from @skinny 's blog, in my hotel last night
https://felixwong.com/2015/08/my-experience-with-shermers-neck/

I'm experiencing exactly the symptoms he describes, and doing the same things in response - getting my bars as high as I can and riding on my aerobar pads. Essentially schemers is usually seen as a sudden thing, but his was progressive over several days, as mine has been.

I could carry on and see how it goes for a couple more days. Climbing would be fine but what I really don't fancy are long, twisting descents, so makes sense to give up now, at Spittal an der Drau, before heading into the Alps. Also, tbh, I don't fancy letting it get bad, like he did, with consequent harder recovery. And reading his account made it only too clear where things are heading.

So I'm at the station, waiting for the 11:40 to Zurich, then a tgv and eurostar. Actually I might forget the eurostar and go for a ferry from dieppe.

Very disappointed. After a bad start I was going well. Had got up from around 150th place at the first checkpoint to about 60th, thanks to some good route planning and TTing across Serbia. If I hadn't messed up my di2 yesterday I'd have managed a third successive day of around 330km, which is far better than I did in either tcr 2016 or indypac. I'd expected to drop back a few places on the parcours but gain again on the sections I'd routed across Switzerland and France (my total route stats were 4040km and 38k m of climbing, so much flatter than any others I'd seen and only marginally longer, I'd put loads of time into optimising it). So I felt, given a few other people ahead of me scratching, I could realistically aim for around 30th, similar to where I came in 2016.

I'd got to the stage where pains I'd had earlier in the ride, like saddle sores and sore feet, had pretty much gone away, and I was feeling stronger as the ride went on. My plan of early starts and early finishes was working well, with 100km before breakfast setting me up for the day.

If I'd not done tcr before I'd be more disappointed and tempted to continue.

why did it happen? Two reasons

• My fall on the first day hurt my shoulder and probably gave the neck muscles a bit of hammer too.
  
• I spent a lot of time in the aerobars, far more than I have done before.
  

Sorry to hear this, but I think you've made the right decision. Have a safe trip home.

Sad news, wise choice. Well done though, I enjoyed watching your progress.

Sad news, but all credit for a great ride!

This is amazing, dotwatching and seeing updates from actual riders on here as we go. Huge chapeau to all who have taken part, it's an awesome thing to do. Watching Fiona's dot with hope now!

Brave and correct decision.
Better to recover now and try again tcr8/9, than push on and do further harm.

Yeah, there'll be more races, take care of your body. Strong riding, am in awe.

Sorry to hear that.
You have done an impressive effort during the last week.

I did notice that also cap48 had to scratch because of that:

#TCRNo7cap48
Osamu Brown scratched in Belgrade, Serbia.
12:29 01-08-2019, after approximately 1150km.
Osamu is suffering from Shermer's neck, and after-effects of a crash on day 1.

Fast recover! you have still done an amazing job. keep it up

Good call Frank, take care.
Sam Thomas still not moving consistently, wonder what the issue is. Of the three behind: Hendrickx and Schuster have clear sleeping patterns, Pawel's is more erratic. They are closing in to the CP and third place.

that is a shame frank but wise call dude. you rode awesomely while you could.

and selfish I know but I hope this means we will benefit from your insight and expertise in seeing out the rest of the race.

get home safe.

Don't feel down, Frank. That bloody Shermers has caught loads out, it seems...
Great effort by all!

Lulu stopped since 30min in the middle of a road. hopefully nothing serious

Frank. Knowing how much preparation you put into this I can only begin to understand your disappointment. You gave it your all. There will be another! Well done for managing to travel so far with all the challenges thrown at you.

good call Frank. safe journey home.

In good news, Katariina Heiskanen #124 is moving again and only 50km from CP2. She set off an hour and a half ago after resting up for two and a half days in an hotel. Hoping she is recovered and that she can catch the back of the field.

Go Katariina!!!!

It's early to begin watching the back of the race (I usually wait until the winner has crossed the line) but I suspect that Katariina will be worth following.

#124 on the move finally :)

Edit: Beat me to it by seconds :)

fixed gear ivan is still plodding along. cap 5. reached slovenia at least. gravel parcours climb on fixed would have hurt.

Edit: Beat me to it by seconds :)

Phew! Only because I didn't proof read my post and posted and then went back and edited!