Silk Road Mountain Race (SRMR)

You're right about this. Getting feisty out there between the top 2:

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hmm another XX1 casualty? I have this crank on my MTB. I keep it because of the great 156mm Q-Factor.

Anyone read somewhere what exactly happened? Would like to know the cause of failure.

Enough use cases out there where carbon cranks don't survive knocks and collisions with objects. Attached a couple examples found via google.

180km on one leg is hardcore. That leg with no pedal must be dead from keeping it steady on the BB/CS.

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Leaders must be due into CP3 in the next few minutes... Predicted mode places Jakub only 5 k away and travelling at >30km/h, with James maybe 2km behind. Really super exciting stuff!

Jakub is the ultra runner right? Is there any reading material about him and his background/prep?

wow. would have to hear his story over a beer at the end :)

Regarding Jakub's preparation for the race:

http://jakubsliacan.eu/srmr/2019/08/08/srmrno2_2.html

Aha, thanks. I tried zooming but couldn’t see her

Up thread someone posted his training details from his blog.

EDIT: https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14868893/

Wonder if he'll stop early evening at the Control, eat and sleep and then tackle the 2000m climb and then the 4000m climb during the day tomorrow?

Also it's 1900 local time there right now. It looks like there is a small town about 60km up the road and between the two climbs so maybe resupply at the control, then push on over the first climb, rest in Bookbaevo before tackling the monster (can't see a name on the map) during daytime?

Ta!

Edit: Also @hippy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsk3zAZyLaQ

Yeah, not sure, haven't looked closely at the map so don't know what's out there. Could be a better option than getting sucked in to a Control rest, especially if there's some light about still or he's not tired.

Love that anything less than 50km is a 'short' running race for Jakub. I'm hoping him and Skinny can hold their cool while theyre racing near each other. Would hate to see them push each other too hard and both blow up

A carbon crank on this kinda outing strikes* me as a bit of an oversight. Even a hollow alu jobby would be a risky choice.

* hah!

Would hate to see them push each other too hard and both blow up

Nope, that'd be aces. I mean, I want @skinny to win but let 'em cane it.

Sounds a doddle:

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Yeah let, Jakub deal with @skinny putting down the hurt. Although given the situation could go either way.
Luckily not a position I’ll find myself in. Fun living vicariously!

Pic from Radavist (Edit, didn't see remrak had posted earlier):

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Octalink , asking for trouble

20k of hikeabike and 40% downhill. Sounds almost as bad as my commute...

Fun living vicariously!

Keep thinking this sat at my comfy desk chair.

Both skinny and Jakub at CP3 now. Wonder if theyll stop for long

You sure? Octalink splines are much bigger aren't they? ie. there's 8 splines, hence "octa".

:) ha, it will get you ready for your entry next year...

No fucking way. I -might- consider his Morocco race but even then I am definitely racing less next year.

Not much info on the sort of running events Jakub does/did, but interesting to look at some of the numbers.

Last fall I did a lot of running. September to end of November. It consisted of up to 130k in peak weeks. This includes intensity.

That is a lot of running but it's definitely not insane in ultra-running terms. It's pretty much what I topped out at when I was training for 100mile/24hr races and for me was structured as follows: Monday 10k easy, Tuesday 10k inc intervals, Wednesday 20k easy, Thursday 10k easy, Friday 10k easy (or off), weekend: 70-80k split over 2 days (usually 40/30). For me that was pretty much the maximum I could do both physically and logistically but I know people who do more, or more importantly hit those numbers consistently (whereas for me they were peak numbers).

His strava is private (I requested a follow but I doubt he'll have time to respond any time soon...) but it lists his "predicted" marathon and half marathon times as 3:35 and 1:35. Predicted numbers are always balls (mine are about 5mins slower than reality) but if we assume they are in the right ballpark then his times are decent, but not brilliant even considering he focusses on ultra running. (again for reference, when I was ultra running I ran a 3:13 marathon at the back of a >100km week and was very much "middle of the pack").

Having said this, leading up to the SRMR 2019, I trained ~670h from Sep 2018 to mid-Aug 2019.

These hours have been spread across biking, running, skiing etc. It's interesting to compare these to James numbers, who, according to strava, has done 634 hours in 2019 alone. So James seems to have accumulated a greater volume overall, but (at least according to strava) has done nothing but cycling. Given the demands of the event and all the hike a bike sections, I wonder whether greater all round functional strength will be an advantage in this race.

Anyway, it's all fascinating.

Go @skinny !!

Yeah it's interesting to think of their strengths and weaknesses. Skinny has been out there for a month, like Lael, she has been pushing her bike up and down the race terrain. Not sure when Jakub flew out, but it has to figure in to a decision to ride long into darkness as skinny has done. Jakub's switch clean from running to cycling and his freshness to ultra-cycling had me thinking he'd blow up early or not hold the same pace. A few start super fast in previous TABR races and blew from inadequate preparation or training. Jakub has defied that over the last two days. Yet skinny is probably the guy you least want chasing you as he is metronomic. The unpredictable elements are a big factor too and what makes it interesting. We might be coming on to more 'Jakub' terrain, hikeabike as Tonts said upthread. Skinny is new to the mtb/cross stuff too which must be a leveller. Jakub is running a great race. Funny that both wrote before the race that there was no huge expectation of a win in their minds. Lael finally has a good deal of familiarity of this kind of thing and should not be discounted along with Jay.