Transiberica Bike Race (Spain)

Yeah, I promised the missus I'd do less racing and take her touring or something so perhaps I can steal some routes and plan a tour rather than enter any particular event. That would work better for holidays and stuff. I'm a bit in love with Spain now though so maybe another go next year..

All lies, I heard they were drunk, we actually only ride on zwift.

The Spanish gravel looked awesome and the bits I did there last year were great.

haha yeah I thought you guys were heavy drinkers. Bunch of lightweights :P

I have a love hate thing with gravel. It's kind of fun but I hate meeting it during a 'road' race, especially when I've already killed a 28mm and my spare 28mm has cuts in the sidewalls already, as I'm so paranoid about destroying tyres and walking in my stupid Speedplay/midfoot shoes. I've bought some flat pedals and to try with "normal" shoes next year so that might help for any hike a bike stuff but I worry that it'll mess up the majority of the riding.

I'm looking into 650B wheelset so I can run some massive tyres for gravel lols.

Gravel... for Badlands, maybe? hihihi

https://youtu.be/qZ5SJqfrhLo

https://www.transiberica.cc/badlands/

I'm working on it...

https://twitter.com/firsthippy/status/1179835036713000961

Anyway, Transiberica 2020 is on the table!

https://www.transiberica.cc/transiberica/

2.800k +45.000m
12 CPs

https://www.transiberica.cc/transiberica/checkpoints/

I think the chain need some more links...

Nah, it's fine with the 36T.
I still want to see if the 40T or 42T cassette will work. I will definitely need to lengthen the chain for that.
Bike needs to be taped up again for bags and I may take the dynamo lights off again now that I have 650B wheels without dynamo.

Oh yeah, I just noticed, it does look bad but it was in big-big when I took pics as I was just testing the gears. It looks much nicer dropped into the little ring.

Registrations re-open again!!

New dates:
Transpyrenees: 22 / Agoust (1.000k +25.000m)
Badlands:6 /September (700k +15.000m)
Transiberica: 20 / September (2.800k)

Wellcome to my country!!!

https://youtu.be/5nXSF3XeXoY

This is great news.

So I am doing this bad boy; its 3x the distance of anything I have done before. To say I am unprepared is a huge understatement
I read last years reports with great interest; a mixture of laughing and fear....
Based on the epic Badlands, these boys can put on an event....

To save me from bombarding Hippy via DM I want him to recap his race last year and give me all his tips in one place !!

Use the lowest gears you have.
Then fit a Wolftooth or swap cranks and put lower gears on.

Learn more Spanish than 'dos cervezas por favor'

Check your route for gravel. By all means add it if that floats your boat. It didn't float mine. I did lots of it.

Gravel is great on a gravel bike; not when you dont want it at 3am! My other fear is getting on a road that’s marked not for cyclists; I see in last years edition that was a recurring issue for people. I would have a proper sense of humour failure...

Yeah, I tend to lose my shit after doing 27 u-turns in the same town trying to find a legal way out. You need to look closely on maps - I use OSM and google maps and then swap to Street View (which I think doesn't work in Portugal IIRC) but I didn't have a lot of time for route prep after TCR. I know some riders took no-cycling roads last year but I can't remember if there were penalties given.

Expect to get a bit more 'accidental gravel' than you'd planned for. I ran more durable tyres which came in handy. Ironically, my only two punctures happened hitting rocks on the road and not on the gravel sections I ended up on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-c2tfapspQ&ab_channel=EFProCycling

Nice little video on the event.

Good hustle Hippy

Yeah, I was only a day and a bit slower than a skinny, hallucinating, pro.
Not bad for a fat, pisshead used to ridin' sealed roads, with a couple of nice hotels in there :D
Pfft, pros. :D

Who's making an appearance next year then?

https://www.transiberica.cc/transiberica/

#iheartspain

Spain is a beautiful country - I love riding there

Strongly tempted ! Loved this one

If TCR doesn't go ahead would certainly consider flipping to this. Would love to do it at some point.

This year's edition stays up north so no Pico Veleta but looking at the pics on the site there's no shortage of beauty in the top half of Spain. One of my favourite places was Cain de Valdeon (spelling?) in Picos de Europa national park. Totally stunning around there. I think next year's edition goes close to this (can you tell I've studied the details in great detail, like usual)

Yeah, I had a quick look at the map and saw it was in the north. Might be better from a heat point of view, but I couldn't immediately tell how it would work - if it was going to be a criss-cross kind of route. One thing I liked about the previous routes was that they were a big lap of the peninsula. I don't feel so good about zigzaggy or, horror, clover leaf routes.
#alwaysfindsomethingtomoanabout

I saw you were down for another shot - so does that mean no more 12s, or hedging bets?

Breckland is (supposed to be) ~2 weeks before Transiberica. :)

Roster is filling up fast; last I looked there was 6 names...
I think this year is up north as slightly cooler than Southern Spain in Aug which would be savage
My nav is normally atrocious, but I think the first 900km go through France
So its a very different vibe to previous ones