Transcontinental Race No. 8 - TCR8 - #TCRN08 - 2022

nice one :)

Essentially, I've had my fill. This year's route wasn't different enough to entice me in again and I need my holidays for other stuff.

Literally every race report I've read for any ultra documents actions I'd consider against the rules or at least not in the spirit of the race.

You want MOAR!

Romaniac!

Fair that. Are you racing anything this year?

Would 35c all rounds be too much for this? I wanna do it on 32c gp5000 would gravel sections might be painful

Badlands and wanna try and improve my 12hr TT.

gp5000

They're very thin.

I rode GPs , tore a sidewall at the foot of Besna Koblia parcours. Gorilla taped it, fine for 400km. Chose to change it at a convenient time (I was carrying a spare).

Badlands tempts, have they announced time of year and distance?

I've only ever started 3 ultra races, and finished one. Compared to you I'm a complete novice, never even been to Romania!

That's true as well. But from someone who was the winner and in a published book it's a bit more significant.
Not that I feel bad about Emily ambushing me on the ferry or anything :)

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

Ah, well, this edition is likely more appealing to you. It was just too samey and after last year's knee drama I thought I'd sit it out. I've already used half my holidays this year for a wedding and stag do and I need the rest for Badlands and Spain research. Also felt a bit guilty about all of last year's flights so targeting that 12hr I've had in the back of my head seemed like a nice local goal.

TL or tubes?

Pretty sure Birdman came to grief with them as well. I'd already decided against them when I saw they were thinner than the 4000s

Tubes.
To my mind every option has a downside. You just have to accept that.
I was happier going with a quicker tyre and spare.

Yes but did you work out how much time the quicker tyres save vs. repair time and spare fitting time?

I've not done the calcs but my experience dictates my choice - I prefer more durable tyres because I'd rather take a hit on overall speed for the sake of not having to do tyre repairs at a potentially very inconvenient time - in the freezing cold up a mountain, racing to get to a shop before it closes, etc.

Yeah I get that. Mine was more an experience/ familiarity. I like riding the GPs.

There is a reason tyre choice is one of the most discussed topics :-)

Sure, good to do something different, and long road TTs is your biggest strength. I guess that your big improvements in short TTs a couple of years ago means 300 could be in range. Also good to fly less - my flight to Burgas was my only one last year. Might even look into getting back by train as getting train back from Austria last year was quite fun.

I don't think it's the best route ever: a bit of a shame to miss the alps for me as I have only ever been there for TCR, and I've not heard great things about Romania (although it's the only new country for me, so good in that respect). Durmitor is stunning but I've already been there (and in good weather too). But I like Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Burgas would be a good place to chill and drink beer for a couple of days, so there will be some good bits. Riding across Germany will be good too. Riding across France is good but further south is better so hugging the north coast is sub-optimal for me and, while I get that the cobbles are an iconic part of pro-cycling, as far as I'm concerned they are just a bad road surface. I've been really lucky with 4 places out of 4 applications (probably one was for helping but, even so).

I'm surprised that applications were down on last year given the publicity it got from Fiona, and I had thought some people didn't apply last year as East to West.

From first glance I think this will be a significantly harder route than last year. Last year, it was possible to route via three very flat sections - I don't think there will be anything like that this year, the flatter bits will be rolling. So I think it will be hillier and it is also longer. And the ban on main roads in Romania will add a bit more time. So I reckon this will be a small party.

Not taking the piss but did you buy another spare after you used your first one? If not, you rode almost 3,000 km without a spare!

Haha well I kept the torn one until Klagenfurt.
I'm no expert on probability or decision maths :o)

I liked the quieter roads in Romania a lot. But I couldn't always guess which ones were quiet and which ones busy. Like the 76/E79 was nice, cows on the road, but then on the descend south on Transfagarasan and some mid size roads after that, the cars seemed to be brakeless and barely staying on the road.

I might be faster for 25mi but I'm not sure it'll translate to 12hr. I mean, some of the aero tweaks might, if I can use them, but I don't know if I'm mentally motivated enough plus I'm older and 10kg heavier than I was in 2014 and pain for an hour is easier than suffering for 12.

Romanian people were nice but the driving was next level fucked up and the fucking dogs can get fucked. If I had endless time and money I'd ride it again but sadly, I've got to focus on other stuff.

I can see the problem with flying though - people have limited holiday time so they're less inclined to take a ferry or train when they're already using two weeks to ride around country x. I already took 1.5 months of unpaid leave to do my races last year + my holiday time and as much as I'd love to not box my bike and take a ferry I was already pushing the friendship with time off. I like what GBDuro are doing with the no-fly race. I watched the EF video of Lachlan and although off-road isn't really my thing I've kinda added that to my todo list, if I'm still in the UK in a couple of years.

Yeah, the east is always good fun. Just being that little bit different makes it more entertaining than say the flat bits of western Europe. I've done the Alps a few times, racing and not and Germany both touring and racing. I liked Burgas. It helped that we happened to book around the corner from a craft beer bar :)

applications were down

How do you know that? Perhaps with so much choice of events, the similarity of the route for some of the vets, etc. people backed off?

Perhaps, but everyone (except me) is getting faster/better at racing these. There's more knowledge out there so I reckon it'll be pretty similar results. Not that I've given the route more than a cursory glance, mind.

I was going to try and rock up to one of the CPs to help out, because it'd be good to be on the 'other side' for once but it looks like it's gonna get in the way of my TTs. They seem to be starting a little earlier this year.

It was in the email :

Thank you for your application to race Transcontinental No.8. Once again we were oversubscribed, this year 613 riders applied from 60 different countries around the globe 64 of whom were women.

I think there were about 650 applicants last year, and maybe more the year before that.

Your aero improvements should be worth a lot more than the weight. But it depends on if you can push yourself to do a 12 again. Not sure I could as I don't really have a reason to (otoh, a I would really like a 4 hour 100 so that's something I'd be more likely to chase after. If also like to have got my club 24 record but I'm not sure l could mentally do a 24 again).

You're right about the standard going up. I thought there wouldn't be many finishers last year and that was wrong!