Trans Am Bike Race / TransAm / TABR

Click on the date
https://m.facebook.com/groups/524758520982933/permalink/4038527362939347/

Wouldn't bet against him Oliver, only a small bunch of ultra riders on his level.

Thanks Mr TomTom!

get into the warmer states

Speaking of.. there's a heat wave getting started today. A week+ of 90-100f temps likely from the coast to the mid west not quite that big, but Wyoming to Kansas could be rough.

Also those BBB Seatpost Fixers are quite good for this.

What's this, some kind of shim?

38C in Newton on Thursday :)

No, it's a secondary seatpost clamp that goes above the frame on the seatpost itself.

You can see it on my Tripster, just above the normal clamp:

Thanks for explaining, nice bike!

Oh and wildfires have got started early this year due to drought conditions so possible bad air quality for later folks. Looks like there's a fire near Grand Lake which is near the course but AQI isn't bad for now. Worse over east on the front range where I live, the mountains look smoggy from here. Last summer the air quality got so bad from fires it wasn't good to be outside and this year could be worse.

https://www.purpleair.com/map?opt=1/i/mAQI/a10/cC0#6.56/39.044/-107.025

Looks like KP on the move again.

I found it:

https://bbbcycling.com/en_en/bsp-97-postfix

Yeah, I couldn't remember what it was called until the other day I dug out its packaging from my collection of hoarded labels junk...

https://twitter.com/firsthippy/status/1401583913223528448

De'anna Caligiuri is up to seventh. Nice. Still about 150 miles between KP and ED.

Mateo posted his first segment https://www.strava.com/activities/5471062848

Lots of wind and rain on the first half of day one. Crashed about an hour after the start on a section of gravel. I probably wouldn't have brought a TT bike if I had known there would be 3 gravel sections in the first 2 states alone. Also, braking on steep descents in the rain on carbon rim brakes with additional weight was a bit sketchy to say the least!

Sounds like a failure of planning if he didn't know about gravel sections given the route is out there, and he didn't test his brakes before the race...

@hippy, did you ever consider using your PX for this? If anyone could TT this distance...
Or ruled it out as too much faff fitting bags on, no-one's back / neck could stand 15+ days in TT position, did research and found gravel, etc.

The only gravel sections I recall were due to road resurfacing work, which I was initially going to argue that this isn't something you can plan for -but on second thoughts guess that over the distance are likely to be encountered.

I'm struggling to remember any gravel sections to be honest. Maybe he means roadworks. In the US they tend to rip up the whole road and then it's loose gravel but that's like 0.000001% of the route. But the fact he crashed on it means he wasn't riding to the conditions. You don't 'race' through a section of gravel on a 6700km long road race. I didn't even pick up on the carbon rim brakes but the fact he'd not considered their operation while loaded shows a lack of preparation. As I said earlier, being able to do one massive ride, once does not make a TABR finisher.

Definitely thought about using my Shiv, actually. The main issue for me wasn't TT position it was lack of storage space on it and (relatively) terrible brakes. Crosswinds are also mega so there'd definitely be a LOT of fighting the bike over the race. I did one year with 65mm front and then went back with a 32mm rim and it was much nicer.

The PX had DA rim brakes and actually stopped so would've been a fine TABR bike...

Same thing happened when I raced it. Remember everyone bleating on about Rob English and his wonder bike and the young guy that had less kit than most people use for a commute? They both smashed fuck out of... the first 1000mi and quit.

Every race report I read mentioned sections of resurfacing.

There's also AC forums where people provide info about temporary issues:

https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/temporary-road-closures/ (https://forums.adventurecycling.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=d4peucm60qbep4o9bfmvni52d5&board=15.0)

and their twitter, where you could ask recent riders about roads:
https://twitter.com/acaroutes

Or, just like accept that on 6700km of roads you might find some less than perfect conditions! :D

Yeah the hard shoulders/ emergency lanes were covered with shrapnel and chaff. When there wasn't that's where they put the corrugations to wake sleeping truck drivers- which caused all my shit to fall off.

Motherfucking rumble strips!!! Trying to hang on to the deep front wheel with a roaring sidewind that was interrupted for a few seconds every time a truck went past and you're riding in the 5cm of space between the white line and the fucking rumble strips. God damn, no wonder the first ride sucked with the deep wheel compared to the second!

I bounced my phone down the road outside Pueblo I think where some funny fuck had decided to randomly test his rumble hole cutter and had put two cutouts on a totally clear section. Pricks.

Yeah but damn I miss it, I'm sweating my arse off in Sudan atm would give anything to be there.

Sudan!?! Dafuq?

I really don't like dotwatching that much because it always means I'm watching an event I could be riding instead. I mean, some stuff I have no interest in doing, but TABR I haven't given a good ride yet so I want another go and TD is now on my bucket list having survived Badlands..

As if the rumble strips affected you any more than they do trucks.

Saving the world.....

Tried TD the year after TABR -work wouldnt allow me the time off for the Grand Depart so ended up riding it in September, whole of Canada and most of Wyoming and Montana were ablaze so had to reroute a lot onto tarmac as many of the trails were closed. Its achingly beautiful, but with up to 200 miles between resupply points I spent the odd day here and there riding hungry.