Trans Am Bike Race / TransAm / TABR

Thanks for posting. I recognise Kraig Pauli but not any other names. Any others that have notable pedigree?

Ben Davies? Came second to Fiona in tcr 2019

Of course, thanks

There are a few names I recognise from previous years. Ed Brun and Ed Tapp were from a hippy year I think. Vasileios Karageorgos is listed as 'singlespeed'. The TABR Facebook group is private now, used to be a good source of information.

I like Ben a lot, really good guy. Had a tough time racing the past years. Great to see him on a startlist.

Yeah Ed Tapp raced 2018 and organised that turbo training round the world fundraiser for Doctors without Borders during covid lockdown. Didn't know he was going back for more.

Drew Hartstone is the older Kiwi guy that came in just after me in 2018, doing a crank swap on the last day when his snapped.

Jon Bell was a top 10 last year.
https://slubillikens.com/sports/track-and-field/roster/coaches/jon-bell/107

Tomas Camero is a legend. He'll be DFL but always keeps chugging on. He's 80 this year. He cooked us all pancakes at the start of TABR2017. Really nice bloke.

Maybe Askan Von Schirnding is a rider to watch also. Says he won the Pacific Coast Race last month.

Askan's dot stopped a while back. Ben and Kraig are close, Kraig less sleep, longer riding and Ben higher moving average (14mph vs 13.3mph). A couple of interesting set ups, a recumbent is in there and an aero nose thing:

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Maybe not the best expression?

Edited thanks. Haven't heard anything about his race.

https://dotwatcher.cc/race/trans-am-bike-race-2022

They asked me to commentate but I am away a bit and don't really have time. I gave them some other peeps to ask but I guess everyone is doing other stuff.

aero nose thing

Intriguing. I remember looking into those a bit before I did my first TCR.

The conclusions I came to were:

• You need to keep close to them to get benefit (so not like that guy is doing - he would need to get his head right down by it)
  
• If they worked, they would deprive you of cooling wind chill so the hot days would be even more uncomfortable.
  

Yeah I had been checking dotwatcher to see if there was any race news. Can't access the Facebook group this year either as it is private if you aren't on FB. Makes following things harder. The best thing has been some images going up on the Transam home page each day.

Have you seen Nathan's app? I wonder if that contains anything?

I read something earlier on FB which was quite interesting. I'll find it and paste it. I guess I must be in the private group for some reason.

Some guy just broke his Look pedals and can't find replacements

Videos of melting snow on MacKenzie Pass

This is the one I remembered - it's from 20 hours ago
The first 72 hours of the Trans American Bike Race of 2022 have seen 2 standout competitors Kraig Pauli the 2021 winner and the English newcomer Ben Davies (2nd in the Transcontinental Race 2019). Currently, these 2 riders have travelled approximately 860 miles and over 40,000 feet of climbing. In the last 24 hrs, they have covered 260 miles and climbed 12,500 feet with only 3 hours off the bike, but they still have 900 miles to travel and more than 42,000 feet of climbing before they start the downward descent into Colorado and onto the plains of Kansas.
This is not to diminish the efforts of the other competitors it is just an outstanding achievement of these 2. Riders like Edward Tapp at 750 miles have been enjoying some solid time off the bike every nite and currently, he only has a deficit of 100 miles to the leading 2. Askan Von Schirnding has backed track to Prairie City (due to illness) who was 4th yesterday and has dropped back to 14th place. Vincent Beaulieu and Loïc Nys Taymans are producing a solid performance at 660 miles and are currently off the bike in Cambridge. John Bell has just crossed the Snake River into Idaho at 630 miles the majority of the riders are still tackling the conditions in Oregon which have been arduous, to say the least with snow melt, rain and just miserable conditions hopefully the sun will be shinning more over the next few days to warm them up.
The women are making great headway with De'anna Caligiuri and Kate Ankofski around 485 mile mark and are currently off the bike in Cambridge. Ashleigh Myles is at 355 miles with Alicia Baldwin having a bad and needing to rest before continuing on and reattempting McKenzie Pass today.
Thomas Camero is still the Lanterne Rougue but steadily progressing and is at 165 miles the hills are calling him and in the next few days will see him on the McKenzie Hwy leading to McKenzie Pass.
Today the 2 leading riders will be heading towards Dillion in Montana about 265 miles away with 12,000 feet of climbing. In front of them lays 4 passes that will require a huge effort to climb. All 4 passes are in the Bitterroot Range which is part of the Northern Rockies. Lolo pass at 5,200 feet is the first of these passes in 1962 the US Hwy 12 was completed linking Idaho and Montana. Chief Joseph Pass the 2nd of the major climbs for the day is the highest in the area at 7250 feet. (The pass is named after Chief Joseph of the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce tribe who traversed the pass in 1877 during the Nez Perce War.) Big Hole Pass 7055 feet and Badger Pass 6755 feet are the final 2 climbs before the descent into Dillon.
Hope this is helpful

Here's an earlier update:
48 Hours down and Kraig Pauli 600 Miles and 28,000 ft of climbing is flying he seems to have grabbed about 4 hrs of sleep today. He is closing in on the Snake River and the crossing into Idaho. Ben Davies 580 miles is still hot on his heels only 20 miles back but has definitely had more rest about 8hrs. Edward Tapp 500 miles, Askan von Schirnding 480 miles, Vincent Beaulieu 465 miles and John Bell 460 miles are all making great progress and getting lots of rest which may be the telling factor in week 2 time will tell.
The road ahead leads through the main Idaho forests on route 12 towards Missoula with some major climbs today if Pauli can keep the pace going of about 300 miles expect to see another 15,000 ft of elevation gains over the day with some very big climbs. The pace is hot and with 1400 miles of climbing to go before the flat lands and headwinds it will be interesting to see if the legs hold out to this daily punishment (they have before) as Pauli has definitely gone up a gear over last years effort.
The Lanterne Rouge is currently Thomas Camero at 80 yrs of age the oldest competitor and one of the most experienced he is currently 100+ miles into the ride

I'm sure there was some chat on here about this style in the year that the velomobile entered. They also suffered in the heat!

No, will check it out.

I'm sure there was some chat on here about this style in the year that the velomobile entered. They also suffered in the heat!

Yes, it would be hell in one of those.

Any good blogs/ride reports from previous years anyone can recommend?

Jane's. If I can find the URL

Jason's:
https://mightysquirrelhunter.wordpress.com/category/trans-am-bike-race/

Mark Croker's
https://www.mamilcyclist.com/category/2017-trans-am-bike-race/

Janie's:
http://jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/02/janies-trans-am-bike-race-recap-prologue-the-road-up-and-the-road-down-are-the-same/

jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/03/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-1/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/04/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-2/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/05/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-3/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/06/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-4/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/07/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-5/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/08/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-6/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/09/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-7/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/10/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-8/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/11/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-9/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/12/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-10/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/13/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-11/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/14/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-12/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/15/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-13/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/16/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-14/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/17/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-15/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/18/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-16/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/19/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-17/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/20/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-18/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/22/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-19/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/24/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-20/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/25/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-day-21/
jimmyandjanie.com/2017/01/26/jani­es-trans-am-bike-race-the-finish/

http://jimmyandjanie.com/blog/category/trans-am-bike-race-2017/

http://jimmyandjanie.com/blog/category/trans-am-bike-race-2016/

This was good, I remember reading it at the time.

Ah you've already got it!

It was mostly her 2016 blog I used to make my cheat sheet up for the route for my 2017 ride. She went into a huge amount of detail. I don't know how people do that. I guess I ride "in the moment" more. If you stop me and ask me where I am or where I've just been I'll usually have no idea. But some people seem to remember so many details.
That's why I started live tweeting races, because I thought, "this is too big to forget everything, maybe if I make some notes it'll spur some memories when I look back at the tweets".

Awesome, cheers both.

I guess I ride "in the moment" more

Yeah I'm exactly the same. I find I can't remember anything from particular rides so I'm always amazed at some of the detail people go into in their reports.

Think I will try and record a voice note every day on the TCR.

I do recall places I've been before - like I'll be riding with the missus and yell shit like "ooh, this is a nice sweeper left and then there's a cool thatched house on the next corner" but fucked if I could remember it's there in the first place, be able to find it by choice or remembering seeing it again at the end of the ride.