-
I remember nothing. Maybe some key personal interactions but scenery-wise or route or what I've done? Pretty much nothing.
Even on 24hr TTs, the day after, I'd go to write a report and say X, then Y then Z and the missus would be like "nah, you did, Y Y Y then Z and then 6hrs later X happened".
-
1st/2nd place Evan and Kraig talking after Evan finishes last year is a good watch if you have the time. I watched 20 minutes of it the other night. Summary is they both struggled with Kentucky dogs, traffic and cold wet weather.
-
From Facebook
Trans Am Bike Race
Bryan Keto-Rider · oetsSndorpuu2tg41a2hh6h2hmc1914009960ghlf9 ·
Day 4 is done and dusted Kraig Pauli and Ben Davies are still duelling out the front of the pack putting in herculean efforts every day. Currently, they have travelled 240 miles today with about 11,000 feet of climbing. In total these 2 riders have travelled approximately 1100 miles and over 51,000 feet of climbing. The time off the bike has been only about 4 hours for Pauli whilst Ben has had about 5 this has lead to Pauli extending his lead to about 35 miles.
Edward Tapp made it into Lolo MT last night and is sitting at 950 miles he is only trailing the lead pair by 150 miles but has had far more time off the bike this may come into play in week 2 of the race when exhaustion hits the front runners. Loïc Nys Taymans, Vincent Beaulieu and John Bell are all around the 850 mile mark with Bell having made up the 30 miles to Beaulieu, these 3 will be in MT today but have the Lolo pass to contend with. There is a large contingent of riders in 600 to 800 miles all making their way into and through Idaho.
Alicia Baldwin (400 miles) has recovered from her bad day and is making steady progress back to the pack. Kate Ankofski at 660 miles has moved away from De'anna Caligiuri at 610 miles with Ashleigh Myles further back at 490 miles.
Thomas Camero the Lanterne Roug rested yesterday and remains at 165 miles hopefully he will be feeling rejuvenated this morning. Currently, there have only been 6 scratchings so the field remains strong the last rider to scratch was Eric Schuman yesterday morning.
Today the leading riders will be heading over the continental divide a number of times as they make their way into and through Yellowstone National Park and into the Grand Tetons. 2 Major climbs await them with the largest elevation being 8391 feet at the exit of Yellowstone in the Teton Range. They will get a view of what lies ahead earlier in the day from the Madison Valley Lookout. I am sure their Goal will be the base of Two Ocean Mountain The toll on their body at this high elevation will be enormous (“What this really means is that you will have to breathe faster and your heart will have to beat quicker to get the same amount of oxygen. You will feel short of breath, get tired faster and you will not be able to exert yourself to your normal level.”)
With a few days of climbing still to come and the heights getting higher and higher as they cross the Rocky Mountains the final summit of the Rockies at around 11,000 ft is drawing closer and the winds of the flat lands will be a calling. -
Day 5 sees the single speed cyclist Vasileios Karageorgos the toughest man out there in my opinion) at 710 miles about half the distance covered by Kraig Pauli who is out front. This has to be the hardest way to do the mountains and all kudos to him. Our lanterne rouge Thomas Camero made a huge effort and has now travelled 223 miles a sterling effort at 80 years of age. We have had 3 more scratchings since yesterday bring the total to 9.
Kraig Pauli at 1365 miles is currently crossing the continental divide with an elevation at 9584 feet and will be heading towards Rawlings in Wyoming after this hill the day will be relative flat compared to previous days although they will still be at altitude making it tougher than normal. Ben Davies is 50 miles back and steaming along. Eric Tapp is a further 110 miles back and still keeping tabs on the front 2.
Just a short catch-up tonight will endeavour to do a big write up Sunday morning for you to read over coffee. -
Good to see that Askan is getting back into the race.
1 Attachment
-
-
Do you know what Vasileios is riding, or what gear he's pushing? Can't find any info online.
-
nothing on this race on https://dotwatcher.cc/ for some reason?
-
I would like to find this out too!
-
Abdullah doing some updates:
The Trans Am is something special. Roughly 6750km and over 50,000 meters of climbing puts it in the megalithic category of unsupported ultra-racing. In 2019 the night before the race I was anxiously sitting in my hotel room watching Anthony Joshua fight Andy Ruiz Jr for the heavy weight boxing title of the world. The race was in less than 12 hours and I was completely riddled with doubt. Despite the fact that I had prepared for almost a year I couldn’t contain my angst. I had put my bike in a separate room just so I wouldn’t look at it because it made me feel sick staring at it. That night I could hardly sleep and after what felt like the longest night, I was lined up on the start line.
The first few days of the Trans Am is a drag race for the lead pack. A common tactic is to ride hard for a day or two until a small front pack forms and then attempt to form some sort of sleep schedule. Attempt is the key word. Despite the Fatigue during the first week of the Trans Am the riders are spoilt to with some of the most beautiful terrain in the world. It literally feels like you're staring into a beautiful Italian fresco that Michael Angelo painted. Often times I would find myself staring into snowcapped peaks whilst an American eagle would fly over me whilst simultaneously eating Lollie's. Suddenly I would be overcome with diarrhea so I would stop to go to the toilet on the side of the road. Besides the vicious diarrhea I also had the great fortune of running into two bears. One of them being a grizzly bear with its cubs whilst I was on the phone to my mum back home. I told her I would call her back... One week into the race and it looks like us dot watchers are in for a real treat. The top three riders are all within striking distance of each other. Currently the third-place rider Edward Tapp is 100 miles behind the leader Kraig Pauli which seems like a big gap but I have seen gaps bigger than that get closed down later in a bike race. Notably last year Evan Deutsch was significantly behind Kraig Pauli (2021 winner) at times but towards the tail end of the race he almost caught him. Key point is that anything can happen. I had moments on the race where if it wasn’t for divine intervention my lead would have evaporated to nothing.
It's hard to know what will take place as we are in the early stages of the race but Kraig Pauli and Ben Davies are both on track to break the record. Kraig is a previous winner and has completed the race multiple times which is an advantage when it comes to experience and course knowledge but I question whether or not it would get easier the more times you do the race. I had somewhat of a blissful ignorance. I had committed the whole course pretty much to memory but I still had times where the town I was planning on sleeping in didn’t exist and I was forced to ride a extra 100 kilometers to the next town or I would plan to ride 500 kilometers to my next sleep which would end up taking me 24+ hours due to the difficulty of the climbs.
Kraig doesn’t seem to sleep much whilst Ben has a pretty consistent sleep schedule. It looks like he has stopped a total of 10 hours more than Kraig. Honestly who knows what will happen. I guess that’s what's great for us dot watchers. We can make our predictions and assume one strategy is better or more sustainable than the other but at the end of the day time will tell.
I wish all the riders the best of luck and safe travels along their journey. It truly is an unforgettable experience that goes by faster than the blink of an eye. -
Nice to hear from him on this one.
-
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=3d2&doc_id=22776&v=Xt
There are a bunch of others on CGOAB, but this one was pretty detailed and well written. And I think he was the only one to use the Kansas bypass that year, likely inspired by it taking him by his house.
-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_AMWjb3isY
Not seen this. Will have a watch later.
-
I'm now also curious about Nathan's Bike Non Stop route:
https://bikepacking.com/event/bike-nonstop-us-2022/
We made an alternative to the Trans Am Bike Race that uses as much bike infrastructure as possible. That said, many inquire as to what that infrastructure is like and where is it located.
How much of the route is on bike path?
Roughly one third of the course, or about 1230 miles are on dedicated separated bike path. This means racers are in no way in the lane of traffic aside from intersection crossings.
How much gravel is there and how coarse is it?
There is only about 100 miles of actual coarse open road gravel on this route. There are about 500 miles of crushed limestone on the Cowboy Trail, the Katy Trail, and the GAP Trail and then the Wabash Trace and C&O Canal trails are both a dirt two track style. The route was not designed with the intention of sending people onto extended periods of rough roads for no reason, all gravel connections are to add either scenic value or to provide a safe alternative to a paved highway.
What size tires are needed?
32 to 40 millimeters is the sweet spot. 2019’s race was won on a 28 millimeter tire though it was not without sacrifice to nerve damage so choose wisely.
-
Well, Bill did miss out on Mr Barringer's awe inspiring cheeseburgers, and the utter joy of western Kansas highways :(
-
Great riding by Askan, he is back up into 4th place. His moving average speed is 15.4mph vs Kraig's 12.7mph.
frank9755
Squaredisk
jakemcree
skinny
myles_tuegeau
Thrasher-
Post a reply
About
Trans Am Bike Race / TransAm / TABR
Posted by
@hippy
You mean you don't have a video recording of the highlights of every major ride you've ever done playing in your head and can't recall the details of every place you've slept on an ultra, roughly what time you stopped riding and when you started again? Strange!
People's brains definitely work differently. One reason I don't usually bother taking photos is its less hassle to just remember the view. But not so good for showing others or posting though!