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It's all about the time limits and/or desire to push it for racing.
If you're getting decent sleep each night it has much less of a mental/physical drain. The 1000k I did here vs. Mille du Sud were wildly different due to the speed killing climbs of the latter which meant much less sleep.
I still think the longer term effects of TCR are more than you'd get in shorter stuff even with more sleep dep in the shorter events - you just don't notice it coz you're too fucked to ride for a month afterwards :D (unless you're me and just keep stacking races on so your body doesn't realise it's getting perma destroyed)
hippy-
Yes, sure. Ultimately how hard you pedal and how hard the event is are the big factors which dictate what kind of shape you end up in, however long it is. And not that many people plan other goals in the season after the TCR (although I am hoping to test this this year by doing two events).
I was thinking that, if you look at drop out rates from the TCR, most are early on. If you can get through day 3, adapt to the achilles pain or whatever issues get thrown up, you're pretty likely to finish. There's more of an element of just adding extra days, and getting into the right head space to keep repeating it.
frank9755
Well done, nice pics!
Certainly. But if you're thinking of going longer, day 2 and 3 is often the hardest. After that your body, and your head, your sleeping patterns, digestive system, riding speed, etc, tend to settle down to what is sustainable for the longer term. So in many ways, I think 1,000-1,400 - PBP/LEL territory - can be harder than TCR-length rides, especially for sleep dep.