Transcontinental Race No. 9 - TCR9 - #TCRN09 - 2023

https://www2.followmychallenge.com/live/­tcrno9/

done

Is that to avoid the 'dangerous' bit?

No, looks like after they passed through Livigno

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Nothing to separate the top two at the moment, will be interesting to see which one stops for a sleep first.

Yeah, been checking up on it. Robin is doing well, just pushed ahead must be making CS think. Sherry from Youtube is also going great in the pairs, I hope she is making a video of this.

Robin is doing well, just pushed ahead must be making CS think.

Probably making him think it is going to plan!

Last year Robin started fast and slowed down.

Strasser's approach is to start steady then cut his sleep back towards the end, knowing no-one will be able to match his watts when most people take the same roads in Eastern Europe, and his scope to lose time through bad routing reduces.

Who is the guy who beat him in the Bosnian race (@cybernck) and where is he in the field?

Robert Muller. Seems to have dropped back.

I'd be strasser is running at 85-90%.

Rider 284, Andrew Smart has a Rohloff and belt drive set up. Going well, just reached CP1. Has a spare belt with him!

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Sure, no doubt CS the stronger rider. He has cycled around 10% further than RG to this point. If we add in RG slowing and CS going up a gear along the same roads then it isn't close is it? As long as it goes to plan for CS...

He could probably afford a few mistakes and still get back to the front based on pace.

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Robert hasn't dropped back. In terms of ranking he actually advanced a bit. On B-HARD he also started slow then picked up his pace, coupled with no sleep at all - he beat Strasser with Strasser's own tactic. However, he doesn't appear to be feeling too well at the TCR and there isn't much he can do against the speed of the guys at the front.

Robin is a natural but Strasser is stronger and knows the Balkan roads much better.

no sleep at all

Ah - OK, thanks, that explains it! But not a viable strategy for a longer event.

Yes. I think CS has plenty of slack in his plan. Last year he made loads of errors in his route, even more than he thought he had made, and still had the watts to prevail.

What is interesting, for me at least, is he doesn't use the Kristof Allagaert strategy of getting a lead at all costs and sitting on it (or increasing it).

I only fully appreciated Kristof's strategy when I saw it myself on indypac. He made a point of starting at the back of the field, then came storming through, passing me at double my speed. Even he could not have sustained that speed for long, he was sprinting to drop Mike / Jesse, etc.

Yep, he's doing his own thing, keeping everything under control.

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wow cp2 looks amazing

he was sprinting to drop Mike / Jesse, etc.

Hope he returns one day.

Does anyone else's tracker via @DotWatcher not work?

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ok here.

The followmychallenge tracker can be very laggy. There is a slimmed down version here: https://hda3.dev/tcrno9/ Doesn't have much functionality like the tracks and analytics but is handy for a quick check.

thanks

Chiavenna (end of 1st parcours) to cp1 is roughly 6 hours riding. It's just over 8 hours until the cp closes so could see quite a few riders miss the cut here I suspect.

I spoke with my friend Doug before and he said he would not make CP1, and a lot would also not... Awkward situation.

Yeah tough one I guess. I remember a few riders missed the first one last year but having a look at the map now it could be up to 20 riders that miss it possibly?

Just seen extended to 23:59

I wonder if they might extend it again