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I guess it's hard for parents but time crunching events never seems to work. I like the buffer either side to prep (or deal with broken bikes) and afterwards to socialise and/or spend some time in the place while not riding.
What was the climb/distance? This has been on my todo for a while now but not sure I'm motivated enough for 'racing' hilly things.
hippy
@frank9755
I dnf'd
:(
A few thoughts ( will probably post more later as I have long train journey home!)
Very good route. Lots of thought has clearly gone into it to keep riders off main roads when busy. There's not many lanes here so it's not easy, and traffic round the cities is not nice, but it's mostly avoided.
Very well organised event. I'd definitely recommend it.
Beautiful countryside. Stunning, mostly limestone, scenery - lots of gorges, etc.
It is kind of packaged as a 4 day event, and the umca and audax accreditations are based on this. But actually I should have ignored that and just ridden it. I'm not really interested in those accreditations anyway.
That was my big mistake. I booked my travel and work stuff around 4 days. I then fell off the 4 day schedule then I was screwed as no more time. It wasn't my ride that was wrong, it was my plan. I did have some knee issues that slowed me a bit but that was manageable.
I'd not done a 'short' ultra before but I reckon they are harder than the long ones in some ways. Mainly the higher average kms per day (above) and temptation to cut sleep right back. Basically you need 280km per day to finish the TCR. For this you needed 310. Achievable (for me) if it was an easy flat route, but it's a hard, hilly one!
It's a pretty strong field. Only a couple of us were over 50, it was mostly very lean and fit looking guys in their thirties and fourties, and a few capable looking women too. They all sailed past me on climbs! I was near the back of the field by the middle of day 2.
Weather was amazing. Sun all the time. A bit hot mid afternoon but not crazy.
Driving was not too bad. They do do this thing where they overtake coming towards you and expect you to get in the gutter. And I did have two close passes today, but at no point did I think I was actually going to die.
One guy was a DNS because he did actually die last week. Puts it all in perspective.
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