TCR 10, Transcontinental Race

That little black rectangle bit opens upwards like a lid and he could kind of just grab it from there really. There was a story behind it all but I've completely forgotten what he said :)

OK cool. I like the idea of people doing something original.

Maybe I need to experiment more with clingfilm...

But it looks like he's just got loads of little plastic drink bottles in it. Why not cages?

And I'd love to see what condition that 'frame bag' is in after 12 days on the road.

I don't know much about Robin's situation, or any of the other challengers for that matter, but winning this is petty existential for Strasser, in career terms. And he has ridden for a week on a few catnaps on RAAM, and he haz Watts. I just think he has so much more in reserve and will do what he needs to do to win it.

But not a lot more. It's a different world and the standard is massively higher, but he's a professional so he may prefer not to smash the rest of the field Kristof style. Rather it may serve his interest better to just beat them by enough to make it more interesting and to keep them coming back for another crack at him.

Call me cynical but he's the consummate professional in an amateur sport, a shark playing with the dolphins.

All of this, nightmare to organize getting the stuff back, so easier to ride. And he really fucked up majorly. Never did any riding anywhere close to tcr level, but even on a normal audax important items management is something you learn to take seriously.
Something like tcr having a second id and second card hidden on the bike might be good if you tend to leave your stuff.
If he still had cash/was persuasive he could have paid a cab driver to get the stuff and find him later with the tracker?

Will carriers even take passports?

I'm on holiday in France and left some medicine at home. Couldn't get my wife to send it out without lying about what was in it, and do they xray or otherwise check some packages...?

My boss once left his suit in a hotel wardrobe in the US. We couldn't get a carrier to take it back to the UK.

It's hard to get non standard stuff shipped around the place.

Looks like he left the stuff in Germany, and was in Austria when he realised it.
Find a biggish courier firm closest to where you left it (not fedex and stuff, the ones that dispatch self employed people) explain situation, and they will find someone to do it, but it would cost hundreds of €. Or be really nice to the person in the Gas station and offer them/a friend money if they do it?
At least I am pretty sure the ones I use in Berlin would find someone.

I mean, yeah, everyone has a budget and a limit to what they'll pay.
I'm assuming he's young so has more time vs. less money. If it was me, well I'd never have taken my passport out in a gas station for starters and I always have more than one card for money, but ok, if it was me, I'd probably have at least tried to organise a courier or something to bring it back to me but it depends on what estimates I could get for delivery times. Deliveroo ftw :)

US to UK is different ball game to same country or neighbouring western european country. I got my bike box shipped from a hotel in Sevilla to Girona after my crash using hotel and courier company (well my missus did) and my bike is still in Portugal but another mate had picked that up after I collected it from a cop shop with a taxi. Basically, lots of stuff is possible if you want to spend the money and time doing it. I could've left the bike at the hotel and done the same thing with a courier bringing it back.

I can't remember the exact rules (because I'm a legend and never had to deal with this shit) but you can also use taxi to go off route to fix stuff and come back to the point where you left it. So a very expensive taxi ride would've done the job too.

It cost me 170E from the hotel to Lisbon Airport after my crash. That was maybe half the distance back but you're talking 3hrs versus 24h / 500k return ride.

You might even be able to get a taxi to take the stuff from the servo to where you're at.

He's in a great position right now and he took a while to lead for his first TCR win. Robin did well to stay close last year. I guess the others have to hope he has an off year.

Victor back in the right direction.

Good to see Pawel still up there.

Make haste but don't be hasty, young man!

Or whatever that saying is that means travel fast but smart :)

I agree that cap 1 hasn’t showed off yet his real plan.
Also, I believe this applies too to cap 16.

Strasser had issues with his phone and GPS and that's why he's somewhat behind where we'd expect?

https://www.instagram.com/p/C90UYm-Obv7/

Probably this or probably doesn’t want to annichilate the field yet? 😅

'Act in haste, repent at leisure.'

I don't know the numbers, but the guy writing on Dotwatcher seems to think Robin is putting up a crazy amount (?). And Strasser with issues is still there.

He's a former pro mtber, no? Or at least junior pro or something? He gonna have some wattz

Robin Gemperle is no bike-racing rookie. Taking to cross-country mountain biking from a young age, Robin rose to World Cup level, riding with both the Swiss National and highly esteemed Scott-Sram teams before leaving professional racing at 20.

I think he's still sponsored or at least has some relationship with Scott because he was riding a team Scott Spark with prototype tyres or some shit when he won AMR last year

https://www.scott-sports.com/us/en/news/bike/robin-gemperle-wins-the-2023-atlas-mountain-race

@jakemcree you're also racing right. What's your race number?
Edit: sorry I missed your last message saying you're not participating.

Is anyone from lfgss participating??

Abdullah still at 90% moving time, guy just doesn't stop.

the ones that dispatch self employed people

German carriers don't use self employed people!

Imagine you are working at a petrol station and some smelly guy on a bike gives you a story about wanting you to arrange to get his passport, which is 200km away in another country. And he says he wants you to send it to some hotel 600km away in the opposite direction, in another different country.

Let's say the guy in the petrol station says yes, but he needs €500. Will you pay that? Everything has a probability attached so what is the probability you get your passport at a hotel in Slovenia or wherever? What if its just one day late? Or if it's two days late? Or just doesn't turn up?

The more I think about it the more I think getting someone to hold on to it and going back to fetch it myself would be the best option.

The pain with the TCR is that you're not allowed to get a train or whatever back up the route. in other events you could.