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They are not taking quite the same route as we did along the peninsula, E87 on the coast is banned now. You can see it on the same google map as before, they just update it every year.
There's a new bridge near Gallipoli, but it seems that's just a motorway, with some kind of maintenance walkways on the side, which are probably not open to use.
Samuli
@frank9755
Strasser riding now while the other two sleep but looks like he has too much to do now, too far back unless they fuck up.
Abdullah might still have a small chance. I recall fast, fairly flat, main roads from Alexandroupoli, where he is sleeping, to Canakkale which should suit him.
I've not checked what the ferry situation is this year but do hope the race doesn't get decided by ferry choice. I just remember being too tired to think about alternative ferries when I was there.
This whole section from where Christoph is now, near Xanthi, to Canakkale brings back memories for me from 2016. It was 40+ degrees in Greece and I rode through most of the night mainly because I didn't want to have to ride through another hot day - but got confused through exhaustion and thought I could get from Alexandroupli to Canakkale overnight. Which I couldn't because it is maybe 250km, but had some interesting hallucinations on the way before I slept on a bench at a servo on Turkey. I knew it was time to stop when I kept imagining that the red reflectors and bollards at the side of the road on a descent was a bunch of other riders in front of me. I had tried to stop earlier on the way up the long, gentle climb, but what I thought looked like a good place seemed to be a military base with a big, angry dog guarding it, so I had to keep going a bit longer than ideal.
I was still a bit fucked the next day with heat and tiredness - at one point I decided I would just walk the last 50km as I CBA to pedal any more. Then I found myself checking that my shadow was moving its arm when I moved mine - as I clearly wasn't sure that was how it worked at that point.
I'd had way more sleep than those guys and my muscles had done far less work - and I was only racing Max Kraus and Emily Chappel for 32nd place, not for the win - so I can only begin to imagine how they are feeling, and my personal experience only increases my awe at them holding it together on the same roads under the massive physical and mental stress!