Ultracycling

Need to get you both to a pub for a chat about this race. I might be faster than some of these guys for a day but I wonder how I'll be 10 days into a race, across varying terrain, with interesting choices of food, etc.

Of course everyone gives a damn. Maybe on the surface they pretend they don't but deep down they know if there are other people on the road and the clock is going they want to win(by any means necessary).

Yours

The Dick Dastardly of Audax

@hippy leave tomorrow and I'll meet you at a pub in Istanbul next week. That way you'll have good perspective and will keep the chat relevant.

Of course people want to win.

But it's like a time trial, you can't change what happens to other people time, so all you can do is all you can do and that's the fastest you can go. Whatever Joe Bloggs is doing or not doing won't make you go faster.

You've never been on the finishing circuit of a 24hr have you? :P

I'm doing my hair that week but I'd still like to know more about TransAm and I guess the self-support stuff. I mean, I get the idea but if I'm going to give up 2 weeks pay I'm gonna want to go into it with a decent idea of wtf I'm doing.

Of course I can affect others peoples times. I just need a big handful of tacks.

From the film there seemed to be a lot of rider dot-checking on TransAm last year, especially Juliana and the Italians...!

Yeah I know people do it.
Just my 2c.

Different. And I know what the competition record is. That's all that would matter in my head. If and when...

It's only different because there's less of a delay getting splits on competitors when you have a team vs. when you have to look them up yourself on a tracker. If you're feeling shite, check that you're about to slip a position (ooh nurse) it could have a profound effect on your motivation. Some will crack, some will fight but I bet everyone would alter something given similar situation and information presented to them.

What are the rules about getting phone calls from external parties? Surely there can't be any policing of 'interested parties' calling riders with updates about the race?

Obviously no one will know what you ask a 3rd party. But that would be like having a race manager at home if your calling for updates and that's clearly support.

Hard to police but goes down to honesty.

I didn't mean ringing up and asking for updates. I mean, people could call you and say "hey, you're doing well, pulled out an early lead on so and so". The rider is hardly going to pull out of the race due to a phone call update are they?

No. But I've personally made clear to people that it's unsupported and that means they can't help me in any way, however helpful they think they're being.

So, should I unbook all those 5-star hotel rooms, registered to Mr S. Kinny?

I told you. On the secure encrypted SAT phone only for communications! lol

Your secret is safe with m... oh...

Nothing to see here folks.

When does TransCon kick off anyway? Where is the Grand Depart?

24th July. Flanders.

http://www.transcontinentalrace.com/

Midnight, so that Saturday 25th. I still can't find specific details though.

"The exact location will be detailed in the spring (but yes there will be cobbles) after a registration on the Friday Evening and it will finish again in Istanbul"
http://reportage.transcontinentalrace.com/?p=1191

Emily Chappell's racing...
http://thatemilychappell.com/2015/06/over-reaching-myself/

Midnight on 24th. So as friday leads into saturday.

And in geraardsbergen and up the Kapelmuur.

"The race will start for the 3rd time at midnight (00:00) on 25th July in Flanders."
Midnight aka 00:00 is the start of the day, not the end. 23:59:59 would be the 24th.

I'm sure someone will try and out-pedant me but I'll beat them to death with a print out of every piece of date conversion code I can find. Fuck you USA, with your backward dates, fuck you!

Calm blue ocean... calm blue ocean...

"midnight" is confusing because it doesn't belong to either day, it's the instant that separates one day from another.

"23:59:59" belongs to one day and "00:00:00" belongs to the subsequent day.

Most people mean "00:00:00" when they mean midnight, except when they don't.

Yeah which is why most guidelines suggest specifying the two dates between which the midnight in question falls to clarify or doing like some digital clocks do with a 24:00 being the end of one day and 00:00 being the start of the next.