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Old article about (now deceased) Jure Robic:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/sports/playmagazine/05robicpm.html?ei=5070&en=0ebaae9a5f784075&ex=1140498000&pagewanted=print&_r=0 -
The TCR tracker is up.
http://trackleaders.com/transconrace15 -
Got an email from Greger about RAAM - he put it through Google translate from Swedish, so excuse the clunkiness:
How did the race go then? After 30 hours in the dessert I was almost “killed” by the heat and had to visit a hospital and they didn’t release me before a had 6 liters of IV fluid and it took almost 8 hours because my kidneys wasn’t working fine.
Directly after the hospital we had to continue the race – the cut off in Dorango about 1000 miles into the competition was a long way where we was.
I stayed on the bike more or less without any rest for 72 hours and I was talking to the race officer that I could continue despite a was 7 hours late to the cut off.The next cut off in Missisippi river about another 1000 miles ahead I had to manage within 85 hours , if not I would be out of the race !
So with very little sleep I continued over the Rocky mountain, Kansas and ended up in Missisippi River time station 4 hours before the cut off, the race officer said that it has probably never happened in the race history that someone is 7 hours late to the first cut off and are 4 hours before the second cut off, so I was really glad that it went that way. But it was still no lay back- in 100 more hours you had the last 1000 miles and the Appalaches (mountain) to overcome.I was sometimes struggling because the lack of sleep but being stronger and stronger because I overtook a lot of other competitors (most of them did not finish).
When it was about 24 hours left I knew I could do the whole race in time. So I took it a little bit safe the last 300 miles and finished 4 hours before the limit in Annapolis.Very happy to be one of the 19 persons who finished- 20 did not.
Just after the race I had several times to sleep one hours or two before heading out to “party”
So this is the short version of what happened , the race was a little bit harder than I thought it should be before the race, so much can go wrong… -
TCR should be cheaper than TransAm for Europeans because you lose the big cost of shipping a bike and rider to the USA so you're starting up on the deal to the tune of a grand already. Another guy on TransAm stayed a single night in a hotel for their birthday $70 and spent $5 after they got busted presumably wild camping in a national park. So $75 vs $1000...
What I'd be more interested in is logistics, ie. is it even possible to stay in a hotel, motel, B&B, etc. every time you need to sleep in a TransAm. Is it feasible I could do the race without taking sleeping kit with me? Is that even in the rules? Ride faster, sleep better vs. ride longer, sleep rougher?
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Yeah, I know, I was thinking about doing TransAm though so was thinking about its extra costs for me compared to TransCon, which for some reason doesn't appeal as much. I don't know why. Maybe because I've seen far less of the USA and it's a little bit more unknown so more of an adventure and less of a race in my head? Anyway, I just need to rest, deal with PBP and then hopefully I'll be getting some answers about my DVT and why I'm going shit. Then I'll work out if I'll do something daft like you are :P
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and why I'm going shit
Sorry, what? 504 miles in 24h is shit? C'mon man, you may be marginally off your target, but shit you are not! Well done on the weekend - it was pretty damn epic!
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Anyway, that Red Bull Trans Siberian Extreme is ongoing, the world's longest stage race. 9,195 km from Moscow to Vladivostok in 15 stages, from 300 to 1,400 km each. Today is a rest day - just the 300km on the flat to Novosibirsk.
As of last night, Steve Harvey was in the lead by about 3hrs. Very much doubt he'll mark the others and nurse the lead - he'll race it every day.
From what I can pick up from his sister (the website is surprisingly awful) the roads are not great and there have been huge amounts of traffic, which isn't easy to navigate safely at any time, never mind in 1000 mile stages. Having seen Steve's manoeuvres in traffic before, can't help but be mildly concerned.
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Q&A with Mike Hall, mainly about TransAm but a bit of general/Tour Divide/world cycle stuff thrown in too... http://www.watershed.co.uk/dshed/inspired-to-ride-qa
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Yeah, yeah, not many people would ride 500+ and think it's shit but I know what I should be able to do and that wasn't near it. I knew it was likely to happen though so I'm not too disappointed but my power was bang on for 8 hours and then stuttered and then tumbled until I was crawling, much like the 12hr though I still think sickness might've played a part in that whereas this was somewhat mental. The last two hours when I picked up suddenly I was riding near my 100mi pace so it wasn't like I'd run out of energy or something. The trick is to not slow down too much in the early hours and that's what I failed at doing this ride and so failed to PB. Other things went better though - I managed the lack of sleep better, my aero was better, pain was less, etc. So, some good some bad aspects.
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You don't need MTB skills.
"Red Meadow Pass was maybe 5 miles of snow hike-a-bike. I was jogging slowly with my bike through most of it. I just wanted to go FAST! I wanted to make my goal of doing this thing as fast as I could. The descent to Whitefish from Red Meadow was broken snow and mud near the top. I'd ride the mud, dismount and run through the snow. Ride mud, dismount, hoof it over snow and repeat. Fun times! Near the last bit of visible snow over the road I decided that it was thin enough to ride. I was barreling through the mud and hit the snow,no problem other than a bit of shimmy. I exited the snow back into the mud and my front wheel sank. Hard and deep. My bike was endoing. I was clipped in and going vertical. Naturally, I attempted to make some form of maneuver while in the air to correct myself. I was trying to stick the landing like Danny Macaskill, however I think I resembled a portly Thanksgiving turkey going through a Crazy Straw. The end result of my front wheelie dancing was me crashing to the ground, left leg first, followed by a pile drive of a loaded bike. If I had only augured into the mud, I likely would have been fine. Instead, the landing pad for my leg was a lovely bowling ball of granite and tree branch washed down to the road via an avalanche."
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Looking at pics though there does seem to be lots more firetrail than gnarly singletrack so you're right, I'd probably be ok. If I was considering it, I'd ask @gabes
The other thing is I already have road bikes and I don't fancy owning yet another bike unless I'm in a bigger house, which is fucking unlikely.
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I get that it makes it easier to find and fix any issues but if it's installed well internally then you're going to be reducing the likelihood of issues anyway. You're more likely to bust a wire on it when it's mounted outboard. Connectors are more exposed to elements, etc. It depends somewhat on how easy it is to access the internal setup. His ti frame probably didn't have a great deal of access panels like say my Shiv does.