Ultracycling

It was hot. Really hot. Stayed at hotels every night. Had bivvying gear but never used it. Took a completely different route to almost the whole of the rest of the field for the first three days. Rode many cycle paths and quite a bit of gravel. Nodded at Tao Geoghan Hart as he passed me on the climb up to Andorra. Good times, even if my left hand isn't working properly any more.

P.S. Bike didn't miss a beat. It was excellent, though I say so myself.

Pffft, that almost sounds like fun, so definitely not ultracycling. :)

Good to hear Tao's back on the bike again.

Interesting rule!

[https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/aug/15/winning-triathletes-jess-learmonth-georgia-taylor-brown-disqualified-tokyo-hand-in-hand-triathlon](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/aug/15/winning-triathletes-jess-learmonth-georgia-taylor-brown-disqualified-tokyo-hand-in-hand-triathlon)

The disqualifications were made under the International Triathlon Union’s Rule 2.11.f, which states that “athletes who finish in a contrived tie situation, where no effort to separate their finish times has been made, will be disqualified”.

Bloody cheating Brits... holding hands... of all things!

I recall something similar in a running race many years ago when the winner (by some margin) turned around to gloat at his chasing competitors and crossed the line backwards. He was DQ'd because you're supposed to 'breast' the line or something. #instakarma

Just been reading about this.
Surely the 30 seconds of being tied is insignificant to the previous efforts of being separated ;-)

Culturally sounds very American.

Jesse is riding Race to the Rock. Nice to see him racing again.

Joe Barr has just beaten the Irish East to West Record by three hours 48 minutes He rode it in 13h32m.

http://live.primaltracking.com/joebarreastway/?fbclid=IwAR2E2rlT3_8uqqDilj3T2dWSQLQauOqh-bAIOm-atbZ7BlL2g21vWUALfzE

289km or 237 miles. 10,500 feet of climbing

The second edition of Terra Australis has just started. Only three riders taking on the full ride of 6250km, with two more doing a section.
https://tabe19.maprogress.com/

If I had no other commitments, I'd love to do this. Or Race to the Rock, which starts on Saturday. Jesse making a comeback.
https://racetotherock2019.maprogress.com/

These do look very interesting indeed. But probably twould take too much time and money, at least for next year. I'm just looking at what to ride next year. Maybe something on gravel roads. Not too mtb, but could be somewhat remote, with infrequent resupply spots. Atlas mountain race would be interesting, but in February, which might not be option for me.

Keep an eye out for https://www.transiberica.cc/badlands/ and http://iberica-traversa.com/

oooh shorter than expected, interesting.

Yeah those look good.
Apparently I crossed paths with both of those routes at the Gorafe desert during the NCT last year. It was one of the highlights of the race.

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if you're not worried about integrity, but want a nice ride, either race Italy divide, or I can send you the gpx, it's a wonderful route.

Well looks like that's off the list then.

There's been some confusing behaviour in NCT's too which makes me kind of leery of the Iberica traversa, though that might have just been part of the learning curve of a new organizer and the route looks great.

If I want to just have a good ride, I would tour on my own. Which would actually be the other option if I don't find a race that is intriguing enough. Though concentrating on just TCR might be the thing too.

Tour divide? But cost to get there.

Book it early and flights wont be too bad.

That would be awesome.

Do it. Maybe just do one race, there by reducing costs and making it more possible.

This is what I've been thinking about mostly for the last 11 days.

Ruska, the ride across Finland is on right now again. About 2000 km from Estonia, through Finland to Norway and the Arctic Ocean. Not a race officially, but there is a time limit. I did it in 2017, that was the first editon, and now I'm writing daily dotwatcher reports.

Day one
Day two

Mate was talking about this but didn't realise Jesse was back. He appears to be crushing it.

The Atlas thing in Feb has me somewhat interested.

Also https://www.transiberica.cc/badlands/

Mikko seems to be using his bags to carry water rather than kit..

Badlands looks mental.