Ultracycling

France has no food

The worst food in Europe too

It's not the first time I've seen that move go wrong :)

Just backed the Transcontinental book on Kickstarter. Anyone else doing the same?

Only if I'm the centrefold.

Yes I did

Winner of the Race around The Netherlands was DQed because his girlfriend travelled with him during the race. He was not aware this was not allowed.

I would like to confirm this myself: I have received a time penalty for cycling togheter for a long time with another participant, and got DQed for receiving support from my girlfriend who travelled through the country, supporting me at multiple points along the route.
As a newcomer to the sport, I relied on the RatN manual and was not aware of any violations during the race. The manual specifically mentions “side-by-side” riding and states that friends and family are welcome to support. I have not accepted any material support.
Apart from that, I am now familiar with the spirit of the sport, which actually stands above the manual. This means that you should actually avoid contact as much as possible to limit moral support. I understand this now and I am now at peace with it.
I still have a hard time with it because they were easily preventable mistakes, and it's painful to think about, so I'm trying to put it behind me.
I would like to congratulate everyone on the higher ranking.

The rules are pretty brief to say the least. I can see how it's not understood. So many noobs about and such a lack of education. Not helped by so many events not giving a f about rules or spirit.

RULES

1. Riders must complete the full course from start to finish under their own power.

2. Riders must be fully self-supported.

3. No Drafting at any time.
   (pair riders may draft each other)

4. Riders must follow the Dutch laws at any time.

5. Riders are required to use a provided GPS device.

6. No prize money

Yeah rule 2 'self supported' does cover it, but it's vague.

There's a journey from 'no rules' to '10 rules' to a handbook with lots of rules and a committee to oversee them, like CTT, that ultra cycling will have to go on, because every sport does.

Lots of people are in denial about it because they think ultra cycling is somehow different, but when the winner gets disqualified because the rules weren't clear, the event, and the sport, are the losers.

@hippy started his Mittelgebirge Classique race (in the pairs). Tracker here https://www.followmychallenge.com/live/mc24/

Obligatory "goooo(team)hippy"

2nd finisher of last year, Constantin Backmann, came back to win this time, and 8 hours faster. That's 2 days of 500km and 10000vm. Having done the course myself that is just almost incomprehensible.

That's phenomenal riding

No sleeping, just a few "powernaps" on the bike... https://www.instagram.com/reel/C68O2HwMGzM/

That is incredible. And the next couple of finishers were not far behind.

I haven't followed it in detail but presumably the podium was decided by who slept least? I do think the shorter events like this encourage people to push the envelope on sleep dep far more than the TCR-length ones where you have to get into sustainable sleeps.

Just checked up on Hippy and he seems to be going OK, comfortably into the Vosges section. But he's 6km behind his partner - not sure if she's got fed up of waiting for him on the climbs, or if it's a tracker updating lag or something!

I do think the shorter events like this encourage people to push the envelope on sleep dep far more than the TCR-length ones where you have to get into sustainable sleeps.

Agreed and I don't think it's necessarily good for the sport.

I agree, them putting up content on social media celebrating someone who didn't sleep over a 1000km event feels kind of irresponsible.

APN (1000km) had a 3hr minimum sleep period last year which aimed to stop people just trying to ride through, maybe that's a good idea on these shorter events?

Also it just takes one bad thing to happen before the wider news media finds out a guy on a bike crashed who'd not slept for 2 days and look, here's all his tracker info that proves it, this shouldn't be allowed let's ban it.

waves

There were some climbs we definitely rode separately when one of us was doing something else or feeling shit, but not 6km difference I don't think. I think my tracker went flat at some point so maybe that or just forest cover or something.

We got around in time. I think technically we were first mixed pair because the only other mixed pair DNFd but we weren't at all racing, just trying to get around.

cough RAAM cough

Yeah, it's supported but the sleep dep is mental and it's not always follow cars, there's leap frogging going on so your rider is still alone for large amounts of time having slept fuck all.

I don't know where I stand - I'm as bad as anyone else with the sleep dep riding but there's people doing the same thing in cars (as well as drunk and drugged and speeding) so in terms of risk, it's still pretty low for anyone other than the rider themselves when you think of overall traffic.

Nice, well done :)

Well done!
I was just messing. I did check on your progress a few more times and saw you were riding together!

Yeah, we had a decent ride save for getting soaked on the last night and then wasting time bivvying in a toilet block, against my better judgement. We're both too heavy but at least climb at quite a similar pace (until I have to remind her that I'm still faster when I want to be - "who put a rocket up your arse?") and she's much faster on the descents these days so I barely get any time to myself now :D

It's great that you are able to do that together. Makes the negotiation about getting time off to do an event far simpler when she's coming!

She's still not quite at my level of FOMO and 'I have to ride everything, NOW!' but it's definitely a case of fighting her off when I'm talking about interesting event entries.