Transcontinental Race (London - Istanbul) - #TCRNo4

It's interesting how he really seems to have found his legs. Or does he have a flight to catch?

He's certainly going for it now.

A couple of hours rest and he is back riding. He is through the last of the mountains and making very good speed. 414 km to go.

He's done over 200 km in the past 24 hours. Double his average. At this rate he could finish on Wednesday.

I have tried my hand at stalking to find out more about our intrepid rider. I can find little or nothing. He is, I think, French.

I wonder if this is him:

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=AAYAAAEWTPUBqi3v1HKxV3YYalm6mFpAjWp-ttQ&authType=name&authToken=cYdX&trk=mirror-profile-memberlist-name

He looks the right age profile and fairly fit. A good under helmet hairstyle.In transition is a good description. He has recently jacked in a job without taking up another one. That said, his interests include mountain biking. To do a ride like this, one would imagine that he might list road cycling as well.

He is not David Coulon the French author (because he cannot have been to a book signing recently) nor, I would imagine, the Arizona Wildcats baseball player.

Is there actually going to be anyone there to greet him at the end?*

*And yes, I would happily donate to the 'Send Clive to Istanbul with a bunch of flowers and a crate of lager' fund...

Weather - 27-29 degrees and sunny with light 9 mph wind from the NE (cross wind) becoming SE tonight (headwind).

The only way I am going to Istanbul is on a bike. My aim will be at least to match the performance of Monsieur Coulon. I am becoming a little concerned by his late showing of speed.

Ha - yeah, I'll throw £20 that way.

Most awkward arrival ever.

Hopefully he'll head to the Sedona Bike café if he arrives between 7am and midnight which is now the official finish line. They gave every competitor a free coffee and they had spent the year collecting bike boxes for everyone

Ah! I had wondered about flying bikes home.

By the way. I hadn't appreciated how young you are which makes your accomplishment all the greater. Imagine what you will be able to achieve by the time you are @hippy 's age.

Oi!

I hope they've got their wires crossed...

Come on Dave!

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From Sofia it's more 600km, 4xx is straight distance.

377 now! He is resting/eating in Plovdiv.

What distance did you record compared with the straight line calculation?

*And yes, I would happily donate to the 'Send Clive to Istanbul with a bunch of flowers and a crate of lager' fund...

Don't forget the cost of a hotel room for two. :)

@cliveo thanks!

I can't remember my distance from Plovdiv (430km rings a bell) but I remember I had 300km to go from the Turkish border.

not this guy, I looked at his linkedin today, he looked back.

Linked In app? Over lunch?

It took you a day and eight hours from Plovdiv.

possibly but I'd argue unlikely.

http://fujifilm-blog.com/2015/08/24/social-documentary-with-the-x100t/

Like @bananaskid said, 430 from Plovdiv and 300 from border.
For the whole route I have something like 3850km

Just checked your tracker page. It has you cycling in a straight line all the way from Istanbul to Portland Oregon. So a comparison between your actual distance and the straight line distance recorded on the tracker won't help!

Reminds me of an incident a few years ago. A ship - the MV Treasure - sank off the coast of South Africa spilling oil. Penguins were badly effected by the oil spill. Environmentalists caught cleansed and then released them and then were dismayed to find them swimming back into the oil. So they fitted the released birds with trackers. Sure enough, the birds swam towards the slick and the environmentalists were able to try to head them off before they were contaminated again. All the birds apart from two. Those two were tracked travelling out to sea in the opposite direction at about four or five times the speed of the rest. The scientists were perplexed and investigated. It transpired that the penguins, and their tracking devices, had been swallowed by a shark.

According to my strada record 3810km
Http://www.strava.com/athletes/1832708