Transcontinental Race (London - Istanbul) - #TCRNo4

I found a piece of kebab from day 2 several days later in one of my food pouches

there was a build-up of crumbs in the bottom of the food bag

Neither of these things would ever have happened to hippy.

One thing that I'd not realised before was how much easier it is to nod off when tired if on the aerobars. After a couple of unplanned microsleeps, I rode quite a lot on the hoods on flat sections for that reason.

OsmAnd sucked for me. RWGPS app was great when Garmin got water in it.

Main thing is to test it and find out beforehand what is going to work

So 55 - Avni Berk Okyay finished over night.

Pair #213 Rebecca Harrison and Alistair McGregor are now only 80 km of the finish and moving well. Rebecca's Instragram @rjharro has been very entertaining throughout. They were still smiling when they crossed the Turkish border earlier today.

Next is Rose McGovern #136, 194 km to go and just short of Kavala on the Greek coast. May arrive late today but I would guess more likely tomorow.

Simeon Jurukov #113 Into Greece. 276 km to go.

Laurent Carlier (a former pair but now solo) #205. 514 km to go. Still in Kosovo and close to the Macedonian border just north of Skopje.

Pierluigi Talamona #126 Just past CP4. 587 km to go. In Montenegro and moving towards the Kosovo border. Not going into Serbia as it looked as if he might yesterday.

Daniel Nicolas Munoz and his pair Guillermo Nicolas Munoz #209 663 km to go and recently left CP4 and underway in Montenegro.

Cheng-Hui Hseih #92 Into Montenegro with only 28 km to go to CP4. Very slow progress.

Finally the #228 pair of Mattia Biffi and Alberto Varni justt north of Split on the Croatian coast.. Still 228km to go to CP4.

All riders are up and moving.

Trufax. I regularly scraped my food bag. There was never anything but wrappers left in it.

That was one of the things that afflicted Wilko on his E2E. He said something like he wished he had normal bars so he'd be less prone to nodding off.

Yeah, I did. I never used OSMAnd during the race because it was flakey. It was just a backup.

They've responded saying to remove some of the maps from the system. Perhaps with all of Europe installed it has issues. I'll kill off everything except UK and see how it goes.

That was one of the things that afflicted Wilko on his E2E. He said something like he wished he had normal bars so he'd be less prone to nodding off.

Interesting, I hadn't heard that.
I found that they worked so well that I'm thinking of getting a set fixed to my bed in case I can't sleep at night!

Yeah, I did. I never used OSMAnd during the race because it was flakey. It was just a backup.

They've responded saying to remove some of the maps from the system. Perhaps with all of Europe installed it has issues. I'll kill off everything except UK and see how it goes.

You had RWGPS tested and working so wasn't a problem - I couldn't get that to work.
I only downloaded the countries / bits of countries that I needed so not so much data

Haha

I've been waking up (at night, not at work) and peeing lots. Guess that's where the 3kg went.

I had cankles before I got on the flight! All seem normal now. Stopped eating 1kg salt a day and exercising again means my body is probably shedding the water attached to the glycogen in my feeble muscles.

240W NP commute in peak hour traffic (stopping for lights, etc) this morning was actually pretty damn quick.

Some idiot entered some 10 mi TTs before he left so is now on the hook to race soon...

I wanted all of Europe in case I went exploring or something.

What did RWGPS do for you?

LOL I've still not ridden. Probably wont untill next week.
No rush.

Best to be on the safe side! Although I thought if I only take the maps I need, i'll know I've gone wrong if I hit the sides!

I think RWGPS wouldn't work on blackberry

I've just signed up to do a night ride on Friday. Maybe do it on fixed for a change.

You were way more broken than I was though. I wasn't racing for the last three days, just riding to the finish and my arse had almost given up complaining by then :)

Ah, Blackberry. You know it's 2016, yeah? :P

I would likely fall asleep doing that. Night >>>

How many people in front of me were also in their first TCR?

@bananaskid . Interesting stats, thanks for sharing! How did you prepare for the race if you only rode 1400km since January?

I'm not planning to pedal again for at least two weeks. My arse scabs should've fallen off by then. Seeing the physio tomorrow about the achilles, hoping it's nothing permanent. Pretty sure it's just tendinitis rather than a proper tear. Chest infection persists but I'm not coughing anything up any more so reckon I'm on the mend.

Sleep is weird. I can't sleep deeply because my brain still thinks I have to race.

Still chuffed to bits that my knees are OK. That's a proper result.

I know that @bananaskid is 20. How old are the rest of you?

So the last part of the race for most riders was from Greece to Troy.

And people wonder why they had Achilles problems.

As Homer would say "Doh!"

My arse scabs should've fallen off by then.

Hang on, so your arse went on strike and you got scabs in?

No wonder it all escalated a bit.

And people wonder why they had Achilles problems.

As Homer would say "Doh!"

Very good, Clive, now if you would stop Hectoring riders, please.

Should have ridden a horse #classicalbanter