Transcontinental Race (London - Istanbul) - #TCRNo4

Sadly she is the only rider left on the road who appears to be tweeting or using Instagram but I may be wrong.

Nope, Min (Cheng-Hui Hseih) https://twitter.com/minkahsieh is still tweeting as well ^_^

"Now my period come, great.... " . Think us blokes get it easy in comparison.

I was trying to take photos of most of the riders who came in after me and posting them but I wasn't focused so much on bikes. There's lots of personal variations though which I guess makes it interesting.

I rode Schwalbe Pro One tubeless and was totally puncture free, even riding the R1102 in Macedonia. After that I'm totally sold on tubeless.

Agree with your conclusion, although one (long) ride on mostly good roads isn't enough data on which to base it.

solid tyres

Rapsac recently tested Tannus tyres. At Spin London in 2015 he was still quite convinced by them, but he has since concluded that they become unsafe quite quickly (I'm pretty sure he tested them over less than 4,000k), as their profile becomes square-ish. Apparently, they're reasonably comfortable.

I can imagine that at some point they may find a wonder material that does the job better than air, but I doubt it.

Perhaps they will have found it by the time I am ready for the TCR.

Blimey. Is she riding all the way back to Taiwan?

I rode standard tubes and was totally puncture free, even riding the R1102 in Macedonia. After that I'm totally sold on not riding tubeless.

:P

This is what I rode...

Also not enough data to support your conclusion!

I guess you'll try tubeless when I try disc brakes!

What tyres/tubes?

Continentals obv.

Yeah, save for that previous 30 years of riding tubes.

Post a survey on the TCR facebook. That would actually be interesting to see who had trouble with what tyres and where they rode.

If I told you I'd have to kill you.

#conti

The air volume in a tyre acts as a rising rate spring with nice curves. A solid rubber tyre isn't, so has to be a lot harder under normal "cruising" load in order to be stiff enough not to deform permanently when peak loads go beyond the elastic limits.

A solid rubber tyre will also be more sensitive to temperature changes, meaning a tyre that's flexible enough to give decent compliance at night could be dangerously soft by lunch.

Next years Tour Divide bike

Rose McGovern is at the ferry.

I did quite enough off-road during the TCR. You're welcome to Divide whatever you want :P

And then there were eight.

Three solos. One former pair now solo and two pairs.

Rose McGovern #136, finished after a strong ride yesterday. She had, apparently, never ridden more than 200 miles before and never faced mountains other than those in Ireland. Mind you, my memory of Irish mountaiins is that they may not be as high aas the Alps but that they can be very vicious and windy. If you are interested, she is doing a live Facebook chat/video diary this evening via Primaleurope at 7pm.

Simeon Jurukov #113 wass close on her heels and was ahead of her at CP4. Yesterday he had onl115 km to go. He has been at Alexandrouopolis for the past 18 hours. Trackleaders has him down as having only 80 odd km to go but I now realise that this is straight line distance and so meaningless. He is not yet underway. While he could potentially finish today, it may be that he is resting up/dealing with a mechanical/injured/sick. He is 50 years old and Macedonian. He is on Facebook and may have been posting on there. I am not so cannot tell. Hope he is up and riding soon.

Laurent Carlier (a former pair but now solo) #205 has reached Serres in Greece. He is shown as having 267 km to go. Although this is not a clear indication of how far he has to ride, it can be compared to the 400 km and 514 km of the past two days. He is making good progress.

Pierluigi Talamona #126 crossed from Kosovo and is now in Macedonia nearing the Greek border. Down to 375 km to be compared with 500km and 587 km of the past two days. He is 68 years old. This is either a very good thing as it sets a benchmark for older riders or is a little frustrating to my plans (based upon last year's oldest rider at 63) to ride the TCR at 65 in siven years time. http://www.varesenews.it/2016/07/dal-belgio-alla-turchia-in-bicicletta-a-68-anni-accetta-la-sfida/540055/ He also has a large moustache which can hardly be very aero.

Daniel Nicolas Munoz and his pair Guillermo Nicolas Munoz #209. Just north of Skopje and with 472 km to go down from 578 km and 663 km. They are making good progress. Can't find much information about them.

The next rider on the road is the solo Min Hseih #92. I know know a little more about her thanks to @adroit. She is from Taiwan and, it appears, she is using the TCR as the first part of her 14,000km ride home. Her Twitter feed suggests that she has been having a fairly torrid time but is carrying on despite adversity in a supremely determined way. It is little wonder that she is pacing this first leg of her journey. That said, she contines to progress and is now at Podgorica in Montenegro close to the border with Kosovo. Go Min!

Last riders on the road re the #228 pair of Mattia Biffi and Alberto Varni. They are making slow progress and are still 60km away from CP4. Mattia rode the 2014 TCR in 15 days and Alberto was the last finisher that year after catastrophic mechanicals which forced him to ride 600 km on a broken rear wheel, in 23 days. This year, it would appear, they are both just enjoying the ride (unless, of course, mechanicals have disrupted them.)

14,000km ride home

oof.

Ever thought of riding back to Melbourne one day?

Yeah, the rest of you TCR riders really need to harden the fuck up :)

You just want me to leave...

#sadface

I did ask if anyone was riding back. Mike laughed then said there were three guys who were.

He then said he was joking when he saw the look on my face. :)