Transcontinental Race No. 5 - TCR5 - #TCRN05 - 2017

I wonder if either of these two could give a clue

https://www.instagram.com/p/BL6wF4dBmbA/?taken-by=thetranscontinental

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLjhv-1h_Df/?taken-by=thetranscontinental

not quite as intense as that but it is usually at the end of a week's worth of 150-200km+ days.

Although that is with being very well slept, fed and watered...

Right, now make it 300k+ for 12 days, remove "well slept", "well fed" and you haven't had a drink for 6 hours and it's 38degC.

Right, fuck work, I'm entering this.

I can't give serious answers to the registration questions though.

Not forgetting a heavier bike, numb hands and an arse like a dropped pizza.

Fuck, joking around on that form took longer than expected. Submitted.

"Dropped pizza" is good.

Arse like a half-eaten pastie is the direction I tend to go but I think yours is more accurate.

Meat Feast™

Wait, so you're telling me that the TCR is harder than holidaying in a villa in Majorca?

Got a lot of thinking to do now.

Depends. In theory you could get an entry and then consciously go for DFL, taking 2 months and self-validating while staying only in 5-star hotels.

fuck that - under 14 days is my goal for this.

This year I was at 10 for a stretch goal, 12 for realistic estimate and I'd quit if I wasn't going to make the finisher's party.

I nailed the 12 which was good because the missus had booked tickets to surprise me at the finish months beforehand and they arrived bang on time, just before I did.

This year I'm racing TABR and hope to get an entry in TCR and will likely ride it anyway with my own tracker even if I don't and will be aiming for similar times but with only a month (maybe) recovery, who knows?

I reckon the benefit from experience will outweigh the fatigue

hippy, putting the fat in fatigue since '92

Even with this year's race under my belt I'm sure I could do a lot better with what I know now.

Yes, I keep thinking of all the time I could have saved by doing things differently. Mostly by staying on the main road, not doing some clever looking short cut down a road that might turn out not to exist.
And I'd get more efficient at packing.
Also a dynamo might even save time by reducing the need to look for batteries and faff around with charging.

I like my dynamo even though I probably could've got away without it given the time I spent in hotels tending to wounds.

I'm not sure how much more efficient I could get at packing. There's definitely a couple of items I'd leave behind next time but I used almost everything I took at some stage so I was pretty happy about it.

One thing I want to eliminate is the framebag rub on my knees with a skinnier framebag and maybe use a smaller saddle pack if I can get away with it. Not sure how TABR packing will differ from TCR packing though - need to think about that. 300g less useless currency at least :)

Mikko said that atleast for him, it's easier to start the race at the right pace if he's been doing some similar riding just before it, like riding to the start instead of flying or riding LEL just before TCR like he did before the first race. So you should be fine. :D

So Eurostar trip followed by walking around random Belgian towns drinking random Belgian beers is doing it wrong? There's another day off my finish time ;)

Indeed, I left in the wrong direction once and as I realised it, instead of heading back I found a shortcut that took something like half an hour to get to the place where I had just been... and once I decided to choose the bigger road beside the one my route was on, only to see it was a highway and I had to come back.
And as I wasn't really sure how fucked up I'm gonna be after the Alps, I took especially the first half at a rather slow pace.

Though I don't know if this would've actually made a difference in the end.

I think everyone agrees hydrating and some amount of carbo loading are essential.

Samuli for President!

I'll drink to that

Saddle problems made it painful but it was achilles issues that really slowed me down and set the dominoes falling. Finding shoes for a mid-sole cleat position would give me a lot of time back. I'd also spend much more time route-planning. Other than that I wouldn't change too much.

For me everything went so well I've got no excuses, I'd basically just need to stick to my route and ride faster. Though I am already pleased with how it went this time.

It'll be a long winter of training, we've already got 11cm of snow and more coming.

How do you train for something like this? are there any good resources online?

Ride your bike.
Ride your bike.
Ride your bike.