TransAtlanticWay Race

Anybody here following the race which follows the NW to SW coast of Ireland with about 100 riders, 2500km, 20000m climb with some steep hills.
Into day 5 now, Bjorn Lenhard (first finisher of PBP 2015) is leading by ~150km, there is one fixed who's in about 20th place.

@skinny is doing some excellent commentary and analysis on his YouTube channel.

Thanks. And yeah we've discussed it in the ultracycling thread. But it should have its own really.

I have been following it closely, as we have three Audax Club Hackney members riding, James Juneyt Dennis, Sam Thompson and Ivan Cornell (Fixed rider).

JJ seems to have recovered from his accident a few days ago and has been in a similar position for the whole ride, he has been training for this year's TCR which shows.

Ivan rides everything fixed, and given the terrain is performing really well he has been in the top 20 for most of the ride so far.

I can't belive he's riding it fixed, given the terrain, he's a madman! Well more madman than most ultra racers! Chapeau to him

Looks like the bike is on quite a high gearing and pretty heavily loaded

1 Attachment

That must be the other fixed rider who packed? Ivan is riding a Burls.

That is a load of gear!

My form rubbing off, still your ex 800 on the geared bike obvs.

1 Attachment

glad it's good. I've been through 4 since that!

74" apparently

Fixed rider who isn't Ivan: https://www.instagram.com/blutschweisstraenen/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx64r8sBaWo

if it's the unreconstituted coastal roads then it's not gonna be fun on fixed!

Bjoern has just finished (according to the tracker).

They found him sleeping under a tree. Clip on FB.

Go Bjoern!

@BlakeG Good race to do as prep, though let's hope he doesn't go too deep and injure himself, with not that long until TCr there isn't much time to recover. What's his cycling history?

Wow Bjoern's line is just so consistent compared to everyone else's, chapeau!

Dan Massie rides with me in Islington CC. I think he only got into cycling properly in the last 5 years (he apparently lost 30kg or something ridiculous). He's always been good at one-off, long-distance fast rides and last year he did a humongous tour of the Pyrenees and Alps which inspired him to give ultra a go this year.

The TAW is meant to be a training ride for TCR but he's a classic bloody-minded Scot so I'm not surprised he's doing pretty well with the bad weather. However, as you say @skinny, he might not know when to hold back to save his legs, will have to see how he feels next week.

classic bloody-minded Scot

The first phrase that always comes to my mind on Dan.

With his short sleep stop last night, I think he's trying to catch Luke and get the final podium spot.

He's a 90k gap to overhaul, so he's got his work cut out.

Massive effort from Bjorn.

" for me this was harder than the TCR"

@xkittyx what's the food / servo / shop situation along the route?

i bet the weather is more pleasant in TCR

A lot of riders who had done TCR said the same thing last year.

food/servo/shop isn't too bad, just things close quite early, a lot of petrol station meals for me. I gave up being vegan about 2 or 3 days in cause I was spending too much time in shops reading ingredients lists (stayed vegetarian).

There were a couple of times towards the end of the race when I was really trying to get ahead of Jason Woodhouse that I almost really fucked up in terms of food. I was cutting it fine and ended up bonking a bit in the last 100 miles which I think is what made me have to stop in Kinsale and nap for a few hrs before heading on.

I know that man and his bike.