Silk Road Mountain Race (SRMR)

There are people using rim brakes. I think Mikko is and someone else has mentioned it somewhere.
I would have if I had done it. But I agree, for this, discs would make sense.

Lee Craigie seems to have wandered up a random mountain

It slightly bothers me that Kim and Pierre Arnaud Le Magnan in second place have ridden together for the last day and a half.

You might be evenly paced for an hour or so on a long climb but a day and a half is starting to look like you've paired up. Unless they shared accomm for a day or something out of a storm? I presume you mean they've actually been covering ground together?

How much do you weigh? Of course I could get away with rim brakes but I'd definitely be more likely to have hand issues during the race doing so.

Ultan querying a resupply?

I'm no lightweight at 70ish kg. On this there'd be loads of brake work.
I didn't have any hand problems on TCR. The one time I remember having hand problems from braking was in Gran Canaria on a long descent with maybe 25 hairpins. That was at the end of a long day ride, at the end of a week of riding. Been fine on a heavy tourer in the Pyrenees or off road in Albania, etc. It was the multiple hairpins that I found hardest.

I'm no lightweight at 70ish kg

hahahaha 70kg is lightweight, lower than that you're just sticks in a skinbag.

When the road is rough, ie. XC races I'm on and off the brakes way more. Tarmac is much easier to just roll through corners. Off-road, I can't just let it roll out. My hands were pretty tired after the CP4 parcours trying to avoid excess speed and inevitable pinch flat but nothing like when I used to ride MTB.

Actually, on Tenerife hire bikes, 25% downhill I literally couldn't stop. Obviously my own brakes would be setup better but that was pretty sketchy. Think the missus stopped by crashing gently into a rock wall. I just let it go in the end and hoped nothing was coming up the hill..

cable discs would make a whole lot of sense

Also, has the guy on the Cannondale Scalpel scratched yet due to suspension failure? It's coming.

Dont think the repair shop they used was up to date with the latest di2 hydro levers.

I'm not sure on all the details i Know Quirk tried to fix but to apparent no avail.

You can't even get that shit in most of Europe.

Gorilla tape a cross top lever attached to BB7 with a rear - long cable outer to your pack somewhere.

I met Pierre earlier this year and hes a nice guy who seemed very passionate about Ultra racing and the importance of the self supported aspect but, he is also extremely chatty so who knows.

A tiny tiny detail, but it's good that they corrected his name and added the "Le" in his name. : Pierre-Arnaud Le Magnan, instead of "Pierre-Arnaud Magnan", as it was written at the beginning. (This proves that they read comments on Insta....)
(Yes, I'm a maniac, so whaaaaaat?)

Gone to see the ancient Tash Rabat caravanserai according to the Adventure Syndicate tweet.

And is still there 4hrs later???

From Twitter...

“Lee's dot is waaaay off route but she's sent an OK message. Reckoning she's resupplying and resting in Tash Rabat.”

A friend of mine is on a year long cycling trip from Ghent to Kyoto and is in Kyrgyzstan at the moment, on the parcours. Met a few riders, one of them being Laurens, who is also from Ghent. Small world :)

Petervary closing in on Naryn. There's a pizza place there. Might even take the chance to sleep in a proper bed for a few hours? After Naryn there's a wide amazing valley coming up. It's uphill but very gradual so you don't think much about it until the very end. Bunch of river crossings to be done but shouldn't be much of an issue this late in the year.

'Our first 3 riders have now reached CP2 on the Silk Road. Jay Petervary was first to arrive 18:20 local time, followed just over 2hours later by Kim Raemakers and Pierre Arnaud la Magnan within 3minutes of each other.' 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Annoying, but they could also just have similar pace and are trying not to let the other get away. Though it would be better to deliberately make a bit of a gap in one way or another. For example in NCT Kai and Steffen were riding so close to each other for some days, that they could see each other on long straights and on breaks, because neither of them wanted to be slower. And when they shared a couple of hotels, the night didn't make a difference either. I was riding close to them for a while too, but when I saw them, I let off the gas or stopped/did not stop there to make a gap.

This race looks so good, why am I not there!?

Na, I know. It's a difficult thing. I never like being forced to ride at a pace I am uncomfortable with, so if they're genuinely matched, it makes sense that they're so close. Crazy that you can be that close given the terrain.

I wonder who will be the first to complete the triple crown of Eurasian long bikepacking races racing the NCT, TCR and SRMR back to back? Anisa Aubin did the NCT and TCR and Mikko is going TCR and SRMR so why not?

Looks like Lee Craigie is continuing offroad after the stop at Tash Rabat Caravanserai. Maybe given up racing as there was some rumours that she fell ill?

That would be huge!
Shell will be the first to have been in all three, though not the same year. He rode NCT now and TCR earlier.

Surprising - they are both very experienced.
Becoming a bit like Lael Wilcox / Evan Deutsch.
Riding together for a few hours is fine but I don't believe anyone is that evenly matched and has identical eating, sleeping and stopping requirements for several days.
Of course, it's not possible to see exactly what they are doing from a tracker. There may be a few hundred metres gap, but the fact that they frequently leapfrog each other on the tracker doesn't give any support for that.

Edit - just looked again and there now seems to be 10km between them. Looks better!