Transcontinental Race No. 7 - TCR7 - #TCRN07 - 2019

142 again. Thanks org.

oh weird.

my confusion

142 again. Thanks org.

They gave me my old number from 3 years ago, must take a bit of cross-checking of lists to do that.

Rory said I had to cross his palms with silver.. ;)

I wasn't actually bothered about getting my old number. I'd forgotten what it was until I saw the list and noticed it was familiar.

If I didn't get it I'd hardly kick up a stink because I know they've had a lot of racers but it's a nice "aww" when you get it again.

Koen haslemans has some shoes to fill.

Obviously they need to keep yours the same because of the volume of social media traffic (outgoing).
I remembered your number better than I remembered my own one!

I expect skinny will be doing this off-road and still beat everybody? :)

(I know he's not doing it.)

Yeah, but is anyone going to be fatter than hippy? I think he'll win.

Couple of questions;
Cables to aero bars, do you tape them to bar and around clamp to entry or leave them be?
Is a carbon railed saddle a bad idea? (I have the same saddle in a slightly different model with ti rails)

Some good names in the start list:

Dennis Wolckenhauer - 'cloud-hitter' or something

Norbert Wortberg - 'word mountain' (I'd never heard that surname before.)

Rudi Verwimp

Bjorn is riding this and then PBP - fixed. According to strava

Bjorn is due a win, race will be interesting without that cap #1 taking part. An open field. There will be some like Stephane and Falconer (maybe Samuli too? ;) Eying top spot, but it will be closer overall, especially to begin with I suppose. Take James out of last year's race and the lead was swapping hands quite often from memory, even late in the race. Should be fun.

I'd see the guys you mention + Chris Herbert as the favourites. Probably go for Bjorn as most likely winner, as long as he's checked his route!

Cables to aero bars, do you tape them to bar and around clamp to entry or leave them be?

Is a carbon railed saddle a bad idea?

Don't understand cable question, is it di2?
Carbon saddle rails probably be fine but gain is trivial. Is Ti stronger? If so I'd take that.

Not really about weight more comfort and if hanging a bag off carbon was a bad idea. It’s been fine so far.
The saddle is a Romin, the carbon has less padding but seems to flex more. The ti slightly more padding but feels more rigid.
Maybe I’ll ride the ti on Sunday and see

There's going to be someone on a Brompton again this year, with 'no interest in racing but will make steady progress where possible.'

Yawn.

It's a shame that people do this, taking a place that could have gone to someone who wanted to race!

I read that they had about 1000 applications again.
I have two friends I often ride with that applied too. They would have been pretty fast. Would have been exiting to race against them. They didn't get in.

Mike was always open to have a big demographic of people in the race no?

He wanted people of all capabilities and backgrounds to get the opportunity to push themselves. To race not necessarily against others but at least "against" themselves. Using a Brompton and starting the TCR as a touring trip is not what the TCR is about.

"no interest in racing"... enters an endurance race.

Absolutely, and open to beginners and anyone up for giving it their best shot. But I'm not convinced he'd have considered that a white British male using a Brompton constituted a distinct demographic segment!

Demographic as in; 'relating to the structure of a population'. Nothing to do with colour of someones skin..

But that's your word. What I recall Mike saying is that he was keen to have more women riders and more riders from different countries.

And he didn't want recumbents or tandems because he felt it wasn't competing on equal terms with standard bikes.