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

Bad luck Frank, you've been going great and I've enjoyed your route choices.... well done. These thinks just spring from nowhere just when we think we've got the game dialled. Good news is you've got another 30+ years for some redemption! Enjoy the trip home, will catch up when next in town. Cheers Steve

Lulu moving again. Our Samuli cap84 been stopped a while however...

Katariina has a website:

https://kathei.github.io/

Which is actually not so exciting on the cycling front. Still, she is Finnish and on the board of Helsinki Cyclists.

And she is just starting the parcours to CP2

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you should be proud

He is.

I saw him starting the tough last bit as I was coming down. He was going OK, really grinding his gear to get up a steep section. Lots at low rev torque on display!

Thanks Steve. Am looking forward to another serving of Terra Australis soon!

Probably mountains blocking signal. I've been moving. Though right now eating that free cake in Badia.

I was kind of expecting to go all out and spit blood at the end of the race but my legs were just full of shit for the first few days, a bit less now maybe, that it just didn't happen, just hurt with little effort. Would've just broken myself. The heat has been a bit muxh too, while its cooler than my last tcr. Maybe too close to that hanko nuorgam rexord or just bad week. But basic randonneuring pace is very doable anyway so I'm embaring the expirience and racing as fast as I can without hurting too much. Much fun.
Also crashed and there was a storm and shoes filled with snow and so on, feels like an adventure.

Bad luck Frank, but if you're like skinny you will come back stronger than before.

Better luck next time. Strange things happening forcing people scratching.

Hope she makes it. She' very determined to finish but had knee problems and food wouldn't stay inside, so cp2 parcours is a big obstacle.

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good to know. You took the free cake, nice one.

Pawel taking Italian route?

Looks like it. The scenic route.

Hope she makes it. She' very determined to finish but had knee problems and food wouldn't stay inside, so cp2 parcours is a big obstacle

She is clearly determined. Normal people would have scratched by now if they had had to spend a couple of days laid up. How far did she get last year?

She is almost half way up the parcours. Making very good time.

Where is Ivan?

hippy is only about 20km behind the great Stephane Ouaja #12 who was suffering earlier but is now going hell for leather. His Instagram account is worth a follow particularly for his video updates.

Where is Ivan?

Slovenia. Taking the southerly path less trodden. About midfield

Fiona will not win by a country but will be in her final country later today.

you must have ridden a fair few audaxes with him over the years no?

I'm on the train to frankfurt. A friend got in touch and invited me to stay the night with them there, which will be great. He knows fiona and has been telling me about her for the last couple of years since he ride with her a bit on Lel. Then train home to London tomorrow. Lots of sitting around, which I can handle. Am going through my email backlog.

When I got on the train I immediately bumped into Julia freeman who had scratched a couple of days ago, and chatted to her for an hour until she got off.

The apparent high scratch rate is interesting but I think the reason is simply that the parcours sections, which are the hardest bits, came much earlier than in other years with no prologue of gentle riding on flat or rolling roads. The scratch rate might be comparable to what is usually seen at the first two parcours.

People are blaming heat but it wasn't that hot. I believe it was 35 degrees. That's a hot day but typical for summer in Bulgaria.  Last year they had 40 degrees right from the start in Belgium and Germany. The year before they had lucifer. In 2016 we had 40 degrees in the Po valley and in Greece and Turkey which felt much hotter. This has been a cool tcr! It was a bit airless on the main road on day 1 with little shade but the first two climbs had lots of trees. 

People who scratched due to heat weren't drinking enough, early enough. Once you get dehydrated it can be very hard to turn things around. I include myself in that as I under drunk and felt a bit sick and struggled to eat, but I experimented with different foods and drinks - apple juice, dried apricots, familiar energy bars from home and fizzy water got me back on top of things. 

The initial parcours weren't that hard.  Cp1 was a couple of big climbs but they were gently graded with shade.  Cp2 had a long gravel climb but again it wasn't steep or very rough.  I did some in my aerobars.  The last 5km up at Cp2 was hard. It was rocky and often very steep, basically a mountain bike trail.  But it was only 5km, so walking the bits that weren't rideable, it took me about 2 hours. Others, with better mtb skillz than me were doing it a bit quicker. And it was so high that it was cool.

I think CP3 will be much harder with some vicious climbs and lots of them. It is taking people 36 hours. I expect cp4 to be hard too.

Thanks Frank. Please keep these analyses coming. Your insight is brilliant.

Yes. And beer.

Sorry you've had to scratch, Frank. You were riding strong. Chapeau.