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

It sure was!

Good read that. Enjoyed it. Thanks for posting

Preliminary results are out.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tud9lVHRuulQCOUJHilcaLdg-t47ilhz/view

Virtually everyone had penalties, which I don't remember being the case in 2016. I wonder why, if they are stricter or if there were some things that everyone did?

Fiona had 5:30 of penalties so looks like they have taken her French banned road stint into account and it hasn't affected the outcome.

At least there was the parts of the old A1 or 258 in Serbia, that had a couple of spots banned for bikes, first one of those I found a way around but the second one I ended up riding on as the roads didn't match what my maps told me and I didn't find options. But looks like you did find a gravel road alternative.
And then apparently the bridge over Danube on road 14 in Serbia was banned too, must have missed the sign, as did you according to the tracker. Many others did both of these mistakes. Damn. But I think it's great that they are so consistent with this.

bridge over Danube on road 14 in Serbia

Interesting - I did miss that one. I remember it was pretty busy around there with lots of trucks on the road either side of the bridge - which made it not so pleasant but really fast!

Agree - looks like they have been very thorough and it's great they take the trouble to do this. It's what sets the TCR apart from other races. It can't have been easy to have unpicked all the infringements on the A1 vs parallel roads that were only a few feet away.

1hr penalty FFS.

I did move up 8 spots though. Wowsers.

Some big time penalties handed down, 7h is serious.
I wonder at what point it's pretty much beyond a penalty and a DQ.

DQ.

DQ would've made more sense than grinding myself down to finish to be honest.
This is probably why I have zero fucks about riding at the moment. Dingo ate my motivation.

My understanding is that you won't be DQ'd if you make lots of little errors which could be mistakes from missing one sign, etc and that others also made - even if it adds up to quite a lot.

You would get DQ'd if you are seen to have deliberately cheated, so drafting is a no - even if the advantage is not great - drafting for an hour saves you a few minutes - there is no way you can do it by accident. Also if you are judged to have ridden as a pair (stopping at the same places, riding together on successive days), that is not a mistake, it is deliberate, so DQ.

In the past I've thought that the penalties weren't enough to offset the advantage that people gained from them, so maybe they have upped them a bit this year.

But maybe not - @Samuli got half an hour total from a bit of A1 plus the bridge that I also did. That bridge saved me heaps of time as it opened up a much faster route so I would think a few hours would have been fair for that. And taking the gravel on the A1 was a pain, broke up rhythm, etc, so definitely worth more than a few minutes penalty.

DQ would've made more sense than grinding myself down to finish to be honest.

They only tell you about the DQ after you've finished so you could have both!

Riding in Kygyzstan has killed nearly all enjoyment of riding my bike here.

Haha.

They know I'm an honest racer though so if I thought I'd done something wrong I'd have told them about it and probably not got DQ'd. But I've no idea where my 1hr penalty came from. I'm always careful to avoid every car-only road I see but it's a 2 week race so there's always scope for missing a sign.

Riding in Spain has killed nearly all enjoyment of riding my bike here.

ftfy for me.

Even at my parent's place the last few weeks which is in Oz and famously car-centric was so much nicer to leave the house and be straight into nice roads, with little traffic and not shit weather.

This country is fucked. It's why I'm moving to Spain.

Yeah.
I think it's also hard to prove that someone took route option X knowing it was actually banned, but claimed ignorance. We do all make genuine mistakes though.

It's a very difficult subject. And I can see why the off road races with fixed routes just don't enter into penalties, it's a straight DQ there.

You gravel road point, it will also take a lot out of you physically, and perhaps leave you with mechanical issues. So it's a hard one!

Is anyone (Frank haha) able to tell if I would have got a penalty in Serbia? Be handy to know for the future.

Yes, you're bound to have got a penalty in Serbia - anyone could tell that just by looking at you :)

Is there are particular bit? If so I can have a look at your route when I have a minute

Thanks. You have my Strava too right?
Probably the bottom bit of the A1 area as I didn’t go as far north as many. It’s also the point where I was probably in the most pain so might not have always been very focused.

See you there

Project 'If You Don't Like It Why Don't You Leave. Okay Then I'm Going' is in full effect.

Just working out how many rooms I need for all you fuckers and your bikes :)

No that's the row above mine, I got 4 hours.

Yes, day 4, 36.3km - you stayed on the road (A1) when there was a blue cars only sign rather than diverting to the shitty gravel track (258) alongside it. You'd have got a penalty for that.

Ah - ok, makes more sense. That bridge would have been a bargain for half an hour!

Thanks I’ll have a look

Any time I ride in the UK (or even visit) I wonder how on earth I rode enough on the road to get into it once I'd stopped NEEDING a bike to get around after leaving school. I've had some lovely rides over the years but the general day to day of riding is loads better on the mainland (IMO etc)