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

pay £9 so you get compensation if we are late

That was just one of them. The seat choice option throws on more £ too and you have to click about three times to get it to proceed without picking a fucking seat for an extra £x.

it might be against the law as it is really a form of gambling

Isn't all insurance a form of gambling?

Yes, you could say that. Usually it is a bit less blatant than that though

Yep! This was Italy though and it was a much bigger inconvenience for all parties than had I just been allowed to keep my bike together in one piece. I had to now carry around my bike in 3 plastic bin bags and I completely blocked the train corridor so when someone wanted to get through it took 3 times as long. But I guess it’s a precedent thing where they don’t want the train filling up with bikes.

Since then, I’ve got a bike cover/bag - similar to the ones you see covering motorbikes. It packs down to around a litre so probably not ideal for racing but useful for a tour - I also found it useful for when I have to take off all of my panniers and bags and chuck them into one container. I’m sure there are lighter and smaller materials. Perhaps a tarp or a large bivy could be fashioned into doing the job?

Some options were brought to my attention here:
https://twitter.com/firsthippy/status/1085166171131920384

Do it in style - nick a sheet from a hotel

Cling film from all the nearby kitchens.

Arkel Seatpacker just arrived. Seems really good. I put some stuff in it and fixed it to the bike and it is rock solid.

https://www.arkel-od.com/en/seatpacker-15-bikepacking-seat-bag.html

Video in action of no-sway?
15L seems quite large.

Hard to video no sway, but if I knock it, if will vibrate a little bit on its internal frame, not sway. It's attached to a bit of metal which clamps to the saddle rails so it's more like a Carradice Bagman than say an Apidura which is strapped to the bike with velcro. As long as the rack holds firm on the saddle, it can't sway.

I don't need 15 l. I need about 12, but they do 9 or 15.

I used an 11 litre one in 2016 which was just a bit too small. I had to ditch some spares at the last minute (which I didn't end up needing, but might have done). This will enable me to rationalise another couple of small bags which I have had dotted round my frame. And it's not a bad idea to have some spare capacity for when I need to carry extra food etc - as long as I avoid the temptation to fill the space...

Fair enough I have the slight advantage of a large frame for a custom bag. The price is putting me off though. The alpkit dosen't look as secure and easy to attach mind. Does it leave much seatpost for a light? Obviously this is slightly individual.

Where in Burgas are you staying? Any good spots? Pizzeria distance, etc..

The Arkel seat pack doesn't leave any space for a light. Nor did my Apidura one. When I used that I put one on each seatstay and a third one attached to the (unused) brake mount via a cunning piece of broomhandle engineering

I'm staying here

Just went for somewhere in the centre that looked ok and wasn't very expensive - didn't check out what was near. I assume there'll be stuff around.
https://www.booking.com/hotel/bg/doro-hotel.en-gb.html?aid=304142;label=gen173nr-1FCAEoggI46AdIM1gEaFCIAQGYAQm4ARfIAQ_YAQHoAQH4AQuIAgGoAgM;sid=22c820c517f19b72e2634f108ebad7c6

We still have no idea where the start is so maybe this will turn out to be in the wrong place. I made sure I booked somewhere that was cancellable.

HaHa! Oops. That's the posh one I talked the missus out of because we found a cheaper one elsewhere.

Haha, it was less than £100 for 3 nights so I reckoned it wasn't too steep!
I expect you've got somewhere just as nice and can spend the difference on beers

I think it was ~£260 for 4 nights but the place we booked is £130 for 4 so £130 for beer is not to be sneezed at.

I have a vague memory that somebody last year left all their kit at the bottom on the CP4 parcour, did the climb up and down, and then picked up the kit afterwards and carried on. Was there ever any fallout from this? Legit move?

There was lots of dodgy shit going on at CP4. Just in the time I was there, one guy walked up with his tracker leaving his bike at the hotel, one guy was given a tube by another rider, the controllers themselves were showing me tracks of riders that had completely skipped it or just turned around half way to the top.

For me, swearing fucking works - up, down, no issues. :)

You sure it's the Doro? Cheapest we can find is 95Eu/night.

I think ours must've been a different one. Maybe it was named similar to Doro.

EDIT: Boutique Promenade hotel it was. Maybe Doro was another one she looked up. Nevermind.

Hotel Doro
56
28 Sredna Gora Str
8000 Burgas City
Bulgaria
Price
3 nights, 1 room
£93 BGN 210.06

Legit move?

No, it's specifically prohibited

As long as you can find your way back to the right one when you are there, that's the main thing!

You can check the tracker site. Had a quick look and found 2 people so far who didn't climb CP4. They got put out of classification in the results. So the organisers had a proper look at each racer and their route.