2VS - Two Volcano Sprint - South Italy

very formulative

Seems pretty formulaic. :)

Shame skinny has scratched, inevitably.

I did this last yr; ferries were plentiful and only a 20min crossing
They had food and coffee on them; bliss
I remember wishing the crossing could have taken much longer !

This year everyone seems much faster; even guys who did it last yr. Not sure if weather is better or just competition lifting the pace. Very impressive either way

From memory the Appenine section is properly exposed and limited food and hotels; this is where wheels can and will come off...

Thanks - and well done for last year. Tough ride.
I was wondering if the weather was good. A bit more daylight must help a bit too. Probably even harder to find supplies and hotels this year with COVID. Maybe fewer excuses to stop!

Ulrich now closing in on Vesuvius, should finish this morning (or early afternoon if the climb is very hard). Sofiane 40km behind and two others already in Sicily.

When I looked this morning I could not believe how many people near the ferry already
Normally Ulrich is miles ahead; but this year the top 6 are all very strong
If you stop for any sort of a kip this year you lose 5 places

I bet the 6th finisher time beats Ulrichs time last year

Ulrich now closing in on Vesuvius

Hmmm ... :)

Interesting, will have to compare times. Maybe the competition has spurred them on.

6th is Kim Raeymaekkers, who is a strong rider, but also notorious for pairing up (TransAm, Kyrgystan). And I see he is riding pretty close to the 7th rider. Admittedly they are both just off the ferry, but maybe they arrived together as well...?

Met Sofiane in Kyrgyzstan a few years ago, he’d only just done Tour Divide. I was trekking, he was cycling from Paris to Hong Kong in about a month with no kit. Not a race, just fun. He was kipping in truck stops mainly. He’d had to stop to get forks welded after hitting a kid in possibly Iran or Turkmenistan. Interesting guy, tho my French was too rusty to talk in massive detail.

Sofiane is pretty fluent in English, no?

Ulrich is a beast in these shorter races. Really would like to see him compete in a TABR or TCR kinda race.

That's a good run, amazing

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this year the top 6 are all very strong

Not many other races so the end of the year is stacked.

He's almost finished.

Ulrich is a beast in these shorter races. Really would like to see him compete in a TABR or TCR kinda race.

Yes, him vs Abdullah. I dk if Abdullah has entered TCR but I listened to an interview he did after his TransAm and he said he was thinking about it.

52 hrs is just ridiculous on a course that tough
He combines going fast with just not stopping. Lead the first climb, and never relinquish it....
Its a pretty unbeatable combo

Maybe his English has got better in the last few years as he has done all the international stuff?

But it's the old stereotype: the Germans, Dutch, Nordics, etc, always switch to English when they see you struggling with their language and their English is better than your [xxx]ish, but the French are much more likely let you keep practising / struggling in French!

It is crazy fast.
Last year he did it in 60 hours. A bit less climbing in Sicily, a bit faster from knowing the route, maybe better weather, Sofiane breathing down his neck, but even so - a big improvement.

Time limit is 110 hours, so he has time to go back to the start!

Abdullah and Kristof are 2 of the best racers but with the most cryptic messages. You almost never know what they are up to. I follow Abdullah's youtube channel and in half of his videos I have no idea what he's on about. :)

Not at that stage (maybe 5 years back?), we struggled along with his English and my French. Or maybe the problem was my English...

Abdulah is training for the 24h WR. He’s made that pretty clear. Who knows what Kristoff is doing he’s a mystic.

Kristof had entered the Rhino Run in South Africa - although I see he is no longer on the list of starters.

https://www.rhinorun.cc/the-riders

It has just got postponed from this November to next year.

I think he got freaked out by Mike's death and the whole experience of the roads in Australia (maybe also the supporters too). He's a pretty private guy, doesn't go looking for attention, and only ever entered a race when one was organised almost past where he lived.

He did a low-key one, Diablo something or other, in France in the summer.

The interview I heard, on a Curve podcast, was not long after his TransAm and he sounded like he was still wired from that - but maybe he is always like that!

The 24 was the other thing that he mentioned, so looks like he has decided to focus on that. Shame as always good to get the fastest riders in the big events. He says he's not a climber, so TCR may not suit him, but he would be quick over any course.

Less than 3 hours between the top 3

24h WR

Which one?

Some more numbers https://www.instagram.com/p/CGmTJD3Fm47/