Transcontinental Race No. 8 - TCR8 - #TCRN08 - 2022

Just a rest a bit then it might come to your mind, even if only post Romania :)

Cool, loads of DQs! I'll be zooming up the places...

‘Well’ would be over-egging it but I think it took me just over 6 hours or something. Came off 3 times I think and ended up doing something to rear derailleur which meant I couldn’t get into my top two easiest gears for the rest of the race which was quite annoying but probably the best time for it to happen.

Found that day really draining mentally. So much so I only did about 140ish Km in total as just needed to get off the road.

Quite a few memories coming back now. Almost forgot but got hit by a car (caravan actually) in Croatia!

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I’ll try and add some more soon. Might be useful for others and especially any vegan riders who are toying with the idea. The TLDR is yes it’s possible to do this race vegan but it’s really fucking hard!

several TCR riders were hit by vehicles (actually by humans who drive vehicles) this year...fortunately no serious dmg but really scaring

Mikko bossing it https://twitter.com/mkpaa/status/1557826017733009409

Subbed – not for TCR per se but interested in how you manage for remote and v long distance

In March, or whenever they publish the final results. :P

Reckon they'll DQ or penalise with time? I don't know what they've done in the past for not following parcours. Presume just time penalty as there's no risk to rider or organisation.

They made Oscar go back out and do it again, or else DNF.
I expect it will be time penalty though, or maybe nothing.

I self reported twice, for a road in Germany and a tunnel in Serbia I didn't know were not for cycling. They picked up on the first but just ignored the second (I'm a dot watcher for TPR so have access to the back end - which I didn't use during the race and don't think they should have given me until after...).

Agree, I try to be vegan but quite a lot of dairy went down on this one. No meat though.

several TCR riders were hit by vehicles (actually by humans who drive vehicles) this year...fortunately no serious dmg but really scaring

I think its bad. When you get hit anything can happen. Not really a sign of a safe event that there were as many as there were IMHO. I mentioned this to David but he was a bit more relaxed about it than I found comfortable.

Yeah I feel I was very lucky. It certainly knocked my confidence and I found the following few days in Serbia to be absolute hell with awful driving and generally cunts in HGVs constantly close passing.

Have to say the organisers would really good about it though.

The Croatian coast road was mental. In 2016 the bora wind meant it was a bit quieter. At least its wider than some, but caravans don't help.

The main road through Serbia should not be ridden.

Nor the narrow main roads in Romania, especially the mental 3-lane one North of targu jiu with concrete barriers to prevent passing cars giving any room even if they want to (one guy knocked off there).

Some of the Bulgarian ones were too narrow for comfort too. And the one across Bosnia. I did that on a Sunday in 2016, much busier this time, got run off the road a couple of times there.

The first alpine decent was also mental. A guy stopped to offer me a lift down from the top as he didn't think it was safe. With Austrian / German drivers it was just about OK but still scary.

Romanian E roads that we went on were at least a bit wider, but very busy.

Compared to 2016 we used a lot more E Europe main roads, the roads have got busier and cars and trucks have got bigger. Compared to 2019 also more E Europe main roads and narrower than the one across Bulgaria.

Probably more similar to 2017 and 2018, which I didn't do.

@jakemcree how are you feeling today? I was fine yesterday and sat before but absolutely shattered today.
Can only lie on the sofa and write stuff on my phone. In between my naps.

Just done a covid test. Positive. Explains why I feel so shit, at least!

Oh that's an absolute bummer. Fingers crossed it's not too bad (and congrats on the ride!)

Apologies for bumbling into this thread with nothing to add but you people are fucken hard as nails and it’s really quite humbling to read the posts

Ah, no that’s rubbish. I’m ok. Just back in London now after travelling from Burgas. Myself and my partner had a few days in the hotel at the finish which was nice but kinda had enough after a couple of days…

Hope you feel better soon.

Scherrit has got it as well.
Maybe a bit of super spreading at the finishers` party!

Doug has just finished.

At the start he said he thought it would be his last one.

He wanted to finish Sunday for a flight. Not much time to enjoy the finish before packing

"By the way when you asked me how I was doing physically the other day and I answered fine I was delusional. Everything hurts dude. Well almost everything"

"358K push in 24 hours from the ferry to the finish line isn’t too bad for 65 though"

More from Doug:

"I did CP4 parcors in a storm. Total nightmare.

Truck warfare in Bosnia, Serbia, and Romania was also total nightmares. As were the dogs. This race was 1 billion times more dangerous than anything I saw in Australia.

My TCR racing days are over. Even though I’m done racing TCR I love it and the community and want to help it continue.

I had so many close calls with big trucks."

Didn't I post somewhere that I wonder how long before Strasser is riding off-road? :)

From his strava, sounds like he's not convinced, yet!

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Ulrich on the shitty parcours:

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i know a few other riders personally who feel this way and in all probability, this is also my future.

Something with a fixed route might be more appealing, assuming the organisers can be trusted to plan it appropriately. Of course, that removes a large part of what makes the TCR special but I'm not sure it is worth the trade off...