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

At this rate I'll know more than half the field. Guess I'll have to watch now.

My knees are hurting just reading that

I had 34x42 and could've quite happily gone lower. I'm now thinking about finding something that will support a 28T front ring so I can go back to say 36T on the back. He said fixed suits his riding style which I guess makes sense. For me, I like to spin and I like to freewheel on the descents while updating my twitter status so fixed doesn't work well :D

Did he flip over to a freewheel for the descents? He did on TCR - said he wasn't concerned about the climbs but was going to flip for the descents as they were painful. He didn't mention twitter.

I do do emails on long climbs, but I tend to keep my eyes on the road a bit more going downhill!

First one you've not ridden in since 2015!

Nope, he was running flip-flop but it was something like 66 inch on one side and 77 on the other for descents. He's going for fixed SR so it needs to be fixed all the way. What's his twitter handle? I need to send him some pics. Oh, you meant the tweeting. Actually I can email him or post to yacf

Yeah. I'm ok with it. I had a bit of FOMO with TABR - I still want another go at that.
But Europe I'm pretty done with in terms of racing. I'd totally go and do a tour or gravel/mtb routes or something but not that interested in doing the same thing again. Especially as I keep getting slower! :)

Especially as I keep getting slower!

That is a big thing! In 2019 I was quite a bit faster than 2016, but I only made it half way. If I could only put the two together, I wouldn't need to do it again.

I lost interest in TTs rapidly when I stopped getting faster. No way could I get interested in doing the VTTA handicap thing, going slower every year.

I won the VTTA 12hr trophy last year. That's not enough to make me keep doing it though. Maybe I'll wait another couple of years and then buy up the stuff that's current now and do the 300mi but really I can't be bothered. I did 300, I just paused slightly to adjust a brake in the middle. :)

I found another challenge for this year that has kept me entertained and dragging the missus along on some big stuff has been fun - fixing all the same problems I've had over the years for her. I'll keep training because it keeps me sane but I think I'd rather do some more fast'n'light touring and some more off-road stuff (unless @skinny breaks me in Oct).

@frank9755 have you looked into ferries and can make a comment? I didn't realise there were any.

The ferries are quite a big deal. They make routing the last section really complicated. And they will lead to some people doing all night rides to make them. IMHO one of the safety initiatives likely to be counterproductive, as if often the case.

To get from Romania to Bulgaria you are only allowed to use one of three ferries across the Danube. None are that frequent and only one has extended hours, but it is the one in the least convenient place! So lots of real time recalcing to be done to work out which one to go for. And they come shortly after the 40km of road parcours, which makes it harder to estimate for eta at the different ports. Especially as you can do the parcours in either direction, which makes the timing even more uncertain. And the CP is not on the parcours so you have more options on how to get to and from that.

I spent a lot of time thinking it through and I still haven't finally worked it out yet. I know my base strategy for parcours / ferry / checkpoint, but it wouldn't always be the best option if I was at the wrong time of day. And get it wrong and you can lose up to 14 hours stuck waiting for tomorrow's ferry.

Staying the obvious, you really want to hit the ferries during the times your preferred option is running, so might be a big penalty from stopping to sleep the night before.

Luck will definitely come into it a bit as the ferries are 3-4 hours apart.

These are the reasons for penalties mentioned in the 2019 results

The penalties awarded to riders reflect the following:

1. Errors in effective route planning.

2. Failure to correct a routing error promptly.

3. Penalties for rule infringements.

Significant rule infringements (particularly where rider safety is
compromised) and failure to correct promptly and in a safe manner
could mean exclusion from the race results.

Looking at the results from the last two races I was in, both of them had a rider disqualified because of riding on a motorway and also one for riding without a helmet and a light at night.

I dotwatched too in 2018 and at least one thing in addition to just checking the route was going through the social media, to check if the racers ask for help or if they have their own photographers without asking for permission and a media license. Or if they ride together with someone else for a longer time, stopping for a break and leaving again together.

Interesting and insightful thanks!

Yes. An event with some integrity. Sadly most others have none.

Interesting, I dot watched in 2017 and the social media thing hadn't come in then. But good they are doing it.

I'm doing TPR later this year.

Official start list is up now:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HdGQxD6q8QT9rY6mFsp6KPO4bGUdlLVN/view

lots from UK

Yeah, I know a lot of people starting this edition. I don't normally dot watch but I'll have to pay some more attention.

I keep spotting a few more I know. Parky and Paul Alderson from UK audaxes. And your mate Amy is riding again. I bumped into her three or four times on the first couple of days last time.

Your first chance to dot watch a TCR after you've ridden it, anyway. I always pay more attention to TCR than than anything else, when I've not ridden. I dot watched officially in 2017 so was spending a couple of hours a day, and in 2018 I had planned to ride so was really familiar with the route, and it was a pretty exciting contest, so I watched it closely then.
In 2019, after I'd had to pack, I didn't watch it hardly at all as I was too pissed off.

Yeah, I just sent her a message on Strava. I didn't know she was racing. Parky has an article about Mille Miglia in the audax mag so I've now started nagging the missus about riding that when it comes around again :D

Kim and Sam and really nice Finnish guys, crossed paths a lot on Transiberica. Zeno and Niels, couple of younger Belgian dudes that I hung out with after Transpyrenees.

Kevin Speight I've bumped into on audaxes before.

Doug Migden is racing again. He couldn't talk me into another edition.

@wheels_of_fire throwing his hat into the unsupported ring. Anyone else on here riding?

I didn't watch it hardly at all as I was too pissed off.

I have bad FOMO so I tend to avoid dotwatching mostly, but there's too many people in this one to ignore it.

Just seen this, I thought I was entering a "Beer sampling tour of Geraardsbergen" on July 24th...

I fear there has been a most dreadful misunderstanding.

It will certainly be interesting watching the front of the race for the first couple of days, how that plays out. Big question for me is how will Strasser and WoF and adapt to a different format? I'm sure they will both have prepared meticulously - but you always learn something on your first time. Some people do better than you would expect and some people underperform relative to their ability in other types of cycling so will be fascinating.

I normally ignore trackleaders when I'm racing, just focus on riding my own race, but might have a peek this time.

There are a good number of bars at the start. Ask me how I know...

If Ulrich can keep his massive jockey wheels spinning he should be well up there :)