Atlas Mountain Race

Liam Yates has scratched after 7 punctures which got me thinking about tyres/bike choice. What do you all think?

Tubeless is made for the desert. I made the mistake of taking a plus bike with tubes to Morocco, after struggling to get the knards/rabbit holes to work tubeless, and had puncture after puncture. The sealant plugs all the tiny holes left by cactus spikes. I read that Liam Yates was also riding with tubes.

race is on. Heart says joint win, head @skinny

There won't be a joint win - uless there is a really sketchy finish. That only happened in Italy because the finish was an icy descent and too risky to race on

See Skinny's comment on Steffen allegedly suggesting a draw to Lael in TABR 2016!

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/273281/?offset=1250#comment13060275

Does anyone know if James has had any sleep during the race?

What do we think of this? Does it count as a commercial service that isn't available to all riders?

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You've just tried to link to a photo on the apidura slack channel, save it and upload it to the forum

haha, thanks for the heads up

Guy from neasden just owned you @Gregory

You take that back. I only just moved here.

Go to shri krishna vada pav ASAP

What did you call me?

The graph makes it look like he had a 2 hour stop at around 14hrs and a 4 hour stop at around 40hrs.

If it's a shop, and they'd do the same for anyone who asked and was prepared to pay for it, then it's a commercial service and would be available to all riders.

Grey area, but I guess any of the other riders could have called that shop too? Should have delivered it to his dot location :)

I interpreted it that the shop are supplying the part (fine), but the final delivery to the CP will be carried out by a private individual (not fine)

From the race manual...

"Finally, I would also like to clarify what to do if you suffer a mechanical that you are unable to fix yourself or any other issue that requires a hasty retreat towards civilisation not under your own power. We will allow you to hitch or pay for a lift out, but also back, as the distances involved are such that riding back to the spot where you had the issue would essentially mean the end of your race. However you get back to where you were, it won’t be easy and it will cost you a lot of time. If you do end up needing to do this, we expect you to document the exact location where you were picked up and make sure that you return precisely to the same spot. The best solution, of course, is to be certain of the gear you bring to
Morocco, carry plenty of spares and ride conservatively to avoid breaking anything in the first place"

I interpreted it that the shop are supplying the part (fine), but the final delivery to the CP will be carried out by a private individual (not fine)

I see what you mean but I'd say it was ok as it might be how transport works out there.

On IndyPac at the pre-race dinner they told us that if you needed spares when you were in the middle of the Nullarbor, you call a bike shop in Adelaide or Perth and they will give it to a truck driver who'll drop it where you are.

That's not an official service, just a driver would do it, probably for a tip. It would be done like that for anyone who called the bike shop.

Neasden bantz is lols

Sofiane with just over 350k left. Too much of a lead to be reeled in now?

Skinny is closing in tho!

Not really.

Don't look at the gap in terms of distance as the average speed may be dictated by the terrain. The time gap has been constant for the whole day, about 6h give or take.

Sofiane has slowed down indeed, but it might just be because of how nasty the climb he is doing now is.

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I feel nauseous just imagining the mental state of these guys,
with so few sleep and mountains to cope with.

I am the only one disappointed with no locals riders racing ?
No women either ?

Pretty sure there are some local riders and yes there are women riding.

By the size of the bags it looks like he has sleeping gear with him, change of tactics mid-race after he assessed coffee was available everywhere or just backup for bad weather?

Riders 223A and B are from Morocco, and 10 women riding

Edit: Nadia Moro was one of the official photographers of SRMR last year.

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Thanks,
I'll sleep much better.