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Just wanted to summarise on some tech points discussed so far and share my experience on them.

OSMAND is a fantastic app. So far in my experience nothing has come close to level of detail and flexibility for emergency measuring/routing when out and about in the wild. Pay the few euros to download the maps, and to get the elevation shading and contour lines. Avoid the monthly subscription they try to push unless that is really your thing to get updates every day. Make sure you have enough memory on the phone, or consider saving the map data on a micro SD card at install. Get familiar with the Measure Distance and Snap to Road feature. Use the save as GPX file feature and then go to My Places to recall and study them. OSMAND shows detailed elevation both when routing and saving GPX tracks via the measure distance feature. A life saver when making decisions on the fly.

The GP5000 measures from the total external width unlike the previous 4000 that measured from the internal tube width. It means a GP5000 at 32mm is the same as a GP4000 at 28mm. In my use case, the 5000 measures 32 on a 20mm internal rim, the 4000 measured 31.

The shimano road road going rear mech in the long cage GS variants that are spec'd for a max of 34 teeth, are happy enough up to 40. The Wolftooth roadlink is not necessary with a GS nor is it the ideal solution. The roadlink moves the mech pulley away from the cassette compromising shifting and wear. If an 11-42 rear cassette is desired, then an XT RD-M8000-SGS and a Wolftooth Tanpan is necessary. You can put the Tanpan in line near the bars instead of at the rear.

The Absolute Black sub compact 30/46 and 32/46 front rings mount 2.5mm inboard towards the frame. It means your chainline changes by -2.5. So a non disc brake based road crank (practically all of them) with a chainline of 43.5 will be 41mm. If you have a really short chainstay this can be problematic. The chain angle can make the drivetrain unhappy. Chainstays of 435 seem ok with it, 450 has no issue with it. On my 410 and 412 bikes it didn't like it at all.

The ovality of the AB rings is actually great. The shifting has been flawless and along with the Rotor Q rings, the same or better than my Shimano experience. However, on one ride, the chain got lodged between the mech hangar and the AB large ring and bent the mech outboard. Took me 30 minutes to get the issue resolved and riding again. But I lost one of the two plastic pieces that are clipped inside the new shimano front mechs. This meant readjusting the shift cable tension and mech limits. I have about 6000 km on oval rings of Rotor and AB, and this was my first issue. I never figured out exactly why it happened. As far as I remember, the adjustment was as per the AB instruction video. Moral of the story is that it is really important to adjust the distance from the large ring to mech hangar exactly how AB recommend, which is different than the usual 1 ish mm between chainring teeth and hangar.

The AB use proprietary bolts for their rings. Maybe bring an extra set to be safe?

Wish a technically trouble free ride to all you you!

check out this pic from Mikko's twitter feed. https://twitter.com/mkpaa

His caption is "Pushing my bike in a stream and suddenly either dotwatchers or children of corn. Who knows"

install google earth,
download the file:
https://app.maprogress.com/event/download/kmz/pedaledsilkroadmountainraceno1
open it in google earth & check out the menu on the left and click around.

Cant stop thinking how awesome this would be for TCR.

I've followed the instructions on how to setup dotwaching in Google Earth. Pretty cool!!!

Hoogtemeters are moar fun wif Hoegaardens :)

Any word on what happened to the guy who appeared to take the train through Czech etc? Did he really take the train? Or was it a strange, very strange, tracking anomoly?

Oh in het Nederlands. Moi. Ik hoop dat ik kan het nog begrijpen.

Hey @WornCleat,
Remember last year we tried to figure out a mystery of who was the rider with the same name as the 80+ year old cycling god? Davies was the name? That was an interesting investigation.

I kept on top of your blog riding 200km a day. Wanted to say Kudos to that effort!

@skinny I take it the tape hack worked for the hole(s) in your tire?

Ever try these? Park Tool Emergency Tire Boot
https://www.parktool.com/product/emergency-tire-boot-tb-2

I have them but since carrying them have never had to use them.
Look impressive tho and pack well.

Indeed! and a bit of Psybreaks to balance thing out a bit:
https://youtu.be/yiBBbzcXFPI

Cool blast from the past here hippy!
This track has the same riff as Lost Tribe - Gamemaster.

The Solar Quest and Photographer tracks brought back quite some memories.

Something that I think is quite apt for the TCR is Scorb. I think you'll geddit.
https://youtu.be/kiig4c_MFcY

Cheers

But what if Tom is in the panniers?
Hope they are Ortlieb!

Go Tom, go go go!

Maybe Matt was being chased by kidnappers. Scenes of Hostel going through the mind could make for some speedy riding!

So the Hostel movies are real!
:)

Erhmergehrd this, nearly dieded from this comment. Just gold.

Look the reroute from Bjorn, damn, what a way to challenge yourself.

Don't scratch until you know full well that you can't recover. Find a pharmacy and get some soar muscle creams, try some hot and cold rubs, rub that stuff in, get an ice pack, stay still and chill out. Give yourself 24 hours if you have to. Book two nights in a hotel and nurse that shit. Then get on the bike and decide. Needing 24 hours to recover enough to ride again and then soldiering on might go down much better with the feels after its all done and dusted.

What these folks did sounds like touring. And I don't see the word touring in the title of this event.

pics of Bjorn fixing his tire just posted @
https://www.facebook.com/transconrace/

Cool, thanks for the update. Nice to hear about it from a different perspective.

Before the TCR6 I had no idea about that corner of the Alps. Hopefully it is not so busy there in the summer like it is in the rest of the Alps.

170 vs 127 route from cp1 to current location.
170 added the Stevlio pass.

I did some preliminary comparisons from CP1 to CP2 of those who did the Grossglockner route and those who didn't. Quite a big spike that Grossglockner.

Luft, how is volunteering at CP2 going?
Have you had a chance to ride the parcours?
Any pictures to share of those tunnels and views?
Any stories to share?

Indeed. Based on the look of his Kona, it appears well toured.
While you are in the area, why not hit up some of the local attractions? like the Grossglockner for example.
If someone wasn't dead set on completing the race, I could see how the bucket list moves up in priority.

Where is 63 going? hope not Lake Garda

Jurgen cap46 who started 4 hours late is in 14th place. (as per Free Route)
After such a rollercoaster start, that is remarkable.

Sometimes it take a bit of adversity to get those legs to pedal.