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There's another brave soul (46 - Jurgen Knupe) headed south in hippys wake...

I was just coming here to ask the same question. It looks like @hippy is headed south. Which is either a stroke of genius or suicide for hopes of a top 10 finish...
I LOVE the Transcontinental :D

and to get everyone in the mood, thanks to @frank9755 twitter account, the full film of last years race is now available on vimeo

Transcontinental: Race to Istanbul
from Zanda Films on Vimeo.

I believe @frank9755 owns that blog...

I guess everyone's experience is different but I loved Kosovo including the food. I found the traffic generally okay (as skinny say, by Balkan standards) and the E65 headed south to Skopje (I joined from the R116) when I travelled it was glorious. Smooth, downhill with nice bridges and tunnels to the border. I will admit that it was less plesant after the border but I think I remember something resembling a hard shorlder from the border to Skopje.

Yeah that's the one. It improves again as you reach the lake...
It's rideable but was really quite unpleasant on my 1.5" tyres so can only imagine what 25/28mm would have been like.

Good call I think. And the motorway will be way faster and more direct

It was one of the busier cities I crossed through in the Balkans, but still nothing compared to London IMHO.
The route south from Kacanik to Skopje was good, downhill with mostly good quality road.
I used the R1102 which runs parallel to the E75. It's okay but the road quality goes to shit at times (especially between Katlanovo and Otovitsa where it turns to gravel).
The Macadonian drivers where the worst I came across all the way from Ireland to Istanbul. I'm not sure I'd be risking my life on the E75 but it did look like a superior road assuming there's a hard shoulder to hide in and you're within the rules to ride there.

I crossed into Bulgaria rather than Greece and left your route at Negotino so can't comment further but other than the bit mentioned above the road was reasonable.

HTH

While I liked the contrasting textures of branwen's photograph, I thought yours had more depth. I especially liked the shadows cast by the spindly bits. It held my attention much longer...

Skopje

I was there last October. My memory is a bit hazy but happy to share what I can remember...

I for one can't wait to start tracking dots again this year! The excitment of @skinny Vs Josh last year and the endearment of David Coulon (the lanterne rouge). Great stuff!

I keep hoping as @cliveo has seemingly vanished that he's mounting his own campaign this year :)

That is an excellent point! The threads won't be needed anyway I guess so it should be fine. I just need to mask off the threads that need to be spared. Thanks :)

Is it a really bad idea to file out front fork ends to take a track hub? I assume there's no going back to quick release hubs afterwards? Thanks!

Speaking of Terry, I assume it's a SPOT tracker thing but there's something very funny going on with his trackers between 00:00am MDT Jun 16 '16 and 05:00am MDT Jun 16 '16 when he passes the rider Jeff Lodge. aka showing he by-passed Atlantic City :S

I live over here now so PM me if you have specific questions but I'd recommend seeing as much of the West coast as possible. There's the Wild Atlantic Way, the Greenway and the royal cancal West of Dublin.

Personally I loved Kosovo; cheap, lovely people, zero hassle. Oh and like skinny said, I had a nice tail wind the whole way through.

It does have a developing world feel, in that things are still rough around the edges, but the main roads where good quality and I didn't see any hassle at either border crossing. Entering they welcomed me to their country and wished me a pleasant stay and leaving they were just curious about my journey (from Ireland). HTH and good luck to all! :)

Not sure if this is still helpful or not as you seem to want to go futher south than Kosovo but I crossed into Macadonia from Kosovo last October without any issue on an EU passport. Crossed at Pustenik...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UnTFJI3pmmQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

@madman cycled fix from London to Bilbao last year and made a really beautiful video of the trip. He might have something to say/recommend

From the Fixed touring thread: http://www.lfgss.com/comments/12650282/

Actually got off my ass and checked... Technically illegal (nothing new there) but there are certain legal spots where you can camp for free...
More info here: https://sites.google.com/site/paalkampeerders/English

Any locals know what the deal with wild camping is in Holland? Headed over from Ireland in late May for 10 days bike touring and hoping to wild camp for at least a third of it.
Usual common sense rules apply? aka hide as best as possible and it'll be fine :p

Same experience here last year, spent three days traversing south through South West Germany and never had any hassle. Even camped stupidly under a wind turbine one night on a 20 degree slope in a more inhabitated and visible area than I would have liked...

Accused of being double the drink-driving limit

^ ... and alcoholism

Am I the only one seeing the ghostly person dressed in black with only one foot and the back of her head missing in front of 7Ups bike outside the church? :S

He's finished lunch and is on the move again, 138km to go. At 15kph he'll make it today with about 90 minutes to spare (excluding stopping/eating time). Come on Leo!!