Transcontinental 2016

[mattc]

Look who has moved into second place, closing on the leader

only 50kms away... Björn Lenhard (026) must have had his Weetabix. While most of us today have struggled through our 9-5 jobs, Bjorn has put in an exemplary performance, passing Alexandre Bourgeonnier (002), Carlos Mazon (060), Ultan Coyle (004), Neil Phillips (172) and Nelson Trees (080). No wonder Kristof is still pedalling hard

I note that the routes taken have just split into 3 (after Tamins). Kristof took his own path, and Bjorn (026) took a different route to everyone else. Maybe he's gained miles while dodging metres (climbing!) ?

And where is rider 77 off to??

[marcusjb]

I know that ascent figures need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but if this is anywhere close to true, then, well, fuck, that is an astonishing figure:

Day 3
22:00 - 21:55 Aug 1st
Track / Route: 294.5 / 359.3 km
Climbing: 15164.0 m
Moving: 24.0 hours, 15.0 km/h

(Allegaert's numbers taken from www.frrt.org)

I've climbed like 6500-7000m in a day in the big mountains. OK, not a full day's work like Kristof, but if I were racing, I could still not imagine that getting much beyond 10000m in a day and that would truly hurt.  That is mind-blowing.

[morbihan]

Me and the missus cycled around Bolzano last year. There is a great system of bike paths along all the valley floors in that neck of the woods. I guess the riders will use them too. (though they may be pretty clogged with families of cyclists this time of year) Apples (orchards) and cider all along the bike paths for hungry/thirsty riders.

I loved the riding around that area so much that we are booked to do the Munich to Venice cycle path route next month. After seeing the TRC route for this year we are going to take a couple of days at Cortina so I can do a climb of the Passo di  Giao. It will be from the other way up, but cool to see the road in real time that the riders are taking now.

[morbihan]

Look who has moved into second place, closing on the leader

only 50kms away... Björn Lenhard (026) must have had his Weetabix. While most of us today have struggled through our 9-5 jobs, Bjorn has put in an exemplary performance, passing Alexandre Bourgeonnier (002), Carlos Mazon (060), Ultan Coyle (004), Neil Phillips (172) and Nelson Trees (080). No wonder Kristof is still pedalling hard

2 kph faster and 15 hours more sleep. I can't see Kristof holding him off for long.

[chrisbainbridge]

Morbihan
Thread hijack. Will you do a write up. My wife and I were thinking of romantic road,Wurzburg- Fussen then join the Munich to Venice and do about 1000km in a month.

[morbihan]

Morbihan
Thread hijack. Will you do a write up. My wife and I were thinking of romantic road,Wurzburg- Fussen then join the Munich to Venice and do about 1000km in a month.

Happy to.
we've been asked by the Firefly adventure team to be one of the months posts. (Oct I think) so we will be taking pics and doing a write up en route.
It will probably be on this link below but will post here too.
http://www.fireflyadventureteam.com

[Oranj]

Looks like Hippy is heading for the southern, flatter, but much longer route (in fact he tweeted as much "Soft southern route for me. Ciao Grazi.Prego #TCRNo4").

I found there's a fair bit of informed discussion on the relative merits and demerits of taking this route on the LFGSS forum: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/228045/?offset=2900

[Karla]

I'm watching his progress with interest as I'll be covering the same ground in the other direction (and at half the pace) in a couple of weeks.  Currently I've opted for the northern route; that might change depending on how tired I feel. 

[TimO]

... And where is rider 77 off to??

He seems to be following broadly the same routes as everyone else, currently, but where is 142 going?  He looks like he's following the same route as Control Car 1 used to get to CP3 (which is displayed in orange).

[marcusjb]

... And where is rider 77 off to??

He seems to be following broadly the same routes as everyone else, currently, but where is 142 going?  He looks like he's following the same route as Control Car 1 used to get to CP3 (which is displayed in orange).

142 is a fat bastard that doesn't like hills, but he is flipping quick on the flatter stuff.  So this might be a genius move (though he has tweeted that he ended up on/near a motorway, so maybe not!).

As per Oranj's post above, there's a lot of good discussion on Hippy's penis and arse progress on LFGSS

[morbihan]

Surprised by the South routers choice.
 From what I remember the valley floors around South Tyrol were pretty gentle. (Bolzano and Merano)
Thats a big old diversion to take.
Maybe it kicks up either side of that neck of the woods.

[Soaplady]

Thanks for the insights and explanation after my question t'other day. I shall continue to dot-watch with fascination.

[morbihan]

Kristof is just about to roll into Lienz.
We stayed there last year on a Backroads cycling trip. They put you up in the Grand Hotel right on the river. Its all cocktails, massages and fancy buffet breakfasts.
Whats the bets on Kristof holing up there for a scrub up?
They probably have a complimentary parking valley for your bike.

[PeeJay]

Darren's Arse is talking to Darren - brilliant

https://twitter.com/DarrensArse/status/760387146075217920

Other body parts are also joining the conversation https://twitter.com/DarrensBalls/status/760513232884887552

[morbihan]

Forget the Lienz stop, Kristof has blown right by and is still trucking. He's like a 24/7 Stannard/Tony Martin composite.

[fussballclub]

Riding over the Strelapass at night on a road bike must be the most audacious route yet.

http://trackleaders.com/transconrace16i.php?name=Stephane_Ouaja

[morbihan]

Riding over the Strelapass at night on a road bike must be the most audacious route yet.

http://trackleaders.com/transconrace16i.php?name=Stephane_Ouaja

was just looking at that. Intriguing.

[Oranj]

Photog is Camille McMillan

Thanks, I tracked down her Instagram feed https://www.instagram.com/camillejmcmillan/

[martind]

Photog is Camille McMillan

Thanks, I tracked down her Instagram feed https://www.instagram.com/camillejmcmillan/

She is a bloke!

[D.A.L.E.]

Photog is Camille McMillan

Thanks, I tracked down her Instagram feed https://www.instagram.com/camillejmcmillan/

She is a bloke!

Camille John McMillan.

[Oranj]

She is a bloke!

My bad.

Who knew?

[Phil W]

For Kristof fans, here are some facts about him:

 Kristof eats bullets and nails as snacks
 He wears sunglasses so that his eyes won't hurt the sun
 Kristof's jersey is actually made from a cloth they found in the meteorite he hatched out of
 His day job is to power Belgium's national grid on his turbo
 And so on

(copied from yesterdays blog)

[D.A.L.E.]

She is a bloke!

My bad.

Who knew?

If you watch the documentary from last years race, he's the guy with the moustache.

EDIT- He's the first person in the film -

[mattc]

... And where is rider 77 off to??

He seems to be following broadly the same routes as everyone else, currently, but where is 142 going?  He looks like he's following the same route as Control Car 1 used to get to CP3 (which is displayed in orange).

142 is a fat bastard that doesn't like hills, but he is flipping quick on the flatter stuff.  So this might be a genius move (though he has tweeted that he ended up on/near a motorway, so maybe not!).

As per Oranj's post above, there's a lot of good discussion on Hippy's penis and arse progress on LFGSS

Hippy's moving average is now a click faster than the leader!


_{(#77 was briefly tracked on a cable car route, but did indeed return to normality. I shall stop being distracted by random GPS errors <writes 500 lines> ...   )}

[marcusjb]

_{(#77 was briefly tracked on a cable car route, but did indeed return to normality. I shall stop being distracted by random GPS errors <writes 500 lines> ...   )}

As I understand it, the website 'guesses' what roads they are likely to have taken - a tracker only checks in every 5? 10? minutes depending on how they're set (my SPOT is set to 10 minutes), so the website makes a guess at how those check-ins are connected.

Ivan of ACH did all the clever work on this site, so he'd be the one to explain it better (and probably tell me off for using the word guess, rather than "complex algorithm").