Author Topic: Transcontinental 2018  (Read 25738 times)

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #75 on: 04 August, 2018, 08:58:15 am »
Interesting, James seems to be heading east of Lake Balaton. I doubt if this is the faster route. Especially in Bosnia this could mean more hills for him, and more former battlezones to cross. That gives an opportunity for Björn to catch up, if he at least stays west of Lake Balaton.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #76 on: 04 August, 2018, 10:45:22 am »

124 posted on instagram that she made it to CP2 in time (with 12 mins to spare) tho her tracker is not showing her as at CP2. Not sure what is going on there. 97 Made it int time too. Was worried.

Now they just have about 500km as the crow flies to CP3...

Ivo, remind me next year to run my route past you for advice, you seem to know the best places to cycle!

J
--
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http://b.42q.eu/

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #77 on: 04 August, 2018, 05:01:38 pm »
Interesting, James seems to be heading east of Lake Balaton. I doubt if this is the faster route. Especially in Bosnia this could mean more hills for him, and more former battlezones to cross. That gives an opportunity for Björn to catch up, if he at least stays west of Lake Balaton.

East is much flatter.
The difference is something like a couple of thousand metres.
Bjorn looks like he is going to go west which would be a serious mistake!

Phil W

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #78 on: 04 August, 2018, 05:14:47 pm »
Parky doing alright, around pos 130

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #79 on: 04 August, 2018, 10:15:05 pm »
He's plugging away, but I thought he'd be a bit nearer the front as usually such a strong rider. Also Paul Alderson.
Maybe they've struggled with the heat?

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #80 on: 04 August, 2018, 11:18:50 pm »
Interesting, James seems to be heading east of Lake Balaton. I doubt if this is the faster route. Especially in Bosnia this could mean more hills for him, and more former battlezones to cross. That gives an opportunity for Björn to catch up, if he at least stays west of Lake Balaton.

East is much flatter.
The difference is something like a couple of thousand metres.
Bjorn looks like he is going to go west which would be a serious mistake!

Only on safety (landmines) I would recomend the western route. When carefully chosen you can cross the hills of Western -Slavonia relatively easily, there are a lot of roads here. Eastern Bosnia has a lot less roads as western Bosnia and as said earlier, there are a lot more nasty area's to cross.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #81 on: 04 August, 2018, 11:42:32 pm »

12 and 157 are almost at the point where James and Bjorn diverged. Will be interesting to see which they both choose.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

CrinklyLion

  • The one with devious, cake-pushing ways....
Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #82 on: 05 August, 2018, 07:24:54 am »
CrinklyUncle (#23) had some bike issues yesterday which took some time.  Seems to have bivvied down for a few hours and got back on the road early this morning.

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #83 on: 05 August, 2018, 08:08:06 am »

12 and 157 are almost at the point where James and Bjorn diverged. Will be interesting to see which they both choose.

J

157 west of Lake Balaton, 12 and 214 east of Lake Balaton.

James will bypass Tuzla. Back in the days it took 2-3 weeks for a roundtrip Zagreb-Tuzla with this truck:


(Photographed at the Zagreb Peace Hostel).

BJörn looks to head for the stretch Daruvar - Pakrac - Banja Luka, that would be my preferred route.

zigzag

  • unfuckwithable
Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #84 on: 05 August, 2018, 09:57:04 am »
having cycled the alpi4000 audax which ended in bormio i was not too far from the cp1 of the tcr, so decided to pop over for few days to see and cheer riders coming through. it was a great experience to see it from the other side, inspect the bikes and setups, talk to riders and hear their stories. most riders were still fairly fresh after ~850k, the main trouble being climbing hills and mountains in the heat (~40'c) on loaded bikes. here are some our members (that i knew), all in good spirits and all still in the race!




Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #85 on: 05 August, 2018, 06:49:54 pm »
Great pictures!
Sorry I wasn't there to meet you

Karla

  • car(e) free
    • Lost Byway - around the world by bike
Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #86 on: 05 August, 2018, 07:32:41 pm »
Parky certainly looks to be in good spirits!

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #87 on: 05 August, 2018, 07:34:20 pm »

James has made it to CP4, he's done the Parcours. All he has to do now is get to the finish, just over 500km away. He's targetting a Tuesday morning finish.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #88 on: 05 August, 2018, 07:45:27 pm »
Ha he said thats his aim?
It looks possible if he rides through tomorrow night.
If he finishes before midday UK time he would have beaten Kristof's 2016 time, which would be a massive achievement.

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #89 on: 05 August, 2018, 07:51:04 pm »

12 and 157 are almost at the point where James and Bjorn diverged. Will be interesting to see which they both choose.

J

157 west of Lake Balaton, 12 and 214 east of Lake Balaton.

James will bypass Tuzla. Back in the days it took 2-3 weeks for a roundtrip Zagreb-Tuzla with this truck:

BJörn looks to head for the stretch Daruvar - Pakrac - Banja Luka, that would be my preferred route.

Agree western Bosnia is pleasant for cycling. But when I did my route it was a lot less hilly to go further east. There is a gap in the his just after Osijek which makes a big difference.
Having said that, I'm surprised so many are going west. It could be that there is a flatter route that way that I didn't find!
In 2016 people said the road from Bania Luka down to Sarajevo was unpleasant for traffic.

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #90 on: 05 August, 2018, 09:44:45 pm »

12 and 157 are almost at the point where James and Bjorn diverged. Will be interesting to see which they both choose.

J

157 west of Lake Balaton, 12 and 214 east of Lake Balaton.

James will bypass Tuzla. Back in the days it took 2-3 weeks for a roundtrip Zagreb-Tuzla with this truck:

BJörn looks to head for the stretch Daruvar - Pakrac - Banja Luka, that would be my preferred route.

Agree western Bosnia is pleasant for cycling. But when I did my route it was a lot less hilly to go further east. There is a gap in the his just after Osijek which makes a big difference.
Having said that, I'm surprised so many are going west. It could be that there is a flatter route that way that I didn't find!
In 2016 people said the road from Bania Luka down to Sarajevo was unpleasant for traffic.

It now looks a fairly even split between the western and eastern approaches. A few riders even go down to the Zagreb outskirts and probably will follow the Sava valley. So after a day or 2 we might have enough data to make a good sample of riders times for the western and eastern approaches to determine what's really the fastest route ;).
The route as taken by Björn hugs the old frontline between Pakrac and Lipik before crossing inter former RSK territory when turning left near Lipik. James on the other hand crossed the #1 and #2 of most destroyed towns in Croatia, Björn hat to settle for the 3rd ranked town (Pakrac).
James crossed near a few former UN protected pockets in Eastern Bosnia. Any of these pockets and former frontlines require a certain degree of care because of left overs fromt he war.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #91 on: 05 August, 2018, 10:12:39 pm »

Roger, Rider 34, the guy trying the TCR on a Brompton Scratched this morning, seems he had mechanical issues with his alfine 11 speed hub. He still managed 1200km.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #92 on: 06 August, 2018, 06:36:51 am »

It now looks a fairly even split between the western and eastern approaches. A few riders even go down to the Zagreb outskirts and probably will follow the Sava valley. So after a day or 2 we might have enough data to make a good sample of riders times for the western and eastern approaches to determine what's really the fastest route ;).
The route as taken by Björn hugs the old frontline between Pakrac and Lipik before crossing inter former RSK territory when turning left near Lipik. James on the other hand crossed the #1 and #2 of most destroyed towns in Croatia, Björn hat to settle for the 3rd ranked town (Pakrac).
James crossed near a few former UN protected pockets in Eastern Bosnia. Any of these pockets and former frontlines require a certain degree of care because of left overs fromt he war.

James' route is very similar to what I had planned to do. 

I routed it on RideWithGPS.  When you first put the start and end points in it defaults to going west of Balaton.  It's only when you start playing around with things that you suddenly realise there is a big saving from going east.  Checking back, it looks like that, when I pulled hte line East of Balaton the climbing went down by 3000 metres, for a very similar distance.  Going east looks like it would be a bit of a detour so my hunch is that some riders might not have bothered to look at it and just optimised the western route, so could have eroded some of that distance.

How would the worst war-scarred areas be to ride through now?  Obviously one might not bivvy off the road.  And I'm sure there would be visible signs of damage (there were in places like Otocac and Vrhovine (W Croatia) in 2016, which is upsetting to see - but a reminder of how things can go wrong.  But is there any reason to avoid those places now, if looking for the fastest racing route - eg mistrust of foreigners, lack of shops, etc...?

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #93 on: 06 August, 2018, 07:06:55 am »
Looks like Bjorn had a disaster with his route.  Was on a mountain road that turned to rubble and he had to backtrack.  He lost all of yesterday evening's riding from 7pm. Now he's heading east towards the route that James took. 


Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #94 on: 06 August, 2018, 08:35:56 am »
CrinklyUncle has scratched (#23)  :'(

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #95 on: 06 August, 2018, 10:12:52 am »
Looks like Bjorn had a disaster with his route.  Was on a mountain road that turned to rubble and he had to backtrack.  He lost all of yesterday evening's riding from 7pm. Now he's heading east towards the route that James took.

I was already a bit surprised that he didn't take the southern bit to Travnik.

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #96 on: 06 August, 2018, 10:20:17 am »

It now looks a fairly even split between the western and eastern approaches. A few riders even go down to the Zagreb outskirts and probably will follow the Sava valley. So after a day or 2 we might have enough data to make a good sample of riders times for the western and eastern approaches to determine what's really the fastest route ;).
The route as taken by Björn hugs the old frontline between Pakrac and Lipik before crossing inter former RSK territory when turning left near Lipik. James on the other hand crossed the #1 and #2 of most destroyed towns in Croatia, Björn hat to settle for the 3rd ranked town (Pakrac).
James crossed near a few former UN protected pockets in Eastern Bosnia. Any of these pockets and former frontlines require a certain degree of care because of left overs fromt he war.

James' route is very similar to what I had planned to do. 

I routed it on RideWithGPS.  When you first put the start and end points in it defaults to going west of Balaton.  It's only when you start playing around with things that you suddenly realise there is a big saving from going east.  Checking back, it looks like that, when I pulled hte line East of Balaton the climbing went down by 3000 metres, for a very similar distance.  Going east looks like it would be a bit of a detour so my hunch is that some riders might not have bothered to look at it and just optimised the western route, so could have eroded some of that distance.

How would the worst war-scarred areas be to ride through now?  Obviously one might not bivvy off the road.  And I'm sure there would be visible signs of damage (there were in places like Otocac and Vrhovine (W Croatia) in 2016, which is upsetting to see - but a reminder of how things can go wrong.  But is there any reason to avoid those places now, if looking for the fastest racing route - eg mistrust of foreigners, lack of shops, etc...?

I visited Pakrac again last month for the former volunteers reunion (NGO project which started in '93).
The safety situation isn't the same everywhere. Already during the wars there were completely ravaged pockets while others were completely untouched. It all depended on which nation dominated a certain village. So the destruction is very irregular. It also depends on who destructed, more or less regular army troops or irregular forces. Irregular forces tended to destruct a lot more with mines and leave a lot more booby-traps behind.
Several area's hardly recovered. These are the ones where whole area's were depopulated. Luckily the Pakrac-Pozega road is unlogical for this year's TCR, that's one of these roads. You'll find more of them in southern Bosnia where the depopulation was even worse.
For the western route one should note that a lot of the population south of Lipik is replaced. So these people don't have intricate knowledge about the minefields laid during the war. In the northern part of the former UNPA West (UNPA= United Nations Protected Area) enough inhabitant stayed for the information to be transfered to nearly all.
The main roads in Bosnia are quite often already reconstructed and demined by locals + UN forces in the late 90-ies, they often tend to be in a surprisingly good condition. In fact, my experience is that Bosnia has less issues with this as Croatia.


CrinklyLion

  • The one with devious, cake-pushing ways....
Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #97 on: 06 August, 2018, 03:14:43 pm »
CrinklyUncle has scratched (#23)  :'(

CrinklyUncle has indeed scratched, in Austria northbound.

I'm incredibly proud of quite how unbelievably far beyond his comfort zone he has pushed himself. It's about 8 years since he came out on his first forum ride - a 30odd mile night ride from the rally in York, led by the EldestCub who at the time would have been about 9, which my sister rode on a hand-me-down shopper bike donated by Tiermat's wife and her (then) FWHTBAB (friend who happens to be a boy) rode on his slick-shod hardtail. A better bike and some mild audaxing followed, then a road bike and more audaxing leading to a heroic ride around the 2013 LEL, finishing with a handful of minutes in hand. Illness during the qualifiers put paid to hopes for PBP 2015, but he came back for LEL 2017 (a married man by then!)  and made it look almost easy - even quite like fun.

TCR is a whole new level of hard. No cosy controls with volunteers to mollycoddle you every few hours, riding through multiple countries (often in one day) and a distance roughly equivalent to one and a half LELs before you even get to the turn in Poland and start riding south towards the end. Not to mention the elevations. Or the heat. Or the surfaces. Or the navigation challenges. Or the language barriers. Or a whole load of things!

I _think_ that, apart from a little tourist bimble round Paris with my l'il sis, his nephews and me, this _might_ have been the first time he ever rode a bike overseas. I reckon that's quite an impressive way to try it out.

#GoCrinklyUncle

Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #98 on: 06 August, 2018, 03:55:11 pm »
This might have been covered elsewhere, but how many of the racers this year have an audax background?

Graeme

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Re: Transcontinental 2018
« Reply #99 on: 06 August, 2018, 04:39:49 pm »
CrinklyUncle has scratched (#23)  :'(

What an amazing effort from CrinklyUncle - well done for making it as far as you did!