TCR No 10

[quixoticgeek]

Route for next year's tcr is out.

https://www.transcontinental.cc/tcrno10

Roubaix to Istanbul. Via Slovenia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Turkey.

Who's in?

J

[Lightning Phil]

Not me, but as always will be interesting to see the route choices made once underway.

[morbihan]

I'm not signing up this coming year.
I look forward to seeing the parcour. Although the basic route is something of a do over the mandatory parcour can really shake things up.

[Byronius Maximus]

It's great to see it finishing in Istanbul again, and that idea is appealing, but I won't be entering again just yet. Two years in a row of that amount of planning and the fact that it takes a big chunk of my annual leave is just a bit too much.

I've not bothered to whack that into a route planner at all, but from first inspection it looks like it'll be longer than last year but the Alps will be mostly avoidable. Balkans will still feature heavily though and I have no idea how hard the terrain from CP3 to CP4 will be. It'll make for interesting dotwatching I'm sure!

[Phil Hears A Who]

Not me. My feeling of "that was incredible but I don't think I ever want to do that again" doesn't seemed to have faded. Route looks cool
 though - much less Alpy than last year, and very cool to finish in Istanbul. I've only ever heard bad things about the roads on the approach to Istanbul though, so wouldn't be surprised to see an around-the-houses route into the city, like with the approach to Thessaloniki this year. Will also be keenly dotwatching!

[Lightning Phil]

Website down.

[Frank9755]

Still down two days later! 
Maybe they are re-jigging it to get it ready for the applications opening tomorrow?  But a bit strange, you'd have thought they would want to have something up at this point.

[Frank9755]

Site is up and applications are now open - until the end of the month so there's no rush!

[Frank9755]

Places have been announced. Anyone on here riding?
I see Mikko and Doug are both going again!

[morbihan]

Lionel is having another bash.

[markldn]

I'm in

[zigzag]

for londoners (and anyone willing to travel) there is a social tcr ride next saturday - check their insta feed. i might be there.

[Byronius Maximus]

I'm in

Congrats (or commiserations)! Will this be your first time? I can't say I won't have FOMO when the dot watching starts, but I'm glad I don't have to do all that route planning again, this year at least.

[morbihan]

I'm in

Congrats (or commiserations)! Will this be your first time? I can't say I won't have FOMO when the dot watching starts, but I'm glad I don't have to do all that route planning again, this year at least.

Yes all those hours of mapping. Entralling, but stressful and a time sink too. With a couple of fixed route events this year there is still a bit of planning to do but it somehow seems like a skive!

[Frank9755]

Last year I entered a fixed-route event. I ended up DNSing.  Main reason was that I had knee issues which meant I wasn't sure I would get round, but it was a bit marginal and I think I probably would have been OK. 

I did find that it was much easier for me to DNS than it would be for the TCR as I had much less ownership of the task and less commitment to the event, because I hadn't spent all that time poring over the route and thinking about it. So it is a time sink, but it really does get you in the right place mentally to do the event.

You can (and should) spend a lot of time looking over the routes for a fixed route ride.  I did before I did IndyPac.  But often you can't as you don't get the final route until shortly before the event.

[markldn]

I'm in

Congrats (or commiserations)! Will this be your first time? I can't say I won't have FOMO when the dot watching starts, but I'm glad I don't have to do all that route planning again, this year at least.

We know each other Byron   It's Mark @kowalifornication. #TCRno9cap244.

[Byronius Maximus]

We know each other Byron   It's Mark @kowalifornication. #TCRno9cap244.

Ahhh, hi Mark! Great to hear you got a place again! I will be following your dot keenly in July. Good luck with all the prep and trying to solve the puzzle of the route.
I must admit I'm a little jealous but at the same time I am definitely not. I think the destination of Istanbul is a big draw this year.