Transcontinental 2019

[Paul H]

Gonna try about 160-170 tomorrow, slowly plodding along. Rough plan is Zagred, Ljubljana, Villach, over the next 3 or so days.

Well done.  I've had a couple of big to me rides not go as intended and in both cases found myself on a plane/train before giving myself chance to come up with a plan B. 
Commiserations that it isn't what you'd planned for, though it still looks like an ambitious adventure to me.

[StuAff]

In these kinds of conditions I'd be tempted to try to sleep in the midday and ride at night. But easier said than done when you don't know when the shops are open etc I guess.

I actually tried that. Which was why my time paused was so high. I found some trees, and slept for about 2 hours in the hottest part of the day. But by then it was already 8 hours since I last ate, and my body wasn't Liking it. By the time the big climb hit, even my 28:40 lowest gear wasn't low enough. I walked. Running on fumes.

Am slowly riding home through Serbia. Sat at a bus stop eating chocolate, when Hippy turns up! His tracker has failed, so he's kinda in stealth mode.
It's hot!

Sorry to hear you had to scratch - sounds like it was the right decision. Are you enjoying your gentle(!) ride home?

I'm enjoying the ride, but it has confirmed that I made the right decision. On a 35° day, in much lower humidity, I made slow progress today, and after 120km, I started to feel a bit off, so booked a hotel for 30km down the road. I've lost count of how much I've drunk, i did manage some food. But progress is really slow. I'm still feeling the effects.

Gonna try about 160-170 tomorrow, slowly plodding along. Rough plan is Zagred, Ljubljana, Villach, over the next 3 or so days.

I have a gpx, all programmed into my wahoo, but until Komoot work out what they have done to the android app, I can't actually see where I am along the route relative to a point other than the end... My wahoo says it's <700km to the start of the CP3 parcours, but I'm bailing before they... And I've no idea the exact distance...

Ah well, tis an adventure...

It's bound to take a while to recover. Slow progress is still progress. The Transcontinental Pootle sounds more like my kind of thing. The TCR wouldn't be impossible for me, but I know I wouldn't enjoy it. I hate off-roading and I think the time pressure would get to me.

[StuAff]

In other news, Frank and Ingrid both seem to be doing well. Ingrid posted on Instagram a few hours back that “CP2 gravel was fucking aweful, slept in hotel, about to leave. Need food and OMG tea!!! Im just dreaming about tea, don’t think will find any 😢 Gravel rd wasn’t even road, not passable even by car except jeep, lots of walking, hard to push bike on. Hurt everywhere and look like piece of shit. Flat day ahead on paved roads but arse so sore ha ha”. But she's tough, and she's carried on. About 900km to CP3 for her, Frank at 777 km to go. I've seen a few pictures on the TCR FB feed of people pushing bikes, so not surprised about that.

[Karla]

QG, if you fancy taking a day off, Ljubljana is a very pretty city and would be an excellent place for some downtime.

[StuAff]

Jonathan Rankin, no 15, who was leading, has scratched this morning. Foot problems. He'd got to Steinfeld, Austria- 1900km in four days.

[quixoticgeek]

Am on a train to Zagreb. Woke up feeling shit. Didn't sleep great. Shame, I was looking forward to riding my bike.

Just seen the News about Jonathan scratching. Hope his feet recover, foot injuries can be a bitch.

Hail, rain, and storms forecast for the area Fiona is in today and tomorrow.

J

[Nuncio]

I'm very much enjoying all of this from the comfort of my own (work) chair. The tracking is good but only tells half a story, if that. I try to fill in the gaps with Twitter, this thread, and the official site, but they only scratch the surface of the 200+ individual stories of mishap, struggle and fortitude behind the tracks and stats.

[quixoticgeek]

Can anyone help solve a couple of questions.

How many riders, how many solo men, how many solo women, how many paired men, and how many paired women, left Burgas on Saturday?

The start list on https://www.transcontinental.cc/tcrno7-riders suggests:

244 solo riders, 17 pairs (34 riders).

9 women in pairs, 31 solo.

Trackleaders has full list of starters (i.e. they picked up a cap and tracker in Burgas).

Matching the lists to see who didn't start, is a non trivial exercise, and not one I seem able to do on my phone in Croatia.

Would anyone be able to provide a definite list of who on the rider list, picked up a tracker in Burgas?

As a bonus, could someone make a definitive list of which caps number are worn by women?

J

[bludger]

Fiona's just coming up to the CP3 parcours. QG did the organisers provide GPX files for the parcours? I'd be interested to see what they look like in Veloviewer particularly this one, looks like it might be tasty.

[slugbait]

Fiona's just coming up to the CP3 parcours. QG did the organisers provide GPX files for the parcours? I'd be interested to see what they look like in Veloviewer particularly this one, looks like it might be tasty.

Drawing the route in the Strava shows 6000 meters of climbing in 160km. A lot of ups and downs, finishing with the Timmelsjoch (2500 meters above sea level) from Meran (350 meters above sea level). It would make a nice sportive.

I'm actually in that area next week, hope to catch some of the TCR-riders as they pass through.

[bludger]

Gosh sounds like a great ride.

Fiona's just reached the foot of the parcours. Wonder if she's going to take a substantive break here or press on to make sure she retains the leader hat for CP3. Ben Davies is not far behind her! Currently loitering beside a Spar https://bit.ly/2ZmGp0z so my guess is she's getting some supplies and is going to make the most of the rest of the day.

[Phil W]

She's in Corvara at the moment, a nice place in a nice place in the world.  She'll be getting a feed before heading up the pass Gardena that is part of the Sella Ronda.   

[slugbait]

It is my favorite part of the Alps; the availability of Italian coffee and Austrian pastry makes for great cafe stops ;-)

The parcours around Bourg d'Oisans is just as bad with well over 4000 meters of climbing in 120km. Anyway, probably fun to ride but not after being continuously in the saddle for a couple of days.

I hope Fiona pushes on, still plenty of daylight to work with. Getting over the Timmelsjoch will probably not happen today as that road closes at 8pm. But she should aim to get there tomorrow morning as the road opens.

[Phil W]

Wash your mouth out, it's the Dolomites, not the Alps!

[slugbait]

Wash your mouth out, it's the Dolomites, not the Alps!

The parcours starts in the Dolomites and ends in the Alps? Isn't Bolzano or Merano on the boundary?

[Phil W]

Wash your mouth out, it's the Dolomites, not the Alps!

The parcours starts in the Dolomites and ends in the Alps? Isn't Bolzano or Merano on the boundary?

Tirolian Alps at the end yes, but she's currently in the Dolomites.

[bludger]

She's off! Glory to Sparta, Fiona!

[quixoticgeek]

Fiona's just coming up to the CP3 parcours. QG did the organisers provide GPX files for the parcours? I'd be interested to see what they look like in Veloviewer particularly this one, looks like it might be tasty.

They provided it as a komoot route. Dunno if that is available for non Komoot account holders.



Then for added fun, this comes after the parcours...



Brutal does not come close to describing it.

J

[bludger]

Good grief.

[slugbait]

They provided it as a komoot route. Dunno if that is available for non Komoot account holders.



Then for added fun, this comes after the parcours...



Brutal does not come close to describing it.

J

Small question: I guess that the riders will go through the Oetz valley, follow the Inn valley before going over the Arlberg pass (where control #3 is). But after that what is the best route to get to Valloire? It seems that a viable option is to go back, over the Reschen pass, use the flat roads in the Po valley and go to France via Mont Cenis. What was your plan?

[quixoticgeek]

Small question: I guess that the riders will go through the Oetz valley, follow the Inn valley before going over the Arlberg pass (where control #3 is). But after that what is the best route to get to Valloire? It seems that a viable option is to go back, over the Reschen pass, use the flat roads in the Po valley and go to France via Mont Cenis. What was your plan?

My plan was to head back, short cut across Switzerland, then across Italy, and then over a huge pass into France. I felt it had the best balance of flat Vs distance. A few others thought that going through Switzerland achieved the same goal. But you kinda have to go out towards the Rhine, and follow that round to achieve the same level of not climbing.

One of the other considerations people had is that Italy is cheaper, has pizza, but has worse traffic.

It'll be interesting to see what routes people come up with.

J

[Ivo]

You could also follow the Merselo-Verona route back.

[StuAff]

The Kolbinger continues to make seemingly relentless progress. Fiona is coming up to CP3 any minute now, and 55km over Ben Davies in second.

[andyoxon]

Amazing.  I guess these frontrunners will have a good idea how little sleep they can get away with over the course of the whole event/ when reaching latter stages... 

[TigaSefi]

Bit late to this. This is shaping up to be a good dot watching race! CP4 looks like an absolute brute. I have done all the climbs they have to do.. .just over several days/years rather than all at once!