Author Topic: Transcontinental Race 2014 (Read 12827 times)

marcusjb · « **Reply #75 on:** 17 August, 2014, 08:58:26 am »

Chapeau!

Slightly embarrassing that he will have finished without official cameras etc. to catch the moment, but he was so far ahead that I guess the logistics of it were all too much for the orgs.

I am going to have to give this ride a go.

zigzag · « **Reply #76 on:** 17 August, 2014, 09:28:04 am »

congratulations to Kristof! i think i've seen him posting as "xxx" on this forum.

some brilliant photos from the event camera crew: http://www.wjst.de/images/index.php?pic=central/2014Transcontinental

mattc · « **Reply #77 on:** 17 August, 2014, 02:50:46 pm »

Quote from: marcusjb on 17 August, 2014, 08:58:26 am

Chapeau!

Slightly embarrassing that he will have finished without official cameras etc. to catch the moment, but he was so far ahead that I guess the logistics of it were all too much for the orgs.

I rather like it - probably pure accident, but it shows the event isn't just a race focused on the winner.

I doubt he's the kind of guy to have a strop about it

SJR · « **Reply #78 on:** 17 August, 2014, 06:01:52 pm »

Top job by that man Allegaert, truly a machine. Just checked the trackers and there was precisely 250m between Dunnett and Ibbott in terms of distance to finish. Damn that's close, especially as their routes are so far apart.

Jack_P · « **Reply #79 on:** 17 August, 2014, 06:55:05 pm »

Quote from: SJR on 17 August, 2014, 06:01:52 pm

Top job by that man Allegaert, truly a machine. Just checked the trackers and there was precisely 250m between Dunnett and Ibbott in terms of distance to finish. Damn that's close, especially as their routes are so far apart.

I'm guessing that's going to be a sleepless night for both of them tonight, could come down to who negociates the istanbul traffic the best.

Sad to hear one rider Evangelos Voulgarakis No 97 has been hospitalized in Vereno by a car, but heart warming to see the racers and communities response to help, two racers are with him, amazing people.

SJR · « **Reply #80 on:** 17 August, 2014, 09:33:30 pm »

That's a shame. Second casualty. Such long hours and high mileages in our densely populated continent make it inevitable though I guess. Glad he's got company.

Pip · « **Reply #81 on:** 18 August, 2014, 08:57:49 am »

Quote from: Jack Numplumz on 16 August, 2014, 07:42:00 pm

Quote from: pcolbeck on 16 August, 2014, 08:32:30 am
Whats going on with Paris Michel ? Looks like a flight direct from Paris to Athens but not showing as scratched.
emotional support, route planning and the plain confidence of being secure, its in effect exactly the same result as if you had a support vehicle but never used it. it changes your the way you approach the ride knowing you have back up.
if Gaby had ridden solo her route and pace would be vastly different.
Pippa has really struggled with the weather and being on her own

I humbly suggest that it is Gaby who provides support to her male partner, Ben. She is at least as strong a cyclist as Ben and has trained for this for months.

SJR · « **Reply #82 on:** 18 August, 2014, 12:30:06 pm »

Agreed....her progress alone seems almost to have been quicker.

ijsbrand · « **Reply #83 on:** 18 August, 2014, 06:41:02 pm »

Allegaert's feat has reached the Belgian press. He was going to be interviewed on music station Studio Brussels [StuBru] this afternoon, so I tuned in -- only to hear a toe curlingly bad prepared interviewer, who clearly had not a clue whom he was interviewing, and why.

Kristof Allegaert still suffers from swollen feet, and the pain in his hands. But he had had no saddle pain.

Still like to know how many flat tyres he had, considering that everyone complaints about those. Last year when Allegaert won by as big a margin he had no flat tyre at all.

zigzag · « **Reply #84 on:** 18 August, 2014, 08:15:06 pm »

no punctures for Kristof, there's a brief interview on the tcr fb site:

https://www.facebook.com/transconrace

mattc · « **Reply #85 on:** 21 August, 2014, 05:55:45 pm »

Quote from: Pip on 18 August, 2014, 08:57:49 am

Quote from: Jack Numplumz on 16 August, 2014, 07:42:00 pm
Quote from: pcolbeck on 16 August, 2014, 08:32:30 am
Whats going on with Paris Michel ? Looks like a flight direct from Paris to Athens but not showing as scratched.
emotional support, route planning and the plain confidence of being secure, its in effect exactly the same result as if you had a support vehicle but never used it. it changes your the way you approach the ride knowing you have back up.
if Gaby had ridden solo her route and pace would be vastly different.
Pippa has really struggled with the weather and being on her own

I humbly suggest that it is Gaby who provides support to her male partner, Ben. She is at least as strong a cyclist as Ben and has trained for this for months.

Looks like Pippa Handley has chosen to win the thing, so as to head off any controversy :-P

marcusjb · « **Reply #86 on:** 21 August, 2014, 07:35:40 pm »

Ian_oli's tracker seems to be a bit on the blink - he's taken a more northerly route than many, through Serbia rather than Albania.

Amazing stories coming from all the riders.

David Martin · « **Reply #87 on:** 21 August, 2014, 08:27:17 pm »

Made it to our local rag - rather impressed.

Pip · « **Reply #88 on:** 22 August, 2014, 07:29:09 am »

Another Yacf'er, Shell or Mike Sheldrake, only has 167kms to go as of this morning.

mattc · « **Reply #89 on:** 23 August, 2014, 01:09:56 pm »

Quote from: marcusjb on 21 August, 2014, 07:35:40 pm

Ian_oli's tracker seems to be a bit on the blink - he's taken a more northerly route than many, through Serbia rather than Albania.

I think he's deliberately stayed incognito. He seemed to pick the ropiest tracker from the start, and claimed that Orange screwed up his roaming coverage. No updates in InterWeb land since yesterday, but now this:

The Transcontinental ‏@transconrace 3h There's 46 names currently on the finish sheet, Ian Oliver will be next in. Nick Dodd is also on target to finish for the party #tcr2014 9:54 AM - 23 Aug 2014

I think Nick Dodd is from Reading. Good ole Brits bringing up the rear. I know nothing about Nick, but his facebook feedumajig has been pretty funny during the race.

Ivo · « **Reply #90 on:** 23 August, 2014, 01:15:52 pm »

About half the field in on the 13th day of the ride. That makes it all the more manageable for mere mortals to give it a go another time. If there are enough people riding on a 14-21 days schedule that'd give enough company for doing it at brisk touring pace.

mattc · « **Reply #91 on:** 23 August, 2014, 01:36:29 pm »

Quote from: Ivo on 23 August, 2014, 01:15:52 pm

About half the field in on the 13th day of the ride. That makes it all the more manageable for mere mortals to give it a go another time. If there are enough people riding on a 14-21 days schedule that'd give enough company for doing it at brisk touring pace.

Completely agree. Definitely feasible inside the 14.5 days for anyone who has finished a 600km audax (or preferably a 1000+). I hope Ian won't mind me saying this, but he demonstrates this rather well!

I reckon I've got the legs for this, but I wouldn't want to be on my own for that long. All the tweets and FB updates in the world wouldn't fix that. Not to mention the H*lme*t rule.

Maybe we need to run it as an audax, drafting allowed ...

marcusjb · « **Reply #92 on:** 23 August, 2014, 01:56:07 pm »

Ian really must be there by now!

He tweeted about riding along the hard shoulder of a motorway.

Hurrah!

I think this is an achievable ride for most experienced Audaxers within the 14 days (allowed? I know they have a party etc. tonight, so I guess I sort of see that as the cut-off, but there are a lot of people taking it considerably slower and still moving). Of course pedalling 250km a day is in many ways likely to be the easiest part of the challenge. As mattc says, the solitude will be hard to deal with, let alone the challenges of keeping the bike going, fuelling yourself, finding shelter etc.

A truly amazing adventure. I suspect the French ride gets in the way, but I have a strong desire to give this a shot in 2016.

Pip · « **Reply #93 on:** 23 August, 2014, 04:43:27 pm »

Ian has just finished, " in time for a piss-up" via Twitter

Mike Sheldrake, Shell OTP has also completed.

marcusjb · « **Reply #94 on:** 23 August, 2014, 04:52:35 pm »

Fabulous! Well done to all the riders!

Chris P · « **Reply #95 on:** 26 August, 2014, 04:00:34 pm »

Quote

Completely agree. Definitely feasible inside the 14.5 days for anyone who has finished a 600km audax (or preferably a 1000+). I hope Ian won't mind me saying this, but he demonstrates this rather well!

Having completed this years event in 12 days based on a training regime of mainly 400km+ Audax I would agree that from a physical perspective it's feasible for those that can comfortably complete a 600km ride. The ride obviously does present challenges that you don't often get on UK rides though; dog attacks, crazy driving ( at least four were knocked off and hospitalised), figuring out navigational workarounds when your route unexpectedly turns into a motorway or gravel track and finding accommodation / food, to name a few. I found that dealing with that on my own was often quite stressful and was far more difficult than the physical aspect of keeping the pedals turning.

The overall experience was fantastic though and there is an immense amount of satisfaction to be gained from taking part. The cameraderie amongst the riders when you did occasionally bump into them was very strong and there was a wonderful atmosphere around the whole event. Definitely recommended for the well prepared, self reliant rider.

Pip · « **Reply #96 on:** 26 August, 2014, 08:55:44 pm »

^^^^^
Well done Chris, would like to read more!

mattc · « **Reply #97 on:** 27 August, 2014, 07:13:44 pm »

Was there a final FINAL cutoff? I couldn't see anything in the rules or rider info stuff. But it seems that plenty of folks were expecting to arrive many days late, and nobody has suggested they are out of time.

I've been looking at the "riding speed" figures, and it doesn't look much lower for people arriving around now, from those completing in 11/12 days. Sort of 20-22ish.
Interesting ...

teethgrinder · « **Reply #98 on:** 27 August, 2014, 07:28:10 pm »

I wonder how many entries this event could potentially have. It already fully subscribes within about a month and I think it could easily double in size next year, if that's the way it wants to go.
I also wonder if there will be a growth of this kind of event. I know it's the sort of thing I'd like to do and doubt that I'm the only one.

marcusjb · « **Reply #99 on:** 27 August, 2014, 07:34:44 pm »

Quote from: teethgrinder on 27 August, 2014, 07:28:10 pm

I wonder how many entries this event could potentially have. It already fully subscribes within about a month and I think it could easily double in size next year, if that's the way it wants to go.
I also wonder if there will be a growth of this kind of event. I know it's the sort of thing I'd like to do and doubt that I'm the only one.

It'll be interesting to see how it grows and whether there will be further challenges created by others.

This and the recent ride across the states are right up my street, and I plan to ride to Istanbul in 2016 (I'd love to do it next year, but the French ride will eat up much of my leave and energies as we give it a go on the tandem)(I have also suggested a go at the Transcontinental on a tandem - slightly in jest - it wasn't a well received suggestion!).