Author Topic: TransAmerica race. Blue dot watching (Read 5459 times)

Jack_P · « **on:** 07 June, 2014, 06:39:22 pm »

Anyone else watching the TransAmerica non stop race. A few Brits giving it a good shot including Mike Hall and Ed Pickup the early leader.
And pink dots it would appear as Juliana Buhring is a swift starter too.

Will be fascinating to watch over the next two weeks

http://trackleaders.com/transam14

SJR · « **Reply #1 on:** 07 June, 2014, 06:53:13 pm »

Yep, I'm going to be glued to the blue dots too. What with that and the RAAM tracker who needs the TdeF - bloody primadonnas

SJR · « **Reply #2 on:** 08 June, 2014, 01:17:06 pm »

I'm guessing route choice is flexible? Otherwise why did Mike Hall take a left south of Salem and cut a chunk off the route? Maybe I just don't know how this one works yet. Blue Dot-ting is addictive though.

vorsprung · « **Reply #3 on:** 08 June, 2014, 06:56:26 pm »

Cool Ed Pickup is doing good

His bike and all his kit was stolen last month and it's only through people helping him out he was able to start

rob · « **Reply #4 on:** 08 June, 2014, 07:22:34 pm »

Quote from: Oranj on 08 June, 2014, 06:50:25 pm

Did they all start at the same time? Even at the end of yesterday some seemed to be almost too far down the road for just a single day's riding.

Mike Hall said he did 350 miles on day one in 20hrs of riding.

SJR · « **Reply #5 on:** 08 June, 2014, 08:34:26 pm »

I think they started time trial style, at intervals. If you watch the tracker play through then they seem to leave the start point one after another.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #6 on:** 08 June, 2014, 09:07:25 pm »

Mike Hall's tracker seems to have stopped reporting.

SJR · « **Reply #7 on:** 08 June, 2014, 09:36:59 pm »

His tracker seems to be a bit intermittent. It's reporting again now and he's showing in the lead again.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #8 on:** 08 June, 2014, 09:55:52 pm »

According to the trans-am website, the official route is the shortest possible between each town. So deviations are allowed, and I guess riders might choose to deviate for tactical reasons. Maybe for favourable winds or avoiding heavy climbs.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #9 on:** 08 June, 2014, 10:00:47 pm »

Quote

Any bike is allowed, even those that aren’t allowed in traditional grand tours (HPV etc..)

Is anyone darksiding it?

Jack_P · « **Reply #10 on:** 08 June, 2014, 11:31:11 pm »

Trackers can be a bit ropey at times, very sensitive to their location on the bike, not like GPS loggers they just join dots with straight lines, no matter how much time is in between. often the case at the start of events as the riders have no idea until told that they are not being picked up.

Mike (despite 3 punctures) and Ed are smashing it, messages coming out are that its very hot and a lot of riders took an alternative route which the organisers have said is ok due to a poor GPX track. Navigation seems to be an issue for several.
not much sleep going on, coming up for 3pm there and over 500 miles after starting at 5am on Saturday, just nuts.

leading lady reporting a bad crash asking for help earlier too.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #11 on:** 09 June, 2014, 10:45:53 am »

Mike has so far had:
Broken fork (on flight over - replaced just in time)
4 punctures
One bee sting
Missed multiple turns

He's in the lead.

tiermat · « **Reply #12 on:** 09 June, 2014, 02:29:23 pm »

Quote from: mrcharly on 09 June, 2014, 10:45:53 am

Mike has so far had:
Broken fork (on flight over - replaced just in time)
4 punctures
One bee sting
Missed multiple turns

He's in the lead.

Unless the site is out of date, Jason Lane is just ahead of him.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #13 on:** 09 June, 2014, 02:39:04 pm »

His tracker has an ongoing fault - it is only updating when he stops. So you need to check the last update time. Jason was pretty close last time I checked so could easily have passed Mike.

I just checked; Mike's tracker hasn't updated for 2.5hours. That would put them neck and neck.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #14 on:** 09 June, 2014, 03:57:00 pm »

Ed Pickup is running Durano's. I think he's mad . . .

Jack_P · « **Reply #15 on:** 09 June, 2014, 06:44:06 pm »

Quote from: mrcharly on 09 June, 2014, 03:57:00 pm

Ed Pickup is running Durano's. I think he's mad . . .

Quote from: mrcharly on 09 June, 2014, 03:57:00 pm

Ed Pickup is running Durano's. I think he's mad . . .

For the tyre choice, or just generally

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #16 on:** 09 June, 2014, 07:45:23 pm »

Tyre choice! I hadn't heard of Ed before this, so had to look him up. He's a good yung-un and I think would be closer to the other two on faster tyres.

Jason is closing the gap on Mike. Ten miles separating them. I wouldn't be really surprised if they both blew up and Ed caught them over the next couple of days.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #17 on:** 10 June, 2014, 08:32:17 am »

Gap has opened up again. About 50miles separating them. Practically neck and neck. Ed is 100miles adrift so still very much in the running.

SJR · « **Reply #18 on:** 10 June, 2014, 10:51:06 am »

Yep -proving quite interesting to keep an eye on. I wonder what the story is with the other MH. I watched his track and he seemed to go backward and forward for while before stopping for ages. He's now appeared in Portland! Surprising me how much downtime some of the MOP and BOP riders have. But then I've never raced anything like this so what do I know?

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #19 on:** 10 June, 2014, 11:10:14 am »

[Edit]
He's posted on facebook. Had mechanicals, then fell and injured left arm. Officially pulled out of race.

~~I dunno. He's riding this as a 'tour', not a race, but going up to portland seems odd. I hope he hasn't had an accident or similar.~~

Juliana Buhring is moving up the places - should appear in top 10 list soon.

SJR · « **Reply #20 on:** 10 June, 2014, 11:44:51 am »

Fascinating to see what staying up all night is doing for the distance between Jesse Stauffer in 4th and the guys intent on catching him while he sleeps. Both Cutriss and Rice are rapidly sneaking up. The Irishman is within about an hour of overhauling him I reckon. That said Jesse has been down 5 hours already and likely to move again pretty soon.

Riggers · « **Reply #21 on:** 10 June, 2014, 12:10:11 pm »

I've just clicked on (JS) Jason Stauffer, and see he is currently doing 671mph. I think he might win at that pace.

SJR · « **Reply #22 on:** 10 June, 2014, 12:20:29 pm »

Ed's awake again but he'll never outrun that!

(must get some work done!)

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #23 on:** 11 June, 2014, 08:44:24 am »

Against my expectations, Mike has opened up the lead. He's storming, hope he doesn't blow up.

Juliana is moving up, currently 9th.

Ed is opening up lead of rest of field but he'll only catch Mike if something goes really wrong for Mike.

Jack_P · « **Reply #24 on:** 11 June, 2014, 09:29:19 am »

Mike is a machine, overcoming tough problems in last years Tour Divide showed he has incredible mental strength too. Jason lane putting in the nightshift (1.30am Wednesday there I think) while Mike looks to have settled down at midnight. wonder what time he will get up

1182 miles since Saturday morning is just awesome.

does it look like Ed is dropping into the clutches of JS and DC