Transcontinental 2017.

[Greenbank]

Met Peta McSharry on my commute into work yesterday (she overtook me 3 times as she took the various friendlier alternatives whilst I plodded along the more direct routes). She had just come back from Belgium after watching the start of TCR.

[mattc]

Good photo on Twitter last night of Bjorn and James having dinner on the forecourt of a 24hr garage.   Looked just like an audax.

Thanks for that Rob:
https://twitter.com/JamesMarkHayden/status/892831198539599872 

I've seen so busy with my official Dotwatching duties that I haven't had time to follow the wider race
BN: one of my 6 riders has scratched (with minor injuries that don't look like going away)
GN: he rode plenty far enough to have a big adventure!
Another one has lost many hours to mechanicals, having ridden 1200km in 7 days, and a 600m climb on an off-route excursion! Still going, and seems to be having fun    (2600km to finish ... )

[TigaSefi]

Heat is a problem!!

[rafletcher]

Kajsa tweeted that Emily Chapple had also scratched.

[Feline]

Rimas has passed through control 3 and is on his way into Hungary 

[orraloon]

James Hayden is a machine.  In Macedonia FYR, 2nd last country.

[mattc]

James Hayden is a machine.  In Macedonia FYR, 2nd last country.

... and just 80km to go. Should finish in daylight tonight. Several hours ahead of Bjorn, so he's into the "barring mechanicals" zone 

He's a proper media tart, so you can hear his thoughts here:
http://jamesmarkhayden.uk/transcontinental-race-2017/recordings-from-the-road/

[Greenbank]

James has just finished according to the tracker.

[quixoticgeek]

James has just finished according to the tracker.

In 8 days, 23 hours and 14 minutes. Amazing effort.

Bjorn Lenhard has since finished in second in 9 days 14 hours. Now waiting for a 3rd rider to complete the podium.

1st female I think is Melissa Pritchard (#233). But I'm not certain.

J

[cygnet]

Zigzag on the last climb now

[mattc]

...
1st female I think is Melissa Pritchard (#233). But I'm not certain.

J

I believe she finished 10pm last night. 2nd female Kate Tostee has been spotted on numerous Audax this year. I think they are of US/UK origin respectively. Last time I looked Melissa was about 50km ahead, but earlier in the week they were neck-and-neck. It was a bit unfortunate that they took different routes south from the Tatras, or there might have been another head-to-head on the tarmac!

EDIT: I got the 2nd place battle all wrong, sorry ...

The best stories often take a while to come out, what with most riders being too busy/tired to update social media. I did see on Facebook in the last few days;
- chap struck by lightning. Survived with little injury but said afterwards he "felt a bit fizzy". and
- someone held up by a moonlight bear party at the roadside on the CP4 parcours. Had to wait for a motorist to scare them off.

[nikki]

A few photo essays:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/gallery/2017/aug/11/the-transcontinental-bike-race-2400-gruelling-miles-across-europe-in-pictures

https://cyclingtips.com/2017/08/transcontinental-race-finishing-heatwave-called-lucifer/

This from yesterday is giving me the warm and fuzzies:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXmm3aThmGN/

[Sergeant Pluck]

Zigzag on the last climb now

And now finished - well done Zigzag!

[morbihan]

Made my way down to Meteora to cheer in the finishers.
Scratched in Slovakia myself. (overdid the gravel, bike paths)
One heck of an event.

[Salvatore]

Mikko Mäkipää not far from the finish. I think he's ridden every TCR, including 2013 when he finished LEL on the Thursday and started TCR 2 days later.

[D.A.L.E.]

I thought fixed gear wasn't allowed on TCR?

[Frank9755]

You were misinformed.
Not exactly a fixed friendly event but has been done on fixed before

[PeterB]

Cesare Pedrini was the only fixed rider I saw this year.

[D.A.L.E.]

You were misinformed.
Not exactly a fixed friendly event but has been done on fixed before

I might have been confusing them with recumbents. Easy mistake to make.

[mattc]

You were misinformed.
Not exactly a fixed friendly event but has been done on fixed before

I might have been confusing them with recumbents. Easy mistake to make.

 

As an aside, the rules do make some provision for recumbents and other exotica; there is some vague wording about "if a rider requires it", which I presume is intended for disabled athletes - but that is purely MY presumption! I have not seen/heard any other discussion of this rule, and I don't know of anyone using such vehicles, but the race directors do seem to have some intention to allow them under certain circumstances.

[Ivan]

Manfred Bader posted this on FB back in April:

I never met Mike personally, but was with him in contact several times! I urgently wanted to ride the TCR with my cruzbike recumbent! We havn't had the same opinion about that issue and had some discussions about it! Mike was the boss and he refused to let me in! But even within a controversal talk he was nice, calm and he explained his retention to me, and at the end I accepted his point of view!
I am happy that we, although we did have totally different opinions, came and kept to a nice negotiation!
I like (t)his style of riding and appreciate what he did to evolve unsupported ultracycling!
My condolence goes to his beloved ones and friends!
RIP Mike

I discussed riding TCR fixed with Mike at the AUK reunion last November & he was fine with it. AFAIK, there have been 3 on fixed so far, Stephane Ouaja (12th, '15), Tim Beicht (Scratched, '15) and Cesare Pedrini (still out there!)

[Pickled Onion]

There's an amazing picture on twitter, which I can't find at the moment, of one of the riders (Pedirini?) descending without a chain. Fixed gear but not fixed wheel.

[Frank9755]

As an aside, the rules do make some provision for recumbents and other exotica

I think you are getting them mixed up with tandems!
Recumbents are definitely not allowed.  Tandems could be if a disabled rider needed a pilot to be able to compete.  However, they would not be eligible for a place in the GC and, if the race was oversubscribed with eligible entrants, they would be accepted in preference.  In practice that means that, since the race became popular, from the third edition on, tandems are effectively not allowed.  If there is to be another TCR, that is likely to remain the case. 

[mattc]

Thanks Frank.

I finally got a Round Tuit, and here is the relevant piece from the Race Manual (Issue 2: Update for 2017 Racers
):

Equipment

Any standard commercially available upright bike is permitted with reasonable personal modifications.
This is, however, a race so we want riders to have a fair and comparable equipment baseline for a
credible athletic and strategic competition. Equipment should not provide such a dividing line in
performance such that there is no reasonable comparison of two rider’s efforts. It is for this reason that
tandems and recumbents and other out of class machines will not be classified on GC (General
Classification) unless they allow a rider to compete on par with the efforts of other able-bodied riders
where they would not normally be able to do so. Where registrations for the race exceed capacity riders
we will not be able to accept riders who cannot be classified on GC.
These rules are by no means exhaustive and may be annexed in future updates.

(So it seems that tandems and recumbents are in the same boat As you say, unlikely to be allowed without a change to this reg.)

[hippy]

Urgh, back at work. Give me a heatwave and shredded arse any day...