It’s bloody fascinating, especially with the twitter and Instagram feeds.

Twitter

In race tracking

I was, a mate was riding. he dropped out after the fatality.
not following now.

I do think these events are dangerous.

I’m following.

I don’t think these events are particularly dangerous.

I usually followed this, Trans Am and TD, but since Mike Hall’s death i’ve lost the will a bit. Would love to do the TC at some point though and sure it is fascinating. Very sad that these races have had a series of fatalities this year.

There’s a risk attached to any activity. There have been three deaths in long distance events this year each on a different continent. A very unfortunate coincidence/grouping, the last such death was (as far as I know) on the Race across America in 2005.

I’m following a chum who is riding – really interesting, and something I’d consider in the future.

I do think these events are dangerous.

It might have been the event that was dangerous if he’d been killed days into the event. Being killed a handful of hours into the event is not going to be down to a tired rider so the only relation between Frank Simons death and TCR is the reason he was riding that stretch of road.

I’m not. But not because I think it’s dangerous.

It doesnt excite me the way the TDR, CTR or HTR does.

I know a few of the riders either in real life and/or social media.

It’s been fascinating following their preparation and now their progress.

Do I think the ‘race’ element of it encourages poor decisions on the part of the riders when they’re tired? I don’t know tbh – most seem to have planned their routes to use as many quiet roads/cyclepaths as possible and you can’t legislate for a Belgian hit and run driver under any circumstances.

For now I’m following dots, instagram and twitter and hoping everyone reaches the end of their ride safely and with a massive sense of achievement.

Thinking about danger – riding a bike on the road exposes you to a (small) risk of injury or death.

In the 2016 edition the riders in the TCR racked up 655,080 km. If you have an event where people are covering that sort of distance, even for a relatively low-risk activity like riding a bike on the road you will inevitably have some accidents.

In an event such as the TCR the risk profile will not be exactly the same as normal road riding.

In the TCR you’re more likely to end up riding on deserted roads in the middle of the night (possibly safer than daytime providing you’re well lit up?). You may choose to ride on straight, fast roads which get you to your destination more quickly rather than the small back roads you might otherwise take (more dangerous?). You will probably end up tired and riding when not as alert as you might like to be (more dangerous).

It’s absolutely tragic what happened to Frank, but I don’t think we should abandon ultra racing because of this incident.

Yep – following it too.

Mate of mine is doing it – Rider 195

Strangely addictive watching a dot move about on a map!

A

A friend is riding it so I’m following his dot and fantastic instagram pics.

I’m also following Richpips and Minipips pedalling around the 1955 Tour de France route 🙂

Yip, following it. Fascinating stuff. Keep looking at it thinking ‘I couldn’t do that’ but would love to.
As one rider said when informed of the fatality – I’m going to keep on riding as I could have an accident out on a weekend run, commuting to and from work, doing any other event etc.
Always marvel at how good/tough the fast guys are.

I’m also following Richpips and Minipips pedalling around the 1955 Tour de France route 🙂

Crap. If I’d known they were doing that I’d have cheered them on as they passed through Luxembourg

im all over it, Facebook, Instagram, tracker – guess it helps to “know” some of the characters involved and wanting to check their progress

fascinating race out front
great stories out the back

some touring it, some racing it, the no fixed route apart from the set sections makes for interesting watching too

its great #rideformike

A friend is riding, but he fell asleep ON the bike in the first 48 hours and decided that racing was just daft, so he’s enjoying rather than racing.

starting at 10pm was for me an odd decision, people just will not sleep a all or well in the build up hours, surely better to have the briefing the day before and let them go late morning/early afternoon the day after

i guess if it was easy though everyone would do it

Following and love it. All the social media really adds a depth to it. The current route choices between skinny and Bjorn at the pointy end is making for exciting viewing.

Not sure how the race will carry on in the future though given the events this year in long distance events and how it must of impacted the race organisers, would be completely understandable if they wanted to walk away from it.

All these ultra events end up as managed sleep deprivation at the sharp end of the race. I’ve got mixed feelings about that as a form of racing, and about the potential risks. I also wonder how you stop people pushing the envelope as these races become bigger events. Informal organisation, so no testing, and what’s to stop people loading up with whatever stimulant they fancy to keep their eyes open?

Following a mate #trccap19 Robbi Ferri, funny watching his route as he comes from Norfolk he has done anything he can to avoid as much climbing as possible.

Did 9500 miles last year with the intent of entering myself, instead i caused Overtraining Syndrome and struggle to ride 40 miles!

Following the two Albannach boys #190 and #144 and pretty much fascinated by the whole thing. The Instagram tag #tcrno5 is also just brilliant.

Makes me wonder whether I could do it, cycling 250kms per day, bivying in hedges, rinse repeat for more than two weeks…probably well beyond my abilities

There seems to be a few incidents between cars and riders on this years race. Ive seen a few posts of broken bits of bikes and reports on the Facebook group.

Brought home by a post from #49 Sean Morrison reporting he just got hit in Italy. Sounds like he may have a broken arm, and concussion.

Yeh just read that
https://m.facebook.com/groups/706929922691019?view=permalink&id=1578145178902818

starting at 10pm was for me an odd decision, people just will not sleep a all or well in the build up hours, surely better to have the briefing the day before and let them go late morning/early afternoon the day after

I suppose in an odd way it make sense, the racers will be doing 20+ hours in a the first day regardless of start time. So that way they all stop when it gets dark at the end of day 1, rather than riding through the first night tired.

A work colleague of mine was doing it, she’s just bailed along with a mutual friend. Combination of the heat , humidity and just general fatigue.

A guy in my cycle club started it but bailed after the fatality. He’s got a young daughter who was old enough to understand what had happened and was terrified for her Dad so he said after listening to her crying her eyes out down the phone he could no longer leave his family in that sort of “what if” mentality for a whole 3 weeks.

Another friend is also doing it, she’s been having a nightmare with broken kit but she’s pushing on, albeit WAY down on schedule. I see the leader is only about 700km off finishing!

They are having 40 degrees days at the moment, no wonder people are bailing, cant imagine cycling all day in that

Meh it’s not just during races….. I nearly went splat today and I’m riding across northern BC in Canada with flashing lights on the bike /lumo yellow helmet and lime green riding kit riding a bike laden with 4 panniers Car didn’t see me on the highway coming out a merge ….or assumed I wasn’t doing car speeds at the time-consuming limit of 80 and I was going 60….keeping in with the traffic

Is it the event or is it the fucknuggets in the cars that are dangerous?

Yup, James Hayden is only around 300-350km from the finish and is just approaching the Macedonian border.

I’ve done the tcr the last 2 years. The reason for the 10pm start is to get what is a mass start of 250 to 300 riders on to pretty quiet roads. A Saturday morning would be a lot busier. Both years I barely saw a car all night. I think there is increased danger though as you can easily end up on busy roads that you would avoid at all costs normally. Plotting a your route between the checkpoints is very tricky. You obviously need a reasonably direct route but that often means busy main roads. My route last year mostly stuck to back roads but that means it can take a lot longer to get anywhere. Even then what looks OK on a map can be a really busy narrow road with no shoulder. It’s a great event but I don’t think I’d do it again. I’ve talked to plenty of riders in previous years who’ve scratched because of the traffic. I think the traffic feels even worse when you’re really tired and the heat as well.

Yeah, 4 people I was watching have scratched due to the weather/traffic/road conditions.

James Hayden is within 40ish miles of the finish. He’s been pedalling for over 35 hours (bar for a 1hour nap/feed). Legend.

Great video of the dots…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXdv9UmD4xZ/

James ride for almost 40 hours straight on the final stint to finish in 8 days, 21hours. 4000km in the recent heatwave…damn.

Seems like he should get over the line this morning…

Fingers crossed anyway – last time I said something like that was during the India Pacific Wheel race 🙁

40 hrs straight is just crazy. Cannot imagine how you can focus on anything under those circumstances 😮

Marge – Member
Seems like he should get over the line this morning…

Or last night….

indeed 😳

I was confused (clearly) by the disappearance of his tracking bubble once he’d reached the finish.

In fariness – his time clock is still running…

There were two distinct routes from CP2 to CP3. A shorter more direct one that went through the mountains to Bratislava and a longer but flatter one that went further south. Seems the longer route was actually a fair bit quicker.

Jo Burt has a good blog running over on road.cc:
http://road.cc/content/news/226803-live-ish-blog-transcontinental-race-no-5

Off of twitter:

Dot watching low point – when your husband calls and says he’s been struck by lightning

It’s ok, he’s still riding 😯

Jo Burt and Gavin (262a and 262b) have abandoned after missing the check point cut off last night 🙁

Jo Burt and Gavin (262a and 262b) have abandoned after missing the check point cut off last night

They can still self certify. It’s in the rules how to do this.

They’re looking for an airport – it’s a bit more than missed the cut off.