TCR#8 2021

December Musings

So the route for the revised tcr#8 is out. Its still west to east, but a little different now.

The offroad bit at the top of the Stelvio. omg!

TCR#6 Race report

WORK IN PROGRESS!!

I’m only a year late with the race report 🙂

I had a whale of a time, got there in under 14 days, which was my target – shame the party was actually on the 16th day this year!  The EKO was lovely

I learned how to commit to the ride often riding late into the night into checkpoints 2 and 3, and overnighting in fields in the czech republic.  This made a massive difference to the time I had on the bike compared to tcr3.
I actually crashed at a hotels more often than not, but these generally were not planned, and I was prepared to ride into the night, then found a hotel / pension just about to close at 10 at night, so it seemed rude not to roll in 🙂

Packing for tcr#6

I’ve been making good use of the sales over the last 6 months, to try to keep the cost down to non-divorce levels.

My Clothing / Personal Kit

• Shorts – Castelli Free Aero bibs – only worn them once, but they are very comfy.  They have aero dots on them to make me faster.  That will make absolutely zero difference to me.
• Socks – Morevelo stripy socks – the meet Emma Ossenton’s minimum sock length requirements
• Jersey – Pirate top – its bright and yellow, and hideous.
• Cap – #39 – I’ll get that at registration
• Cycle shoes – Bont riot MTB shoes.  These are half a size up from my normal 44s, but I’ve been struggling with the width of cycle shoes.  I got these a month ago and have been riding in them ever since including 2 long rides.  My old faithful specialized sport shoes were about 8 years old now and showing their age.  They are now in the bin.
• Glasses / Sun Glasses – Oakley prescription half jacket sunnies – they are brilliant, and so good not to have to carry contact lenses this time. – in left rear pocket or on face
• Leyzyne wallet – holds passport, money etc – in central rear pocket
• Phone – Sony xperia 5 – in central rear pocket.  Its waterproof,
  • komoot on it with all the route gpx’s as emergency navigation backup – all maps pre-downloaded
  • OpenStreetMap for android for searching for food when I have no wi-fi
  • google translate  – polish menus..??
  • music

Training – What is it good for?

Its been an interesting 5 months.

When I found I had a place in the TCR, I knew I had a lot of work to do – I was nowhere near as strong on the bike as I’ve been in the past.

So, how did the training go?

Anatomy of a tcr bike

Its easy to spot bikes being prepped for a bikepacking race out on a training ride – the bike packing bags are obvious markers.

But what else has turned an ordinary bike, (a 2015 Cannondale Synapse in this case) into a bike capable of epic adventures.  Some alterations are obvious, others are more subtle.

The final countdown

It’s the 1st of July, and I feel I am now just waiting for the race to begin – in fact I can’t wait.

Weighty Issues

• 2008  – 85kg +  I was fat.  Despite some bike commuting I was still fat.  I started regular running, then triathlon.
• 2013  – 73kg. That was my ironman racing weight. Could fit into small kit on occasions, but all my kit was medium.
• 2015 tcr#3 – 75kg
• 2016/17 – 86kg – broken, and putting on weight again.  Moved from medium to large.  I am fat!

T-12 weeks to go – Snowdonia – Hubble, bubble, boil and trouble!

Training Summary – w/c 05/05

Total – 20 hrs
Long ride – Double weekend ride – 7hrs + 8 hrs,

T-13 weeks to go – Ouch! – shoulder issues!

Training Summary – w/c 28/04

Total – 21 hrs
Long ride – Double weekend ride – 5hrs + 5:45 hrs

I. Am. Broken.

T-14 weeks to go – Back on Track

Training Summary – w/c 21/04

Total – 21 hrs
Long ride – 4:45 hrs
Zwift Tour of watopia – completed.
2 runs!