Adventurist

Hey everyone! I have just signed up to do the Transcontinental Race 2013, an unsupported unconstrained race from London to Istanbul and having pretty much no experience of racing I was wondering if you guys could advise me on how I should go about doing it. I don't expect to be very competitive and I am really doing it for charity but I want to do as well as possible. Any suggestions, particularly with regard to preparation, would be really helpful.
Thanks!

TommyBing

For a first timer, that's got to be some kind of epic post.

If you are being serious than you need to be able to ride 200km in a day, whatever pace you'd like, be happy at dinner, chill, smoke a bowl, sleep good, then get up at dawn, wake and bake, put another 250km into your legs, stay positive, feel good, drink a gallon of apple juice, watch a movie with a girl, fall asleep for 9 hours, then crush another 150km. If you can do that you can ride from England to Turkey and "do as well as possible."

mtn.cyclist

Preparation=ride a lot

chriskmurray

Great advise. The bowl could come in handy when joints start aching from over-use injuries.

Do you have any experience with long distance riding at all? I do not doubt it is possible but for your sake I hope you are at the very least comfortable with a double century.

Chris_W

The open choice of route except for the intermediate checkpoint at the top of the Stelvio Pass makes the route planning for this race interesting. I live in Switzerland, so I know many of the possible routes for that section quite well and I was trying to think of what would be the best way to reach the Stelvio Pass, while staying on route to Istanbul and not doing too much climbing.

I decided that if you wanted to minimize the climbing then it would be best to join the Rhine near Basel, then roughly follow it to the south shore of Lake Constance and ride along that, then ride through Feldkirch in Austria to Landeck (over the Arlberg Pass), then from Landeck go over the Reschen Pass to Italy. I'd then dump all of the luggage in Prato and do an out-and-back ride to the top of the Stelvio, then carry on again from Prato.

The other routes that would be continuous, avoiding the out-and-back ride to the Stelvio, would all involve going over multiple 2000-meter high passes before reaching the Stelvio. I love climbing, so that wouldn't bother me, but if you wanted to minimize the effort and get to Istanbul as fast as possible (after all, this is a race, not a tour), then I think the route I described above would be optimal in that regard (and would still include lots of stunning scenery). My route is slightly longer than some others, but since you have to ride a minimum distance anyway, which is slightly more than what is needed to get to Istanbul directly, then you may as well do the extra distance while avoiding some big climbs rather than doing it somewhere else.

mmeiser

I have never heard of this race. Please post more info. How many miles? Is there a proposed route?

Experience btw, is everything. Ultraendurance is all about what's in your head. The physical part is what gets you there but your mental game is what keeps you there. Fellow posters are right. You have to love it enough and be patient enough to turn it over day after day rain or shine.

I recommend lots of overnight rides. S240 (sub 24 hour) / shakedown rides. Night riding. Riding in adverse weather conditions. Take up every challenge you can think up in preperation because it's a heck of a lot easier to deal with new issues when you have experience under your belt.

20_700c

Race details are here at the official site: https://www.transcontinentalrace.com/

Basically the details are:
A Start Point - London
A pic on the web site suggests the start line might be at/near Big Ben

One Checkpoint enroute - to "ensure that you cover a minimum mileage and suffer a few hills, what roads you choose between them though is your call."
This is contradicted by the caption on one picture labelled "Checkpoints".

A Finish Line - Istanbul
"finish line celebrations will be going off in Istanbul on Saturday 17th August"

95Euro registration fee

Enjoy.....
If I were in Europe, this could be a very cool adventure.