The Wrap Up

A fortnight's racing

Twelth night (and thirteenth day)

The Top Ten 

Evening Update Day 8

The Drag Race

Strategic Ferries

Day 7 Evening Update

Evening Update Day 5

The Leaderboard

Christoph Strasser

Krystian Jakubek

Adam Bialek

Marin de Saint-Exupéry

Pawel Pulawski

Ulrich Bartholmoes

Robin Gemperle

Fiona Kolbinger

Andrew Phillips

Krisjanis Ratiniks

David Mixell

Lombard Stéphane

Colin Smith

Brendan Cassidy

Martin Haubold

Juhani Saario

Laurens Van Gucht

Joseph Dorsett

Amrei Kuhne

Alexander Otterbach

Michael Broadwith

Bruno Ferraro

Tim De Witte

Leandro Sanz

Max Riese

Dennis Fröse

Robert Webb

Antoine Gary

Pawel Milkowski

Jair Hoogland

Aidan Allcock

Meaghan Hackinen

Henry Compson

Joshua Reid

Daniele Fonelli

Pierre-yves Robert

Matthew Falconer

Neil Henderson

Warègne Sébastien

Rodrigue Lombard

Charles Thibault

Douglas Hull

Zeno Bonduelle

Julian Klose

Alex Turner

Kim Roelants

Paul Hesen

Michel Font

Niel Copeland

Tiago Falcone

Raymond Dulieu

Ralph Schwörer

Andrew Yates

Wout Jacobs

Gernot Stenz

Krzysztof Wolanski

Christine Kammerer

Tim Hull-bailey

Mikko Kainu

Andrew Dumbill

Dragomir Titei

James Oliver

Joss Ridley

Adrian Reynolds

Sami Martiskainen

Malte Hager

Andrew Brunton

Jake Mccreedy-evans

Mikko Mäkipää

Paolo Laureti

Guillaume Taramini

Matthew Harris

Jesko Von Werthern

Paul Alderson

Kirsten Cluley

Karl Somers

Noel Mcnamara

Paul Williams

Paul Ashman

Georg Herdt

Zane Jakobsone

Flavien Scordel

David Tribe

Frank Proud

Juris Skrebels

Marko Wagner

Samuel Maywood

Sebastien Nolens

Kim Heikkinen

Lizzie Jenkins

Amy Lippe

Thomas Chateau

Ayoub Sahli

Matthieu Lifschitz

Jens Becker

Jiri Balousek

Oscar Shortt

Magdalena Fellinger

Claire Wheeler

Jean-Baptiste Catté

Théo Daniel

Stephane Ouaja

Jonathan Mccarthy

Christopher Dunand

Richard Gate

Samuel Gate

Gabriel Bercolano

Arthur Proust

Charlie Peake

Richard Rose

Joseph Thomas

Katie Moss

Simona Iuliana Grigore

Radu Cristian

Ron Ten Boer

Robert Haaijema

Marc Bisaillon

Olivier Caty

Lionel Bobb

Hanna Lutz

Robin Schelling

Paul Redbarnes

Greg Larter

Maxime Bizouerne

Rodolph Rainteau

Gary Cunnington

Car 1

Car 2

# TCR Fan Art

We’ve shared about Marcel Jansen’s sketches and he’s back with a few more, since our last post he’s shared his drawing of the Saddles of TCR, all of which look more like torture instruments, and his Weapon of Choice piece.

[https://www.instagram.com/p/ChC607FMaHe/](https://www.instagram.com/p/ChC607FMaHe/)

We’ve also come across Nicola Zatschkowitsch’s caricature on her Instagram page One Drawing a Day of Christoph and Ulrich, it's the header image of this post.

[https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg6RkllMYLQ/](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg6RkllMYLQ/)

We are really loving seeing the community’s art work around this year’s TCR and only hope to see more!

# The Winner

The Transcontinental Race released a statement announcing Christoph Strasser’s win almost one week after he crossed the finish line. This was due to an incident involving Christoph and Ulrich Bartholomoes on August 1st, where the two agreed to share a moment and each open a can of Coca Cola having not seen each other for the entire race. Ulrich’s card failed and Christoph paid for Ulrich’s drink, there were murmurings around social media as to whether the riders would be disqualified and as Christoph finished he was referred to as first finisher, rather race winner. An intentional ambiguity whilst the organising team investigated the incident.

Here’s the Race’s [official statement](https://www.transcontinental.cc/report/2022/8/7/tcrno8-winner-announcement).

At the finisher’s party last night, Marin de Saint-Exupéry was awarded the Spirit of the Race award for his efforts of climbing up the rankings through the race following some early slow progress due to stomach issues.

First female Fiona Kolbinger came in eighth overall and showed much tenacity following the robbery of some of her valuables when she was sleeping early in the race. Her stoic approach to dealing with the authorities to report the crime was admirable and a testament to her strength. For the second year in a row, we saw a woman’s breakthrough onto the scene; Amrei Kuhne spent much of the ride into CP2 as third woman and in the low 30s overall, but she made her moves through Croatia to overtake eventual third place Meaghan Hackinen and continued at this rate to finish in 19th place, making her only the fourth woman to finish in the top 20 and this year the only year two women have finished in the top 20. Her total time of 11D 14H 18M is nothing to be sniffed at. Meaghan admits to having made a few errors but overall being pleased with her ride and having successfully crossed Europe. She said the TCR felt like everything else she’d ever done had been about building her up to this. An excellent race for the women’s podium and they all placed high overall as well. Here’s to many more years like this!

# Distances

It’s customary for the final rider to make it to the finisher’s party before midnight to receive a maglia nera,  and for the TCRNo8 edition this was Frank Proud. Frank’s total distance was 4,811km which makes his route the seventh longest. Interestingly, Fiona’s is the 13th out of all the finishers so far.

It’ll come as no surprise to any veteran dotwatcher that Mikko Mäkipää has the tenth longest route at 4,766km. I was surprised to learn nine people had ridden further than him!

The longest ride of this year is Andrew Dumbill, who came in 65th overall and 14D 8H 10M with a whopping 5,188km which is by far the longest route this year and the only one over 5,000km. Andrew was one of the riders to go north of the Rothaar Mountains, Germany early in the race and later again took a northerly route through Croatia into Bosnia. Chapeau Andrew!

The shortest route was a little under 800km shorter than Andrew, Juhani Saario came in with 4,331km, which backs up the argument that this is one of the longest routes in TCR history with no finisher coming in under 4,300km.

# The Finishers

At the time of writing there’s still two hours left to go to the close of the final CP in Burgas but aside from the small cluster of riders who have just made it off the finish parcours, nobody else will make it within the time cut. This means they are out of contention for a General Classification finish but will still be awarded a Completion, providing they’ve followed all the rules. It’s always worth carrying on and what a rider takes from TCR cannot be measured in their finish time or position.

# The Scratch Pattern

![Dots map](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/6eq94rJupLJuEA7lQP5nty/d8b9fef4f03b4213e7891a03109c5459/Dots_map.jpg)

Take a look at this screengrab of the dots and note the scratches. Each scratched rider has their dot greyed out in a somewhat haunting way, and you can see the high percentage of scratches around CP2 in Italy and a small cluster in central Serbia. Many of whom would have known that Belgrade is the last major transport hub en route. It’s interesting to see no riders scratched between the fourth parcours in Romania and the finish in Burgas, indicating that CP4 on the Transalpina was effectively a point of no return and making it to Burgas was the easiest option.

The youngest rider in the race at the age of 24, Josh Reid’s parents shared this post and at DW we love nothing more than to embarrass a young rider as we’ve all been there so scroll away because these photos are great!

[https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg7TdfeMQYU/](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg7TdfeMQYU/)

- Beccy Waters. Over and out for another year.

Earlier today we saw the first fixed gear rider finish after 12D 18H 26M of racing, Italian Daniele Fonelli rolled (continued pedalling) into the finish atop his custom Alman Cycles steel track frame with 47t chainring and a 17t/22t fixed/fixed hub on the rear. Here’s a video of his bike post-race and we love the brightly coloured frame packs as the sideview is often a neglected area of visibility for cyclists and there’s no way a vehicle approaching from the side could miss these packs!

![WhatsApp Video 2022-08-06 at 4.17.40 PM](//videos.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/4OWTAFetGaYTRznuS8waXI/0a853e1c31c9ccf3a8afa365af0da307/WhatsApp_Video_2022-08-06_at_4.17.40_PM.mp4)

In 34th position, Meaghan Hackinen (12D 5H 51M) rounds out the women’s podium behind Fiona and Amrei. Meaghan appears to have lost a few places around the Serbia-Romania border where a chasing group overtook her and she never regained her position. Meaghan arrived at the finish with a smile we know to be typical of her and a jersey that wears all the many kilometres she rode to make it to the finish. Congratulations Meaghan, enjoy some rest and a wash!

Amrei’s finish yesterday made this edition of the race the first time two women have finished inside the top 20. I’m raising my glass to more years like this, cheers sisters!

Josh Reid crossed the line as youngest rider in this year’s TCR at the ripe age of 24. Some may know him from his YouTube video about cycling home from China with a bivvy, a phone and a drone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmdxs_0yYwc We hope to see many more kilometres out of Josh over the seasons to come.

# All’s well that ends well

Meaghan crossed the Danube on a different ferry at the same time as first pair: Stephane Ouaja and Théo Daniel who finished three and a half hours ahead of her. These two weren’t shy to share their tales of having some fallings-out but they seem to have avoided any major domestic. With differing body clocks and needs, riding in a pair has many of the challenges of riding solo, with the addition of accounting and compromising for someone else’s needs. Anyway, all’s well that ends well.

The battle behind them for second spot on the podium is heating up between the Gates #251 and Jonathan Mccarthy and Chris Dunand #256. It's too close to call as they're halfway through the final parcours and neck and neck, so we'll wake tomorrow to the verdict...

# Those still out there

At the time of writing, there are still 107 riders out there spread all the way from Control Point 3 in Durmitor National Park to almost completion at the Black Sea. The race has currently produced 39 finishers and 94 scratches, and we’ll likely see more of those over the remaining three days of riding. The remaining time cuts are the CP4 at 03:00 CEST on Monday morning and the finish will close at 22:00 CEST on Tuesday evening.

All those who miss the closing will still be awarded a finish, but not a general classification finish which means it’s definitely still worth carrying on. And the value in doing TCR is not defined by a position or a time, it’s measured in much richer ways than that.

We love these BTS photos from [Rory Kemper's IG](https://www.instagram.com/cycling_bear/), former Race Coordinator is helping staff the final control point in Burgas and offers a brilliant insight into the finish line antics.

![297397769 552673909986860 6110030214068974498 n](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/37f1sjyVR4PBt7cFLbxBfZ/67459d088aecc163eb928b7e6584e1e7/297397769_552673909986860_6110030214068974498_n.jpg)

![297552110 370931781883303 5594624238702625521 n](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/2UueM0pXevZ6aidYXjNerP/b842428dce4ad2c877f36ff6ed9e5f79/297552110_370931781883303_5594624238702625521_n.jpg)

At lunchtime today, __Amrei Kuhne__ made it to Burgas in 19th overall in 11D 14H 18M, making her the fourth woman to finish within the top 20. Amrei has laid down a mighty result we look forward to seeing her follow up at another race soon. We’re yet to see a photo of her in the race not smiling and understand her positive outlook is one of her most powerful attributes. A feat worthy of many an ice cream, we believe. Congratulations Amrei!

# Rough and not ready

The fourth parcours takes payment for a successful completion; its 45km length belies its difficulty. Christoph’s time of 5 hours for a successful completion of the parcours seems to be on the shorter side for the average time for making it through the parcours. Simple maths tells us that’s 9kph average and at such a low average speed it’s unlikely riders will traverse it hours quicker than others, aside from any mechanicals or tantrums. With fifty riders through so far, we may see the remaining riders tackle this parcours in slightly longer times. It seems traversing the parcours at night adds another level of difficulty to what is already dubbed as the hardest parcours of any TCR to date. It sparked much discussion online as to whether it's too hard and poses too many dangers to riders who weren’t expecting it to be so rough, or whether they were underequipped. Either way, many riders have come off the parcours with tyre troubles, some minor crashes and disenchanted. But a little anger can work wonders for low morale and may spur a few riders to the ferry quicker than they otherwise would have.

# The lightest bike in all the land

We’ve been sent this video from the finish of __Krisjanis Ratiniks__ #232 bike and we haven’t seen a bike this year with such little luggage. And clearly all those weight savings paid off. In a sport where calculated risk defines the kit lists of the fastest riders, it looks like Krisjanis has found his optimal set up. Although it’s worth mentioning he’s a tall guy so his frame pack probably has the capacity of many of our seat packs! We’re told he did carry an emergency bivvy but it doesn’t look like there’s much else!

![WhatsApp Video 2022-08-04 at 6.49.40 PM](//videos.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/4tgKkbdjqGiEFeeI3t9mVS/1cb4ad4bdf7ec8bccaaa0465bdb73e45/WhatsApp_Video_2022-08-04_at_6.49.40_PM.mp4)

# And on the thirteenth day… 

…__Matt Falconer’s__ ice cream total hit 51. He’s just heading in to his last night’s riding, and we reckon that’s cause for another ice cream! 

# Where is Mikko going now?!

__Mikko Mäkipää__ is well-known for being a veteran of every TCR, however, he’s now making a name for himself as having one of the most imaginative routes on this year’s TCR. Having plotted a further northern route through Germany, further west on the CP1-CP2 shuffle and is now much further east of the bulk of the pack heading towards CP4. So much so, his counterparts have ridden between 160km and 240km less than him which is almost a whole day’s riding. We wonder why Mikko is so keen to add distance to his route when this is already dubbed to be the longest TCR on record. Regardless, he’s one of our favourite dots to follow!

# The CP Cut offs

There are a handful of riders who didn't make the 01:00 cut off today for CP3 in Durmitor so spare a thought for those who continue to press on in the knowledge they're riding for a finish, not a general classification finish. We believe getting to Burgas is always a mighty achievement and those who are out there the longest face much more adversity and always have some brilliant tales to tell.

CP is due to close at 03:00 CEST on 08/08, which leaves riders with a weekend's riding to make it to the Durmul Strategic. Sending tailwinds!

# Back to the finish

Massive kudos to Bruno Ferraro who came a cropper when he flatted and ran out of patches to fix it so hitched a lift to the finish where he was able to fix his flat woes. This did however mean he must ride the ~70km back to the point at which he left the route and return to Burgas along his route and taking in the final parcours. He muses about how mentally hard it was to leave the finish point but it had to be done if he wanted a GC finish. Hats of Bruno.

[Mrcl Sketches](https://www.instagram.com/mrcl_sketches/) has released a new sketch focusing on the stories of those in the pack at TCR, a great image of what life on the road can be like when you are struggling!

Amrei Kuhne is the second woman across the line, relatively new to ultras. With a very small Instagram presence my stalking has given me little to go on, but a post last night showed she was ready to tackle the finish of TCR.

![Image from iOS (10)](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/71Ooil2FodeBlHDsULz3pZ/a3b78eb652ec9a97efa441774cdeda03/Image_from_iOS__10_.png)

Kitty

Mrcl Sketches has an update and Amrei Kuhne is 2nd woman in!

Over the course of the past 36 hours, we’ve seen the first ten finishers come in and here’s a little breakdown of their riders and a recap of their whirlwind rides.

Second finisher __Krystian Jakubek__ (9D 21H 57M) raced one of the most tactical races we can pick out of the race. We’ll admit he flew somewhat under the radar; he came into each CP in 5th place, except CP2 where he was sixth and a mere six minutes behind Piko (Pawel Pulawski). He’s a three time veteran of the Race Through Poland with two second place finishes (2018 and 2019) and a third place (2022).

__Adam Bialek’s__ (9D 22H 40M) long rest at the ferry before the final run in to Burgas worked wonders for his average speed and he was able to make it into Burgas second of the four riders who disembarked the ferry at Zimnicea ferry 

__Marin’s de Saint-Exupéry__ (10D 0H 34M) finish in fourth place is true testament to his grit and perseverance. A slow start due to some stomach issues seemingly did little to dampen his race campaign and he rolled in two and a half hours after Adam after having spent the last eight days patiently overtaking 28 riders, including chasing down Ulrich and Pawel who were able to take the earlier ferry crossing yesterday morning. Chapeau!

__Piko Pulawski__ (10D 1H 33M) race was one of good pacing and great humour! His post yesterday whilst on the ferry showed good sportsmanship and the good mood we often see between racers instead of the hard nosed competitiveness in other sports.

__Ulrich Bartholmoes__ (10D 1H 51M) battles are too numerous to name here but there’s been a lot of love for him on social media, he could be awarded the people’s choice. He dominated much of the race and was the first to have his brevet card stamped at the first three control points but eventually came in almost 12 hours behind Christoph, having been 20 minutes behind him at the final CP.

Former race leader who’s conceded they started a little fast, __Robin Gemperle__ (10D 7H 15M), likely had the most stress free Bulgarian leg as he was the only rider on the 13:30 ferry yesterday lunchtime with enough of a buffer either side of him to ensure his position was safe. 

Cap #1, __Fiona Kolbinger__ (10D 13H 44M) arrived just before lunchtime today having ridden through the night but with a tactical 8 hour rest in her legs from the night before. Fiona came to TCR with the intention of seeing new landscapes and a plan but no certain ambition. The robbery of her tracker, purse and Snickers bar earlier in the race cost her time and energy, which she seems to have been unaffected by and continued with the usual smile and strong will we’ve come to expect of Fiona.

Future TCR Race Director __Andrew Philips__ (10D 15H 8M) arrived at the finish with an inner tube strapped across his shoulder and to swim in the sea. With experience from both sides of the organising table, it will be interesting to see what the first TCR under his direction will look like. But we’ll all have to wait a few months for that!

The rider who rounds out the top ten is __Krisjanis Ratiniks__ (10D 21H 33M) and appears to have suffered much from the strong sun and lack of sun screen! He was the first rider from his six-person ferry cohort to make it to the finish, and here’s his shot of the riders who ate his dust en route to Burgas.

![Krisjani R ferry shot](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/6YH8Lt7dpsBFEqfeBMEeoo/b8cdba78142d38c1effd388a6a9ff230/Krisjani_R_ferry_shot.jpg)

Four of the top ten from this year’s Race Through Poland have made it into the top ten here, as well as RTP Race Director Piko Pulawski. We’re calling this 1,500km free route race in late May through Poland and its neighbours the TCR’s Criterium du Dauphine as it appears to be an excellent warm up race for crossing a continent.

An interesting visualisation from FMC is of the riders’ stopped times, here’s a screenshot of the top 10 and we were surprised to see how the length and frequency of the leaders’ stopped times increased. Reassuring to see even the fastest racers’ discipline slips!

![Stopped times](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/3e11zYB6CM9N2wM9HkDcoN/74341a152eb6ea52318e01603d13ba96/Stopped_times.jpg)

The first woman is in, Fiona Kolbinger has done it! She rolled in shortly before new TCR Director, Andrew Phillips. With some homemade sun visors and screens she stamped the finish stamp in an unbelievably fast time! Fiona is quiet on Social Media so only time will tell what happened on her eventful TCR, as we wait please enjoy this screenshot from Apidura. 

![Screenshot 2022-08-04 at 14.23.13](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/5Iuk9FRdh8cxuN7BQfaBGt/3efdebec97d40af1eaf17f83ea59306d/Screenshot_2022-08-04_at_14.23.13.png)

Interestingly, Fiona's route is the longest out of all the finishers. Taking a conscious choice to miss the industrial zones down the Balkans have made for a more comfortable ride and the length seems to have had less of an impact. Something always apparent in ultras, the attrition tends to come hand in hand with elevation and terrain rather than distance.

Meanwhile, coming in 5th is Piko Pulawski (Pawel). Piko's wife (Magdalena) was there at the finish to welcome him in. So why did Piko roll over the line with a bunch of flowers? He had stopped on the way to collect them for Magdalena's birthday. A true champion, Magdalena is always interacting with DotWatcher when Piko is racing and shares in his victories! What a heartwarming story.

I thought I could drop an update on Niel Copeland's dog bite. He went to and from hospitals all around the area, finally sprinting to the hospital before closing time and managed to get a rabies jab! For those that have had them, they can make you feel nauseous and lethargic, but always better to be safe than sorry! Well done Neil.

![Screenshot 2022-08-04 at 14.25.28](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/gtFeUFjzigBdrmLOeiK07/01f5c7cd696e19bfaef0282acad234c2/Screenshot_2022-08-04_at_14.25.28.png)

[Franaloe](https://www.instagram.com/franaloe/) has been updating for Jair Hoogland for us. There's been much speculation about how challenging Parcours 4 is, with some pretty wild off-roading it looks more appropriate for your 650b adventuremobile. We've got some shots of it, but this one takes the biscuit with a gate jump and some deep ruts - imagine having to tackle this in the pitch black!

![Screenshot 2022-08-04 at 14.43.05](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/n7rpBNDxS0H6zxiFCAIYH/c56572860aa1adae8c2f798cca4e45fc/Screenshot_2022-08-04_at_14.43.05.png)

Lastly, it looks like Marcel has something in store for us on the [mrcl_sketches](https://www.instagram.com/mrcl_sketches/) Instagram! Stay tuned!

![Screenshot 2022-08-04 at 14.40.02](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/4pp5CziOn35BEkLCbwTMpz/8f028a0eade0a229a61d0781d366f060/Screenshot_2022-08-04_at_14.40.02.png)

-Kitty

First Woman and a Heartwarming Story

In the early hours of this morning 14 yr old Venelin checked the screen of his family computer and excitedly rushed to fetch his bike out of the shed. He wheeled his freshly cleaned, bright, white Ridley racer out on to the pavement and sprinted to the point on the map where the red line of the parcours finishes and the smooth paving of the coastal road begins. He was in-time. His new hero, cap one-zero-zero had just caught a glimpse of the black sea and had begun what must have been an emotional 10 kilometre ride to the finish line. Venelin pedalled alongside, occasionally rising out of the saddle to match the pace of Christoph. The young gun waved and shouted at cap 100 and in seeing this Christoph played along, using what little reserves he had to treat Venelin to a race past the sandy beaches and seaside shops that he called home. First in was Christoph, grin wide with a story to tell that will take its time to process before the interviews and media teams begin to circle. Second in, however, was Venelin, his grin just as big having met his hero and the rider behind the dot that has been moving across his screen for the past nine days. *‘he is my hero, I have been following since the beginning’* he told the finish line volunteers before going into the details of his summer training plan.  

Whilst Chritoph tucked into 0.0% beers in true Austrian athletic style the rest of the cast of top finishers were battling it out for podium steps. Having shared the earliest ferry together the riders will have loaded their final gpx file and put their heads down for the final drag race to the sea. Whoever had the most left in the tank would surely take it. At the time of writing Krystian is closing in on 2nd with Adam a little further back. Marin meanwhile, who in fact started the day on a later ferry, is charging through the middle of the wider routes of Ulrich and Pawel for the fourth spot – a remarkable feat given early stomach issues and a difficult start to the race. As is tradition with this race the leader is duty-bound to buy the beers for the rest of the top ten. My guess is a few will be expecting something a little stronger than zero percent. 

WHAT A RACE!

Josh Murphy


Finish line fever

After a nail biting race the final push came down to who tackled Parcours 4 and came out in the freshest shape. Strasser managed to push on and make the ferry in daytime, hitting Bulgaria much earlier than the other two chasers, Adam and Ulrich. 

Unbeknownst to Ulrich the ferry at Bechet (the most frequent) was closed due to unusually low water levels in the area. This meant a detour of almost 100km for Ulrich with no reward. A frustrating turn of events, however, given the gap after Parcours 4 Christoph was already long gone.

This turn of events has led to a shuffle in the top group with Adam Bialek and Krystian Jakubek now pushing into the final stretch whereas Ulrich is now riding further behind with Piko Pulawski.

![IMG 0150](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/6Up8BPtj93wgQOQcHouyVI/7942045006bbff41a7744c1fbee89a66/IMG_0150.jpg)

Congrats to Strasser and keep your tabs open as we see how Adam and Krystian fare as they press on to Burgas.

![IMG 0149](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/5TQL65YqC5CUgU9Ft4C4Il/64112ff61d3893ef507b50273eb2fc94/IMG_0149.PNG)


Christoph Strasser is First Finisher

The geographical ripples created by Europe’s great Danube river have forever been intrinsically linked to the lands’ histories , civilisations, cultures, industry, and trade. Once the northern frontier of the Roman Empire the river now flows through ten different countries much like the dots on our screens.  Whether they are aware of it or not, riders in this year’s edition have now traversed the Danube basin multiple times, they have been tested by the hills that form the periphery of its catchment, enjoyed the well-stocked valley roads of its tributaries and been subject to the volatility of its weather systems. As the Danube flows into the wide agricultural plains of Romania and Bulgaria the river slows, widens and yawns its way closer and closer to the Black Sea.

If they were not aware of its impact on the race already the lead riders will soon face one final logistical test; having to cross its wider banks by non-pedal powered transport. This seemingly small detail to a route can be a huge psychological test for riders who have up until this point relied solely on their own trusted ideas of transport for traversing the continent. The unpredictability of timetables, gauging arrival times and route choices will all play on the mind of those riders currently locked in the battle for the top ten. Once safely into Bulgaria the riders will face one final dash through the rolling terrain of the Eastern Sredna Gora before they can receive that most satisfying of brevet stamps.

With the trio of front riders being inseparable for over a staggering three thousand kilometres, drawing us all from our desks and phones into their captivating narrative, it seems that the rugged mountain tracks of CP4 proved to be the final yardstick for deciding the steps on the podium. Overnight there appeared to be intrigue and drama, difficult weather and DIY thermal wear but when the sun rose and the road returned to tarmac it seemed that cap100 had weathered the storm with the most bike and skin in-tact and duly built up a promising lead throughout the morning. Christoph is the only rider at the point of writing who has made his ferry connection and if his recent pace is anything to go by it seems we might well be crowning a winner by the early hours of tomorrow morning. 

I would, like all good ultra-riders should, set multiple alarms throughout the night to keep one eye on this race!

As a side bar, and if I'm allowed to show such media bias, I am absolutely obsessed with following the trials and tribulations of [Brompton Jim](https://www.instagram.com/jim_london/) He has successfully made it to CP2. If you have a drink in hand. Raise your glass to that !! 

Josh Murphy

Race to the Danube

An avid DotWatcher, [Marcel](https://www.instagram.com/mrcl_sketches/), has created some ingenious sketches to illustrate what it is like DotWatching the TCR. Deftly capturing the intrigue that keeps you awake at night, sneaking a look at your phone during a meeting or even just finding a new passion somewhere unexpected. Marcel has managed to sum up what it's like to DotWatch better than we ever could!

Marcel got in touch with us to let us know there's going to be more where this came from, we'll keep updating you but make sure you follow them and send all your love to their [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/mrcl_sketches/)! We've also included a screengrab so that you can see where the snaps come from.

TCR DotWatching Fan Art by Marcel

Europe's most iconic bikepacking race is back for its eighth edition. Between the start in Geraardsbergen, Belgium and finish in Burgas, Bulgaria.

Transcontinental No8

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Transcontinental No8

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