🥈 Cynthia Carson Set for Second

👑 Jana Kesenheimer Retains Her Crown: Back-to-Back TCR Women’s Champion

Jana Is On The Finish Parcours

Jana back in the lead with 250km to go

Cynthia vs Jana: The Battle Continues

🏆 Victor Bosoni Finishes First

Cynthia Takes The Lead 

🇷🇴 Survive to the line

🇷🇴 The Danube Drama Deepens

Jana and Cynthia - Just 1km Apart!

Victor Bosoni

Martin Moritz

David Tschan

Rudaz Manuel

Christoph Strasser

Jocelyn Roth

Nicolas Chatelet

Jana Kesenheimer

Samuele Tonello

Christoph Pernsteiner

Cynthia Carson

Paul Niehoff

Steven Davis

Mark Kowalski

Danny Green

Nicholas Hulse

Markus Zimmermann

Riccardo Mosconi

Peter Kronberger

Justinas Leveika

Henning Fach

Lael Wilcox

Nico Schleippmann

Mike Fawcett

Jackson Long

Etienne Hamon

Joost van Roosmalen

Ulf Bannick

Ricard Sörman

Riccardo Kuhar

Florian Kraschitzer

Sebi Lehmann

Ahmet Karaoğlan

Alexis Arthaud

Julian Klose

Jake Turner

Jakob Schultz

Thomas Ceyrowsky

Florian Moreau

Calum Harrington-Vogt

Mathias Ulrich

Cristian Batista

Raymond Dulieu

Anna Richter

Jaimi Wilson

Omar Martinello

David Mixell

Erik Price

Oliver Schumann

Hallvard Kolltveit

Francis Marielle

Esther Lloyd

Sarah Bosslet

Geert Bonnema

Christoph Tapken

Kristian Buljan

David Sanchez

Laurent Garbolino

Pierre-Yves Robert

Juergen Eckmann

Claude Binchet

Valentin Godrie

Andrea De Gruttola

Tarbo Fukazawa

Andrew Brunton

Michal Wolff

Michael Ganz

Matthew Spooner

Sofie Mangertseder

Bernhard Kämmerer

Guillaume Rouquette

Guillaume Raulhac

Jonathan Good

Allison Felley Jacquemont

Jessica Wood

Aleksei Konev

Ross Gray

Mikke Luostarinen

Domas Dranginis

Mark Courtier

Dragomir Titei

Ekrem Ekicigil

Thomas Groenewegen

Martin Zettel

Sarah Cinquini

Bennie Black

Nils Gustafsson

Bram van Engelen

Riccardo Del Re

Edward Pini

Joel Struchen

Ingvild Ødegaard Tangen

Russell Kesley

Mathias Gottet

Benjamin Kuehner

Ferdi Dorr

Naomi Mederlet

Ella Brown

Yannick Hackebeil

Harald Rinner

Matthew Garthwaite

Oliver Hayward

Marguerite Muhlhaus

Rémi Mejean

Julien Gravaud

Simon Taulelle

Dina Byland

Christian Dupraz

Manuel Dixken

Falk Döring

James Vernon

Peter Murphy

Francis Codron

Mariana Pazos

Ben Wormald

Chris Hunt

Jarco de Jong

Devin Solleveld

Ewa Krawiec

Petro Albota

Lora Patteeuw

Klaus Demeire

Marta Gryczko

Rafał Mianowski

Juan Pedro Moreno

Salvador Palomo

Barbara Willener

Roberto Rubio Montalvo

Oscar Arias

Mylene Vicente

Bastien Sentubery

Jur de Koning

Sladana Friedl

Raphael Karrer

Cindy Hertach

G Towers

Tom Butcher

Claus Knorz

Katja Werner

Lili Delannoy

Clémence Vandergheynst

Elisabeth Gardner

Andries Van Leeuwen

Lawrence Cairns-Smith

Rob Dalby

Claire Sharpe

Emily Lamson

Bradley Lamson

Control Car 1

Control Car 2

Control Car 3

Hot on Jana’s heels – both now and frequently throughout the race – is [Cynthia Carson](https://www.instagram.com/watt_wagon/).

A battle-hardened ultra racer with a preference for gravel, Cynthia’s longest race prior to this was the 1,350 km Atlas Mountain Race (which she won). Yet in her debut Transcontinental, she has come within just a couple of hours of the two-time winner.

Cynthia’s ride has been defined by consistency and resilience. The two women traded positions repeatedly through the Balkans, pushing each other to dig deeper with every climb and descent. It has been one of the most engaging head-to-head battles of this edition.

Her race was not without setbacks. She was dogged by mechanicals, most notably repeated tyre tears, a common risk for riders as rapid off-road as she is. Each time, she handled them with calm efficiency, making the fix she needed in the moment and planning ahead for a more permanent solution down the road.

Cynthia will cross the line as the second woman, but also with a high overall placing in a field stacked with ultra-racing talent. She’s shown not only strong legs but a quick mind. This is a ride she should be immensely proud of.

__Written by:__ [Conor McKenzie](https://www.instagram.com/conormckenzie/)

Riding in cap number 1, Jana Kesenheimer has proven why she’s now a back-to-back TCR women’s champion – and then some. Crossing the line as the first woman to finish TCRNo.11, she didn’t just win her category, she broke into the Top 10 overall, finishing in an impressive 8th place.

Jana's second consecutive Transcontinental victory wasn’t just about speed on the bike, it was about time management off it too.

Her idle time across the entire race was just 2 days, 2 hours, and 6 minutes – 16% of her total race time. That’s the lowest percentage stop time in the top 20, and more than 5 hours less than her closest rival for the top spot of the women’s podium.

This reflects exactly what we’ve seen from her on the road: ultra-minimal stopping, laser focus on efficiency, and the ability to get by on less sleep than almost anyone else in the race. It’s a valuable skill in ultra-distance events.

That finish embodies a race strategy built on ruthless efficiency, sharp pacing, and a deep understanding of how to manage body and mind over 12+ days of riding. It’s no coincidence she now joins a very short list of riders – men or women – to win the Transcontinental twice in a row.

---

## Three Women in the Top 20?
Could we see three women finishing inside the top 20 overall? That would it the first time more than two women have cracked the top 20 in the same year.

Whatever happens, this year's race – with is 100 Women campaign – has delivered one of the strongest women’s fields in TCR history.

__Written by:__ [Conor McKenzie](https://www.instagram.com/conormckenzie/)

Jana is on the finish parcours and has 90 km left to the finish! Her efficiency throughout impressing us DotWatchers, moving 20 hours out of 24 for 12 days straight!

90 mins behind, Cynthia is about to start the parcours. She’s had yet another flat, and has posted a video on instagram "bus station ted talk about all the flats you can get".

[https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNGI0lqMaxY/?igsh=N29xc3I2c2tpazlk](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNGI0lqMaxY/?igsh=N29xc3I2c2tpazlk "Bus station ted talk about all the flats you can get")

It looks like they’ll both be finishing today.
But at what time? and how many more flat tyres?

Jana seems to have gone further north - maybe that route’s faster?
Cynthia stopped at 7:30 pm for 3.5 hours, while Jana kept riding until 11:30 pm, then stopped for 1.5 hours.
They both started again at 1:00 am.

So Cynthia got an 2 extra hours of rest and is now about 45 km behind.
Her moving speed’s been quicker throughout, so with that added rest we can expect that gap to keep closing?

Cynthia needs to ride an average pf 3km/h faster to catch up. Doable, especially in the mixed terrain. 

With 250 km to go, anything could happen, especially as fatigue and pressure is building. They will be racing right up to the line.
Will we see them finish tonight? With a sprint finish?

Cynthia has been holding a consistent 20-minute lead on Jana today.
They’ve followed pretty much the same route. Theres been a fair amount of gravel, so it’s no surprise Cynthia has held her lead here.

I'm interested to see how much each of them sleep tonight...
Cynthia might need the rest, after her short sleep last night, but being in the lead could be all the motivation she needs to just keep pushing on.

Of the group of riders who got off the ferry, these women are ahead!
If this continues, we could have two women in the top 10!

__I wanted to share this story from [Steven Davis](https://www.instagram.com/chef_estebano/), who I've been in touch with here and there throughout the race, and who is currently riding in the Top 10 on the roads of Bulgaria.__

It's stories like these that give depth to the dots we see moving on the screen, and show that it's the experiences along the way that make ultra races so compelling to ride and follow.

---

Out on a remote plateau, Steven found himself in need of shelter. It was 2 AM, cold, dark, and empty. There was no accommodation. No options. Just the stillness of night and the grind of fatigue.

Then he spotted it: a digger parked at a construction site, claw dug into the earth. “Ah,” he thought, “I can lay there.”

He wrapped himself in his emergency blanket, put on all the warm clothes he had, and used a pair of bib shorts – freshly washed the day before – as a pillow. Makeshift, but it would do. He drifted off, exhausted.

Some time later, he was stirred from his sleep by the glare of a flashlight.

A man was approaching. Steven braced himself, still barely lucid.

"Security. Here.", the man said in broken english. Then, with remarkable tenderness, he bent down, gently lifted Steven – still wrapped up like a burrito in his emergency blanket – cradling him like a child, and slid a flattened cardboard box beneath him. Then he placed a thick, warm blanket over him.

And like that, Steven drifted back to sleep, not waking again again until around 5:20 AM, feeling surprisingly rested.

As he gathered his things, wandered into the woods to wee, and returned, the man came out of his camper once more – this time holding a small cup of thick, sweet coffee. Unsure exactly what he was drinking, in Steven’s words, “it was the best thing I’ve ever had in my life.”

They sat quietly under the pink hue of dawn, watching as the sun rose over the Balkan horizon.

Steven mentioned that it was his first time in Albania and North Macedonia. The man smiled, paused, and gently corrected him: “You mean… Macedonia.”

Often, in the middle of a brutal ultra-distance race, the moments that stay with you aren't the climbs or the stats or the views. It's the interactions with others, where humanity sneaks through the cracks, that you come away remembering most.

A digger. A blanket. A cardboard mat. A stranger's kindness. And a coffee that, for just a moment after a week and a half on the road, made everything feel warm again.

__Written by:__ [Conor McKenzie](https://www.instagram.com/conormckenzie/)

From Steven's Aerobars: A Stranger, a Blanket, and the Best Coffee in the World

After ten and a half days on the road, marked by bold moves, mechanical setbacks, and high-stakes ferry gambles, [Victor Bosoni](https://www.instagram.com/victorbozo/) is the first to reach the finish line in Constanța at Transcontinental Race No.11.

Barely 100km behind, [Martin Moritz](https://www.instagram.com/_martin.mo/) entered the Finish Parcours just a few hours after Victor and is almost certain to finish second – an extraordinary ride in its own right.

But the final move never came. After Victor missed yesterday's last ferry and was forced into a late-night wait at Călărași, the door was briefly open. Martin, deep into the red and riding on fumes, made the call not to push through the night. The fatigue was simply too much.

In the end, it was a race of decisions as much as legs, and Victor’s were just enough.

__Written by:__ [Conor McKenzie](https://www.instagram.com/conormckenzie/)

*Photo credit: [@jennifernguyen.p](https://www.instagram.com/jennifernguyen.p/) from Victor's win at Desertus Bikus earlier this year.*

Cynthia is currently leading by about 20k.

Although, Jana slept for 3 hours in a hotel last night and it looks like Cynthia stopped for just an hour at a petrol station at 7:30 this morning.

Will that lack of sleep catch up with her?
Or is she still riding the recovery from the ferry?

It looks like they are both taking the more southern route.

Lael told the TCR reporter that she is “back in the game" after a 5 hour sleep and is on the hunt to find more tubes to get her across the Balkans.

Jaimi Wilson and Anna Richter are off the ferry and into Albania.

As the final stretch of TCRNo11 awaits, Victor Bosoni still looks poised to take a hard-fought and well-earned win. But should Martin Moritz been push through tonight, we might wake up to a very different race.

Victor failed to reach the Călărași–Silistra ferry  on time for the 22;15 crossing, but with plenty of time for the 2:00. But instead of boarding, he stopped for a night of sleep. Whether by choice or circumstance, Victor likely will now wait until the 06:00 ferry to cross the Danube and re-enter Bulgaria.

That moment could have been an opening for Martin Moritz.

Martin, who had chased relentlessly for days, is just 100km behind Victor. He's expressed doubts about whether he could ride through the night – and perhaps, as he’s hinted, he hopes to see Victor win anyway. 

But the reality is that this is the narrowest of window. Victor is stationary, vulnerable, and within striking distance.

Should Martin push on, he may still catch him. Althouth that looks increasingly unlikely as his dot has faded snd the idle time ticks upward.

As I prepare to sleep, and as a neutral following the race, I hope to wake up in the morning to both riders level once again – a showdown for the win on the roads into Constanța.

Unfortunarely, it appears the gap is likely to remain. Victor will board the 06:00 ferry and set off toward the Black Sea with just 150km remaining.

After so long on the road – with both riders around the 4,700km mark – it's little wonder its ending with such fatigue and both riders just looking to survive their way to the finish.

__Written by:__ [Conor McKenzie](https://www.instagram.com/conormckenzie/)

Just when it seemed the Danube drama had reached its peak, the race has thrown up another twist.

Victor Bosoni, leader throughout this Balkans phase of the race, attempted to cross back into Bulgaria via the Friendship Bridge at Giurgiu – a move that was blocked. With the bridge crossing declared unsafe and illegal due to sheer drops, missing railings, and poor pedestrian access, Control Car 1 intercepted him. To his credit, Victor immediately turned back, rerouting along the north bank of the Danube in search of a legal crossing.

Having missed the final ferry from Călărași to Silistra at 22:15, Victor now waits, likely camped out until 02:00, for the first available crossing back into Bulgaria. It’s a nail-biting delay at the sharp end of the race – especially with Martin Moritz only 110km behind. If for whatever reason he's not able ti catch the 02:00 ferry, he will have to wait until 06:00, where he could find himself behind and sprinting for the line.

Martin, still on the south side of the Danube, is racing east to find his own path to the Finish Parcours. Although the ferry wait gives Victor some breathing room, the gap is shrinking fast.

## Further Back: Tactical Deadlock and Risky Border Moves
The battle behind the front two is no less dramatic.

There’s a tactical stalemate among Christoph Strasser, David Tschan, Manuel Rudaz, and Jocelyn Roth, all roughly similar distances from the finish line. The former two on the north side of the Danube, the latter two on the south side.

But another controversy has emerged: Nicolas Chatelet has crossed from Kosovo into Serbia – a move explicitly warned against in the Race Manual.

Serbia does not recognise the existence of Kosovo, and therefore doesn’t acknowledge Kosovan passport stamps. Riders entering Serbia via Kosovo risk being refused exit later – potentially getting stuck or penalised. It’s a high-stakes gamble from Nicolas, who appears to be too far behind the others to make it worthwhile.

## Balkan Roads Bite Hard
As if route choices weren’t enough, the Balkan backroads are exacting their own toll.

Reports of sidewall tears are widespread, with Lael Wilcox and Christoph Strasser both struggling to keep momentum. Huge, sharp rocks are shredding tyres and sapping morale. Riders have been relying on boot patches, tube hacks, and prayer – anything to hold the bike together across the Balkans.

---

Brains are fried, but this still remains a race of border logic, ferry timetables, and sheer resilience. The Danube might be the last great barrier, but with ferry crossings, banned bridges, and border tensions in play, the final stretch of TCRNo11 is shaping up to be just as exciting.

__Written by:__ [Conor McKenzie](https://www.instagram.com/conormckenzie/)

Conor McKenzie

Millie Gibbons

Beccy Waters

Kitty Dennis

Amanda Wishart

Robin Gemperle

The eleventh edition of the race marks a new chapter in TCR history with five control points, an approximate 5,000km route and a new start location in Northern Spain. Lost Dot's 100 Women campaign has attracted a record 92 to the startline.

Transcontinental Race No11 2025 Tracking and Commentary

The eleventh edition of the race marks a new chapter in TCR history with five control points and parcours, a ~5,000km route and a new start location in North Spain. Lost Dot's 100Women campaign has attracted a record 79 to the startline.

Transcontinental Race No11 2025

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