Trans Am Bike Race

[Chew]

More Blue Dot watching starts this weekend in Astoria, racing from the West to East coast of America.

A certain Mike Hall is riding and a fair few others from the UK.

Tracker Page
Event Page

[FLV]

Nice one Chew, Be interested to see how they get on.

[mountainbaker]

They guys who made Ride the Divide are filming it. That could be a good thing, as long as they produce something less of a steaming turd than Reveal the Pith.

[johnnystorm]

They guys who made Ride the Divide are filming it. That could be a good thing, as long as they produce something less of a steaming turd than Reveal the Pith.

I'm quietly optimistic as this will also have "a point".

[mountainbaker]

I am also optimistic. Ride the Divide was good.

[Ben98]

They're off!

[JohnClimber]

Ed Pickup in 1st place and Mike Hall's in 4th

[jameso]

I love how this race started out, a guy on BP.net said he was planning an ITT of the BikeCentennial route this summer, so who's up for racing? And here it is.
Mike Hall seems to have made a slow start and then gained a lot of ground to sit comfortably close to the fastest 3. Smart tactics or start-line delay? (edit - looks more like a dodgy tracker signal now, intermittent updates only)

[numplumz]

Great blue dot fun. Facebook updates from Mike that he has had a few punctures, does look like his tracker is intermittent though.
Ed pickup off to a fast start, he's the guy who had his whole specially built bike and kit for the event stolen in Lyon recently so good effort just to be there.
Juliana Buhring is ripping it, go girl.

will be interesting to see the sleep patterns tonight.

[composite]

Def seems to be something up with Mikes tracker.

Also seems like Juliana Buhring took a wrong turn out of Tillamook but didn't back track. That's going to be a problem right?

EDIT: She actually seems to have made quite a few navigation errors.

[JohnClimber]

First look this morning and it looks like Mike's took the lead from Ed

[jameso]

No sleep up front in the 1st 24hrs .. interested to see when different riders get rest over the next 24. Very few 24hrs from the gun in the longer off-road bikepack races?

[Ian]

Very few 24hrs from the gun in the longer off-road bikepack races?

I was talking to Ed Proctor about this on Day 1 of the HTR, as we rode into the night. At 1am I was very awake and alert and on arriving at the bothy and seeing four bikes outside, I nearly carried on. Not sure if staying for 3 hours sleep benefitted me or not, as my HTR 550 video will reveal...

A similar strategy didn't do Mark McPhillips so much good, but he did pick one of the toughest parts of the route to try it...

[composite]

Seems to be a lot of people straying off route.

Have some got an out of date GPX or something?

[FLV]

What was the start time

[jameso]

I'm amazed, 36hrs and 450 miles in and they have another ~12hrs to go before likely sleep. At the start of a 15-20 day (?) race. I'm just suprised to see this so early on, it looks like the front 4 or 5 pushing on and everyone else has had some kip. Interested to see how the gaps vary now over the next day or so.
In the TD last year 2 pretty quick guys I rode with briefly early on day 1 put in 36hrs + over the second/third days. They got well ahead of a few of us but were caught later on day 3 as their pace dropped hugely compared to riders on 4hrs or so kip each night from the start, looked pretty done in when I saw them. On the first night of a trip I'm wired and don't sleep too well but I can't imagine carrying on well after a first day or 2 non-stop like this.

There's a few permitted alternates on this route and the official race is the shortest route using them, even so there does seem to be a few riders on road '20' north of the red-line road? JB has turned north off the route onto it now by the look of the last update.

GPX file said to be a bit ropey according to BP.net thread.

[numplumz]

Tweet from Mike stated that he hear a click before he could stir and though Ed had stopped beside him, so sounds like he grabbed some kip at least.
Agree though mental pace, they started at 5am Saturday local time and as of now its 2.30 and mikes on 500 miles, and having lunch by the look of it.
Crazy fast.

[jameso]

Ok, I've read the speed-time wrong then, thought there wasn't much sign of stop time but looking again there is, Mike's tracker has been more intermittent. Even so, amazing pace.

[jay91]

Mike said on twitter that his tracker only updates when he stops

[FLV]

630miles in 43.5 hours

[Chew]

Mike said on twitter that his tracker only updates when he stops

Quite cunning. Battery preservation or a bit of tactics?

Mike looks like he'll be the first to Idaho

[composite]

Mike said on twitter that his tracker only updates when he stops

Looking at the tracking info that can't be right.

Yes there are "holes" in the tracking where his marker is straight lining between points on the play back but there is also plenty of of sections where it's following the route to accurately for it to only be registering when stopped.

[mountainbaker]

I thought Mike had stopped for the night, and Jason Lane passed him, but no, it just updated, he's still 40km ahead of Jason Lane! Go Mike!

[mountainbaker]

Ed Pickup is doing pretty amazingly too, 23 year old from Salisbury. 3rd place.

[Ian]

Mike said on twitter that his tracker only updates when he stops

Quite cunning. Battery preservation or a bit of tactics?

Mike looks like he'll be the first to Idaho

Mike appears to be using a Spot Trace, as opposed to a Spot Gen2/3. Considerably smaller and lighter, but a lot less reliable at actually tracking it seems