Trans Am 2016 race discussion

[riderrr]

The other question is could she have gotten a ride back to the route where she left it? It was daytime and i'm certain she could have got a ride easy and would have saved a few hours. The rules state this is legit for medical or mechanicals so I would assume its legit for mis-direction so long as you do not go forward and miss any section out.

Another small point which i'm hesitant to raise due to the superhuman effort some of these riders are showing is I am aware of a few points at which riders have not strictly followed the route, i.e continued on a road or taken a wrong road for a few miles and then re-joined the route. They have not necessarily gained any advantage but have also not followed the route exact. Does this warrant a penalty? Its all on Trackleaders so depending how much scrutiny is given to each riders plots for final classification it could be missed.

One problem with dishing out penalties for such small deviations is that some riders have their SPOT emitting at longer intervals meaning theoretically they could have also done the same thing but it not be picked up compared to riders emitting at shorter intervals.

[flyboy]

The other question is could she have gotten a ride back to the route where she left it? It was daytime and i'm certain she could have got a ride easy and would have saved a few hours. The rules state this is legit for medical or mechanicals so I would assume its legit for mis-direction so long as you do not go forward and miss any section out.

Another small point which i'm hesitant to raise due to the superhuman effort some of these riders are showing is I am aware of a few points at which riders have not strictly followed the route, i.e continued on a road or taken a wrong road for a few miles and then re-joined the route. They have not necessarily gained any advantage but have also not followed the route exact. Does this warrant a penalty? Its all on Trackleaders so depending how much scrutiny is given to each riders plots for final classification it could be missed.

One problem with dishing out penalties for such small deviations is that some riders have their SPOT emitting at longer intervals meaning theoretically they could have also done the same thing but it not be picked up compared to riders emitting at shorter intervals.

While it might not be in the rules to say that you can't get a lift back to the route, I would suggest it isn't in the spirit of the race. Whats to stop a rider going off route for resupply then hitching back? Thats just not cricket.

As for the slight route anomolies? I found on the Tour Divide last year that in some cases where we were following a road, be it dirt or sealed, the official gps track didn't exactly match the road on the ground. In most cases the road had been rebuilt or an intersection moved a few hundred yards, so the Trans Am riders might be just riding what is actually there not what was there last year or the year before.
Of course, I could be completely wrong. I am just giving the benefit of the doubt.

Either way, these people are CRUSHING it! 

[riderrr]

Yeah I thought about the re-supply thing afterward so i guess unless you declare and prove obvious medical or mechanical emergency you can't hitch.

The rider in question for tracking is the amazing Hammond (SH), (note: unrelated to her big deviation this morning at Wisdom) I understand the GPS tracking itself can be a little haywire and the GPS route line can be a little mis-matched with the road in places but what i can see for her is two instances of being on the wrong road that doesn't show for any of the other top riders i've scanned through, nor have they deviated in any other areas. Their dots have clearly either been haywire (on a mountain top) or bang on the red route line. These don't look like haywire tracking as they are clearly marked multiple times on a road rather than a random tracking on some cliff-side. The tracks are also at points where deviation mistakes would be very easy, i.e staying on a road when they shouldn't have or taking a left turn a few meters too soon on a road that goes to the same place as the next turn anyway. On the rider history look at the tracking just after Monmouth, Oregon where she stayed on 99W and just before Dillon, Montana where she took the interstate into town rather than the next left which would have been HWY 91.

These deviations gave her NO ADVANTAGE whatsover but on the other hand it looks like she has gone off route twice and correct navigation whilst making good decisions tired is all part of the challenge. I've asked the race organizer for clarification on how strict results are analysed at the end, if you remember last year some riders were docked 12 hours for wrong turns. The website reports these as 'self-relegated' so i don't know if the riders reported the mistakes themselves. But given an average speed of about 13mph, a 12 hour penalty would put SH in about 6th place at the moment which would suck. The rules also state there is no mid-race relegation, its all clarified at the end.

[Robzilla_Killa]

Any chance we could get Mike Hall's ghost tracker from 2014 plotted on route?

So we could see how far off from record pace the leaders are.

[Dillon]

 For the Amazing Hammond and anyone else who goes off route on western roads it is not so easy to hitch a ride.  Between Wisdom and Wise River it is entirely possible to ride four hours without seeing any automobile traffic.  I've lived there (see user name).

[Mike Honcho]

Between Wisdom and Wise River it is entirely possible to ride four hours without seeing any automobile traffic.

After seeing the tragedy in Kalamazoo this week, thank God we still have these kinds of places.

[cousinmosquito]

Any chance we could get Mike Hall's ghost tracker from 2014 plotted on route?

So we could see how far off from record pace the leaders are.

I did some rough stats yesterday, before she got lost, and had Sarah at 418kms a day, compared to Jesse from last year at 377kms a day. Its early days tho, and I don't know if he started fast and got slower. These were very rough figures.

[si]

Are there no MTB Cast call ins this year?

[riderrr]

Joe Polk commented on Facebook that nobody had called in so there was no calls to put up! But i just assumed at the start because there was no TransAm 2016 section or mention of it anywhere else that they weren't doing it. He did say the service is there for anyone to call and instructed Nathan Jones as much. I really enjoy the call ins, that first two years of TABR we had quite a few calls from Jesse and Mike etc. What most of them had in common was they had also ridden the TD previously so were probably already familiar with MTB cast unlike the other TABR riders.

[Spaghetti89]

Any news on Lael?

[riderrr]

Lael is fine, she is at Newton bike shop sleeping now. Her tracker batteries died and she replaced them there, should pick up again in about an hour when she is back on the road. They are about to wake up, check the NBS facebook page for the ustream link.

[bigeyedfish]

Any word on Sarah?  Looks like she was stopped for a long time around Newton, KS.

[bpeschka]

Any word on Sarah?  Looks like she was stopped for a long time around Newton, KS.

She came into Newton Bike Shop last night for food/sleep/bike work.  Woke up from her scheduled nap to find massive thunderstorms and flash flooding in the area.  Went back to sleep until things became rideable.

[JeffOYB]

A week no chat? ... I'm liking seeing Lael in 2nd overall getting so close to the finish.

[JamesM]

Looks like only one big climb and 270 - 370 miles to go for the top 3!  It appears Lael is 50 miles behind Steffan and about 40 miles ahead of Evan. After this last climb it is all downhill to the coast. Very exciting to see Lael just crushing this mind blowing course on that sweet new ruby!

[jjmundt]

Lael Wilcox took over 1st place during the night with about 120 miles to go.  The dots can be a bit deceiving, but this is what appears to have happened: Steffen stopped for a couple of hours of sleep last night.  When he awoke (around 2am with Lael about 25 miles behind him), he got back on the route, but went 11+ miles WEST instead of east.  At some point (maybe when he saw Lael coming the other direction...not sure), he turned around.  Again, we can only infer, but Lael Wilcox is currently flying and leading by ~15 miles with about 60 to go.  If she has no issues, she will win the Trans Am in dramatic fashion!!

What an incredible race it turned out to be!!

[Rooster Cogburn]

Once again, a defective Garmin GPS influences the outcome of a bike race.

Wednesday morning update from Nicholas:

"7:30 AM EST, Wednesday, June 22, 2016

The three leaders of the Trans Am Bike Race began the day in a familiar standing, with Steffen out front by about 50 miles, Lael in second, and Evan about 40 miles back.  Evan put a few miles on Lael in the night, taking one less hour of sleep and closing the gap for second place to 30 miles.  Steffen persisted with a short sleep on that night and was down for less than two hours.  All three riders were anxious not to lose ground, and all three riders were excited to try to gain some distance on the others, if possible.  Heavy thunderstorms arrived on Tuesday afternoon as Steffen, Lael, and Evan summited the Blue Ridge Parkway from Vesuvius to Afton. 

Continuing on to Charlottesville, it appeared that Steffen was either lost or looking for something.  He followed a unique route into town, the nature of the detour unknown considering the severe weather in the area.  It is now known that he had suffered a series of flats in the past few days.  From a brief video log on the TABR Facebook page, he verifies the flat tires yet indicates that he did not replenish his supply of spare tubes in Charlottesville, a bustling college town home to many bike shops.  Reports from race organizer Nathan Jones also suggest that Steffen was dealing with a failing GPS device, an internal issue more complex than a dead battery. 

Steffen continued out of town and kept pace into the evening.  He settled down by the side of the road just beyond the community of Beaverdam, south of Lake Anna.  He rested for about 2.5 hours and awoke at 2AM.

Lael continued out of Charlottesville several hours after Steffen, keeping pace into the night.  As he hit the ground to sleep, she continued pedaling, gaining on the leader.  Eventually, her tracker stopped for a period of about 45 minutes.  She called when she awoke to tell me that she had slept, was feeling good, and was gunning for Yorktown.  In concert with a shot of 5 Hour Energy, she was riding high into the night.

What happened next stunned all that were watching.  When Steffen awoke at 2AM, he began pedaling backward along the route.  He was riding right towards Lael!  She had closed the gap to 20 miles, and the two were now racing toward each other.  Eventually, the pink dot and the blue dot collided near the community of Bumpass, VA.  One can only imagine the brief conversation they had, and the heartbreak of learning that you have just lost a lead won over 4100 miles in a mid-night mishap.  Steffen righted his tires and rejoined the race to the east.  Both of their trackers transmitted intermittently during this period.  It took some time to see who would come out of this situation ahead.  Surely, Steffen has proven to be a much faster rider throughout the race.  But Lael recovers well and remains rested, at least as much as can be expected after a 250 miles day and a 45 hour nap.  This was her first night with very little sleep. 

Race organizer Nathan Jones reported seeing both riders together right around this time, but once the trackers transmitted, it was clear, Lael was in the lead.  As more regular tracking resumed from both devices, Lael maintained a narrow but consistent lead.  Steffen stopped briefly at one of the first junctions after their meeting, which indicated that he was indeed having issues with his GPS.  But he managed a series of turns along the route thereafter, so he had some means of navigation.

Evan stopped in Charlottesville for several hours, although it is difficult to determine his exact stopped time.  He rolled out of town around 3AM EST.

At the time of writing, just east of Richmond, VA, Lael leads with only 70 miles remaining to Yorktown, Steffen is 10 miles behind, and Evan is about 80 miles back from the leader.

It is too soon to speculate much about Steffen’s error, although a few things are known from a series of rambling video logs from Nathan Jones on the TABR Facebook page.  It is known that Steffen has suffered a series of flats and is riding without a spare tube to the finish.  His GPS has been failing him, likely requiring frequent restarts or other manual manipulation.  He is tired, as is expected.  He has been riding fast and far, and has tapered his sleep over the last few days.  It is an unfortunate error, much like Sarah Hammond’s deviation from the route in Montana.  It is a feeling that Lael knows well, as she deviated from the official track in the 2015 Tour Divide, following an older course.  Officially, she was disqualified from the race, although her time was considered valid.  As a result of this error, and the risk of GPS failure, she carries two Garmin eTrex 20 units, each loaded with maps and the race track.  She is not carrying maps. 

I will be at the finish line today as our three riders cross the line.  Over the past 17 days, we’ve come to know the way they sleep and the pace they ride, we often know what and where they eat and what kind of company they keep.  I look forward to welcoming Evan, Steffen, and Lael, along with Kai, Sarah, Benjamin, Janie, and anyone else that will arrive in the next few days.  A least for a minute, I don’t think Lael and I are going anywhere fast."

[jjmundt]

Thanks!

I should have gone to Nicolas' and Lael's website BEFORE I posted...that explains things a bit.  I was watching the dots this morning, thinking "is he looking at his GPS upside-down or something?!?...is it just a lack-of-sleep thing?"  Lael appeared to stop at a country store in between the fingers of Lake Anna to refuel a bit and I said out loud in bed, "You have no idea that Steffen is coming right at you!"

Wow.

[Two Tired]

Wow.

Astounding riders.  Go Lael Wilcox !

[geekonabike]

Ain't No Stinkin Glass Ceiling In Cycling! GO Lael!