Some Quick Thoughts - TCR No.11 Route Announcement

While I won't be competing, I will certainly be dotwatching.

On Friday, Lost Dot announced the route checkpoints for the Transcontinental Race No.11. If you aren’t already familiar, the Transcontinental Race, or TCR, is arguably the biggest, best, and most prestigious ultra race in the world (though I imagine the Tour Divide would like a word), with a route that changes every year but carries riders from one side to the other of the European continent. The TCR is also self-routed, which means that aside from the checkpoints and a few mandatory sections, riders have to select their own route from checkpoint to checkpoint.

And I have a few quick takeaways from the route reveal!

Looking Like a Race Of Attrition

I mean, the TCR always is. It’s a roughly 4500km race that the winners will complete inside of two weeks. But compared to last year, at least, this race looks like it’s going to kick off early.

It’s not that TCR 10 was easy, but riders got halfway across Europe before hitting CP1 in Slovenia. Crossing the Alps was the first really challenging section after basically passing the width of Germany.

For TCR 11, though, riders are going to cross the Pyranees and crest the famous Col du Tourmalet by the time they reach CP2. Dotwatching is going to be crazy - all the hundreds of riders are going to look incredibly clumped up. We’re going to have to look closely to really see who’s in the lead, and we might not be able to tell for sure until riders get close to CP3.

It would not at all surprise me if some riders went way too hard at the start of the race because it’ll look to them like they’re so close to the pointy end of things.

And THEN the riders will get into the Alps. There is going to be a lot of hurting, and a lot of people going out hard and having to slow down a lot in Italy.

The Women’s Race is Going to Be Awesome

Women are underrepresented in ultras. (Hell, in cycling.) TCR is trying to do something about that this year by aiming for 100 FLINTA registrants. (FLINTA = a German acronym; Frauen: Women, Lesben: Lesbians, Intergeschlechtliche: Intersex, Nichtbinäre: Non-binary, Trans: Trans, and Agender: Agender.)

We’ll have to wait to see the full field, but I’m expecting a lot of the biggest names in women’s ultra racing to be there. Several women, including Lael Wilcox (who just completed a record around the world ride), Meaghan Hackinen (who won the Arkansas High Country Race overall this year), and TCR No7 women’s winner Fiona Kolbinger participated in the announcement of the initiative.

Love to see a race as big as the TCR encouraging riders to take the leap and sign up for an ultra race! Choosing to sign up for an ultra for the first time is daunting for everybody. More support is always better.

Potential Ferry Bottleneck

Typically TCR racers are prohibited from taking any kind of ferry when there’s a bikeable alternative. If that was held strictly this year, that would mean riders would ride more than half the length of Italy, then back up, then back down the other coast of the Adriatic to Albania.

But not so. This will be one of the handful of permitted ferries to get across to Albania. For a race that often sees riders pushing through the night, it will be super interesting to see how people have to push to get to the ferry - and how some possible extra rest could impact the race once riders hit the Baltics.

I imagine we’ll see more details about the requirements here closer to the race. Definitely worth keeping an eye on.