Quick introduction for the upcoming Transcimbrica in 2017

24 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by .max in Transcimbrica 2017

Transcimbrica | Hamburg » Skagen » Hamburg

Ohne Radeln fehlt einfach was, kann nichts daran ändern. Seit einer Weile bin ich infiziert, was längere Ausflüge anbelangt. Dabei geht es um den Weg und das einmalige Gefühl von Freiheit; Wind rein und laufen lassen. Gibt es was Besseres? Nein.

War dieser Jahr für meine Verhältnisse viel unterwegs, auch ist das Rad nunmehr in seiner Gänze vollends erprobt. Seine Feuertaufe bei Version 1 hatte es schmerzhafterweise nicht bestanden.

Dass es diese Fahrt gibt, hatte ich eher zufällig 2-3 Tage vorher erfahren, René hatte sein präpariertes Rad auf Strava präsentiert. Dann ging alles ganz schnell.
Doppel gemoppelt ist besser gehoppelt, deshalb in 2017 sehr gerne wieder. Eigener Rythmus, um eine grosse Runde zu drehen! Freue mich sehr drauf!

Sandig und tragisch. Schwamm drüber, auf ein Neues!

View original post

Der Herbst kommt, langsam aber sicher.

27 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by .max in Transcimbrica 2017

≈ Leave a comment

Transcimbrica | Hamburg » Skagen » Hamburg

Jetzt wo das Wetter endlich langsam wieder mistig wird, beginnt -zumindest für mich- die Zeit, dass das Plänemachen für das nächste Jahr beginnt. Denn irgendwo muss ja die Harmonie daheim gewahrt bleiben, da müssen die Termine frühzeitig eingetragen werden, da bleibt dann auch für den Rest der Familie Zeit, die Balanceaktivitäten anzumelden. Ein zwei Tage einschieben, geht immer, doch ich habe die leise Vermutung, dass ich im kommenden Jahr wieder ein bisschen öfter im Sattel sitzen möchte.

Lange Rede, kurzer Sinn:

Haben wir schon einen Termin für die offizielle zweite Auflage des Transcimbrica?

Nasser Gruss aus Heidelberg!

.max

View original post

Checking the basic conditions for participating T-J-O

06 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by .max in The Japanese Odyssey 2016

≈ Leave a comment

The you think about something, the more you get into it. Months ago I was talking about this ride with Ferg and Ville. We had the idae to let this ride be the second edition of the dream team ride to Monganshan back in October 2015.
But no, now I am considering to go for it just by myself. Anyway there are at tleast two other riders from Shanghai starting in that particular 2nd edition. Tyler and Ewen.
Timeline is tight, talking to the organizers, they are willing to accept a late registration, so I need to follow up all relevant details to get to the starting point and back home from the finishline, quickly and smooth. As I have a deadline again, being back in Heidelberg on September 30th.
Flights

Handling of bicycle suitcase

Transportation to the starting point as I won’t fly into Tokyo but to the finish line, Osaka.

Accomodation required? Need to get clear on this point before the start.

Get a real idea about the route

Getting sensitive for Japanese cycling specifics

Get a proper feeling for the climate

This should be it for the moment

I should not participate but the heart wants to join. What shall I do? As a real final for this year?!
Hm, still not clear and decided on what to do about it.

Jersey sneak peak on the instagram account of T-J-O.

The Japanese Odyssey

03 Saturday Sep 2016

Posted by .max in The Japanese Odyssey 2016

≈ Leave a comment

Thought up by Emmanuel and Guillaume.

The Japanese Odyssey

The Japanese Odyssey Manual

This ride was brought into my field of view by Ferg, a mate from Shanghai, months ago. Now more and more people are talking about this event. Also it is a topic at Eurobike, and it is only two more weeks to its start on September 17.

Cycling in Japan, one of the big cycling dreams. Getting closer to understand why Japan has such an amazing cycling culture. Getting into the Japanese culture and tradition, in general!

Need to discuss with my family sponsor, as this trip gonna be awesome in very direction.

Any considerations and ideas from your side?

Factory Five, presence at TCR

18 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by .max in Riders, Blogs and Links, Transcontinental Race 2016

≈ Leave a comment

Almost ten months ago, in October 2015, Nelson Trees #TCRno4s80, Jeff Liu #TCRno4s37, Joshua Rea #TCRno4s64 and myself met for racing from Shanghai to Moganshan and back within 24hours. I assume for two of us, Josh and myself, this was the starting point for longer distances. At that time Nelson and Jeff had already finished their first TCR no3, in 2015. This event had been held by F5, FactoryFive, webuildweride.

This year we met the day before the race started and shared some time and for me -the last beer- before two weeks of abstinence. During the ride, Josh, Jeff and myself met quite sometimes. Nelson was out for racing, as his target was to fight for top ten. Totally different preassumptions for this race, my plan was to ride it and to reach the finish line, no more, no less.

Social media world accompanied TCR

18 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by .max in Transcontinental Race 2016

≈ Leave a comment

During this ride Anna and Mike bet on social media, pretty much. Which definitely makes big sense!

As a not-member of the social media world, I have my wife who follows up on these channels for me, at least for TCR stuff.

TCR sent out two race cars and a media car/ van.

I met the media van quite some time, although I almost never met the race cars. Good indication that I was not riding upfront the race.

I must have been an internal decision to focus on the faster riders. In my imagination the stories are more being written by other racers. The ones that might struggle and get back into the race. Nevertheless, the clips that are online until today, are really really well done.

Even more the images that are being taken during this race are more than just beautiful. You should consider that it is not really easy to actually find a spot out on the road. Driving the car all day long and looking for riders. Then getting these riders into some good shots. For me this is one of the most challenging jobs during this race, aside from the riders doing their race.

There is a general youtube channel from TCR, as well as an Instagram Account.

Camille (instagram)and John, thank you for your great work! Even I do really like your pictures. Now, I can even enjoy them, during the ride it was not something I got really into, until some friends sent me screenshots of myself in any of the social media channels.

Francis Cade (youtube), thank you as well. I enjoy watching your movies, keeping this ride and many sceneries even more alife than my own pictures, not my memories!

Updates from TCR website

18 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by .max in Transcontinental Race 2016

≈ Leave a comment

As my wife Nico is excellently following the TCR details and news, here are some updates and details from my ride, that really surprised myself.

(The link in general: http://www.frrt.org/tcrno4/riders)

The recorded route via tracking and routing from TCR differs to mine, but only in a smaller range:

3622km TCR measurement

3678km Max garmin

Screen Shot 2016-08-18 at 10.47.25

My dots:

http://www.frrt.org/tcrno4/r/82-max/map?bounds=39.50404,-13.53516,51.17934,43.37402

Dates and classement for check point passing. Surprising for me is the small variance in the classement during the entire race. From 51st to 39th, so only 12 places variance during 13 days of riding. Big surprise for me, indicates a relatively constant cycling, which I do not feel at all. Also the daily distances are variing quite a lot.

Start: Geraardsbergen

22:00 Jul 29th

Control: Clermont Ferrand

13:42 Jul 31st (51st)

Control: Col de Ceyssat

14:54 Jul 31st (46th)

Control: Grindelwald

12:50 Aug 2nd (51st)

Control: Furkapass

20:23 Aug 2nd (53rd)

Control: Alleghe

19:26 Aug 4th (51st)

Control: Passo di Giau

20:26 Aug 4th (47th)

Control: Pluzine

12:25 Aug 8th (44th)

Control: Zabljak

17:53 Aug 8th (42nd)

Finish: Canakkale

7:09 Aug 12th (39th)

The daily breakdown indicates quite obviously that there had been some serious climbing, at least for my experience. The climbing itself and the lack of my brakes functionality directly shows the low mileage on the climbing days. And yes, the chase to Canakkale from Alexandoupolis had really been the fasted part of my entire race, so not only in my mind also on the records. Simply looking at the climbing figure, I get dizzy, really dizzy. I like climbing, but I do not like racing up the hill if I know another thousand kms are waiting to be pedaled:

Day 1

0:02 – 21:19 Jul 30th

Track / Route: 340.2 / 369.2 km

Climbing: 3508.0 m

Moving: 17.3 hours, 21.3 km/h

Day 2

9:26 – 21:52 Jul 31st

Track / Route: 324.3 / 354.4 km

Climbing: 3768.0 m

Moving: 23.6 hours, 15.0 km/h

Day 3

22:02 – 20:27 Aug 1st

Track / Route: 199.2 / 220.9 km

Climbing: 3343.0 m

Moving: 12.4 hours, 17.8 km/h

Day 4

22:07 – 20:23 Aug 2nd

Track / Route: 179.8 / 236.7 km

Climbing: 7593.0 m

Moving: 17.1 hours, 13.8 km/h

Day 5

22:11 – 21:46 Aug 3rd

Track / Route: 159.5 / 202.8 km

Climbing: 9095.0 m

Moving: 15.3 hours, 13.3 km/h

Day 6

22:37 – 21:59 Aug 4th

Track / Route: 209.6 / 259.5 km

Climbing: 11292.0 m

Moving: 17.5 hours, 14.8 km/h

Day 7

22:08 – 21:46 Aug 5th

Track / Route: 206.0 / 241.3 km

Climbing: 5223.0 m

Moving: 11.7 hours, 20.6 km/h

Day 8

22:05 – 21:50 Aug 6th

Track / Route: 204.5 / 225.8 km

Climbing: 4918.0 m

Moving: 12.9 hours, 17.5 km/h

Day 9

22:10 – 21:56 Aug 7th

Track / Route: 211.3 / 232.0 km

Climbing: 3578.0 m

Moving: 11.0 hours, 21.1 km/h

Day 10

22:06 – 21:54 Aug 8th

Track / Route: 200.2 / 253.4 km

Climbing: 11337.0 m

Moving: 16.2 hours, 15.6 km/h

Day 11

22:36 – 21:54 Aug 9th

Track / Route: 170.2 / 223.8 km

Climbing: 8014.0 m

Moving: 14.3 hours, 15.7 km/h

Day 12

22:04 – 21:53 Aug 10th

Track / Route: 279.9 / 304.2 km

Climbing: 3318.0 m

Moving: 15.6 hours, 19.5 km/h

Day 13

22:03 – 21:59 Aug 11th

Track / Route: 294.8 / 327.3 km

Climbing: 3514.0 m

Moving: 17.5 hours, 18.7 km/h

Day 14

22:20 – 7:09 Aug 12th

Track / Route: 150.3 / 170.2 km

Climbing: 1460.0 m

Moving: 7.5 hours, 22.7 km/h

Fitness after riding to Istanbul

15 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by .max in General

≈ Leave a comment

The only parts the are worth to be mentioned here, are both of my achilles and the lower legs.

It is no real pain when walking but I do not feel like jumping and running at all. I need some manual lymph massage, that shall be it.

Numb fingers are known to almost everyone. This time I only have two numb fingers as consequence of a compressed ulnar nerve on my right hand.

All others are surprisingly well and I feel great. Especially as I pushed the last kms of this race really much. For Hardcro I reduced the speed on my last day.

I am more and more impressed what physical reserves a good working body can have!

Bike bags and bottles

15 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by .max in Bikes and Gear, Preparation

≈ 2 Comments

As the maximum amount of bags is almost reached with my composition, some bags I left out in my arrangement.

There is no front bag that gets fixed at the handle bar.

Furthermore I left out the bag between the front tube and the seat post. All other standard bags are being used in my standard configuration.

I have seen very special combinations of bags, e.g. Frank, he used two bags at his handle bar and a special bag, where I have located my third bottle, between front wheel and bottom bracket.

My configurations as follows:

Frame bag from Revelate safe storage for all important documents, maps, manuals, money, batteries and cables. And tons of food, such as power bars and sugars.
Top tube/ head set bag stores cables, knife, phone during the rain
2 chalk bags from Mammouth for food (Haribo and any kind of nuts) and coke or coffee cans
Saddlebag from Ortlieb. This bag just came out. By chance I read about it as I was searching on the Ortlieb website, ordered immediately and arrived in time. It can be quite huge, but it is waterproof. The first of its kind that I found. After two days in the rain with my revelate bag, thing got wet inside, which was not nice at all. After 13 days with this bag in the hills, I can confirm that this bag makes sense. On top you can wrap some food, which also was important for myself as I always need some stock!
2 bottle holders that allow you to access the bottles from the side.
1 bottle holder next to the bottom bracket as third bottle, I needed this one every single day. Getting this bottle out and back in is a little tricky, but you have to get used to this bike anyway.

Saddles

15 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by .max in Bikes and Gear, Preparation

≈ Leave a comment

Saddles did not give a huge variety for me, as I swear on Brooks

Brooks B15 Swallow Ti Black

Lightest version, extremely beautiful and really functional. Chosen for this bike from the first moment. After the first test ride in March, I had to send it in, as a rivet was already broken. Weak point of these saddles are the chrome coated rivets, as soon as they are installed and get in contact with water, they start to rust. For such an expensive saddle, no nice thing. As my Ti saddle got a scratch in the leather and I did not trust in his durability for TCR, I sent it in again, to the German Service station from brooks. Unfortunately this time I received the saddle back with some copied information that this saddle is not covered by warranty. As I was asking which of the listed issues are covered by warranty, I was pretty unhappy. This is again time consuming and I am going to discuss this with Brooks directly.

Brooks B15 Swallow Select

As rivets and thickness of the leather seem to be weak points for my riding style, I decided to get a new Brooks saddle in the very last moment. Copper rivets and a leather that is meant to be used for endurance rides. Still there is no clear information about the difference between the three different B15 saddles. Anyway, this one arrived pretty late and I decided not to use it, as I still had another B15 in “sometimes” use.

Brooks B15 Swallow Black

One of my Factory Five bikes from Shanghai, wears a B15. I decided to take this one off and put it on the final composition for the TCR. This was a good choice. Only on the two last days I kind of felt that my ass wants to go on holidays now. The saddle excellently coped with all requirements, from TT-riding to regular riding. Luckily the new saddlebag from Ortlieb kept away any rain that was usually put from the road to the bottom of the saddle.

I took Rapha’s chamois cream with me and used it every day, as a prophylaxis. Never used it before. I am sure it supported my comfortable ride, together with the BIB from Rapha for Brevet rides. I tested several BIB’s and only Assos F.Mille and Rapha Brevet fulfilled my requirement to be seated comfortably for longer times.