The TPR- pre- blog

 The Transpyrenees is about 2 and a half weeks away and I'm paniking. 

Well. Maybe not. That just seems to be the right thing to say. I've done a load of prep, gone through various iterations of the route, looked at options for eating and sleeping, have done a few decently long rides and am prepared as I'm going to get. 

It's these last 20 days where I get impatient and just want to start- to get the waiting and anticipation over and done with and just be on the road. 

Now I realise that not everyone knows what the TPR is. You may have heard of the Transcontinental- the TCR -a bike race that goes from one side of the continent to the other taking a different route with different checkpoints each time. This year was, I think, race 13. 

The TPR is done in much the same way. The start is at either the Atlantic or Medeterranean coast (or near enough), and you ride to the other side, via a number of checkpoints or mandatory sections of road (or parcours), and the you turn around and come back. This year, the TPR is in it's 4th iteration, and for the first time it is not starting at the Atlantic- it's starting in Girona. 

I was rather excited about this because it meant that I would be able to catch trains to the start, and then catch a train back when it was finished. Earlier in the year, I tried to book tickets for me and a bike. It took about 6 hours and a lot of swearing and not understanding and being very worried about which trains would run on time and which wouldn't. Theoretically, I could leave home at 4am and be in Girona by 8pm. 

Theoretically. If you trust that the train to London wasn't going to be late, and the transfer to the Eurostar was going to work. And that you'd be able to get your bike on the Eurostar AND get through customs. And that you'd be able to get across Paris and onto another train with a bi....etc. 

AND- if you trusted hat you'd be able to book all these tickets at different times with some of them being non-refundable. 

Much to my disgust, I logged onto JET2 to see what it would cost to get to Girona by plane with a bike. 20 mins later I had, with my head low, bought a flight for the first time in half a decade. It isn't easy to travel by train with a bike, no matter what anyone tells you. The extra stress of "will it/won't it" get me to the next transfer in time- if I was just on holiday, would be annoying- but for a race? No. I'm afraid that this time, ease of use and lack of stress won out. Maybe in the future when I actually have some of these expedition races under my belt, my head might be able to afford some stress space. But not this time. 

So the race itself is very much a "choose your own adventure" between checkpoints and parcours. The total distance (for the route I've picked out) is about 1850km with somewhere in the region of 50,000metres of ascent. The exact number - well, we'll see what it comes out at when I roll into Girona. 

The winner last year finished in something like 4 and a bit days- evidently sleeping very little indeed. In order to be as lightweight as possible, I'm foregoing a sleeping system (but do have an emergency bivvy, just in case), and will be staying in hotels in various locations along the way. In true TPR style, I am NOT booking these in advance- that is very much against the ethics of the race. I will be booking them as I travel, working on the ideal of self-sufficiency and dealing with things as they come to me. 

I've parcelled the route into 7 "days", well, better to call them 7 sections- each of which will take about a day to do (hopefully less). There aren't many offroad sections, but there are some- and I'm very much hoping that my choice of tyres will do me well for the various terrain on which I will be travelling. 

This is very much a depature from anything I've ever done before. I've raced on foot for more than 24 hours. I've done a fair bit of overnight backpacking. I've raced abroad a couple of times. But multi-day cycle racing in another country- totally self supported? This is new. 

As I say, a decent amount of training has been done. The main thing I'm concerned/worried about is the booking of things on the fly- opening and closing of hotels at certain times- and whether I'll be able to get in and out of them after hours. The plan is to be cycling for 15-17 hours a day (or at least, on the road for that amount of time... some stops for food/shopping/mechanicals will be inevitable. 

This is very much the time of pre-race nerves. 

Just can't wait to get started and be on my way. 

There will, of course, be a tracker. I'll post a link. I'm Number 66