unterhausen

once they hit the hills they will be at a disadvantage again until 100 miles to the end. I think it's really interesting.

kingston 

I like that channel from the Newton Bike Shop. Looks like they are talking to a lot of the racers as they come through. If you watch some of the later videos, the upright riders and people in the chat window start making jokes about the velomobiles, so I'm apparently not the only one who thinks they are ridiculous.

tyrion

I think it's a great idea for a race like that. Better aerodynamics, no saddle sores, easy urination...

Steamer

They are available to any of the racers to use. If one is looking to succeed, then one should choose the format that will be fastest. Simple really.

Steamer

Agreed. Although even the lightest velomobiles are pretty heavy. Things will even out in the hills.

Steamer

I think they are awesome. And they work. I think thats pretty clear.

tyrion

The mental aspect of being in the little coffin for 16 hours a day, on top of all the other mental aspects, must be brutal.

c.miller64

No, you're probably one of the few who think they're "ridiculous". They're definitely different, and have their advantages on the downhill and the flats, but the vast majority of velo riders out there would be nowhere near the front at this point in the race. Both velo racers in this years race are exceptional athletes who have dug deep to be where they are. And don't forget- it aint over till it's over.

unterhausen

the only ride I have participated in with velomobiles is PBP. They are scary downhill. I saw one up on two wheels on a downhill corner. The person I know that has one ended up in the hospital with TBI after he crashed into a guardrail. Required rehab.

I don't think one will win, I respect the guys that are trying. It will probably be close.

kingston 

At the Bike Sebring 24 hour RAAM qualifier in February Dave Lewis went 647.2 miles in his velomobile. The best bike was 482.8. Christoph Strasser, who won RAAM last year for the 4th time, holds the 24 hour road record at 557.

kingston 

According to velomobiles.ca, the Milan SL that Dave Lewis is driving goes 60 kph at 185 watts. Marcel Graber's Alpha 7 is even faster and weighs under 35 pounds according to the bentrider forum.

According to bikecalculator.com, a rider on aerobars on a 20 pound bike goes 36 kph at 185 watts.

It's cool that velomobiles are really fast human powered vehicles, but If those numbers are even approximately correct, the same person should be way faster in a velomobile than on a bike.

clasher

I rode a 400K a while back and one of the riders was in a velomobile. They were done in 16 hours or something like that. There was another rider on a standard bike that finished much faster than me too... It didn't bother me in any way whatsoever since the rules allow human-powered vehicles... I dunno if there is prize money or anything for the transAm so I dunno that it really matters much.

unterhausen

the only way Sebring could be better for velomobiles is if it were all downhill. I remember in the early days of raam there was a faired bike that didn't finish, but was blowing away the field. I suppose they can't race any more?

I don't know how many people are really riding TABR with the expectation of winning. If it is 10, I would be surprised. RAAM is much more competitive, they have to have categories.

OldTryGuy

At Sebring this year Dave passed me on the inside of a turn in the back section around 1AM and startled the crap out of me. I was was not looking in my mirror to see his AWESOME HEADLIGHTS approaching and was very glad for him and myself that I hadn't decided to move a little left. His pass was no more than 2 feet from the edge of the track and 3 feet from me. He flew by me and had to be riding 30/35mph at that point.

c.miller64

Looked to me like Dave was taking the shortest line possible through the turns- whether someone else was already there or not. No doubt he was doing so to gain the 3-4 tenths of a mile each lap that's possible to do on that track.
He scared the hell out of me a couple of times with how close he was when he passed me.

unterhausen

A racer got rear ended last night. Fortunately they are okay. I have always wondered about that route, BITD I heard a lot of complaints about dangerous traffic.

kingston 

It's a dangerous ride. I rode a 400k on Saturday with one of the guys who finished RAAM solo last year. He said he liked having a support vehicle with him at night and didn't think he would ever do the trans am because of the risk.

unterhausen

that's the thing, people only rarely get hit on randonnees, but people have been killed every year on TABR (okay, maybe there was a year without a death, I forget). If randonneurs were being hit at the rate of 4 deaths/(100 riders*3500miles*4years) deaths/person-mile, I don't think I would do any more randonneuring.

c.miller64

Pretty sure Eric Fishbein, who was killed last year, has been the only person killed during TABR.

Happy Feet

I don't know if it's a dangerous ride perse or more a dangerous way to do the ride, comparatively speaking.

In the video Inspired to Ride, it was actually a bike tourist interviewed who was hit and killed at some point. She was not part of the race. Mike Hall, who won that year, was killed last year during another bikepacking race but I haven't seen any final details as to the cause. There was some speculation, based on his FB posts, that fatigue and poor vision might have played a factor. Don't know?

I'm a bit of an odd ball in that, while I like long distance riding, I choose to travel more major Hwys with wider shoulders than offbeat roads with little/no shoulder. Even though the traffic is far greater I think there is more risk of being clipped by cars passing too close on no shoulder roads than someone randomly driving at high speed on the shoulder. For one thing, rumble strips make that very hard to do unnoticed. I don't know the whole route but I think the TABR has some uncomfortably narrow stretches. And of course, pushing yourself too hard in fatigue can lead to making some sketchy decisions yourself, let alone from the drivers.

On my last bike trip I finally stopped riding after 1.5 hours of darkness (very dark, no moon) because I was encountering downhill sections where I was regularly overriding my headlight beam and felt a collision with an object or animal was too great. I think an early injury this year in TABR was a rider who was on a downhill bike path lane when they met and couldn't avoid a concrete curb that crossed it, resulting in some broken ribs.

I like doing solo challenges in general because I have a pretty good intuition as to what constitutes acceptable risk for myself and don't like peer pressure or hurting feelings by not giving into it. In some ways races like TABR can be good that way, if you have the self discipline, because they are completely unstructured.

unterhausen

well, another rider was struck from behind this evening. Multiple broken bones, collapsed lung, should recover okay though.

I guess my memories are bad about the fatalities

kingston 

Looks like this is the year of the velomobile. Marcel Graber finished earlier today well ahead of last year's record.

tyrion

I predict velomobiles will dominate in the future. Better aerodynamics and more space for advertising signage.

tyrion

Lol, this guy chased down Marcel, called him "Magnus", then Marcel dropped him.

Happy Feet

First of all, Congrats to MG for winning. He took his machine into an unknown field and ran a great race.

But, I'm of two minds about it.

On the one hand there's no denying the superb performance of velomobiles and the riders athleticism as demonstrated here. Things obviously didn't even out in the hills and looking at the speed values MG was able to maintain higher average speeds than other bicycles. On an open road across country that's pretty amazing. I think HPV's are absolutely awesome but kind of scary to ride in traffic with that low position with such limited maneuverability or ability to stay more on shoulders etc.

On the other hand, are they really on the same page for such races. If the new norm for winning performance becomes velomobile what will that do to this sort of "common man" racing in general. If one understands that unsupported bikepack races came out of a reaction to the out of reach nature of such expensive pro races as RAMM what effect will velomobiles have on that as well? I think the appeal currently is that anyone who trains hard enough and can afford a CF road type bike has as good a chance as anyone of winning the race AKA Lael Wilcox but will that still stand with velo technology. It seems to be more of a team/research/technology/sponsorship/partnership kind of thing. I suspect there will be a lot of thinking after this race about that question. If it turns out that top level bicycle riders feel they cannot win against velo's will they then choose not to compete in TABR and other such races where they are allowed and as a result, will the future and the quality of the whole enterprise deteriorate as a result. It's an interesting question.

Perhaps there may be a split between bicycle races and unrestricted HPV races?