TARNo2 // May 17th: Crushing It

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Words by Andrew Phillips

Photos by Matt Grayson, Michael Drummond, Tom Gibbs, and Sam Dugon

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You can tell a lot about a country from the music they play at breakfast. This morning in Kosovo it was Nickelback blaring out, as we were served a disappointing selection of pre-packaged cheese, bread, and a particularly anaemic looking piece of what may have been turkey ham.

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On the plus side, the weather was brightening up, and riders reaching Kosovo tend to spend their time revelling in the tarmac rest after the relentless mountains and off-road, rather than lamenting the breakfasts. 

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A quick look at the tracking map revealed that our job had got harder rather than easier overnight. Christophe Dijkmans (14) had seemingly not slept and as a result had put more time into Pierre Bischoff (32). Next up was Christian Dupraz (12), with Andy Dodd (6) behind. Out in front of them all, Justinas Leveika’s (02) unstoppable performance on the course continued. The top five, therefore, were strung out across three countries: Montenegro, Kosovo, and Albania. We, meanwhile, could only really be in one at once, and a decision was made that it would be Albania.

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Crossing in from Kosovo, we were waved through the border with our Albanian plates, and descended to Kukës in search of Pierre Bischoff. We found him coming out of a shop, in good spirits having spent the morning drying out in the sun. He told us he’d had fun in the snow last night, and had the gear and experience not to be bothered by it. This stoicism would have been impressive, had we not been subject to Christian Dupraz’s imperturbable impassiveness as he hosed 3ft of snow off his bike the night before in Rožaje. His entire approach to adversity a shrug in cycling form.

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Continuing on to Peshkopi, we checked in with our old friend Xhimmy, manager and owner of the Hotel Piazza, CP2. We were greeted with an Italian double-cheek peck, and a mutton-scented pasta so visceral it could have been revived by a good vet. After the agricultural feed, we caught up with CP2 volunteer and last year’s second place rider, Adrien Liechti, who had spoken to Justinas on his way through. “He was super tired, I’ve never seen him that tired,” Adrien told me, “and after breaking his phone he needed to speak to someone in English, rather than just Albanian. We sat talking for an hour!”

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With a broken phone, and no way of knowing how big his lead at the front of the race is, Justinas has been racing hard and allowing himself little sleep, unaware that his sizeable gap was made even bigger by a snow dump behind him. Sleep has suddenly become more challenging, because he doesn’t dare fall asleep without an alarm, so can only do it in places he won’t be too comfortable and wake up eight hours later. Similar techniques were said to be employed by both Salvador Dalí and Thomas Edison to inspire creativity. Dalí would go to sleep in a chair holding a spoon above a pan, so that as he slipped into deeper sleep he would drop it and suddenly awake to the clang of metal on metal. Perhaps Justinas could try a rock over his disc rotors, and reach even loftier heights than his current lead.

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Stopping Justinas up the road from CP2 to let him know that his tracker needed charging, we encountered a perkier racer than had appeared at CP2. Justinas remarked that racing offline, with no-one to support him and no ability to check route, resupply, accommodation etc., takes him back to a different era. It is reminiscent of tales of Mike Hall racing Tour Divide with an old Nokia, so that he could consider himself truly unsupported.

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Further back, Control Team 1 felt that consistency was becoming the theme of the day, as the Oliver Neumann (31), Frieder Backu (19), Spike Morris (34), and Alastair Clifford (9) group started to settle into the race properly. Beginning to understand that taking care of themselves, sleeping, eating, maintaining, and getting consistent time in the saddle is the key to finishing a race as long and tough as The Accursed.

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Back in second place, Christophe Dijkmans arrived at CP2 at 18:44CEST and reported how his mood had changed throughout the day. He’d enjoyed his ride to Lurë, then the rain had started, and the climb up into Lurë-Dejë had become more challenging. At the CP in Peshkopi he immediately started doing the maths:

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Justinas 60km ahead + 363km remaining + 35 hours without sleep from CP1 = sleep

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He got some food and checked into a room for a few hours rest, leaving again just before 23:00 — still unwilling to give up on the chase. His vow to make sure the race wasn’t too easy for Justinas not yet fulfilled.

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Scratch Report: 

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Arnold Gutsche (10)

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