TARNo2 // May 19th: Rolling Reverie

Words by Andrew Phillips

Photos by Matt Grayson, Michael Drummond, and Sam Dugon

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Groggily fading into wakefulness with rain still falling hard onto the pavements of Shkodër, the morning felt as mellow as my cappuccino as we waited for Christophe Dijkmans (14) to roll into town. When he did, it was clear that the night had hit hard. Finding shelter in an abandoned house for the worst of the storm, he had nonetheless been forced to ride through hours of heavy rain. His blue eyes told that story; a piercing, haunted look, focused a thousand yards away.

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Here to welcome him in was Justinas Leveika (02), looking a lot fresher than when he’d rolled over the line 12 hours earlier. The two old rivals hugged, and Christophe came into the hostel for a simultaneous beer-coffee hit. As they drank, the two mused on the race; was it more reminiscent of Colorado Trail, or Silk Road? Both wished they’d been here last year, when the weather had been kinder to riders, and Justinas had already suggested he might have to return for the experience.

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Pulling his brevet card out of his aeropack, it looked more like a used tissue as he passed it gingerly to Race Coordinator David Ayre, who told him: “I’m treating it like a piece of ancient papyrus… do you want me to put it on a radiator for you?”. There’s a reason he’s a race organiser, not an Egyptologist. David’s approach to manuscript preservation aside, the card was eventually stamped at 10:35 CEST, putting a delighted Christophe exactly 10 minutes ahead of Alex Kopp’s winning time at TARNo1.

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Behind him, the race for the podium was getting tight. Christian Dupraz (12) had been closing the gap to Pierre Bischoff (32) all afternoon, but up until around 15:00 when Pierre’s dot started pinging in clusters indicating slow movement, it looked unlikely he could be caught. With Pierre still out in the Kaftalle wilderness area, we can’t say what caused this slowdown, but the most likely candidate seems to be some kind of serious mechanical issue. Christian caught and passed Pierre in the early evening, immediately putting some distance into him, and likely cementing his place on the podium.

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The race for the top five was also getting serious, as Andy Dodd (06), who has held a substantial lead over Daniel Perotti (15) since Perotti’s Durmitor misadventures, started experiencing problems with his rear hub. Unfortunately for Andy, these issues came around the same time he sighted a large brown bear in the Mali me Gropa-Bizë-Martanesh Nature Park. With a rapid getaway no longer on the cards, we can only assume that the bear decided that Andy’s insufficient caloric value made his consumption unworthwhile.

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Andy was reporting over 5mm of lateral movement in his rear wheel, and decided that he would have to go off course down into Tirana to find a bike shop and get his bearings changed. A seemingly F1 style pit-stop lasted around 15 minutes, and he was back on the road and climbing to Bastar Muritz to rejoin the route before you could say ‘poor pre-race maintenance’.

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As he climbed back up to the road, Andy’s tracker suffered a network issue and stopped transmitting, leaving the race for fifth place between Daniel and Andy a guessing game. Both riders were making up ground against a stationary Pierre Bischoff, but with his currently substantial lead it remains to be seen whether he will overcome whatever his current issues are before the two catch him up. It could be a gripping final day for the fourth and fifth spots.

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Back at CP2, Martin Novak (27) arrived at 18:00 feeling shaken and emotional after a tough last 100km. “My bike is horrible, my legs are horrible” he told reporter Tom Probert. Some food and rest at the CP seems to have revived him though, and he continued on his way looking a lot happier. An hour and a half later Florian Buchele (03) arrived, looking much perkier, and very happy to be placing in the top ten as things stand — a particular triumph for him after easily surpassing last year’s scratch. After him, Alain Rumpf (08) arrived in Peshkopi with a slightly spaced-out demeanour, seemingly suffering from a mild illness (possibly the MSE virus, which a lot of the race team also seem to have picked up in Shkodër at the start). In an almost trance-like state Rumpf recounted his travels through a nightmarish post-apocalyptic landscape, seemingly at odds with his experience later in the day questioning his dependence on western late-stage capitalism, as he passed happy locals living high in the mountains. How much of this was dream, and how much reality, we can only guess at.

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Scratch Report:

No scratches

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