TARNo2 // May 22nd: No Scratch in Laç

Words by Andrew Phillips

Photos by Matt Grayson, Michael Drummond, and Sam Dugon

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Gifted the centuries-old Albanian Kanuni, or Code of the Mountains, by Traveler Hostel owner Xhulio, I spent my morning brushing up on blood feuds, fishing rights, and the obligations of peasants. One section in particular caught my eye however; “if the public highway passes across your land, you may divert it, but not through torrents, or streams, or along the brinks of waters, nor along crags and cliffs”. Clearly a lot has changed in the 600 or so years since the Kanuni was written, as those riders just over the Lurë-Dejë will attest.

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Michael Fidorra (29), is one such rider who would be sure to read the Kanuni with a heavy sense of irony, having spent the night in the Lurë-Dejë mountains and missing the CP2 cut-off due to kit issues. After heavy rainfall, the glacial lakes of the mountain chain had reached capacity and begun to flood, oozing out over the doubletrack like an over-zealously made Albanian Trileçe pudding. Finally making it down, Michael described an exhausting but magical experience as he spent a night up there totally alone save for the wolves and the waning crescent moon.

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As Control Team 2, we decided to head back out to the town of Laç to catch a patch of riders, each one too resourceful or stubborn to scratch. We arrived in another storm, tracking our quarry to the market, where rain beat down onto hastily draped tarpaulins, funnelling water to the ground in a mimicry of the flooded valleys from which our riders had just descended.  

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Finding Urs Mannhart (36) in earnest negotiations with a shopkeeper, we fired up microphones and cameras and set about ascertaining what was going on. Having been riding for 8 days on muddy, gritty trails, Urs’ brake pads were truly no longer for this world. If Justinas (02) had finished with the memory of brake pads, Urs’ pads had passed through memory and into myth. As any mythologian will tell you, hunting that which has become legend is not easy, and so it transpired for Urs — producing pictures of the SRAM dual-piston pads he needed — but unable to convince the locals of their existence.

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We left him wrangling, and set off in search of our own mythical beast: Frieder Backu (19) who had spent his whole race evading the detection of both control teams. In a relentlessly cheery mood, Frieder described himself as “a little bit wet” after days of on and off rain. Ice cream in hand, and smile on face he recounted a night bivvying comfortably in the mountains, his sleeping bag remaining dry despite the downpour.

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Next through town was Elias Backmund (16) who sailed through without the chance for an interview, so we set our sights on Joss Ridley (25) who was more circumspect than Frieder had been. In need of some real food, he had spent the night on the floor of a toilet, comfortable enough until the rain got heavier and started to flood under the door. As he recounted these tales, he gazed wistfully at his Quirk hardtail, patinaed with days of mud and grime “it got me through Tour Divide last year, so it should hopefully get me through here… but the Tour Divide is like tarmac compared to this”, the experienced racer reflected.

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Having spoken to Joss, we sat hopeful for the town’s power supply to be restored in order that the bar’s coffee machine would work, in turn restoring some of our former powers to us. As we did so, we kept a close eye on the road, and before long watched as a focused Urs powered past. He had found the unicorn and rode triumphantly by on it, his new pads ready for the upcoming challenge, and the glint of a chase in his eye as he imagined the two riders up the road from him.

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The last rider we managed to Laç onto was Spike Morris (34), whom we found skulking for snacks by a supermarket. He told us he’d aimed for Laç with the intention of a scratch; “I just wanted it to stop”. Having clearly bonked hard earlier in the day, Spike had rallied after the input of some sugar, and now he was in a town with adequate resupply his chances of a finish were looking up. Still doing the calculations as we left him, the maths looks good so long as he can keep eating and keep those legs turning.

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Up ahead, Alain Rumpf (08) cleaned up the last of the top ten spots, as he arrived in Shkodër. After the initial applause had died down he immediately called his wife to celebrate. “Keep it clean” warned race reporter Tom Probert as Alain spoke to his family in front of the waiting crowd. “Thank you for letting me do this" he told his wife, “next one is TCR with Ben when he’s 18. You have 9 years to train, Ben. I have 9 years to try and stay fit!”. 

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At the tail of the race Thorsten Brönner (35), Andrew Hatton (04), James van der Hoorn (22), and Francois Bruyere (18) look unlikely to make the GC timecut (and also the bus home). Markku Leppälä (26) falls in the gap between Spike and the grupetto at the back, and may make the time-cut if he rides hard and suffers no mishaps along the way. 

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Scratch Report:

Michael Fidorra (29)

Oliver Neumann (31)

Joep van Luijt (23)

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