TCRNo11 Day 11: A Rare Blend

Words by Jake Thorpe

Photos by Matt Grayson, Sam Dugon, Tom Gibbs, and Tomás Montes

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Well Held 

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Victor Bosoni (232) arrived in Constanța after 10 days 16 hours 38 minutes of racing across road, river, and sea. First to the Black Sea from the furthest reaches of Western Europe, the wild Atlantic coast, the young Frenchman’s victory is a watershed moment. A river of superlatives cascades in his wake. The first of a new decade of champions. The youngest TCR winner to date. The first Frenchman atop the podium. And, of course, the first to take a clean sweep of classification titles: the GC; the Green Leaderboard; and, more likely than not, the Maglia Arancia. His race has been charged with a rare blend of speed, strategy and souplesse; and in it, he has demonstrated a lucid understanding of what it takes to ride, self-supported, across a continent. He is a deserving winner.

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Having spent the night stuck north of the Danube, however, until Thursday morning, Victor’s win looked far from certain. The fallout from the uncrossable Friendship Bridge had left him staring down the barrel of another unbridled sprint for a ferry. But this time, the young Frenchman arrived at the dock on the wrong side of departure. With no signal on his phone, and a paucity of information on the ground, he bedded down in a nearby hotel for a fitful night’s rest. He had no idea whether Martin Moritz (297) might decide to attack, pushing through the night to get ahead on the finish parcours. 

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It was possible. Punishing, of course, but possible. Napkin calculations showed that, for Martin, an elapsed average speed of 19.4 km/h seemed enough to seal the deal, placing him an hour ahead on the Finish Parcours. And, as if by design, this precisely matched Martin’s elapsed average speed across the continent to this point. Continuing the metrical rhythm of his race until Constanța could have been enough to place him atop the podium. But with 4,500 km now beneath his wheels, another resolute day-long push was more than Martin could muster. 

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Victor, however, had no way of knowing. The only hairline crack in the young rider’s composure came on Thursday morning as he waited to cross the Danube, desperately hoping that his German rival hadn’t already reached the parcours. “I thought it would be easy to finish”, he sighed, awaiting the day’s first boat, “but in the TCR, it’s never easy.” Forced to ride on in ignorance of his rival’s position, Victor had only one option: to race the final stretch at full tilt. Knowing the spirit of the young Frenchman, however, given a different circumstance, I doubt he’d have done any different.

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After a 6 hour stop on the banks of the Danube, the end of Victor’s race felt like an homage to his strategy all along: prioritising rest, and riding like the wind. “It’s the best strategy for ultra,” he explained at the finish. “I hope everyone chooses to ride like this, with five hours’ sleep every night.”

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Perhaps the first TCR winner to arrive at the finish line well rested, Victor only then revealed why sleep had been especially vital this year. Battling a cold throughout, he’d been closely monitoring his recovery. “Some days I couldn’t breathe,” he admitted. Which begs the question: just how fast might the Pocket Rocket have been at full power?

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Horses for Courses
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At the finish line, Martin was nothing but gracious, exalting the effort of his rival and his admiration of Victor’s race, much more than that of his own. He brought the same good-humour and humility to all points of the race. Racing with the levity necessary to ride the waves of a continental traverse, even in exhaustion, Martin gave to others more than he kept for himself. 

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Despite having several podium positions in various races – both as a solo rider and as a pair – to his palmarès, Martin nevertheless arrived to Santiago’s start line as a relatively unknown entity in the world of ultra. Surrounded by such a prolific field of prominent racers, it’s unlikely that his name would’ve arisen in the many speculative discussions that pave the way to the start line of every TCR. That has now changed. 

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Having put in the ride of a lifetime to reach Bari’s first feasible ferry crossing, Martin admitted that, by the Balkans, he had nothing left to give. But, in this edition, a front-weighted strategy turned out to be the right one. There are horses for courses. And Martin, however deferential he might be of his own performance, was undoubtedly the charger for this particular occasion.

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The winner came down to welcome him to Constanța’s finish line. The two, having endured such an experience in parallel, already appeared firm friends.

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Trading Places

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While the first few dots concluded their journey across a continent, back in Bulgaria, the race pulsed stronger than ever. So close now, to the finish line, the opaque attrition of the chasing pack has started to dissipate and finish line positions have begun to glimmer with glittering appeal. Strategies have suddenly snapped into focus.

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On Thursday, for the first time since Santiago, Cynthia Carson (137) was leading the women’s field. Having edged ahead of Jana Kesenheimer (001) on Wednesday evening, by the early hours of Thursday morning, Cynthia had stretched her lead over the German to nearly 40 km. Keeping a marginal hold of this advantage throughout the day, Cynthia cast fresh doubt on Jana’s bid to retain the title of Fastest Woman for a second consecutive year. 

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The leap had, however, been made on borrowed time. While Jana, in a conscious decision “not to step into the sleep game” had stuck to her regular schedule, bedding down for several hours near Kumanovo, Cynthia had set in for a long night in the saddle, stopping for no more than an hour to bivvy on a petrol forecourt before pushing on. 

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Throughout the day, Jana, well-rested by comparison, slowly reeled in the American. As evening fell, the German pressed on towards Pleven, hoping to leave herself a manageable final chunk to Constanța, while Cynthia, catching up on the previous night’s exertion, slept. It looks possible that the tables have turned once more – and, quite possibly, for the final time.

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The Key to Happiness? Topping up your Börek Battery

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While Jana and Cynthia sped, neck and neck, through the Serbian countryside on Thursday morning, the crew in Control Car 2 caught up with Lael Wilcox (112) recharging her börek battery in a rural bakery. Having spent the night in a monastery after her planned hotel, still 50 kilometres away by sundown, lingered just beyond reach, the Alaskan seemed imbued with a sense of spiritual serenity.

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While a little further back than planned, following her tyre troubles on the off-road approach to Burrel, Lael had been reflecting on her race and its aims. Now a decade into her racing career, she has spent most of that at the head of the women’s field, if not the total field. This time, however, competing with such a strong batch of other riders, the Alaskan has had to ask what she’s out here to do, and make peace with the answer. Throughout the race, she explained, decisions have been made on the grounds of keeping the joy of racing alive. It’s obvious to anyone who has had the pleasure of listening to her infectiously exuberant dispatches from the saddle along the way, that this has been a successful endeavour.

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Scratch Report 

Oskar Gubo (062) – Rider scratched 13:02 CEST 8/8 via WhatsApp due to heatstroke.

Alice Grindheim (016) – Rider scratched 11:33 CEST 8/8 via WhatsApp - no reason given.

Manuel Dixken (390b) – Rider scratched 7:35 CEST 8/8 via email - no reason given. His pairs partner will continue.

Andras C. Dombi (172) – Rider scratched 22:47 CEST 7/8 via WhatsApp due to fatigue.

Oleksandr Holokhvastov (295) – Rider scratched 20:14 CEST 7/8 via email - no reason given.

Anne Muuh (161) – Rider scratched 21:40 CEST 7/8 via SMS due to a lack of motivation.

Daniel Drucker (163) – Rider scratched 18:45 CEST 7/8 via WhatsApp due to missing CP3 cutoff.

Marco Heimgartner (113) – Rider scratched 11:28 CEST 7/8 via email due to illness.

Jesper Avén (369) – Rider scratched 14:18 CEST 7/8 via WhatsApp - no reason given.

Kristína Galatová (174) – Rider scratched 12:59 CEST 7/8 via WhatsApp due to mental fatigue.

Christopher Partridge (067) – Rider scratched 10:10 CEST 7/8 via WhatsApp due to knee pain.

Christian Lampe (098) – Rider scratched 9:05 CEST 7/8 via email due to missing CP3 cutoff.

Wolfram Stolpe (216) – Rider scratched 22:50 CEST 6/8 via WhatsApp - no reason given.

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