Christoph Strasser in an interview after his victory in the Transcontinental Race: "Route planning and bike set-up were the biggest challenges"

Christoph Strasser, an extreme athlete from Austria, is known for his victorious participation in ultra-distance cycling races such as the Race Around Austria and the Race Across America (RAAM). In the summer of 2022, he ventured into the Transcontinental Racea race in which support is not permitted. Strasser assigns the Transcontinental Race the same status in the unsupported scene as the RAAM in the field of ultracycling races with support.

Transcontinental Race explained

The Transcontinental Race, or TCR for short, is an unsupported ultra-distance cycling race across Europe. Participants have to cycle from Gerardsbergen in Belgium to Burgas in Bulgaria - or the other way round next year. There are only a few checkpoints on the route, at each of which there is a stamp, and fixed courses that everyone has to complete. Everything in between is left to the participants themselves. The route planning is therefore in their own hands.

Participants are on their own for the entire duration of the race - if you start in a team of two, you can help each other. Support along the route or from outside is not permitted. Hotels may not be pre-booked, and neither may friends or family members during the race. Everyone must organise their own food, drink, sleeping accommodation and bike repairs. Of course, bike shops, restaurants, hotels and shopping facilities may be used - however, staying overnight with friends who live along the route is not permitted.

A conversation with Christoph Strasser

TOUR: Why did you decide to take part in a race without support?

Strasser: I've followed the Transcontinental Race with great interest for many years. I thought it would be great to take part in it myself. This year there were two reasons to take part.

1. The Race Across America requires a lot of advance planning. Flights, for example, should be booked at least six months in advance. But we were still in lockdown at the time. So there was a lot of uncertainty.
2. Corona can of course also affect the team. An event like the TCR seemed much safer and easier. In a race with support, the problem is big if just one of the team is cancelled due to coronavirus.

Unsupported therefore seemed to me to be the safer option. And because I had always wanted to try it, I thought: if not now, then when?

You competed as a professional athlete. Were you worried that this might not be what you wanted?

I had exactly these concerns. Perhaps the organisers don't want professional cyclists as participants. That's why I wrote an email to each of the two big events across Europe, the Northcape4000 (editor's note: from Rovereto, Italy, to the North Cape) and the Transcontinental Race, asking for their opinion and whether I could take part. I got a reply from the former: sign up if you want to. I found the response from the TCR more inviting: they thought it would be great and would be delighted. I registered for both in case one of them couldn't take place. I also paid the registration fees as normal.

Why did you decide to take part in the Transcontinental Race?

Right from the start, the Transcontinental Race appealed to me more. The TCR is labelled as a race, while the Northcape4000 is more of an adventure. And when it became clear that people like Ulrich Bartholmoes and Adam Bialek would be competing in the TCR, I knew I had to be there. It was going to be exciting!

However, I also had concerns about the roads and traffic in Eastern Europe and the proximity to Ukraine. Ultimately, Austria is just as close to Ukraine. As bitter as the situation is there, you don't necessarily notice it in the neighbouring countries.

In the end, I'm glad I did the TCR and not the Northcape4000. The Transcontinental Race was my favourite from the start, partly because it is such a prestigious race.

What was your goal when you started?

I had great respect for traffic and lorries in particular. My biggest goal was to get home safe and sound. That was definitely my priority.

Supported vs. unsupported

What were the biggest challenges for you when comparing racing with and without assistance?

There are two points to mention: Route planning and bike set-up.

When it came to planning the route, I spent a long time deliberating between the Northcape4000 and the Transcontinental Race. The former has a prescribed route, whereas with the TCR you have to plan it yourself. I spent weeks fine-tuning my route. And I think I made the biggest mistakes when planning the route. Or to put it another way: I still have a lot to learn. I actually double and triple-checked many roads: with Strava Heatmap, Komoot and Google Streetview. Nevertheless, I often found really bad roads. I also realised that I often rode completely wrong, i.e. not on my planned route. This would probably not happen to a good unsupported rider.

On the subject of equipment: I didn't really have a plan. So I listened to podcasts, read reports and books. I was able to learn a lot from others who talked about their set-up.

For a long time, I thought back and forth about how to solve the problem with the electronic devices - with a hub dynamo or power banks. And then again, there are countless options for charging sat navs and mobile phones via the dynamo. I finally decided in favour of one option, but then the part wasn't available, so I had to change my plans. I also needed a new wheel for the dynamo because of the number of spokes. Two weeks before the race, the electronics set-up was finalised. The light broke due to incorrect wiring. I installed the new front light a week before the race.

In my previous races with team support, I had practically unlimited space and could also carry 50 spare inner tubes. It's different in a race without support. I had to think about what worst-case scenarios I wanted to be prepared for.

It was easy for me to decide how many bags to take, what clothes I needed and what else to pack.

Is the state of mind different in a race without support?

Definitely. With support, it's much harder for me physically and mentally because you work harder. I realised I couldn't do it the way I usually do. With only 40 minutes of sleep, the symptoms of sleep deprivation such as hallucinations are too great. You are then simply no longer able to make decisions. But you have to stay much clearer in your head during the TCR than during the RAAM - you don't need to think anything, and you shouldn't think anything. I always tried to sleep for three hours, so the sleep deprivation is much less. Nevertheless, between four and seven o'clock in the morning I had to battle with microsleep again and again. Sometimes a short power nap in the morning helped me, sometimes I recorded voice messages. There were no people to communicate with to keep me awake.

Unsupported is so complicated! I often just wanted to cycle. But you have to stop and shop, you have to stop to check the route, you have to check something on the bike or book something.

Preparation: "Cash for all countries"

How did your preparation for the Transcontinental Race differ from that for races like the RAAM?

My training was completely the same.

I actually wanted to try sleeping outside, but I didn't. I once did a training ride, a night ride. I actually wanted to lie down somewhere to sleep. But then I could also be at home at five in the morning and sleep there. Then I wanted to sleep outside in the garden, but since that's completely different to being on the road anyway, I didn't do that either. The last time I slept in a sleeping bag was about ten years ago.

Further preparations were:

• I got cash for all countries in advance.
• I translated 20 questions into different languages and had screenshots of them on my mobile phone. Questions like: Where can I get food? Where is there accommodation?

Christoph Strasser's packing list for the TCR

What did you have with you?

I had a sleeping bag and a bivouac sack with me for sleeping. No mat, as it takes so much time to pack and unpack. And it's not that much more comfortable. But it was uncomfortable on the concrete or tiled floor. I often used my winter jacket as a base layer or leg warmers if I wasn't wearing them. I didn't use the bivouac sack.

Many people have two navigation devices with them. I decided to take two mobile phones with me in case I lost one. The mobile phone was my life insurance, so to speak. I can navigate with the sat nav, which is also possible with the mobile phone, but I can do a lot more with it: book rooms, check opening times, find ATMs... After 24 hours, one of the phones was broken and could no longer be charged because water had got into the charging socket.

As few breaks as possible

What did your typical day at the Transcontinental Race look like?

Cycling with as few breaks as possible and three hours of sleep per night.

I had planned to take the race easy and increase my speed and reduce my sleep towards the end. I saw the section up to checkpoint 1 as a warm-up, up to checkpoint 2 I wanted to develop a routine and then speed up and accelerate to checkpoint 3. That's exactly how it worked. I always knew that I would make mistakes. But I have to accept them and learn from them. In the first half of the race, I always wanted to sleep for three hours. My breaks were from about zero to four o'clock at night. Between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., i.e. as long as the sun was out, I pushed hard. Of course, I tried to take as few breaks as possible and only stopped when necessary.

Eating and sleeping

What did you eat?

I quickly realised that only petrol stations are really suitable for shopping, everything else takes too long. They mostly had Snickers, triangular sandwiches and those packaged 7days croissants. Plus mainly water, cola, espresso and sometimes chips. Fries are a good option, especially because of the salt.

How and where did you sleep?

My plan was to alternate between booking a room and sleeping outside. Sometimes it was a bus stop, sometimes a tiled vestibule of a shop. I found the search for suitable places to sleep tedious, others are much better at that. Sometimes I spent half an hour looking for a suitable place and then only cycled five kilometres in those 30 minutes because I had to look carefully and kept stopping to realise that it wasn't suitable here after all, so I had to move on. I can definitely still learn something from that.

I slept outside for the last three nights, so at some point it didn't matter. My clothes were wet, my sleeping bag was wet and it drizzled sometimes.

Have you eaten less than usual?

I can't say that. At the RAAM there is a nutrition plan and a log. At the TCR, I just ate and didn't keep a log.

The

Has the lack of planning affected your body?

More on the psyche. When roadworks blocked my progress again, bridges were torn down or I got off the route. I prepared myself for course 4, which was good. I had been there for a few days beforehand. So I knew what to expect and I got through without any mishaps or crashes. If I had seen the section of the track for the first time during the race, it would probably have looked completely different and I would have cursed the race organisers. Of course, I still ask myself whether such an MTB section is necessary.

Did you have any physical complaints?

Actually just numb fingers. One hand is still a bit weak and numb, but it's getting better. Nothing else. I had no knee problems and no sitting problems. I was extremely surprised, in a positive sense, that I had no problems with digestion. With about 15 Snickers and 3 litres of cola a day, I would have expected otherwise.

A coke with Ulrich Bartholmoes was almost fatal

Keyword: Cola with Ulrich Bartholmoes - Did the discussion about this already occupy you during the race?

That was terrible! I panicked that we would be disqualified. At the finish there was an eight-eye conversation with the two race organisers, Ulrich Bartholmoes and myself, and fortunately we were able to clarify the situation.

I always thought that I would take extra care and pay special attention to what I was doing, because there would certainly be a lot of eyes on me. I studied the race manual very carefully. Ulrich and I were perhaps even the only ones with a bell on our bikes, as this is mandatory in some countries.

*Christoph Strasser and Ulrich Bartholmoes met after 3500 kilometres in the middle of the race and wanted to celebrate the moment with a shared Coke. Bartholmoes' bank card didn't work, so Strasser lent him some money. Is it supportive if one lends the other money? Are they both disqualified? These were the questions that arose.

Did you have problems finding shopping facilities?

I never really had that problem. Sometimes I found the nearest petrol station half an hour or an hour later than I would have liked, but I was never short of fuel.

How was the contact with the other participants in the Transcontinental Race?

Extremely nice. The interaction with each other was very respectful, we simply talked to each other, made small talk, perhaps about problems that had arisen so far. I sometimes rode side by side with Krystian Jakubek, the second-placed rider, on the Reschen Pass or at a distance of 100 metres. We met again and again and laughed together because we couldn't leave each other behind. There were also nice situations when someone suddenly turned off and an hour later came back onto my route from the other side.

Getting to know the people was really one of the best experiences I had at the Transcontinental Race. No bragging, no self-promotion, mutual appreciation. I've experienced this differently at other events - when people think they are the superstars.

Would you like to see more professionals taking part in races like the Transcontinental Race?

That's a difficult question. The power density was already very high, I haven't experienced that at the RAAM for many years. I would find it exciting, but of course there is also the question of whether that is what is wanted. Whether the spirit of the event might be lost as a result. That's why I asked the organisers in advance whether it would be okay for me to take part.

Will you do it again? What are your next plans?

I don't know - anything is possible. The TCR is appealing to me again.

Want to find out more about Christoph Strasser and ultra-distance cycling in all its forms?

"Sitzfleisch" - The podcast with Florian Kraschitzer and Christoph Strasser