I’ll do an insta update tomorrow, but parcours 3 was terrible. The 17km gravel climb / hike was bad enough…. The 33k descent was one of those life experiences I wish never to repeat
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When I zoomed in, it looked like about a 10-12km hike between Parcours?
My tracker is playing up. I am with Sarah still fear not!
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Matt on the road again after a breakfast stop. It’s weird isn’t it looking at his dot and seeing it stopped in some cafe/restaurant. Anyway, looks like the route is into North Macedonia then back into Albania before hitting Greece. Sowler also into Albania too and tracker seems to be working. Looks like he’s with his partner stopped ‘somewhere’
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Strasser is only going to have the fastest time for 1 of the 5 segments. Consistency rules. I’m guessing he has some of the lowest sleep numbers!
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I see that they have DQ the third rider home for not riding on his own.
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Was it an outside rider? Otherwise they’d have to DQ more than one.
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No, just one. Maybe he was reported by other riders for wheel sucking?
Or had someone supporting him from a car?
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“Extended periods” suggests premeditated support.
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Surely he should just get a blue card and 5 mins in the penalty tent…
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Just listened to Matt’s daily video, yesterday afternoon sounded horrendous
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Aye, a couple of very trying days with yesterday’s parcour being particularly grim. I hope today is a bit more forgiving & he gets the opportunity to recover somewhat from his case of Shermer’s Neck.
I’m sure he appreciated the way he was able to end yesterday’s hell with great memories of his hotel & meal.
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I’m loving his updates.
Sounded awful, particularly the no barrier bit, what an experience with his hotel 
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What was the Hotel thing? I saw his pics of the dirt track on FB.
I’m surprised these days that you can just tip-up at a hotel and they have space for you. Seems very 20th Century!
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He managed to find a pretty rundown hotel for something like 15€, ‘back in the day’ it would have been quite lux but is now in a bit of a state. Anyway, despite the late arrival hour the staff phoned the chef up to come back and rustle up something for Matt - sounds like he did really well.
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Albania? Apparently it’s ‘up & coming’ but I’m not convinced with the family!
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Yes!
Matt has said the roads are shit but you can easily get water, coke and a coffee. Admittedly not on your usual priority list when holidaying.
I have heard the beaches are nice there though
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I think if you want to win these things a lot comes down to just how little sleep you can get.
When Cracknell did the Yukon Arctic Ultra on the bike he was racing another British bloke. Crackers was ahead at the first CP by some distance but he was having to sleep 6 hours because of his brain injury. The other chap rolled in and left after 2 hours so was way ahead.
Just catching on on Matt’s IG updates, yesterday sounded horrific. Times like that where its as much a mental challenge as physical, must have wanted to jack it in I would imgaine
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Well worth a visit before it gets spoilt. Coastal areas are lovely and main roads are fine - minor roads are shit. A country of contrasts with the rich and their huge SUVs (probably drug money) and locals with horse and cart transport. Drove through there in 2019 with the motor home and would go back.
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I read a book about Albania, written by a journalist who travelled around it in the mid 90s, between Hoxha’s attempt at being North Korea and the anarchy that followed.
He was constantly worried about being shot or knifed to death. It sounded like government and infrastructure had broken down, leaving a population who expected the government to support them and didn’t have the wherewithal to change. For example, a lot of the collective farms were no longer producing crops as the workers had come to rely on UN aid.
Sounds like it’s taken a generation to start the process of becoming a modern state.
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