Some stats from TCR
Distance (From lost dot) 4027km
Distance (from Garmin) 3843km
Total elevation 46,549m
Avg Power 131w
Normalised power 156w
Average speed (Garmin) 22.3kph
Overall I am pretty pleased with these stats, I was less than 2kph slower than the winner, I just had twice as much rest.
I am delighted with the power, there was a little reduction over time, but I think that this was primarily down to heat
Looking at finish rate: There were 316 solo and 16 pairs, so total 348 starters. 116 solo finished within GC, 2 pairs finished within GC, 3 riders who started in a pair finished as single riders within GC cutoff, but as they finished solo, not included in GC. So finish rate was 120 out of 348, which is 34%. Others have told me that this is the lowest ever finish percentage
Given how hard the course was, riding as a pair is significantly more challenging. Most people had some form of mechanical issue or had a bike crash, riding as a pair doubles the risk
Is there any breakdown by age?
Interesting, I would have thought the opposite:
I guess if you have different bikes, the first point may not be true and maybe after 10 days homicide is more likely than moral support 
So you finished about 90th IIRC? Top 25% roughly, despite losing about a day (?) to your BB and derailleur replacements.
Iām impressed and definitely more motivated from following you.
I suspect you might have got close to top 50 if youād taken the Komoot route rather than the coast and not had the second mechanical. I suspect thatās not very important to you though.
I am amazed that as of yesterday, the TCR inst account was still reporting riders approaching CP3! At that rate, some riders wonāt be finishing until September!?
On FB there was a post yesterday saying that the lanterne rouge had just got to CP3 in northern Albania
Han Liu from China is riding around 100km per day, she it taking a steady approach, however, suspect she will make it to Thessoloniki eventually. Apparently the trackers will be turned off on 20 Aug, Han will sill be a week away from the finish by then
All of the Instagram stuff I put up during TCR compiled together as a highlight reel thing.
A few words post TCR now Iām back to my desk 
First of all I think its one of the best things I have ever done. The experience is TRULY incredible, the way you get to see the continent is remarkable. Visiting amazing places you would never go unless you were doing this race. We are very lucky to live in such a diverse but compact continent, that probably isnāt replicated anywhere else in the world.
The highs and lows of ultra cycling are ridiculous and extreme and something you must embrace when doing this kinda thing and also be prepared for.
What worked and what didnāt work.
Training - Now I donāt know if Iām just an anomaly compared to most but I didnāt do THAT much bike training considering the pretty decent average speed we were able to keep up (when moving!) I probably did in the region of 3500km from the beginning of the year. I also didnāt do loads of ultra long distance rides either. Less than 4 over 200km and my longest was 275km, we did 540km in the first ādayā (28hrs). But I would stress getting some mountain/alpine climbing training in is certainly worth while. My weekend with @Matthew_Spooner set me up excellently! However I did continue with alot of strength and conditioning work. Some other riders where in shit states, aches, pains, kinisio tapeād up everywhere and Iāve also recovered pretty quickly. I put alot of this down to the large amount of gym work I do. A strong core will do you absolute wonders in this kinda thing. Sarah is back out running 28km already after a PT session.
Saddle height - Alot of knee, and leg joint pain can be fixed by tweaking you saddle height. A quick tweak and that knee pain will be gone the next day. Learn which way will affect what. In the end mine ended up being 1cm higher than my bike fit.
Bikes and tyre choice. Both worked fantastically. I wouldnāt change a thing. See my post above. Learn to ride gravel/off road. It seems alot of riders that take this on are predominantly hardcore roadies.
Tyre mushrooms to properly repair a tyre paid off. Also a screw on Schrader to presta adapter was invaluable! Meant we could use car tyre air compressors to pump up tyres.
Food. Our snack bag was usually filled with a mix of sweet and savory and worked nicely, a handful of haribo and nuts sounds disgusting right now but hit the spot. If you feel like you canāt eat, ice creams seem to do the trick. 0% beer is a great alternative to coke even if its less cal dense but its less ruinous to your tounge and mouth. Carrying a couple of 1000 cal dehydrated food pouches worked well when we got in late to a hotel and couldnāt get anything. However next time Iād take one that didnāt need hot water as an emergency backup as this probably would have got me to CP4. Trying to eat a mac and cheese one with cold water and hard pasta wasnāt happening!
Use high quality proven lights. eg see what other top ultra cyclists use and get those. My two lights, one lasted the first night fantastically but then died after being drenched for 200km. The second only worked when connected to an external battery bank. Thankfully Sarah had a dynamo light. I will be buying an exposure or supernova light soon.
Donāt listen too closely to other riders experiences of certain areas. The pair that came first, one of them walked the entire downhill section of parcours 3.
If you get behind your planned schedule, realise this early and chip away at the deficit 20km at a time (per day) and do not try and knock off a 60km chuck even at the time when your feeling great. That feeling can change very quickly!
Tubeless fluid will almost definitely need topping up during the race even though Iād put fresh new stuff in at the very beginning. Next time Iād take at least 2x 60ml Stans top ups.
Be more time efficient at stops this really eats into your overall time and something we really struggled with being disciplined at.
When you get utterly fatigued or completely into the pain cave, learn that this is temporary and you will recover and get back out. On these rough days thankfully I had Sarah who is experienced in this from her ultra distance running to convince me it WOULD pass. Iāve never experienced anything like it and it is rough. Being on the verge of tears and very emotional for no apparent reason seems to be a sure sign your in a deep hole, but you will get out if you keep moving, however slowly.
We are already looking forward to entering next year, with rumours of it being London to Istanbul.
So the official TCR result is outā¦ and I got a DQ
I received an email last week explaining the reason. It actually came as a shock: In Albania, I missed a right turn, as a result I rode on a banned road for 30km. My route was correct, however, I think that when i missed the turn garmin rerouted me onto the banned road. I was totally unaware that I had made an error (especially as the road was pretty quiet and no indicaton that it was dangerous)
It was the correct decision, shit happens, I guess i will apply for next yearās race
You sound absolutely gutted - almost likeā¦.
On a serious note - thatās pretty tough bad luck
Lordy wonder why this popped up, what a shitter. Next yearā¦ā¦
Gutted for you Matt.
Do you know why that road is banned? Is it a legal restriction or a race policy? That adds a whole new dimension to the race when tired.
Thatās harsh 
Does The Man look over everyoneās Strava for the race or do you suspect that someone bubbled you?
Good luck next year 
They download the ride data from the tracker that we all carried. I assume they have software that validates the route
Full DQ! Thats rough! I thought itād just be a heavy time penalty! Iāve just looked which road and its exactly the one I thought it would be. Missed the right turn or turned right too early?
Black line is my route which I think is what most people took.
@Bob They supply us with a map of banned and hazardous roads. The later there as just a ātake cautionā Usually there is a little explanation on why for each road or section. I canāt remember what this one said but it was probably something like its a busy main road or there have been multiple rider incidents on it in previous years would be my guess.
@Doonhamer GPS trackers, but they arenāt always super clear so will ask for Strava data to confirm anything. They also have a team of ādot watchersā to keep a rough eye on people, I suspect theyāll also flag things like riding on motorways, etc. They usually follow your instagram too. Ours were pretty friendly and sent some nice messages to us.
Itās pretty obvious where I went wrong. Just after I crossed the bridge there was a complex junction, I went right and should have turned left. Garmin re-routed automatically, I probably had a look at the route, and thought that it looked fine. This type of thing happened on a daily basis, it was just really unfortunate that it was on a banned road.
I have no idea why the road was banned, it is a road where cycling is permitted. As @Sowler says, there may have been an issue on this road when TCR went through Albania in 2019. It was a wide road, with plenty of space for cars to pass safely without crossing center line, in fact 10km stretch is part of the Euro Velo 8 (EV8) cycle route. Looks like 4 other riders made the same mistake as me.
As far as the rules go, it was very clear that riding on a banned road would result in a DQ. I should have remembered that this stretch was a banned road, @Sowler and I even discussed it. It may seem obvious sitting behind a desk, however, when you are tired, in the baking heat, decision making is impaired. Hopefully lesson learned
Thatās rough Matt but you are taking it with a mature attitude
