Torsten Frank

TCRNo11 #bikepacking #ultracycling Now it gets (even more) interesting. The last (split in 2) gravel parcours shook things up, with @straps_377 falling (apparently literally) a bit behind and @victorbozo flying over it.

TCRNo11 @thetranscontinental Can anyone make the midnight ferry tonite? @dotwatchercc did the maths and it seems just ever so close possible for @_martin.mo but not for the others. Would be cool for him but a bummer for us wanting a still open race. & [a Next ferry then would be 13 hours later. And for the women and thus @jananas.banjana followed by @watt_wagon and @laelwilcox it's either Monday 23:59 or then a full 24 hours later. So much can happen still...

Who will make the ferry? And which?
#TCRNo11
#bikepacking #ultracycling

... They brought quite the crew to feature #TCRNo11 and do great work.

And - might we see some breaching of the unsupported spirit, blatant rule breaking and subsequent actions by Lost Dot at the very tip of the race?

Screenshot of my Instagram-Story showing the tracker map of TCRNo11 from Aug, 2nd 2025 with a massive dot field spread across southern Europe and text by me.

Love me some good dot watching. And the Transcontinental provides!

Look at that massively spread out field across Europe!

In the front it's also very interesting. With the [...] reporting on the TCR website itself but also enjoying the insights of dotwatcher.cc. ...

#bikepacking #ultracycling

Breite Aero-Laufradsätze und Felgen für Gravel, Allroad und Rennrad Am Ende dieses Artikels findet ihr eine aktuelle Marktübersicht an Aero-Felgen / -Laufradsätzen mit Außenweiten größer 34 mm (33,7 mm) und Höhen größer 35 mm. Alle sind tubeless ready und 700c Lauf…

Heute aktualisiert: Breite Aero-Laufradsätze und Felgen für Gravel, Allroad und Rennrad torstenfrank.wordpress.com/2025/03/17/b...

#radfahren #cycling #aeroiseverything

Ultracycling-Belastungssymptome und wie man sie vermeidet – Bestandsaufnahme nach dem Hellenic Mountain Race Lange Tage im Sattel und die dann mehrere Male hintereinander gereiht – etwa über eine ganze Woche oder gar zwei – das bleibt nicht ohne Auswirkungen auf den Körper. Idealerweise ist ma…

Neuer Blog-Artikel: "Ultracycling-Belastungssymptome und wie man sie vermeidet – Bestandsaufnahme nach dem Hellenic Mountain Race"
torstenfrank.wordpress.com/2025/07/08/u...
#radfahren #weitradeln #cycling #ultracycling #bikepacking #Vorbereitung

A @cyclite.cc Aero Bar Bag on an aerobar equipped bike even safes a whopping 6 watts at 36 km/h and 11.1 watts at 44 km/h! And holds 4.9 l.

So the @apidura Aero System saves you 5 Watts averaged over 36 and 44 km/h. And is said to hold 2.2 l for the S/M version.

Lets see then:
A @tailfincycling AeroPack safes me 3.1 Watt sat 36 km/h and 5.6 Watts at 44 km/h. And this one holds up to 22 l.

And ...

Aerodynamik von Bikepacking-Taschen. Diese Taschen machen dich schneller! Mein bisher aufwendigster Vergleichstest, den ich je durchgeführt habe. Das ich mir Zeit nehme, Dinge über viele Fahrten teste, auch konkrete Vergleiche Seite an Seite durchführe – das kennt …

... conventional Seat Packs vs a Tailfin Aeropack and the effect of panniers of various sizes:

torstenfrank.wordpress.com/2021/12/07/a...

This gives me opportunity to show you how you could gain the same watts and more already for years. :)

But of course : Horses for courses. :)

Nevertheless: In 2021 I published a big article on aerotesting of several typical bikepacking bag setups. Focused on Handlebar options and ...

Nice - Apidura officially released their Aero System.

A set of a top tube bag and small wedge type frame bag aimed towards fast day rides like e.g. gravel races.

Making your bike on average 5 watts faster than w/o these bags :)

www.apidura.com/aero-system/

#Gravel #racing #bikepacking

First impressions on the Koga Denham Bar:

www.instagram.com/p/DLNmbDAsjl...

Mission: Finding a long ride / touring / bikepacking suitable flatbar configuration for me, version 10 or so.

#enduranceriding
#cycling
#flatbar
#mtbcockpits
#KogaDenhamBar
#Denhambar
#Altbar
#InnerBarEnds

It’s now exactly 3 weeks since the Hellenic Mountain Race endet...
www.instagram.com/p/DLLF_XXM00...

#bikepacking #Ultracycling #HMR2025

Hellenic Mountain Race 2025 in Zahlen und verglichen mit Alps Divide und El Piri – OMG, so viel Schieben… This article is also available in English. You can find it over here. Ich komme frisch von der dritten Ausgabe des Hellenic Mountain Race (HMR) zurück, welches – ihr habt’s erraten &#82…

Wenn Ihr lieber die deutsche Version lesen möchtet: torstenfrank.wordpress.com/2025/06/18/h...

Hellenic Mountain Race 2025 by the numbers and compared to Alps Divide and El Piri – OMG, it’s so much hiking… This article is also available in German. Suchst du nach der deutschen Version? Folge diesem Link. I just finished the third edition of the Hellenic Mountain Race in – you guessed it &#8…

This article has you covered: torstenfrank.wordpress.com/2025/06/18/h...

#bikepacking #ultracycling #cycling #HMR2025 #AlpsDivide #ElPiri

Wonder how...

I rate Hellenic Mountain Race,
Alps Divide Ultra Challenge &
El Piri in terms of technicality,
overall route difficulty etc.?

Which of those I would love to do again sometime?

How much hiking each demanded of me?

And also how you could
quantify this for yourself?

Cool to know :) Also good to know that at least KMC and YBN are aware.

Hellenic Mountain Race 2025 in Zahlen und verglichen mit Alps Divide und El Piri – OMG, so viel Schieben… This article is also available in English. You can find it over here. Ich komme frisch von der dritten Ausgabe des Hellenic Mountain Race (HMR) zurück, welches – ihr habt’s erraten &#82…

Neu auf meinem Blog:

"Hellenic Mountain Race 2025 in Zahlen und verglichen mit Alps Divide und El Piri – OMG, so viel Schieben…"

Gibt es in Deutsch und Englisch (beide Versionen verlinken sich gegenseitig).

torstenfrank.wordpress.com/2025/06/18/h...

#bikepacking #ultracycling #HMR2025

Torsten Frank (@tfrank_de@mastodon.social) 748 Posts, 18 Following, 250 Followers · Meistens über's radfahren / mostly cycling related / Bikepacking, Science, Nerd stuff Find most of my stuff here: https://torstenfrank.wordpress.com or her...

To read how this post would read in actual better conveying but still not long by any means sentences simply look at my Threads or at my Mastodon: mastodon.social/@tfrank_de

Improve on the character count, @bsky.app

I bet the surface treatment to make that purple Sram force chain purple will be crap for actual longevity (+ maybe efficiency) for wax based lubricants (hot and drip). I think I read somewhere that's the case for the existing rainbow effect Prolly @ ZeroFrictionCycling?

#Sram #Force #chain #cycling

Melissourgitikos Coming from Metsovo over Sirrako and then nearing the second Controlpoint of the race I had one of the most vivid sceneries of the Hellenic Mountain Race open up in front of me. Quite a bit more open ...

www.flickr.com/photos/huege...

Instastory showing my just aquired Koga Denham Bar.

Dropbars are great, for many reasons. But I don't give up on my quest for a good flatbar / alt bar configuration! Enter: the Koga Denham Bar. I'll mount it on my full sus and report what I find. :)

#mtb #flatbar #altbar

Is Wax lubrication for Bikepacking a good idea? Since this article started as an Instagram post but then quickly grew beyond it is currently only available in this English version. International readers, rejoice! :) I’m currently testing w…

... a waxed drive train is a clean affair and causes less wear (both a non-issue if you actually know what you are doing) - I got you covered: torstenfrank.wordpress.com/2024/12/03/i...

#cycling #radfahren #drivetrain #Kette

Should you want to find a few arguments pro and con for waxing especially in regard to bikepacking racing and ultra cycling and if you actually want it for efficiency improvement and not because everybody says ...

a screenshot of a video insta story of Torsten Frank showing a pot with molten wax and an immersed bicycle chain.

Immersive Waxing... wrote about it why it's so-so for ultracycling and actually confirmed it sort of because the wax only lasted to the first thunderstorm and not even the first 12 hours of the race... Oh well - it got waxed again as I'm now at home again and for daily riding it's fine. 😅

A one-stage linear mixed effects model meta-analysis based on our individual participant dataset (but not peer reviewed) showing individual athlete percentage change scores for both VO2max (maximal oxygen uptake) and time-trial (TT) performance, for 236 trained athletes in 6 studies. The relationship (correlation) between change in VO2max and change in performance was not significant and not meaningful. The overall change in VO2max only explained around 25% of the total variance in the change in endurance performance, across athletes.

In our recent meta-analysis with trained athletes, did the athletes who improved their VO2max more also improve their endurance performance more?🤔

No! 😮
In this dataset, +1% improvement in VO2max was associated with a negligible +0.04% change in TT performance. But why? 1/15🧵

"Where to start? Maybe here on 1741 meters above sea level on the top of a steep unpaved road leading over a saddle east of mount Kaliakouda..."

#bikepacking #HMR2025 #ultracycling

www.instagram.com/p/DKehg76oVM...

So maybe a real "SuperGravel" (as I started to call #DropbarMTB '#Gravel #MTB #fullsus #Trek #Prototype #cycling

(more characters @bsky.app , more characters... make yourself valid)

Instagram story by Torsten Frank, showing a photo with an as of yet unreleased full suspension bike from Trek.

New Trek prototype spotted. Posted this yesterday on my Insta (always the most and most up to date posts I share: www.instagram.com/torsten_frank/). Justinas rode (and won) Transbalkan Race on what seems to be a completely new full suspension from Trek. But a very short travelled one?

Screenshot crop of Intervals.icu witj manually marked HAB intervals.

Summary of the intervals of stint 3

Started analyzing my hike-a-bikes in the Hellenic Mountain Race. That's stint 3 (reaching CP1) and the 1st HAB is 1 h 12 mins up the single trail of Muntis Smolikas.

In total it was nearly 3 hrs of HAB this day. Up and Down.
#Bikepacking #HMR2025

Tomorrow we race.
Hellenic Mountain Race starts at 9 am Saturday morning in Meteora, Greece.

If you want to follow me:
I'm cap 166 and you'll find the tracker at:
hmr25.maprogress.com

#bikepacking #ultracycling #HMR2025cap166