Fiona Kolbinger wins Transcontinental Race

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StuAff

Silencing his legs regularly
Location
Portsmouth
Well done to Fiona.

There are three reasons why I was less than completely surprised she won.
  1. One is that she is a friend and regular riding companion of @redfalo and he has been telling me how good she is for the last couple of years.
  2. The second is that, having recently moved to Dresden she has ridden a lot with Bjorn Lenhard, and he has reported her dropping him on climbs.
  3. Finally, women have a very good record in winning ultra-races with Lael Wilcox in TABR 2016 and Sarah Hammond winning Race to the Rock on all three occasions it has been run.
I've not done the maths but it may well be that, given there are far fewer female entrants, women may have a better success rate than men across the top half dozen ultra-races. This ties in with men having an advantage in events where explosive power is helpful, but, as the benefit of this tends to zero with longer events, it appears that the male advantage also tends to zero. It was noticeable to me riding this year how the women's field is so much stronger than in 2016. I regularly met and was passed by women riders, and this just didn't happen three years ago where only Emily Chappel was in the front half of the race.

FWIW Fiona was the first person to win TCR on a carbon bike and the first German winner.
I knew her name, courtesy of Olaf, I knew they were riding buddies, but nothing else…until, obviously, those first few days, the rockstar comment from James Hayden, checking out her Strava history…and it was clear that her performance wasn't just luck, she had a remarkable aptitude for this kind of riding and she'd put the work in to get to this extraordinary level. I think even if Bjorn and Jonathan had been fully fit,
she'd have given them a run for their money, at least. Whatever she does in future on the cycling front is going to be worth watching…
 

Ivo

Well-Known Member
Location
Maastricht
In LEL her strength was already visible, especially her mental strength.
 

StuAff

Silencing his legs regularly
Location
Portsmouth
…and she rode into Paris ready for the start of PBP yesterday. Set off on Monday. She's been slightly more 'touristy'. Detoured to Mont St Michel on Wednesday, did the Champs Elysees on her run through Paris, slightly more faffage…that said, Wednesday: 136.08 miles, 8,484m climbing, moving average 16.9 mph, elapsed time 10:40. Thursday: 97.55 miles, 2,923ft, 18.6 mph average, 10:09 elapsed. Blimey.
 
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