A GREENER ROAD

When it comes to eco initiatives, the Transcontinental ultra-distance race has a few ideas up its sleeve

- James Shrubsall

Let's imagine international bike racing gets its own end-of-season school report this year. For physical endeavour: A+. For spectacular scenery: A+. But when it comes to being eco-friendly, international bike racing would probably rather feed its report to the dog - it would almost certainly be issued with the dreaded 'could do better' in angry red capitals.

In fairness to the World Tour, for example, its very nature means its sizeable carbon footprint is not the easiest thing to tackle right now, though the UCI has decreed that it must be carbon neutral by 2030.

The Transcontinental Race (TCR), however, is a different beast. Occupying a small corner of cycle sport, along with other ultra-distance unsupported events, it has begun to take overt steps to reduce its effect on the environment this year by introducing something called the Green Leaderboard. This is a ranking reserved for riders who make their way to and from the race without resorting to air travel, with the fastest of these being recognised at the finish. Seventy-eight riders, a sizeable proportion of the 341 overall entrants, signed up for the initiative.

This year's event was the ninth edition, running from Geraardsbergen in Belgium to Thessaloniki in Greece a distance of around 4,000km - with all riders passing through four checkpoints along the way. Beyond that, route choice was largely theirs, but only those finishing within the 15-day cut-off (that's more than 260km riding per day), would be given a place on the official 'GC'. The TCR also offered 10 £250 grants this year to help with the extra costs associated with opting not to fly, and says that in future its selection criteria will take into account a rider's carbon footprint when travelling to and from the event.