Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFiona Kolbinger, 24, from Dresden, said she was \u201cso\nsurprised to win\u201d the Transcontinental, which traverses 2,485 miles (4,000km)\nfrom Burgas in Bulgaria to Brest in France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She took 10 days, two hours and 48 minutes to complete the\nchallenge, which included about 40,000 metres (131,000ft) of climbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kolbinger was one of 265 riders to begin the seventh edition\nof the race, which was started in 2013 by the British long-distance cyclist\nMike Hall, who was killed during a race in Australia in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Depending on their chosen route, participants can pass\nthrough Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Italy, Kosovo,\nSerbia, Slovenia and Switzerland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Riders are free to choose their own route, but must pass\nthrough four control points. Each checkpoint is accompanied by an obligatory\nspecific challenge, from gravel tracks to high-altitude climbs and steep\ngradients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These included climbing the 2,474-metre Timmelsjochpass in\nSouth Tyrol on the border between Italy and Austria, and traversing the\n2,645-metre Col du Galibier, one of the highest paved passes in the French\nAlps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kolbinger, a medical student at the paediatric oncology unit\nat the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, was one of 40 women to\nstart the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I was coming into the race, I thought that maybe I\ncould go for the women\u2019s podium, but I never thought I could win the whole race\n\u2026 I think I could have gone harder. I could have slept less,\u201d she said at the\nfinish line on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The clock does not stop after the riders set off from Burgas\non 28 July. Competitors choose where, when and if they want to rest. Riders can\nonly use what they take with them, or what they can find en route at\ncommercially available services, and are not to accept help from friends or\nstrangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The weather was extremely variable, organisers said: \u201cTo\ncomplete the course, they\u2019ve cycled through temperatures of up to 37C [98.6F]\nand as low as just four degrees above freezing. They\u2019ve suffered under the\nscorching sun, freezing rain, and rode through thunder and lightning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though Kolbinger finished comfortably ahead of her nearest\nrival, Ben Davies, who was still on the road seven hours after she crossed the\nline, her overall time was not a record-breaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
James Hayden, a Briton, finished last year\u2019s race in eight\ndays, 23 hours and 59 minutes, finishing 24 hours ahead of the second-placed\nrider. He also won the 2017 event and came fourth in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
German cancer researcher Fiona Kolbinger become the first woman to win one of the world\u2019s toughest cycling races in her first ultra-distance event. Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2019 Fiona Kolbinger, 24, from Dresden, said she was \u201cso surprised to win\u201d the Transcontinental, which traverses 2,485 miles (4,000km) from Burgas in Bulgaria to Brest in France. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[374],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-4470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-articles","tag-fiona-kolbinger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4473,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4470\/revisions\/4473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4470"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/offerexpiration?post=4470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}