We investigated whether parallel reaction cycles might provide alternative pathways around the kinetic bottlenecks in the main rTCA cycle. The reaction exploration algorithm created two possibilities for discovering alternatives. First, reactions that might return off-cycle products to the main cycle intermediates. Second, reactions that could connect sequential off-cycle products into alternative cycles. Both possibilities proved mechanistically unfeasible with the side-products that were discovered. Note that only a subset of the reactions that are characterized converge to an intended TS. Out of the subset of side-products with intended TS, none could reconnect with the main cycle or another side-product through b2f2 reactions. The nearest connections possible required the simultaneous breaking and forming of four chemical bonds. Such complex transformations lie in energetically unfavorable regions of the potential energy surface, making TS localization computationally intractable. A complete list of the reaction and kinetic parameters is presented in Table (SI section 3). This finding suggests that kinetics more tightly circumscribe the range of parallel and partially overlapping cycles than is suggested by earlier studies that only considered the thermodynamics of alternative cycles.