It is beautiful out there and I agree with the other past riders. You are correct in that you want your training to mimic the racing as much as possible but you can't do gravel roads, heat, cold, altitude, bears, 2 hour climbs etc here so you do the best you can.

You will be able to ride 99+% of it, a bit of tiredness may cause you to walk what you could normally ride so just get long 'easy' days on the bike on a regular basis. Over the last few months in particular concentrate on riding your bike loaded on two (or more) days back to back so that the body is used to it. And do some stretching as well and maybe some gym / all body work.

Giryan, I also am in Warwickshire, and am doing the Rawlinson bracket (Steve J is a good friend). Living here you are going to have to get creative, as there are no big hills or quality off road riding. I would suggest lots of general riding, and then visit selfsupporteduk.org and look at the ITT routes - and get a few under your belt (the Ridgeway double is a good starter route, then Pennine bridleway double and Trans Cambrian are all excellent training rides). The key is not physical ability, but will be 80%mental toughness for the TD. Fitness only makes life a bit easier......

Steve wilkinson did a couple of good write ups about the tour divide( or possibly the ctr) training, and he described how his preparation due to work commitments was poor. He wrote about doing the correct training was not how you felt during your rides on your weekend away. But how you could stomach food on the monday after a long weekend cycling. His blog is well worth a read to gleen information.
I have tried to google it, and cant find it but someone on this forum probably knows the web address.

Cheers

Chris

Whilst on this subject seeing as a few of those who replied to this thread have done it, how did you all organise getting back?

I'm planning on touring it with my son next year, we'll be starting late june as he needs to finish college. The best price I can find on flights means flying back from Phoenix, what's the best way to get from Antelope Wells to Phoenix? Shuttle services don't seem to go that far and it seems that most of the nearest towns to Antelope Wells don't have car hire. Any clues?

There's a few threads on bikepacking.net forums regarding extraction...but you could also try giving the folks at Gila Hike and Bike a call and see what they can tell you.

Greetz

S.

Ta, just sent them an email.....

hummerlicious, another option used by a number of racers is Lloyd and Roger Payne, 2 great guys that can arrange a pick-up run to/from Lordsburg or other places, they know the drill. I have an email for them but it's a couple of years old, google will find them if the mail doesn't work. PM me if you need it.

There are various people offering lifts. Someone called Michael got us out to Silver City but he was carrying on to Alberquerque with two other riders.

I used El Paso (to get to Portland and flew home from Seattle) which if you wanted to you could ride to as it is ~140 miles iirc.

It's a fantastic bike ride and easy enough to prepare for, unlike the HT550 which needs more than just cycling fitness.

Just ride your bike and chuck in as much adventure/exploring as you can.

Soaking up the View by Mountybiker, on Flickr

More photos from our trip herehttps://flic.kr/s/aHsjrMU996

^^ Smells like Wyoming just after Pinedale. I could be horribly wrong...but that seems to be the memory it's triggering.

Greetz

S.

Thank you all for what has been a great read of this old thread.

I am in the process of planning and preparing for my first TD attempt in 2022.

1 key influence was SwearyDave's YouTube video which absolutely inspired me.


Looking forward to reading through more of these threads as my prep continues.

[quote=fatpacker post_id=260503 time=1620772006 user_id=3947

1 key influence was SwearyDave's YouTube video which absolutely inspired
[/quote]

What even after the final scene? You’ll love it. I can’t wait to go back and do it again

Happy memories. Here's some random pics.

...and a few more.

Superb pics

I have raised with wife a few times how much i'd love to ride this for my 50th, still got 4 years til then, but by then my daughter, who is T1 diabetic will be 15 and hopefully capable of looking after herself full time, and with my wife working in the NHS, hopefully she may have actually caught up with her backlog of patients from COVID in 4 years time too!

It is between Tour Divide route, tour aotearoa as i'd like to go back to NZ, or the Peru Divide, as last time i was in Peru it was after horrific earthquakes 12-13 years ago and we missed a lot of it..

Richpips wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 10:58 am

Brilliant photo...

*sigh*

I miss it so much.

DSC00459-Edit.jpg by Greg.May, on Flickr

Ride your bike lots. Don't worry about the technicality too much. Only issues are dropping into Como and the section of the CDT in New Mexico.

DSC00930.jpg by Greg.May, on Flickr

I'll ride it one day, looks ace.

FLV wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 7:44 pm I'll ride it one day, looks ace.

Set the plan in motion. Not a day has passed where I haven't wanted to be back there.

Ditto.

Just do it. Not much else to say.

Apart from the doubts of whether i could actually do it, what stops me is leaving my family at home (the young un mainly) for that long.
A month feels a bigger stretch than 7 to 10 days which is more typical of any current planned trips

I’ll be going next year Dave, plus I know of at least one other,,,,,

slarge wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 9:22 pm I’ll be going next year Dave, plus I know of at least one other,,,,,

Jim's doing it next year too.

I want to but think 2023 or 2024 for me.
My thinking would be to leave a week earlier than the start date and aim for a chilled out 30 days or so to ride it all in daylight so I don't miss anything.
Leaving early would mean I'd get to and hopefully through the snow line with the race leaders, but wouldn't be too late to the hot sections down south.
Maybe I'm just over thinking it.
Plus a week earlier the start hotel at Banff wouldn't be full.

I left Banff at the end of July. Had a small rain shower just outside Helena, another outside Platoro and a night of pissing rain somewhere on a mountain in Colorado which didn't count as I was tucked up in my tent.

The only thing you need to think about leaving that late is how much sun cream to take and a lightweight jacket for the evening when you stop riding.