Managed to get a place this year and im currently in full training mode. Got a week with Doug (basquemtb) first though to get my descending back into shape after a winter with not much riding.

I’ll be there. Currently in Spain with my dented Tracer 2, getting the vertical metres in. Can hardly wait, but a bit apprehensive whether or not I’ll have the fitness to survive (esp. Days 4 and 5)! 🙂

Akip, I know exactly what you mean. When I saw the amount of vertical for the week I got a rude awakening. But I honestly can’t wait.

Do you have a training plan thought out? (mine currently is simply to ride my bikes alot!)

Na not at all, just get it in the mountains as much as possible. I live in dundee so have the Cairngorm’s about an hour away and the borders 2 hours away. I did the TransSavoie last year and the shear length of descending was a brutal eye opener. The longest was 32 minutes. On the flip side the best advice I got was to just do your best and enjoy the experience.

Sounds good! I live in Helsinki, where the highest available hill anywhere close by is all of 60m vertical.

I’m not too worried about long descents alone funnily enough, more the transitions and climbs taking everything out of me before the timed stages. So far in 5 days riding here near Malaga (one rest day in the middle), I’ve done 4900 metres total climbing on the bike. This afternoon I felt fine on the 900m (half road, half not) climb, but the same descent (25mins) as yesterday morning felt much, much worse. No legs left, and bike control was all over the place.

The thing for me was getting my nutrition right for long days in the saddle. It makes a massive difference if you can get your energy levels sorted. Tri carb from my protein in my camelbak turned out to be a godsend. And plenty of red wine at night 😀

I’ll be there too, although not on the bike. Timing/lunch/coffee&haribo bitch.

Awesome event, it really is.

Jon, will be good to see you buddy. 😀

Thread bump.

This is just around the corner. Already! And I am bricking it. 🙂

You ready mactheknife?

I am buddy, been riding loads recently. Just been down and ridden the 2 practice days of the EWS in Peebles. Battered my shoulder which has aggravated an old injury but ill be right 🙂

How are you getting on?

Ahem, don’t know what TP ’15 holds in store but TP ’10 everybody was off their bikes and carrying them a lot of the time on the climbs, descents were amazing, don’t go at full tilt, go at 70%, that way you will last the course, also safer. Enjoy!

Thanks for the advice Tess! I am definitely going with a just-survive-attitude.

I’m a bit apprehensive that I haven’t done enough, but I’ve been out on my bike consistently, putting in some hike-a-bike practice and kicked off the racing season (slowly!) here at a couple rounds. More nerves than anything else I guess, as I’ve done races like the Mega before, but never something multiple days in a row.

When are you heading down mactheknife? Hope the shoulder heals up!

Out of interest – How enduro vs XC is it?

Say hi to my mate Simon James, who is returning after his first TP last year. He absolutely loved it and came back even faster than before! I noticed this year he did a lot more training!

I did one of the guided weeks last year (which followed the TP’13 route), was absolutely amazing fun.
My bike and I both took a battering through the week… make sure you run all over your bike with an allen key every night, those long (and I mean looooong) descents have a habit of loosening things.

@adsh – what’s XC for you? Folk in lycra on 20lb hardtails? If so, no it’s nothing like that.
Think of any enduro race you’ve ever done and make it last all week.

It’s awesome! Would love to go back and get the race experience.

I’ll be there again this year. Really looking forward to it. One thing that got me through last year was pacing myself on the liaison stages, not going too fast but also for me not going too slow. I find I get into a rhythm on long climbs and can keep going but if i try and speed up to keep up with faster riders I start getting fatigued quickly. Tess is spot on with ride at 70% or within yourself, it’s 6 big days riding in big mountains, and part of the challenge is getting to the end for the dip in the sea.

3 weeks to go!!

I should also admit to having ridden it in “tour” format last year – it was after that Ash offered me the timing gig.

It’s definitely at the Enduro-ey end of the spectrum. The riding is proper bonkers in places. Tight, tech, gnadgery, massively exposed. There’s also some amazingly fast flowy bits. Slightly different for me, as I “just” spent 6 days following Ash’s back wheel – but even the top pros said they went faster if they backed off the pace a little as the blind hairpins flowed faster, and there was less crashing.

Tips I picked up from last year – be happy carrying your bike for extended periods. Have shoes you’re happy walking in. (Day 2 on 2014 had a hike-a-bike section that lasted between 3 & 6 hours solid, depending on how quick you were – most people had forgiven Ash by the end of the end of the day) Oh, and read the maps. Carefully!!

(Oh, and be nice to the harrassed looking skinny guy who lives under the Mavic Eeziup all week. He controls the coffee & beer supply!)

JonEdwards, ha i know my priorities. Mechanics are always offered beer and crisps. I know exactly who makes my life more bearable.

The Shimano guys at the Trans Savoie last year were worked to the max. Absolutely non stop every day but with a fair bit of gratitude and beer my bike was fixed more than once.

Another thing I did was ride the liaison stages at my own pace, I rode with others every day but when/if I was slower I let them go.

I’m working it too doing general basecamp stuff, in the Pyrenees for a week beforehand (riding pretty carefully as to avoid breaking myself) then heading to Morzine afterwards. I’m planning on setting a world record for taking down + folding up a pop-up tent by the end of the week.