Thinking of training for the Transwales – I usually do 50-70Km enduros and have done some 170Km road sportives and have done OK in them.

I have though TW is unobtainable but is it? HT of FS? Regreted it or was it OK?

Peter Poddy has done it, but he never talks about it..

Mate of mine did it on a Whyte E-120. He was a bit fitter than me, but not massively at the time.
He’d done the Enduro6 as a solo, we’d done the 24/12 in a team of 4 before as well and we’d done the Dusk to Dawn as a team of 3.

He just decided to do it one day & upped his training to riding perhaps twice a week to making a concerted effort to get up & commute to work (20 miles) rather than driving, that kind of thing.
He didn’t specifically train for it.

I get the impression that the hardest thing was the mental thing of packing the tent up (get a pop-up) & riding day after day in clothes that were wet from the day before, with the prospect of more rain, mud and sheep poo to come.
He did it the year it rained pretty much non-stop & the river crossings were higher than waist deep, instead of ankle/mid calf.

I did it this year.

Depends what you want to finish, or to win?

My aim was just to finish. I did that and met all of the cut-offs with no formal training plan. The main thing is the long days in the saddle back to back. Its ok being able to do 70km in a day, but can you do that for 7 days in a row. Probably as much in the mind as in the legs.

Good event if you like fireroad, and theres very little technical riding in the week. I enjoyed it, but wouldnt do it again, as there are better week long rides you could do.

Ahh yeh I did hear that 08′? was a horrendous year to do it 🙁

I wonder whether its better in a pair or solo? Not sure anyone is mad enough to do it with me 🙁

I doubt that very much 😉

I was going to ask you Neil 🙂 Up for it?

Hi
Managed to complete it this year in mild weather (drizzle/ rained for 4 days) on a FS, but also HT’s and 2 singlespeeds.

Training consisted of daily commuting (25 miles) with odd longer loop home and 2 weekends on South Downs Way/ similar.

IMO solo is virtually same as team due to small number of participants and you soon recognise many faces & chat en-route (circa 180 riders).

As others have suggested, biggest obstacle is doing 70kms back-to-back for 7 days sometimes on private land which is ordinarily off limits.

This years menu was spectacular & brigthened up many faces with unbelievable range and quality.

Great challenge and family/ friends can “travel” with you for the entire duration which could be very handy.

Great challenge and family/ friends can “travel” with you for the entire duration which could be very handy.

How does that pan out then milo?

Hmm. It’s tempting but I’ve got my eye on the “Gravity Enduro” next year – there’s only so much racing I can do in a year 🙂

FoxyRider

Family/ friends “package” offered this year included Breakfast and Supper for £110 per person for the duration of the event.

Also free camping & car park at the site… There were cars, motorhomes and the odd caravan.

However, some families were doing a tour and would “drop in” every 3rd day for an update as to Daddy/ Mommy and have a family supper out in a local village.

My 2cents is that a reat event/ challenge (was my first on a bike) and well organised.

any info as to when entries open? since it passes within a couple of miles of me I`m keen to take part in 2011, despite knowing teh gruelling miles long uphills locally 🙂

http://www.mtbtransuk.co.uk/wales/ – entries not open yet

Cheers for the info Milo – I’ll book the week off and decide this weekend 🙂

You will be totally fine if you enter the TW.

I did it this year with no training and never having done any seriously long rides. Granted I was at the back of the pack every day but all the same it was doable…

I had a good time, meet some nice folk and generally had a laugh. Some days were hard going though and you need to be prepared to just grind away for hours on end, sometimes on your own!

Mixture of bikes-a short travel full suss is probably the most popular choice and probably the best one for most folk nut there were HT’s, 29ers, 29er FS and SS riders too!

I did it in 08 as a solo.
It was really hard and I didnt want to ride my bike for about 3 months after.
Having said that, it was something I will never forget and I am immensely proud to have completed it.
Most important part was having an amazing pit crew/mechanic so all I had to do was ride a bike!
As for training, I just rode a bike. (and a bit more)

I either got an Orange 5 or a 100mm HT – Hmm – I think I’d rather do it on my HT than the FS TBH even if I need a months supply of but cream?

If you go, good luck and let us know how it goes, I might be interested in giving it a go in 2012. Not sure if I’ll be able to take the cold and rain though!

I’ve taken pics of the event for the last 4 years, following the race for the whole week for the last 3.

The rain in ’08 was horrific, but amongst those who didn’t crack it did engender a kind of war mentality that made for a pretty interesting experience. And in all honesty the event barely coped with the strain on the logistics.

However, since then the organisers have prepared a lot better for the possibility of rain and if it did happen again I don’t think the experience would be half so “challenging”.

As it happens though, for the last two years the weather has generally been pretty good so it has been slightly less of a test of mental toughness.

I suspect that with a few enduros under your belt, and so long as you put in a few long rides in the run up that you would be fine so long as you pace yourself from the start.

Here’s a slideshow from 2010