Any one done this years or any of them?? Any tips on kit and esp' trainig?? Got a year to get up to speed!! any advice please!

Inspired I say! I did the 2008 one. A superb experience, despite the rain. This year's looked great from the write-ups and pics too.

If you want advice in detail, email me at rtedgeAThotmailDOTcom and I'll bore you rigid with advice.

Short advice would be:

Get a pop up tent. You will put it/down 14 times in a week!
Hardtail or short travel FS
Training-wise, you need to be very comfortable doing long (6 hour) rides and be able to recover well. Think 7 Meridas in one week.

Rich

I did the Wales End to End (Sarn Helen) on my own with eveything in my EBC trailer this year. It has been the best bike ride I have ever done and I recommend it highly. I don't think I'd like the regiment of doing a predetermined stage ride although I'm quite fancying the Trans Alp which is a complete contradiction of what I've just said.
I wonder what goes on in my head sometimes.

Id say Inspired to. Its no easy thing to do and to complete it is an achievment in itself and something to be proud of and one of those tick in the boxes regarding Mountain Biking achievments. Hopefully i will get on the 2011 one, think August 2010 after knee surgery is a bit to early.

Good luck mate.

Thansk Chaps!! Rich I'll give you a mail tonight!!

On kit it's important to make sure everything is in top condition before you start (someone on here gave me that tip and it was a good one). Take recovery drink.

For training like the man says lots of riding under your belt. Not sure you have to do lots and lots of 6 hour plus rides but certainly quite a lot of longer days in the saddle. About 2 weeks before I had a period of 5 days when I did some hard training everyday, some long rides, some intervals, some spinning – seemed to give me a good prep for the TW.

Also if you want to do well in the racing aspect, you'll want to get super quick over 15-30 minutes, cos all the special stages were that kind of length and most had big forest climbs on them too. Quite hard doing the racing because you have to turn up the pace dramatically compared to the rest of the time.

This year was a classic. One of the best things I've ever done.