For reasons not completely clear to me I’m soloing. Obviously the ideal preparation is to do no training, then sell your cross country bike 2 weeks before.
@jonny m, I don’t know this year’s course but traditionally it doesn’t use that much of the trailcentre, which isn’t hard on tyres really anyway- not the rockiest hill. Full on XC tyres should be fine though there does tend to be some natural sections that punish anything too slippery if it’s wet (I crashed 3 times in about 100 yards one year, I’m dead good at racing)