I was happy with my Specialized BG Sport mtb shoe.  Not to stiff for when I had to walk and very comfortable. Not to expensive either.

Chew makes a good point about reserving your bike that I omitted.  You do need to buy a passenger ticket and *then* the bike reservation. Not sure about international customers though.  I might be in a position to help but do not want to make an absolute promise.  I used to work for British Railways before privatisation and continued in the rail industry later. This means I have a free pass and can turn up at a window and book a ticket for myself.  It is not named so I do not have to travel on it.  Getting the reservation to you may be an issue though.

sanjuanrider - Regarding leaving a bike box try booking your last night at the HIex and they will probably look after your box while you are away.  One of the big chains over in Portland did this for me when I went touring in Oregon last year. Picked this up from a Canadian rider I met in France a few years ago.

For anyone thinking of getting a train be careful that often only 2 bikes are allowed per train and spaces need to be booked in advance.
Worth noting that if you book early you will get much cheaper prices and booking can be made from 3 months before travel usually.

The UK is not that big and you can fly into London and get a train up in a day.  Also try Manchester airport as it is on the line to Glasgow to compare time -v-cost.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Justin - we met briefly in Silver City in 2011 when I was with Joel from Spain, be good  to see you over here sometime.

Loads of riding over here for anybody wanting to do a bit more.  The UK packs a lot of different riding into a relatively small space.  I am retired so can do some 'guiding' if required after the race.

Ken - many thanks for the link.  Something for us to consider. 

There are 3 of us planning to fly out of UK on 13th July for a start on 15/16th July from Banff.  Aiming for Steamboat / Breck at about 60-70 miles per day - holiday pace.

Quick question for KenSmith (or anybody else) - is meths easily available in USA on the route?  Thinking of taking a meths stove between us for some cooking.

Dusza - The same route has been used for 2 years but I saw a post on a form from Stuart the organiser that the route is to be reversed next year.
As the route is public rights of way it can be done by anyone at any anytime, there is however a once a year Grand Depart.
Stuart has also said in the past he was going to stick with the route for 3 years and then consider changing it.

I recall 3 river crossings plus a 4th one with a little bridge near the finish - some riders missed the bridge though.

Not all service roads, this is the track across Carnau back into the Elan valley:


PA141029 by blackhound59, on Flickr

But a lot of smiles:


PA141030 by blackhound59, on Flickr

Thanks spiruline.  Been meaning to do some riding in this area for a while.

Do you have a gpx track of the route you could share?  Roughly what is the season for riding this?

Geoff, this year was a lot harder than 2011 - much wetter.  I fell in the second river crossing getting a soaking! Nice video, thats my red van next to Stuart's house at the finish.  Rumour is that route will be reversed in 2013.

Found these pictures via Twitter on www.Bicycling.com:

http://www.bicycling.com/mountainbikecom/featured-stories/snow-fields

One other thing; For the 9 months before and during the race I stretched a lot per advice from my osteopath and also did some work to strengthen my core.  Again.can never be sure how much this helped.

I finished the tour in 2011 but a couple of times I thought I would fail.  Getting food down me was difficult, particularly early morning and energy levels suffered majorly.

Which of the following reasons helped me to finish I can't be certain but:
- I got a bike fit for £100 (~$150) from former TdF rider Adrian Timmis (Cadence Sport for interested UK riders) to ensure position was correct.  This got me insoles as well as a longer stem recommendation and revised saddle height.  I realised position would be key and £100 was a small price to pay compared to the whole TD investment.
- Regular rides, back to back in final 10 weeks, with full TD kit meant legs were OK.
- I used chamois cream and Penaten (A&D type) cream daily.
- 2 excellent pairs of Etxeondo shorts which were not washed as regularly as I would have liked. And one pair still as good as new.
- I carried a vitamin, pro-biotic and Glucosamine (for joints) pills.
- Shoes and pedals were a few years old and well run in, both now dumped.  Shoes were a Specialized BG Sport version so not out-and-out race version and fine for walking in.  Good job the amount I did!

Other then extreme tiredness some days my only issue from about day 3/4 was a numb left hand which took some months to clear up.  I have massive achilles / calf issues whenever I try to run but no issues on TD.

Might be back in 2014....

Ollie's interview is here:

http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/twu/twu-20120630-1250-extreme_biking-048.mp3

10 minutes long.  He mentions a 'little bit of climbing'!

One for the supporters; despite everybody saying how tough the whole TD thing is remember you can get bottles of Starbucks Frappuccino in 95% of stores along the way so not really the ordeal / hell the riders make out!

Pie Town to Beaverhead was quite nice, I recall moving fairly quick.  100 miles in 11.5 hours iirc - and I was towards the back.  After Beaverhead it was a LOT tougher..  I had no idea about hard the 12 mile singletrack section was.  I had thought I could get the 26 miles to Silver in ~3 hours as 14 of them was on tarmac.  3 hours in I had done just 6 miles, was totally spent, and it took me 6+ hours to do this 26 mile section.  Hardest section of the route?

On the way into Beaverhead I was looking forward to the soda machine and then the last 20 miles started to worry if it would be empty.  Very relieved when I got there and 2 of us grabbed 5 cans for the evening and next morning.

Pleased Craig got to finish and in a good time as well.  I am sure he is disappointed in the way the race ended though.

If he finished at 11.45 pm I doubt he got a card, the post closes at 4pm iirc - last year it was operated by 1 guy on a single shift.  I think there were plans to change this, ongoing construction last year, but doubt it is manned 24 hours.

Looks like last night CS finished earlier than OW who did an extra ~15 miles.  Craig up earlier this morning and just caught up to OW.  Back together again!

The reason I asked is because v2 was available as an ebook.  Trying to reduce my book shelve space....

Denis - that pic is the one I recall. As I say all gone when I got there.

Is The Cordillera V3 available in ebook format?  Or will it be?