Hi, I'm planning to do the route later this year so can't talk from experience except to say that the guy I was going to do it with has just walked it and reckons we're not fit enough to ride it! Took them 9 days 5 hours to walk. He say's he saw lots of bikes with realy fit blokes who looked like they knew what they were doing (I thought I fell into that camp myself, but on hearing him I'm re-appraising that). Apparently they were at deaths door after 6 days with full support, no heavy backpacks. We're planning to bivy and I'll take a 30lt rucksack. I've planned the route on memory map for the gps and choping it up into around 45k days with 2000m ascent on first day then reducing in ascents to around 1200m per day (whole ride is over 7000m of ascent) it looks like a 6 day trip to me. I do 2 mid week rides of around 9 miles each, mid terrain and a good road climb but no more than 300m. Weekeds are the biggies, Killer Loops or 40-45km 1000m - 1500m+ ascents and he still reckons we need to train. Better to get fit and nail it rather than having to bail out or, worse, get into trouble miles from anywhere.