Tour Aotearoa

The TA is a mammoth challenge that can overwhelm the mojo of even the most staunch battle-hardened riders. Some tricks both 'in training' and 'in anger' can help keep objectives in perspective and divide it all into bite-sized milestones.

To endure and enjoy the TA, your body needs to be well prepared, maintained along the way and occasionally fixed up due to accumulated wear 'n' tear or as a result of a perfectly executed over-the-handlebars lawn dart.

The chances of getting lost on the TA are pretty remote, but it is easy to miss a critical turn off and find yourself off route. It's important to know where you are, so here are a few tips from those that have been lost before.

Suggested master list of bike baggage, clothing, camping stuff and navigation nic nacs to blast through your Tour Aotearoa. Mixes restraint to minimise the payload on your bike with commonsense to ensure you arrive safely.

Cycling the length of Aotearoa is tough on your body, and your bike. It’s important that you have the tools, spare parts and skills to ensure you are self-sufficient enough to keep going, or limp to the nearest bike shop.

3000 kilometres on your bike, plus the training miles, burns plenty of calories. Combine this with the constraint of 'eating what's available when you can', rather than what your nutritionist prescribes - and you'll spend a lot over dosh on crap food... and still misplace a few kilos between Cape Reinga and Bluff.

Training for most TA riders involves a mixture of some long distance/multi-day training rides with a 'slow-start' strategy - gaining fitness, speed and distance as you progress down the country. Irrespective of how juiced you want to be on the start line - Ollie, Anja, Tristan and Scott outline some considerations for preparing your body to ride the length of New Zealand.

The Tour Aotearoa invites endless excuses to indulge in a new bike plus screes of hi-tech gear and clothing to enhance your tip-to-tail adventure. The pragmatic reality is that the best TA bike may well be the one you already own.

'Your' TA may be as fast as 10 days, as luxurious as the thirty day maximum, or anything in between. Over the next few months we'll countdown various topics to help prepare your bike and body for the challenge.

I’m a huge fan of badly sung music - at the end of a long day with the prospect of a soggy bivy and soggier chips your only reward.