Hi,

I never made a shakedown tour and I made several tour were I was trained and several tour without any training at all.

For me the training is not necessary, because:
- Totally untrained (half year: 0 km cycling) I can go 100 km in hilly regions
- The speed on tour is reduced (14 km/h on tour / 25 km/h "normal" cycling)
- The third day is always hard (trained or untrained)


Experience:
I made my first self guided 100 km day tour then I was 10 years old (just told our parents to ride to a friend in neighbourhood)
I made my first several days tours with my father between 13-16 years old.
I camped as I was a student and the income was low.

But I would say nowadays my experience is quite high. The Canada trip (see homepage) was planned in 8 hours (1 week before the trip starts) and I packed my things in less than 2 hours. This routine is frightening
Then I remember which thoughts I had and effort it took before my first trip on a foreign continent...

Thomas