I’m betting the entire tour will be The Sufferfest vids only. But you can always add some pro rides to cool down after you complete the official stages. 
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The first time I did rubber glove I thought I’d hallucinated the omlette scene. Didn’t believe it until I did it again, and even then I wasn’t sure.
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That’s no joke either 
Is there a support group thread for those riding ToS for the first time? 
Any survival tips!
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Have fun, don’t look up, lol! Seriously though, have fun. It’s the most exciting time of the year.
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@Glen.Coutts I was thinking that there would be at least one pro ride and perhaps one OL.
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Well now, that wouldn’t be a Tour of Sufferlandria then would it Sir?
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@thomaslee Be honest with yourself going into it. What do you want to achieve and what is the larger goal. For me it was to complete the tour but also stay true to my training. To do that I focused on a few workouts during the tour and dialed down the rest so that my fatigue would not get too out of line.
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@Glen.Coutts Agreed but in other Grand Tours they do head over the border now and then. I like your idea of Downward Spiral. I haven’t done that in a while.
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True, but my thinking is that since The Sufferfest is its own channel on its own right now, that there is no need to include workouts from other channels (as challenging as many of them are).
In prior tours they’ve “forced” strength vids, yoga vids, and mental training into the ToS with a whole bunch of grunts and groans from Greater Agonia. Last year, they included Norway, which was, at that time part of SUF but wasn’t intended to continue to be since it is now a Pro Ride.
I expect there to be other challenges that SYSTM presents in the future like a Pro Ride Tour or an On Location Tour or a combo of that or even a Tour of SYSTM. But, on the 10th Anniversary my bet is still on 7 days in Sufferlandria (I hope we also get TGTTOS cuz Sir Mike Cotty attempting to climb Mt Sufferlandria is just the best. In fact, I’ll further my bets and suggest TGTTOS will be the last ride on the last day. 
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Abso-fluffy-lutely. Boycotting* the whole thing forever if not. (*or at least threatening to and then, well, probably not)
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@Glen.Coutts All good points. Look forward to riding with you Sir and will definitely be drafting you as often as I can.
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Look for my wheel somewhere just out of reach of the laser goats. See you at the start line Sir!
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And this is why I haven’t signed up and did not sign up for the ToS training. I like to know what I am signing up for before I commit. I have my schedule planned out through the end of Feb, By the time they finally announce what the details are, I will be planned out until mid-March.
IF it is intriguing enough, I might try to see if I can make it work and fit it in. Highly unlikely that will be the case.
Someone help me understand the value in keeping the details a secret for so long.
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Just a moment ago, complete 100% Long Scream for the first time! 
It was horrible. 
Hope GVA doesn’t put this into ToS please …
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It’s like Christmas. If you knew what every present was it wouldn’t be quite as exciting. There’s a bit of built up hype, anticipation, fear, dread etc and the route announcement itself is sort of a big deal and usually very entertaining.
As for what to expect, there’s tour posters with the Tour routes printed and still available going back to 2013 (check them out at RedBubble.com)
The Tour itself is later than it’s ever been and I imagine that at least part of that is related to the less than smooth rollout of SYSTM back at the end of September.
As for doing it or not doing it, I’ve never even entertained that question. The ONLY reason I wouldn’t do it is if I couldn’t do it and even then we’ve had participants ride with one arm in a sling and all other manner of obstacles. I think one was on a military vessel at sea for the full ToS.
The training plan, I’d say is neither here nor there. Obviously designed to ensure you’re in the best possible shape to CRUSH 7 days in a row with the first and last very likely to have multiple vids and the most glorious suffering.
This will be my 7th ToS, I think, and it’s the 10th Anniversary so I’m pretty sure they want to make it as special as they can all while dealing with a boom in their customer base, and some niggling tech issues that have proven pretty challenging.
At the end of the day, this is a big fundraiser for the Davis Phinney Foundation to help people living with Parkinson’s. There are always some fantastic prizes. If you were on Facebook, the feed quite literally blows up with people’s shared pain, misery, and agony in pursuit of honour, glory, and victory. The forum was the Race Village last year and it kinda blows up too. Not with the same immediacy as FB but it’s still a Yak ton of fun.
Tl;dr:
Try to make room in your schedule for the Tour, have fun, raise a little money for people with Parkinson’s and get a chance or some chances at some great prizes.
Edit: I found this listing of every ToS since the beginning:
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It’s been done before but that’s never a guarantee that it won’t happen again. And I agree.
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