Enjoyable Audax

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
Grandad
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by Grandad »

'm another regular audaxer who mainky sticks to 100's with the occasional 160 or 200 thrown in. Audax for me is the chance to ride on some different roads, on a route provided by someone who is familiar with the area and knows the best roads to ride on. I do like to ride in a group, but if i find it's too fast I'll drop off and if it's too slow I'll press on ahead. You can end up riding in 3 or 4 different groups over the course of a 100k.

Sure you might be able to take a short cut here and there, but what's the point? You are only cheating yourself.

+1
Merry_Wanderer
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by Merry_Wanderer »

TrevA, I'm a bit slower than you. The 115km that I rode (72 miles) took me 7 hours (5 hrs 45 cycling time). Still went a bit faster than I thought, despite running out of energy and having to crawl up some of the slopes. Can't really call them hills. I reckon with proper feeding I could have done it 30 minutes quicker. One to improve on next time! Thanks for all the comments and tips
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by PH »

TrevA wrote:Sure you might be able to take a short cut here and there, but what's the point? You are only cheating yourself.

Let's be absolutely clear, going off route is not cheating.
The objective is to cover X distance in Y time frame. In order to verify you have done so you need to have passed through the set controls, how you ride between them is up to you, it will not be possible to ride between them and not have ridden the nominal distance. That is not cheating, it's the regulations
http://www.aukweb.net/_resources/files/ ... -apps3.pdf

Of course the organiser has usually done a great job in designing the route, and for that reason the majority of riders follow it the majority of the time. In the dozens I've done I've deliberately* gone off route maybe 4 times, to use a bike shop, visit a friend, use a better cafe than the control, and avoid icy lanes, all completed within the rules of AUK and I'd resent any implication that they were in any way cheating.

* I've been accidentally off route more often, if I had to have ridden the complete route it would then have been necessary to retrace my steps to get back on it, which is I believe the requirement under some national bodies.
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Paulatic
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by Paulatic »

In days of secret controls you stuck to the route or risked not completing your Brevet. Once missed an info control which at 11pm in the dark wasn't visible, well I and the five others I was riding with, didn't see it. Lol (Northumbrian Castles 300) Ken gave it us anyway. [emoji3]
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Audax67
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by Audax67 »

Merry_Wanderer wrote:Audax67, It's not the saddle that's the problem with me, the Brooks Imperial is the best one that I have ever had. Great comfort and my backside was fine after 72 miles whereas the 78 miles I had done 2 years ago on a different bike left me crippled! I have only done a handful of 60+ mile rides and neither by brain or body would cope with the extra time on the bike at the moment. I need to work on my food intake too as I ran out of energy at 52 miles. That said, I will be doing some longer audaxes in 2015 with the aim of doing a 200 (120 miles in real money) by next autumn. Maybe as time progresses and my fitness and stamina improve I could look seriously at LEL or PBP. Right now the prospect of a 300 would seem bonkers!


Ah... I forgot about having the right bike. My main bike has been perfect for the last 10 years and I've been on the same saddle since 2000. The shorts are what makes the difference for me: a bad pair can turn a pleasurable ride into hell. Last year our club brought out new shorts that were wonderful for the first two rides, and on the third the stitching left red railway tracks where no train should run. It was a 300k and the damage made itself felt from 100 on...

When I was organizing UAF Audaxes (everyone rides in a single peloton with road captains) I planned 20 minutes for snack/coffee every 50 km and a meal every 100 to 150, the exception being the 100k (which we considered an introduction to our style of ride and didn't count as a real Audax) where we had breaks every 30-odd. We aimed at an overall rolling average of 22.5 kph, which means in practice 24-26 kph on the flat, falling as low as 12 on the climbs. If we arrived late at a break we either took it off the allotted time or split the difference with the following break.

That sort of planning is useful at first because you learn to budget effort, rest and refuelling. I started riding 100k's & 200k's with a local UAF-Audax club, and learnt with them that I could do the longer distances.

Unfortunately, I don't think there are any UAF Audax clubs in the UK. Doesn't stop you planning, though.
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Audax67
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by Audax67 »

Paulatic wrote:In days of secret controls you stuck to the route or risked not completing your Brevet. Once missed an info control which at 11pm in the dark wasn't visible, well I and the five others I was riding with, didn't see it. Lol (Northumbrian Castles 300) Ken gave it us anyway. [emoji3]


On a 300 this year we took a wrong turning on entering one town but managed to thread the back streets and find the right road on the way out. Just as we joined it another rider appeared from the direction of the town centre and said "Hey, did you miss the secret control?" We all hared back the way he had come, towards the town centre until we met a chum and asked him where the control was.

Of course, there wasn't one.
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Paulatic
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by Paulatic »

Lol, I thought they had been removed but look at the handbook and I see they can still be valid though discouraged. I recall four riders missing one on their 400 PBP qualifier. Obviously they were a tad upset but they had also dodged a significant climb. [emoji3]
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CliveyT
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by CliveyT »

PH wrote:Of course the organiser has usually done a great job in designing the route, and for that reason the majority of riders follow it the majority of the time. In the dozens I've done I've deliberately* gone off route maybe 4 times, to use a bike shop, visit a friend, use a better cafe than the control, and avoid icy lanes, all completed within the rules of AUK and I'd resent any implication that they were in any way cheating.


You've missed the most important reason....I always make sure the Good Beer Guide pubs file for my sat nav is up to date before heading off in an area I don't know
PH
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by PH »

Audax67 wrote:
Paulatic wrote:In days of secret controls you stuck to the route or risked not completing your Brevet. Once missed an info control which at 11pm in the dark wasn't visible, well I and the five others I was riding with, didn't see it. Lol (Northumbrian Castles 300) Ken gave it us anyway. [emoji3]


On a 300 this year we took a wrong turning on entering one town but managed to thread the back streets and find the right road on the way out. Just as we joined it another rider appeared from the direction of the town centre and said "Hey, did you miss the secret control?" We all hared back the way he had come, towards the town centre until we met a chum and asked him where the control was.

Of course, there wasn't one.


In the UK?
Bicycler
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by Bicycler »

Not unless he's moved back from france :wink:

I don't understand how you can have secret controls and a free choice of routes between published controls. You are either meant to follow the route or you are not.

Are you specifically allowed by the rules to use any route or are alternate routes between controls just generally accepted because it would be too difficult to police the whole route?
PH
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by PH »

Bicycler wrote:Not unless he's moved back from france :wink:

I don't understand how you can have secret controls and a free choice of routes between published controls. You are either meant to follow the route or you are not.


The only time I've known of one in the UK was on a AA qualifying ride. Where the distance of the other routes was similar but the climbing considerably different. Even then both the Brevet and the route sheet had clearly marked there would be a secret control between A & B. The alternative to one secret control would have been too many infos. There won't be a secret control you are not aware of before the ride, because...

The French have their own regulations.
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Paulatic
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by Paulatic »

Taken from Audax UK organisers handbook:
SECRET CONTROLS: Are like Checkpoints but are not listed on the brevet card. They are rarely used now, as they have been largely replaced by Checkpoints.

Back in the nineties some rides used them, often they were obvious to spot and they were usually in the first half of the ride otherwise some poor soul was stood out on the road for a very long time.
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bazzo
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by bazzo »

I did a couple of grimpeurs from Marple near Stockport, organised by the Peak Audax. I absolutely loved them and will do more when I have the time. For anyone who is interested there are five Audax grimpeurs from Marple every Wednesday in August, I very much recommend them, all about 100km amount of climbing between 2000 and 3000 meters.

I have been riding a bike for a very long time, but got a real lesson in how to do it properly when I followed Sheila Simpson for about 20 miles, she is absolutely unbelievable, never saw her get out the saddle even on some really hard climbs.
PH
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by PH »

Paulatic wrote:Taken from Audax UK organisers handbook:
SECRET CONTROLS: Are like Checkpoints but are not listed on the brevet card. They are rarely used now, as they have been largely replaced by Checkpoints.


Taken from the regulations:
9.8 Controls:
9.8.1 Riders obtain proof of passage through a series of predetermined controls
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Paulatic
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Re: Enjoyable Audax

Post by Paulatic »

So does that mean the organiser can have a secret control? He predetermined to have one there.
I don't know, they were always controversial, along with mudguards.
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