My First Audax

"Martin Newstead" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

Completed my first Audax Ride today, the Vale of York 150. Public thanks to
Paul the Organiser from Vermuyden CC - Goole. Instructions we good, Paul and
his wife and other club members were very friendly. The route was pretty
good, I knew most of the roads and knew that it was almost completely flat.
8 riders participated in the 150, I was second home after 5 hours 52
minutes, all riders were home in less than 6 hours.

At that pace, maybe they were too breathless to chat!

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

"Martin Newstead" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

Completed my first Audax Ride today, the Vale of York 150. Public
thanks to Paul the Organiser from Vermuyden CC - Goole. Instructions
we good, Paul and his wife and other club members were very
friendly. The route was pretty good, I knew most of the roads and
knew that it was almost completely flat. 8 riders participated in
the 150, I was second home after 5 hours 52 minutes, all riders were
home in less than 6 hours.

At that pace, maybe they were too breathless to chat!

Yes it was quicker than I thought it would be, though as I say it was almost
completely flat. It was a hot day too.

Martin Newstead said:

The route was pretty good, I knew most of the roads and knew that it
was almost completely flat.

Of of these days, I'm going to take the bike on the train to
Norf^Wsomewhere flat, and find out what that's like.

--
Keith Willoughby http://flat222.org/keith/
The sky is falling

in message <[email hidden]>, Martin Newstead

(') said:

Completed my first Audax Ride today, the Vale of York 150. Public
thanks to Paul the Organiser from Vermuyden CC - Goole. Instructions
we good, Paul and his wife and other club members were very friendly.
The route was pretty good, I knew most of the roads and knew that it
was almost completely flat. 8 riders participated in the 150, I was
second home after 5 hours 52 minutes, all riders were home in less
than 6 hours.

I was dissappointed with the event though. I am used to riding on my
own at my own pace and was hoping to meet similar riders at an Audax
event. Perhaps if the field was larger there would have been more
groups on the road but as it was we all rode along together for much
of the route. The others didn't seem very sociable, kept to their own
cliques and passed little more than the time of day when I attempted
to strike up a conversation. I stayed with the group because I could
ride on my own anytime I want to, having entered, got up early, and
driven 40 miles to the start I wasn't going to treat it like any other
cycling day.

When Jon and I did our first audax, it was (for me at any rate) very
pleasant to have someone I sort of knew to tag along behind; but the
other audaxers we met seemed on the whole a friendly bunch. I enjoyed
it and will definitely do another (but hopefully will be a little
fitter first).

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; This email may contain confidential or otherwise privileged
;; information, though, quite frankly, if you're not the intended
;; recipient and you've got nothing better to do than read other
;; folks' emails then I'm glad to have brightened up your sad little
;; life a tiny bit.

Martin Newstead said:

8 riders participated in the 150, I was second home after 5 hours 52
minutes, all riders were home in less than 6 hours.

The level of sociability seems to vary hugely from one event to another
- the Surrey Hills was by far the most sociable I've done so far, but
then it did have 150 entrants. I find it helps to have an angle, rather
than just making small talk - I struck up a conversation with a woman in
a PBP jersey and she was very happy to talk about PBP. And my club
jersey prompted a fair bit of social interaction from other riders
(varying from sarky questions along the lines of had I ridden all that
way to genuinely interested attempts at starting a conversation).

Quoted message said:

Will I do another Audax event ? maybe.

Give it another go - you might find it a completely different experience
next time. Maybe it would help if you wore a more interesting jersey. 😉

d.

"Martin Newstead" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I was dissappointed with the event though. I am used to riding on my own

at

Quoted message said:

my own pace and was hoping to meet similar riders at an Audax event.

Perhaps

Quoted message said:

if the field was larger there would have been more groups on the road but

as

Quoted message said:

it was we all rode along together for much of the route. The others didn't
seem very sociable, kept to their own cliques and passed little more than
the time of day when I attempted to strike up a conversation. I stayed

with

Quoted message said:

the group because I could ride on my own anytime I want to, having

entered,

Quoted message said:

got up early, and driven 40 miles to the start I wasn't going to treat it
like any other cycling day.

That's one reason I cycle on my own and have never wanted to try an Audax.
I can choose my own routes, pace and timetable etc.

--
Simon M.

"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

That's one reason I cycle on my own and have never wanted to try an Audax.
I can choose my own routes, pace and timetable etc.

With Audax you can choose your company (any or none) and pace within
limits. Routes are planned by those with local knowledge, which I see as
an advantage.

Personally, I wasn't sociable when cycling cos I had too much else to
consider, but sociable at checkpoints, so I had the best of all worlds.

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

Simon Brooke said:

When Jon and I did our first audax, it was (for me at any rate) very
pleasant to have someone I sort of knew to tag along behind; but the
other audaxers we met seemed on the whole a friendly bunch. I enjoyed
it and will definitely do another (but hopefully will be a little
fitter first).

Perhaps I should do one with you guys

in message <[email hidden]>, Martin Newstead

(') said:

Simon Brooke said:

When Jon and I did our first audax, it was (for me at any rate) very
pleasant to have someone I sort of knew to tag along behind; but the
other audaxers we met seemed on the whole a friendly bunch. I enjoyed
it and will definitely do another (but hopefully will be a little
fitter first).

Perhaps I should do one with you guys

I doubt I could stay with you. I'm working on it and will be faster next
year, but my speed over 107Km was 12.1 mph. Mind you, it was hilly and
with a fierce wind, but I know I can't sustain 16mph for 150Km even
under ideal conditions.

Jon would do all right, I suspect.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
Ring of great evil
Small one casts it into flame
Bringing rise of Men ;; gonzoron

Simon Brooke said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Martin Newstead

(') said:

Simon Brooke said:

When Jon and I did our first audax, it was (for me at any rate) very
pleasant to have someone I sort of knew to tag along behind; but the
other audaxers we met seemed on the whole a friendly bunch. I
enjoyed it and will definitely do another (but hopefully will be a
little fitter first).

Perhaps I should do one with you guys

I doubt I could stay with you. I'm working on it and will be faster
next year, but my speed over 107Km was 12.1 mph. Mind you, it was
hilly and with a fierce wind, but I know I can't sustain 16mph for
150Km even under ideal conditions.

Jon would do all right, I suspect.

I would have preferred to rider slower and chat with new friends.