Reflections on first audax

[Simonb]

JohnB wrote:
> Simonb wrote:
>>
>> MSeries wrote:
>
>>> If I was to do an Audax I would almost certainly have to
>>> drive to the start and home afterwards.
>>
>> Why not get the train? There are loads of Audaxes each
>> weekend -- you'll often find they start in or near a
>> railway station.
>
> I'd ride more if the starts were more convenient for train
> times. Quite often the start time is before the first
> train leaves home, especially for Sunday events :-(
>
> John B

There's always B&Bs -- that's what I'm doing for the Bala
one in 2 weeks.

 

[MSeries]

Originally posted by Simonb
Why not get the train? There are loads of Audaxes each
weekend -- you'll often find they start in or near a
railway station.

Thats a fair comment. I'll take another look at the calendar and timetables.

 

[Martinm]

"Richard Goodman" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Did my first audax today, 105k in not much over 4hrs,
> which I suppose wasn't too bad, although towards the end I
> was fading! Things I learnt:
>
> - things which don't seem uncomfortable in 40 minute
> commutes, can get very uncomfortable after a few hard
> hours in the saddle (like packing my camelback to the
> gills with 'may be useful' bits and pieces which quickly
> add up to a lot of weight on the shoulders)
> - those electrolytic energy powders that you can mix with
> water really do have a whole lot more zip than plain
> water or even fruit juice
> - my close ratio 11-21 cassette, which is fine around the
> places I go in London, doesn't really get me low enough
> for lumpy bits in the countryside. And I'm not fit even
> for modest little lumpy bits (it was an officially
> 'flat' course), despite the fact that I was 'faster' up
> them than most of the peleton (where were they anyway?).
> - despite the above, it was satisfying find myself able to
> keep up 30kph+ much of the time, including up slight
> inclines.
> - 100k is enough! I don't want to even think about a
> 200 anytime soon! Hats off to the urc'ers that are
> doing them!
>
> Anyway, all in all a nice little Sunday ride, although
> perhaps if I'd ridden it at 'touring' pace I might not be
> so knackered now!

4h is going some for a 100. Certainly 10h is more like the
average for a 200 (or even 11 plus for Grimpeurs-hilly rides
with altitude points)

 

[Gavin]

"Richard Goodman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Did my first audax today, 105k in not much over 4hrs

Forgive my ignorance, but what is an audax? I have seen the
term before but have never known what it actually means and
have never got around to asking until now.

Regards,

Gavin

 

[Richard Goodman]

"Richard Bates" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Well done. Audax is one of those things over which I keep
> thinking, "Shall I? Shan't I?"
>

Thanks. I'd say, if spending a good part of the day riding a
good distance on the road is something that appeals to you,
then go for it. For me, taking part in a planned event
taking place on a particular day, to accomplish a particular
distance within a specific time period, really helped in
motivating me to do it and to push myself a bit harder than
I probably otherwise have done. If it had just been
something I was organising for myself it would have been too
easy for my wife to find something else for me to do ('do it
some other time, you have to help me clean the house, we
have guests coming') or just to have pootled about for a
much shorter distance in the same period of time. It was
good, sociable event with other cyclists, even though much
of the time I rode alone as there wasn't anyone who seemed
to find their pace was the same as mine, and I didn't want
to slow down - they were all either faster or slower!

I must admit that for a long time I'd felt rather daunted at
the idea of doing an audax - committing to completing a
rather long distance within a set time which includes any
rest stops, and interpreting route sheets with strange
abbrevations for instructions. Also the difficulty of
getting to the start point in time which others have
mentioned - the idea of taking a car to go on a cycle ride
has always seemed a bit obscene to me. But gradually I
realised I was just being a bit too timid about the doing of
it - at least at 100k distances it's easy! And the one I did
started less than 10k from my doorstep, so when I found out
about it, I knew it was for
me. Having done it, I'd definitely say, 'do it'.

I suppose, refering to some of the other comments, I could
cope with the idea of doing a 200 some time. But not a 400,
no, never! I don't have any envy of walking (or cycling)
round like a zombie through lack of sleep just to maintain a
15kph average! No, that I will not do!

Rich

 

[Davek]

Simonb:
> No hills round your way? I use 39x27 for the hilly ones.

Depends if you call the North Downs hills or not.

The type of hills I can go up in 42x21 are probably not what
you would call real hills, though I did manage to get up
Charing Hill the other day in 42x24, which I was pretty
pleased with (won't mean much to you if you don't know
Charing Hill but for those that are into grid references
it's at TQ 960
500).

d.

 

[Helen Deborah V]

MSeries <[email protected]>typed

> Msa wrote:
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > [email protected] says...
> > >
> > > - Military term for kilometres
> > >
> > >
> > I've always called k's clicks but never knew where the
> > term came from. Thanks for that! Any idea of the full
> > story behind it?
> > --
> > Mark (MSA) This post is packaged by intellectual
> > weight, not volume. Some settling of contents may have
> > occurred during transmission

> No idea, my cycling mate who is in the RAF always calls
> them clicks, thats where I got it from.

Is he called Julian?

I did a ride with Julian 10 years ago...

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

 

[Davek]

Simonb:
> Why not get the train? There are loads of Audaxes each
> weekend -- you'll often find they start in or near a
> railway station.

Up to a point, Lord Copper.

The first one I did a few months ago started near a railway
station. However, it was a quiet provincial railway station
with a limited service at the best of times, never mind 8am
on a Sunday morning.

d.

 

[Simonb]

davek wrote:

> I did manage to get up Charing Hill the other day in
> 42x24, which I was pretty pleased with (won't mean much to
> you if you don't know Charing Hill but for those that are
> into grid references it's at TQ 960 500).

Here? That's not bad going. Knees OK? ;-)

<url: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=596500&y=1505-
00&z=4&sv=596500,150500&st=4&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsea-
rch.srf&dn=691 /url

 

[Martinm]

"Simonb" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> MartinM wrote:
>
> > I would go along with that, I'm completely wiped out
> > after the 400, glad I'm not doing another one for a
> > year. I would do a few more 100's before you go for a
> > 200, perhaps get a few 100's this year than think about
> > 2's next year. There are a few 150's as well.
>
> How was the 400? I found that I hadn't shaken off the
> shingles I had about 2 weeks ago, so didn't enter (again).
>
> Hope you enjoyed it -- despite the extreme knackeration.

Yes it went well (by which I mean I completed it and am not
dead, partly as a result of getting the train home and not
driving). The first 125k was very nice, all the best bits
of the New Forest, had a triple puncture 40k out which put
me at the back of the field, but managed to catch everyone
else by Lymington. The stretch to Blandford was painful
into the wind, and the control was the worst greasy spoon I
have ever seen so avoided it, waited for El Supremo's tent
on the way back. Got back to Denmead 0015, left 0415 by
which time the hall resembled a morgue due to all the
outstretched corpses! a few diehards determined to stay
awake as well. The 115k to Whitchurch was 10 times as hard
as when it is just a 115k event, compounded by rain and
another double puncture just before the half way control,
plus about ten hills that Pam had specially built as they
weren't there in January ;-). Pam's normal 400 goes to
Weston Super Mare and back so may do that next year.
Looking forward to the Offshore 200k in September, the
island and all the forest without the 200k overnight bit. A
curious thing about Audax is that riders never refer to a
ride as what it's called in the calendar but as e.g. "Pam's
400" but the organisers deserve all the publicity they get,
such a lot of hard work and organising, I think I'd rather
be riding all night than manning a control.

 

[Davek]

Simonb:
> Here?

That's the one. (BTW, I usually use OS or multimap but
Streetmap appears to give much bigger, clearer
pictures. Nice.)

>That's not bad going. Knees OK? ;-)

It was unusually good going for me, but I was riding
particularly well that day. I had decided I wasn't going to
use the 28 out of sympathy for one of my companions who was
on a borrowed bike with a 39x23 lowest gear (his usual road
bike has a triple chainset and a 26 on the back), but I left
him puffing and panting about halfway up and then
accelerated to catch up with the others (the ones who hadn't
been held up by traffic at the bottom) and I overtook most
of them, too. I was suffering by the time I got to the top
but it felt fantastic.

If only all days could be that good!

d.

 

[Helen Deborah V]

"davek" <[email protected]>typed

> Simonb:
> > Why not get the train? There are loads of Audaxes each
> > weekend -- you'll often find they start in or near a
> > railway station.

> Up to a point, Lord Copper.

> The first one I did a few months ago started near a
> railway station. However, it was a quiet provincial
> railway station with a limited service at the best of
> times, never mind 8am on a Sunday morning.

So you find a nearby B&B and make a weekend away out of
it...

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

 

[Helen Deborah V]

[email protected] (MartinM)typed

> "Simonb" <[email protected]>
> wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
> > MartinM wrote:
> >

> A curious thing about Audax is that riders never refer to
> a ride as what it's called in the calendar but as e.g.
> "Pam's 400" but the organisers deserve all the publicity
> they get, such a lot of hard work and organising, I think
> I'd rather be riding all night than manning a control.

Brings back memories...

"Please don't roll your wet bike over my sleeping bag."
"Sorry, I had no idea it was YOUR sleeping bag."

(Wet overnight control -Marlow- on Windsor-Chester-
Windsor 1995)

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

 

[Simonb]

davek wrote:

> (BTW, I usually use OS or multimap but Streetmap appears
> to give much bigger, clearer pictures. Nice.)

You have to tweak it:

- Enter your search
- Click the third house from the left to zoom in (and
get the contours)
- Click 'Bigger Map'

Thanks to someone on UKRC for that one. The default scale is
useful (in the Big size) for route planning, too -- I find
you need about 3 screens for your average 200km Audax. I
stitch them all together seamlessly in PSP/whatever and
print them off on the nice colour laser at work when I'm
preparing a ride.

 

[Arthur Clune]

Helen Deborah Vecht <[email protected]> wrote:

: So you find a nearby B&B and make a weekend away out
: of it...

Only a goer for me if I have people to go away with. I'm
happy to ride on my own but spending a night in a strange
town on my own never appeals (Thorne anyone?)

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org "Technolibertarians make a
philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

 

[Davek]

Helen Deborah Vecht:
> So you find a nearby B&B and make a weekend away out
> of it...

Of course, but then it starts eating into your Saturday as
well as your Sunday and becomes much less feasible. This
cycling lark is not all that compatible with family
life...

d.

 

[Helen Deborah V]

"Arthur Clune" <[email protected]>typed

> Helen Deborah Vecht <[email protected]> wrote:

> : So you find a nearby B&B and make a weekend away out
> : of it...

> Only a goer for me if I have people to go away with. I'm
> happy to ride on my own but spending a night in a strange
> town on my own never appeals (Thorne anyone?)

> Arthur

I spent a while at the Belmont at Thorne during the EL of
1997. I spose it was better than Lindholm Prison. Couldn't
buy postcards of the place!

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

 

[Helen Deborah V]

"gavin" <[email protected]>typed

> "Richard Goodman" <[email protected]> wrote in
> message news:[email protected]...
> > Did my first audax today, 105k in not much over 4hrs

> Forgive my ignorance, but what is an audax? I have seen
> the term before but have never known what it actually
> means and have never got around to asking until now.

> Regards,

> Gavin

A ride of a fixed length (usually metric) ridden within pre-
arranged speeds usually organised within the ambit of Audax
UK by independent volunteers.

Audax UK has a comprehensive website but I've lot the most
recent URL; Google should help.

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

 

[Gavin]

> A ride of a fixed length (usually metric) ridden within
> pre-arranged speeds usually organised within the ambit of
> Audax UK by independent volunteers.
>
> Audax UK has a comprehensive website but I've lot the most
> recent URL; Google should help.

Thanks, Helen. Can I just ask what "within pre-arranged
speeds" means? There's an upper speed limit????

Regards,

Gavin

 

[Ambrose Nankive]

In news:[email protected],
gavin <[email protected]> typed:
>> A ride of a fixed length (usually metric) ridden within
>> pre-arranged speeds usually organised within the ambit of
>> Audax UK by independent volunteers.
>>
>> Audax UK has a comprehensive website but I've lot the
>> most recent URL; Google should help.
>
> Thanks, Helen. Can I just ask what "within pre-arranged
> speeds" means? There's an upper speed limit????

Indeed, it's not a race. The maximum speed is probably not
going to slow anyone down, more stop them from racing, as I
understand it.

A