This Saturday Ride and Wiggled No Excuses

Chrisbpr wrote:

Talking of Audax I stumbled across this ...www.aukweb.net/events/detail/13-555/ ....bargin !!!

What's the score with doing one of these as my interest is stirred ?

Audax is self-reliant long distance riding - routes usually chosen for their interest and beauty - no signage, no mechanical support or sag wagon. Shortest events are 100km, longest is the 1400km London-Edinburgh-London held once every four years. You get a route sheet with turn by turn instructions which you follow (or nowadays they might have GPS routes too - I don't know because I haven't ridden one for a few years). You have controls every 50km to 80km where you get you card stamped and on the longer events there are food stations laid on in places like village halls (but you have to pay for your food) - otherwise cafes etc. As Geoff says they are not officially races, but you do get a time so are as much races as sportives, and cyclists being naturally competitive try to be first back or improve on their previous time at the distance. Ride a 200, 300, 400 and 600km in one year and you're a Super Radonneur and you qualify for the once every four years 1200km Paris-Brest-Paris. Quite a few people who were training for 12 and 24 hour TTs used to use them for training. You'll encounter riders with a wide range of speeds from people riding 600km at a moving average of near 20mph to people riding 100km events at 12mph. Come the summer months you can find a 200km most weekends within reasonable driving distance. I loved doing them and might well start doing them again, and it's hard to beat the sense of satisfaction of completing rides longer than 200km or an SR series.

Beware - it's addictive - once you've done a 200, you'll want to do a 300, and before you know where you are you'll be planning an SR series