Audax rides

I love audax route sheets.

Ask the organiser to get on the waiting list or enter the perm possibly even for the day of the ride? Then at least you get the points when you finish?

http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/SSH02/

I think @arup did it last year

I'm not so bothered about points and that. I'll jsut ride it if I can't get an EOL.

Weather looks fucking grimmers though.

Audax intelligentsia I need advice. Currently signed up to 2 x no 600s' a week apart and now considering a third a fortnight after. General consensus though appears to be to concentrate on doing as many 200s' as possible with a view to getting faster after a 600 is in the bag. Thoughts?

I'm signed on for my first longish ride in aaaages. Probably best that I'm riding alone... can go at my
own pace, just hope it's not too windy.

Going to do it on upright bars so my arm aching doesn't become the limiting factor.

I think I could do it faster but I usually end up zooming into certain sections using Google Maps street view to see what the section looks like. But generally I plot it exactly as it reads on the route sheet. Don't mind really as I only have to do it every few rides where a .gpx file isn't provided.

Still haven't plotted out the route for the Hop Garden 200 as yet as I was waiting for the final version after their route check. But I'll use some of your suggestions into my regular method and see how it goes.

@arup I'm doing the Hop Garden 100 - using the paper directions. Hope to bump into you at some point, it's ages since we met - I'm on a yellow & orange fixed Dave Yates with upright bars ...

Ben

I've ridden on fixed a couple of years ago and also used the route sheet. Think there was only one major hill towards the end: the sting in the tail as the organisers tend to call it. Don't remember the gearing 65 or 67 I think. Really great route with gorgeous views. Doing the 200 this year but on gears as it's hillier and my fixie has gone back to Italy for some upgrades to the frame.

Yep I'm on 66.6", the ratio of the beast.

It's Birling Hill. You'll be fine. Tempted to join you but it's £9 for roads I already know quite well...

I'll be doing the Hop Garden as well. 200 with a mate. See yerz all there!

Just rode out and back to Meopham to do a route check. Totally gorgeous riding backstreets, B-roads and country lanes. There aren't trains that early on a Sunday so what the hell. It's only 36km from my house to the scout hut. Can always get the train home if I'm totally whacked.

If anyone wants to ride out to the start and would like to join me let me know. Probably leave mine at 06:00 so I have plenty of time for tea and cake at the start.

Just pre-registered for PBP with LFGSS CC as the club.
400 next week, 600 couple of weeks later and I'm in.

Pre-reg? Is that because you've done stuff last year or can anyone pre-reg?

Easy reading while you are on the turbo.

http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/index2.php?lang=en&cat=inscription&page=comment_sinscrire1

No turbo, weather actually looks good tomorrow.

When events ask for two 'addressed' envelopes, I presume they mean self-addressed? What are they used for? One to send the brevet card back I can kind of understand but what's the second one - routesheet or something?

You really getting into it now are you, you have cheques? Yes I assume they will send the brevet card and the route sheet.

I've written a few cheques for TTs so I'm (kind of) familar with the cheque system. Just not the audax world.

(Not sure I count as intelligentsia, but I will have a go).

This in relation to PBP?

No harm in multiple 600s. None at all. However, once the qualifying window is closed by mid-late June, you still have a couple of months before the French ride.

Plenty of old hands suggest this is the perfect time for really battering around 2-300km rides with minimal faffing and stopping.

PBP can be very fast compared to a typical UK audax - you can get well disciplined, very quick, groups that will let you join in and cut across the French countryside at Mach 3. (Equally you get very undisciplined rag bag groups who let you join in and risk your life for a couple of hours).

Typically, you are looking at 60-80km between controls - so, if you are comfy riding those sort of distances at evens sort of pace, then you are well equipped for making the most of the wheel sucking options that PBP presents.

So, yes, riding hard and fast through July and early August is traditionally seen as a good thing. There is less benefit in going to ride 600 or 1000km events in that period between qualification and the ride.

With my serious lack of miles this year, I am clinging onto the hope that after qualification, I can just batter myself for a couple of months and get the fitness needed for the ride!

I am planning it on fixed, so probably won't be able to make as much use of the wheels available as I can on gears. Going to be interesting!

I am starting to struggle. I completed my 200 and 300s without faff and reasonably quickly but then went out for a social ride with a pal when I was coming down with flu and it really knocked me. As I was riding I was thinking "I am ill, I must not associate feeling like this with the long ride", but I do a bit and now I have a bit of a mental block on Severn Across at the weekend; I am really just hoping that it is dry and reawakens my love of cycling a long way. Ho Hum

Ok cheers, hopefully will get the 600s out of the way with by beginning of June, so will have built up an endurance base, then concentrate on speed work and training my body not to need food every 50miles.

Just do it.

#swoosh

@arup 0600 bit early for me! Not starting til 9.