Audax rides

I've extended calendar events I've just never claimed for any.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEC-8GFTP4

Lip blam?

You don't need expensive lip balm, a little Vaseline will act as a barrier to stop lips drying out. SPF stuff works, but is more for use if you're on water/snow/at altitude etc where there's more UV exposure.

Best thing to do is drink more water and avoid breathing through your mouth. If you fuel yourself entirely on sugared donuts or are just a habitual lip-licker that doesn't help things.

Blam you.

I know that now! Mind you, I packed sun cream and didn't remember to put any on, a la hippy

I am getting over a cold so was doing a fair amount of mouth breathing. Didn't realise how little I could breath through my nose until I was trying to eat and ride at the same time.

On long rides (typically after stopping, particularly when freezing arse off in bivvy) my sinuses block up almost immediately. I'll pay more attention next time... it's not like I've done the same thing when the sun comes out for the last 30 years and I'm basically a walking skin cancer...

Brevets or it didn't happen. :)

#thisisaudaxmyfriend

I think I'm likely to be a weird case (no shit!) that started audaxing to use as training rides for long races. The event validation is unimportant to me. In fact, so is the mileage. I care about time on bike and power and I'm the only one with those records.

I don't think 12hrs up and down some A road can even count as an audax according to their rules so all I've done is a lot of long rides.

Points comp >>>

I don't think 12hrs up and down some A road can even count as an audax according to their rules

Depends.

You're not allowed to repeat the same sections of road (in the same direction) over and over again so a single long blat up an A road and back down again (or long blats up different A-roads) could be made to count (via the various forms of DIY-by-GPS). But you'd also need to specify the turning points in advance too which takes away a lot of the spontaneity.

I started off worrying about POINTS FOR ALL THE RIDES! but am a lot less worried about the validation/recognition side of it now. It's just a convenient excuse to get out on the bike for a long ride.

Just pulling your leg, obviously. :)

I'm even weirder in that since joining Audax UK years ago, I haven't been on a single Audax. I still can't see having the time to change that this year, but I really should.

I do different stuff - sometimes it's long loops in a single direction. Sometimes it's a long loop but with a smaller loop repeated to get the required time, often it's a TT course (A31) repeated over and over again, sometimes it'll be out the A4 for 6hrs (or more if tailwind return) and back.

The key point is, it's hard enough to get out and do that crap without worry about filling in paperwork as well!!

This year I told coach I would NOT be doing the same shit as the last 5 years and if he wanted a long training ride scheduled it would need to be an 'event' to make it more interesting. Even if the 'event' is just me riding a Perm, I refuse to do any more laps of that feckin A31 (last week's 50mi TT reminded me how much I hate that rutted pile of shit road).

I guess another factor in my case is once you've done a single day ride of 518mi or completed PBP, you're not likely to top it by much. Not counting TCR or TransAm shizzle, LEJOG and LEL are probably the biggest things I'm likely to do.

You really should. Why not do one of the Brevet Populaires? They're only short, like 50 or 100k or something.

Oh, gosh, I'm not sure about that. Can't you get any that are, like, 25k? That might be a bit easier to start with. 50k sounds like doing the London to Brighton ride.

L2B is more like a slow-moving crit race than audax. Knowing which wobbly fooking eejit is going to try a dodgy pass and being able to bunnyhop the carnage they leave behind is key. Audax is start->finish usually on quiet lanes + cake.

Well done to all those riding the BCM. Sounds you all had a great time. Perhaps I'll give it a go next year.

BCM was great, really recommend it. Found it a lot more enjoyable than the previous 600 I'd done, mostly due to having much more interesting scenery. North Wales is particularly great. Am already considering doing it again next year*. Hopefully without quite as much drama... (breaking my frame 100k in and having to find a welder in a small Welsh town).

Got away with leaving mudguards off as well.

*actually I'm pretty sure I swore I'd never do anything over a 200 again at several points on Saturday night/Sunday morning, particularly when temperature dropped to around freezing, but now I'm mostly remembering all the good bits.

(breaking my frame 100k in and having to find a welder in a small Welsh town)

The ride has form.

Garry Broad broke his frame near Rhayader on the BCM in 2011. He got it welded back together at a local garage and did the remaining 500km.

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=43334.msg943411#msg943411

Just wrote a long reply and tried to embed an instagram pic and lfgss got upset and it lost the whole thing... how do you embed instagram?
Which is annoying as I'm too busy with work at the moment to write again - I've been meaning to do a proper write up with pictures but haven't had time since getting back.
Will do it later. The main point was it happened a mile or two outside Rhayader as well... though I got the repair done at a different place. Which is a pretty weird coincidence.

Chapeau. Sounds very interesting, would love to read more. That could be the first Talbot that has cracked as well?

I will do it as soon as I've got a particularly tedious bit of work out the way. I took a load of photos (though seem to have failed to get one of my temporary cable tie frame repair, which I'm annoyed about).

I'm pretty sure the cause of the breakage was a large Kent pothole the week before - was surprised at the time that I'd got away without wrecking the back wheel, didn't think to check the frame... have done about 15000k on that frame now, so it was definitely solidly built, I suppose probably just one of those things that would have broken anything - if it had been a carbon frame I suppose I'd be looking at the whole thing being a write off, whereas now I just need a new chainstay & drop out.
(annoyingly if I'd not got the rather brutal quick welding job done, it'd have just been a 10 minute job reattaching the dropout according to Matt - it had just come away from the chainstay at the joint). Still would have been worse not to have finished the ride.

Kent roads are terrible compared to Wales.

Where was the break? Wye Wednesday.. zip tie holding cracked Tk2 together. Thanks Audi driver...

My friend Mark once again took some really nice photos at the weekend - the weather really was as good as it looks in the photos.

http://mark-erro.tumblr.com/

amazing photos

the ice cream group shot sums it

And onto the next one - anyone doing Asparagus and Strawberries? Will finish my SR with that ride :-)