Audax rides

There is the beer and this. You sure you not confused?

Brrr, a skeleton wearing an Andy costume. Just look at that stare. :)

Doh

Scenario: I'm an idiot.
Gap: None, upwards

I'm thinking of an existing route, done twice. I guess I could just combine them but the loop thing becomes an issue. If the loop is big enough, I've forgotten it by the time I get to the start again but rules is rules.

It could be but I was thinking one after the other. How much variation is required before a second 'loop' is no longer consider a repeat? 120k x 2

Just do it the other way around the 2nd time?

I seem to remember a reg (perhaps incorrectly) that you can't repeat it as a loop, but you can reverse the direction to get two runs in and that's legit (so once clockwise, once anti-clockwise).

I'm pretty sure it's along those lines.
An out and back route is fine for example, and so a circular route could be done in reverse, as it then becomes an out and back route effectively.
The key thing is you don't travel the same road in the same direction more than once.
There is an unofficial rule which appears to be as follows - "taketh not the piss"
So if it uses 200m of the same road in a 200km route, I'm sure that would be fine. Riding halfway up the A303 and back again twice would not.

This is being discussed on the AUK forum at the moment.

The regulation talks about avoiding repeating circuits. So no doing 19 laps of Richmond Park for a DIY 200. No doing 2 laps of an existing DIY 100. No doing two laps of a 5km loop at the end of a ride in order to get it up to the required distance.

Riding one loop one way and then the same loop the other way is ok.

The regulation should be read as: "don't repeat roads unnecessarily".

So if you do reuse a control on your ride (which is generally fine) then you may need to reuse some of the roads near the control, that's ok if you plan to minimise the reuse, i.e. take the first sensible turn off to get on to unridden roads.

I'm still not sure whether it's possible to ride two DIY rides on the same day, i.e. you ride a DIY 50 before work and then a DIY 100 after work. Will ask about that.

If it's to collect AAA points I'd have to recalculate it or something, right?

But then what's the gap? 24hr? If I ride a 100 in the morning and then another 100 in the evening they're clearly two different rides but it sounds like they'd not quite be in the spirit of things. But if they are treated as two separate 100s, how small a gap between the two rides before it becomes 'loops'?

That's partly what I'm going to try to tease out of the AUK people.

Most respond as armchair lawyers, pointing out what their interpretation of the current regs means you can and can't do. But most of the current regs were added as generalisations to prevent very specific problems, and the generalisations lead to unintended consequences especially in the light of things like AAA.

Loops are generally verboten, but that's within the context of a single ride.

Is doing the same DIY 200 every day considered doing loops? Not really, plenty of people have done similar.

Make that doing the same DIY 50 four times a day, for days on end? Hmm, we'll see.

Before AAA points existed (for DIYs) doing 4 x DIY 50 over 1 x DIY 200 would have made little sense so people would have been unlikely to care, but with AAA points it obviously does as it now enables the same loop to be ridden 4 times.

Anyway, we'll see what they say.

If it's to collect AAA points I'd have to recalculate it or something, right?

Assuming it starts/finishes at the same point it should have exactly the same amount of climbing whichever way round it is ridden.

I read that they "changed the calculation method" so thought maybe they did something like TdF where they'd apply some kind of algorithm that might eliminate points or whatever depending on where climbs were or I dunno. When I read there was a calculation I assumed it wasn't as straight forward as elevation gain.

It used to be a lot more complicated - you'd get more points/metre climb on longer events (I think...) http://www.aukweb.net/results/aaa/aaaarch/#p7 if you're interested. The system changed for the 2009 season to 1 point/1000m climb with minimum limits (eg 1500m for 100km) depending on distance.

I think I'll enter the Waveney Wander in Suffolk on the 26th of November and ride to the start from North London to turn it into a 200. Anyone interested in coming along or is everybody busy chasing crazy AAA goals?

How will riding to the start from North London turn it into a 200?
It's already 200k from North London to the start. 500k round trip?

Yeah, I got confused. I meant 300. Already less attractive, but still interesting...

It's basically a DunRun in November with another 100k on top of it :)

Train back?

That'd be the plan. On the other hand I do have some days off remaining for 2017...

Pure speculation, but I suspect a gap of just a few seconds would suffice.
I assume you'd be doing with GPS, so two separate tracks.
I also assume this would be frowned upon massively.

This is a variation of the Double Avon that goes through Tewkesbury from Bristol if you're interested...

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/21645623

Like rocking up at the start on a TT bike with aero helmet?

I've been dealing with psychotic drivers for the last 30 years I reckon I can handle some audaxer frowns :)

It might not even happen. I may just stop being lazy and design my own route with more climbing in it.

Thanks @Telbert - that looks ideal. Starts about 10 minutes from my house!

Signed up for the Waveney Wander and mapped the ECE route. Questions to answer now are fixed vs gears (probably fixed) and should I try and ride back as well (thanks nothing @hippy for putting the idea in my head)

Go big or go home...

I didn't go big today. 140k Cheeky Chilterner