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The difference between an audax and a race is not how spread out the participants are but that the aim of a race is to win.
Sure, but for a ride like TCR there's only 2 or 3 people who are really going for the win. For everyone else they're racing themselves and pushing hard to get to the finish (which is no real difference than an Audax).
I can see how shorter races (i.e. sportives up to 300km) are different from an Audax but TCR/TABR are nothing like a 'race' for the majority of riders.
Put it another way, what's the difference in real terms between, say, Hippy doing TABR during proper TABR time and him riding the TABR route as a DIY ride a month later? I can't see anything materially important really. If anything the rules are slightly easier if he DIYs it (you'd be able to book accommodation in advance, you can have things sent to you en route, etc all of which are verboten on TABR).
And it's not as if there isn't an unofficial 'first finisher' ethos within Audax itself (I've just never troubled the adjudicators...)
Greenbank-
I did a sportive as DIY for RRTY 🤷🏽♂️
Broke so many sportive 'rules' as well .. not being competitive, sucking wheels all day but not taking turn in the wind even for a second, stopping and taking photos, not wearing a bandana, not being a white bald man etc.
I am still a yung audaxer but fuck the rules. Apart from making to all controls and finishing in time limit.
amey
Wait are there stricter conditions for DIYs than for organised events then? I've never considered doing a DIY but that surprises me.
In my view an audax is just riding your bike a long way for the sake of riding your bike a long way. Don't mind whether there are controls with cake and mechanics on hand, whether you're riding on the wheel of a dozen Swedes, whatever. The difference between an audax and a race is not how spread out the participants are but that the aim of a race is to win. The 24hr TT is an interesting anomaly! The fact that it was a validated long distance ride before there was a UK-based long distance ride validator I suppose means it has a place in the history of UK audaxing.
As far as self-sufficiency goes - which, sure, is a key part of the audax idea, I guess I think of it in terms of self-sufficiency on the bike, i.e. carrying with you what you need to keep moving forwards. The rules for the self-sufficiency ultra race things obviously need to be much stricter than what I think is needed for a ride to be an 'audax'.
I mean people take all kinds of different standpoints on stuff like this and I'm not hugely invested in it either way. I just hadn't heard about DIYs being more strict.
In other news, I'm planning on ECEing the Mildenhall Festival 200 next saturday (from Colchester) to try and build up some condition for the Fenland Friends - having not done >=100 miles yet this year :s