Audax rides

Hurrah, enough people for two teams.

1) hippy (400km lead out man)
2) j_a_m_e_s (route)
3) Super_ted (beer carrier 1)
4) cjr (beer carrier 2)
5) alialias (confused northerner)

6) GoatandTricycle (1st Reserve/captain)
7) inappropriate_bike (hill-finder general)
8) ruserius (is this the fixed-friendly team?)
9) dibs (also fixed)

Good to have you on board. I’m geared.
Also I seem to have been elevated in some kind of reverse mutiny!?

I don't wanna do too much damage to myself with RaTN to think about two weeks later so I'll almost certainly get a train back. They seem to be anywhere from £20 to £112 (not sure how their pricing works) but if you're organising it all I'll pay for your ticket back if you want?

can someone tell me tl;dr of what happened on last few pages?

'Former'

He's old, fat and drunk now.

Actually, he was two of those back in the day anyway.

What are you planning this in? Do you use RWGPS at all?

We all got massive boners for Easter Arrow/Fleche next year.

You just wanna put me on the front for 400k of gusty headwinds don't you?

is that partly Fenland Friends? Will it count towards SR? When is it?

It does count to SR but is risky to rely on if for PBP as your 400, as if something goes wrong and you miss the 24hr control you will only get 3 points

From London it's not a hard ride if you take the fens and stay east it is pancake flat, the thing which can fuck you up is wind (but you will know this from fenland friends!)

no PBP for me but aiming for SR in 2019 :)

Go for it then the arrow was part of my first SR, just make sure you have someone how can work out the rules!

Some app called Pocket Earth on my iPad. It's brilliant - world maps, with contours £7.99 when I got it.

@cjr has tweaked the first bit and its here now

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28899661

I think that's about there. I broke it down and the longest leg between controls is between Boston and Kirton at 89km, so we might have to slip in a control somewhere in between. I don't know if Goole as the 22hr control is a good idea or not. 45km should be fine. If we leave at 0800 and hit Goole at 0500ish, we'll smash it.

I'll possibly DIYxGPS at least some of this route before Easter.

Ref train - they'll be cheap tickets to be had I'm sure. Eg 02/12/18, I've got Solihull to London for £5.50. I'm gonna ECE overnight to The Midlander and train back.

Ref you and headwind - yes. 😂

Quite a bit of inspiration has been taken from a very similar route, yes.

😳

Too early for tickets, isn't it?

You didn't take a step backwards when the rest of us did.

So, team two... core route could look like this (has the advantage of a supported control at 160km/Peterborough).

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28903881

Just need to:

• Decide if it's better to extend it on the flat roads to the east, or the rolling scenic roads around Oakham prior to hitting Peterborough. What's the target milage, anyway, captain?
  
• Check for routing gremlins. I'll re-ride the Leeds-Peterborough section at the end of the month. Also think there must be a better option around Potters Bar.
  
• Check for rule compliance.
  

Don't think you can use it for PBP http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/19-EARO/

That route looks good. Has also reminded of what a fucking weird place Goole was. Felt like the end of the world.

Ha I can try do a few bits on the planning front but I’m on permanent stand by remember!
Task me something and I’ll try...

Take a look for audaxes which exit London via Potters Bar and compare it to the current route?

At the moment I've got a small section on a cyclepath next to the A1. It's fine, and if I remember right it links up a nice section. But possibly there's a better way.

Ok I’ll have a look tomorrow. Ridden some of that when doing the Orbital I think also did the Rapha prestige out that way.

Cheers!

I wouldn't trust that rapha prestige route, @GoatandTricycle, someone broke their collar bone the last time we tried it...

Re the trains. I think the hardest thing will be getting a bike space as I think most trains from York to London will be LNER which requires bookings.

I'm originally from Edinburgh and in the past, to guarantee a place, I have phoned up and reserved a bike space before actually booking my train. Otherwise you can have a non refundable ticket but find there are no bike spaces.