Audax rides

After a long hiatus I'm looking to get back into some long distance cycling
Have made a route that will give me a nice target, that feeling of "having gone somewhere" that kept me coming back to audax rides previously
Unfortunately that does seem to make for rather lumpy ride...

1 Attachment

Borders of Belgium riders, I paid my entry fee within the 7 days, then never heard anything else back from them.

Anyone else get a confirmation email or anything like that? I can't see a 'registered riders' list anywhere.

@cagimaha you have 26-30 railcard and like long bike rides! Meet @josh89 !
Looks fixie friendly! https://ridewithgps.com/routes/31959939

For reference this is what the fuck I am talking about https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15109589/

I did get an email a few days later. Try emailing (rcrcbel at gmail).

(Though, not sure I am going to actually ride it anymore. My riding buddy is probably shelving cycling for the foreseeable, and I'm not sure this is something I want to do alone.)

Ah thanks! I'll shoot them an email. Money's definitely left my account to someone Belgian, at least : /

And that's a shame - hope they are able to get back on a bike before long and it's not permanent.

Haha I'd have loved to yoyo solo but sadly I'm using my railcard elsewhere at the weekend.

Nope, just got the bank transaction thing. I don't worry about that shit. Assuming I sent it to the right place I assume all is well and if not, someone in Belgium will get a drunken visit from me one night in the future demanding they sort out 'their round' of drinks.

Yeah good point, I'll assume I've paid someone somewhere in Belgium for my 12 bottles of Trippel and a routesheet...

Bike all ready for tomorrow’s ECE’d yo-yo. Plan on setting off at 2:30am, 135k there arriving at 7am. Time to charge my phone and stuff my face before the start. I’m aiming to get finish the Calendar at 4pm and catch the train back from Plymouth at 8pm. The route is 418k unless I miss the last train, then it’ll be around 500k...

1 Attachment

How'd you go? Better than last weekend's weather but definitely some remnants of shit hanging around.

We did Ditchling Devil 200k to get Feb's RRTY 200 done. Missus had a meltdown atop Ditchling with the wind blowing us (ok, her, let's be honest, nothing can move me) all over the road while the rain helped blind us. After some motivational talk aka "keep fucking riding!" we got to Devils Dyke and the sun came out for a bit and then we eventually had a tailwind which helped the return.

Jaysus! Beast ride in winter o.o

I ended up doing 360k, not the 400k. It was touch and go if I could get to Plymouth in time to catch the last train. I didn’t want to spend the night stuck so hopped on at Exeter.

The ride was windy. I got blown to Cranbrook, rained on me for around an hour. Once there the first 20k was fast, when we turned round it was like riding through treacle. Hills, wind and fixed gears don’t go together. The rest of the ride was fun.

Ignore that line, I turned my gps back on partway home on the train. I didn’t add any miles but I can’t work out how to fix it.
https://strava.app.link/IN2HlU62j4

Edit: the line should be gone now.

I was going to do the arrow but a team member pulled out so I had to scrap that idea. I already booked the time of work so I got a travelodge for £25 and will do a DIY 600 Easter weekend. Never done a DIY that length before.

A ride report of this past Friday's adventure...

With February weekends being frustratingly poor weather here in NE Scotland, I've been delaying week on week my attempt at the third outing of the Snow Roads for my Snow Roads RRTY (SRRRTY). This was also month 9 of my RRTY. To follow along at home the route can be found here
.

This past week looked like the calmest weather so I booked my flex day at work for Friday the 28th ahead of Storm Jorge coming through on the weekend. Given a stiff Southerly wind forecast for the first half of the day, I elected for the classic Kirriemuir start as opposed to my usual Banchory start. I made it over Cairn O'Mount through Banchory and up to Dufftown averaging over 20kmph. Just before Dufftown while passing through The Cabrach, it started to rain so when arriving at the control in Dufftown I decided to dry out a little in the Coffee Pot Cafe for a wee breakfast (square sausage - not link; hash brown - not tattie scone). Setting off toward Tomintoul the wind appeared to keep changing direction between a head and side tail wind but I managed to keep the speed up through Tamnavulin. As I approached the higher levels of this road the rain had been snow and was settling a little in the road. As I headed up the road Lecht the wind came right in my face at a brutal speed reducing my speed to 11kmph on the false flat. At the Well of the Lecht the road bears right turning the wind into a biting cross wind with the snow cutting at my face. It was now settling more and more. As the gradient shot up, I needed to get off and push. Visibility was probably 200m and I was thankful for the balaclava, insulated jacket, hardshell jacket and thick gloves I had. The bivy bag and shelter in the ski center did cross my mind. 50 minutes of hiking later I'd cover the 4km to the top - not easy in speedplays...

Approaching the top I saw a mini cooper struggling with the gradient, fortunately the plough from the Aberdeenshire side reversed down to give them a pull as I plodded past. They asked how to get to Edinburgh. I said they'd probably need to go to Aberdeenshire and down the coast if they could get over the other side or go back down and head to Huntly. Once At the ski centre I could see the plough had cleared the Aberdeenshire side and I was able to carefully descend down to Cock Bridge taking extra care at the hair pins just above the snow gates. On the higher levels of the road a caraban was on its side in the snow. A victim of the earlier February storms. In Corgaff at dusk I was playing in my mind if I should ride the 80km back to Aberdeen knowing that getting to the car in Kirriemuir would be a real pain, or do I head over the BH hills via Gairnshiel into the Dee Valley to assess the situation there. My concern was that these hills would be worse than the Lecht given their lower priority for plowing. As I approached the turn off I saw three or four cars coming down and was passed by a couple going up which was promising. One driver said it was a little slippy but not too bad. I decided my luck laid in Deeside. Similar to the Lecht the slippy packed snow and my fatigue by this point meant seated climbing was exhausting and I elected to push again on the steep gradients, but was able to ride the steadier bits and carefully decent both BH hills thanking my disc brakes for their control. Once I popped out at Crathie (home to Balmoral Castle), the road was clear of snow and ice and conditions favourable so I elected to turn right and ride the 9 miles to Braemar.

At this point my average speed was down to 16.4kmph. By Braemar I managed to get it back up to 16.6kmph calculating that I had 6 hours to do the final 60kmph, this seems doable - a steady climb over Glenshee followed by a nice decent down the Perth side and a mostly downhill ride through Glen Isla. I popped into the Co-Op for food and the staff mentioned to my disappointment that the snow gates had just been closed on the Braemar side and would likely not be opened until morning. I assessed my options, at this point looking online all the snow gates had been shut and the quickest detour on open roads would be 160km via the Slug road and Stonehaven with no guarantee the Slug would be passable. I even played with the idea of doing a McNasty and portaging the snow gates and riding (or walking) up in the cloak of darkness (9pm by this point). However given that they'd be no traffic if I got in trouble and that the likelihood of bad snow in Glen Isla being very real I resigned the fact that I'd have to wait the night out at the hostel in Braemar - Game Over. I road up to the gates which were indeed shut and took the left into the SHA hostel at the edge of town. The Snow Roads had really lived up to their name. I'd finish the ride in the morning purely to get back to the car.

I awoke at 3.30am and checked the webcam - gates shut. Come 7am I got up and the gates were still shut with a line of traffic awaiting their opening. I begged some porridge from a hiker and ate the remaining 500cal long life croissant out of my saddle bag and thought they'd be ploughing and getting the gate open soon enough. Come 8.30 the police opened the road and I was soon off up Glen Callater into the South-Westerly wind of Jorge. This must have been my slowest climb of the 15km drag, but one of the most beautiful with the clearing sky and white hills. The ploughed road was not too stressful to descend on account of the wind keeping my speed from getting too high. Fortunately down in the valley at the bottom the wind was more manageable and I was able to get to the turn off for Glen Isla - the home stretch. Here signs of significant snow were evident, but the warm overnight temps and earlier traffic meant the way was clear and I road down easily enough to Kirriemuir and a warm Maccaroni pie at the BP garage to celebrate. Before going to meet Eck for a coffee and blather.

The forecast had deceived me and I wouldn't have taken on the challenge had I known the conditions would be that bad at high ground, but it was a hell of an experience and 300km in the legs ahead of Deano's Highland Fling 1000. Hopefully no snow in early May for that one!

sounds like good fun. Any pics?

I have just entered The Shark. Hope this shite weather fucks off by then.

Wells, Mells & Broader! 200km in Bristol on Sat

I remember DNSing the calendar event when it was on the May Bank holiday a few years ago as it was so grim.

But then I rode the route in January with a bit of a breeze and full sunshine...

ECEing the Invicta Grimpeur on Sunday, imagine Yorks Hill is going to be in the worst state possible given the weather we've had, tempted to put 32mm tyres on

Meridian Hills perm this Saturday for me, time to kick my arse back into shape

tempted to put 32mm tyres on

Why would you even have less than that on these roads? spits at street

This is a valid point

Sexeh

This is an accurate representation of me on a bike currently