Audax rides

perceptions matter

Cyclists are already hated - we've got little to lose.

Yeah, I get it. Given that schools and businesses are running though it's still bullshit.

Not really, schools being in is part of a nuanced balancing act with regards to mixing vulnerable groups of people.

Put simply, kids have been mingling with the same kids/teachers for the last few months, it's probably the safest place for them if that remains stable. The main problem is that their parents have much more diverse social mixing (random people in pubs/restaurants or on public transport, large geographical distributions via workplaces, etc) which is why they are being told to isolate/wfh if possible.

If you close schools early then millions of people have to source childcare at late notice, not least a huge number of NHS staff. The most likely demographic that will take up the slack are grandparents, exactly the group that the Government is trying to isolate right now.

Yes, it's only a couple of weeks until the Easter holidays where childcare becomes an issue anyway, but I sense the Government are trying to get the over 70s isolated now in an attempt to minimise the number that then get lumped with childcare (and subsequent spike in infections and deaths in 3-4 weeks' time.)

tl;dr it's far more nuanced than "schools are businesses are running though it's still bullshit." Audax is a tiny tiny niche of a minority sport that's entirely unnecessary.

Until one of the parents gets it and passes it to the kid and then the whole school is rapidly done over. Parents mind kids - that's isolating. If they want isolating people need to be WFH or not working. Anyway all of this is for the Corona thread. Killing DIYs is still bullshit.

This is silly, at the end of the day it's just a bike ride. Go ride it if you want, the fact that it is "validated" or has "points" or not shouldn't matter. (and it's not as if the registration fees were super high either)

What every other country in Europe is doing is having a few staff at school so that children of essential workers can be looked after.
The UK is one of only two countries in Europe (Switzerland or Sweden, can't remmeber which), which hasn't closed schools.
If people shouldn't go to work, why is it different for teachers?

If people shouldn't go to work, why is it different for teachers?

OK, why is it different for NHS staff? Why is it different for the Police? Why is it different for the people who keep the utilities (gas, electric, water, Internet, etc) going?

At some point you draw a line as to what is absolutely required, what is useful to keep going while you can, and what can be dispensed with.

Teachers, at the moment, are near the top of that middle bracket. The line will eventually move and schools will close, but doing it right now isn't absolutely necessary, so they're holding off from doing it.

It was more about my partner's rrty. I don't give a fuck about validation but she's just got through a tough winter of rides and now has to do it again? Fuck that noise.

I went out in hail and 60mph winds to do a 200k in January. I’m not going to restart it when AUK opens for business again. I’ll wait a month as I don’t want an asterisk by my first RRtY.

Yeah, there was some shitty weather for these. We've done Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar already so it's getting fucked over with 1/3 of it done. Maybe we'll just ride it as planned and I'll claim the medal for the one I did a few years ago and give it to her.

If it's a one off RTTY maybe they'll allow you to skip those months next year, i.e.

Dec 2019
Jan/Feb/Mar 2020

Aug/Sep/Oct/Nov 2020

Apr/May/Jun/Jul 2021

Plenty of time for that kind of stuff to be discussed and sorted out.

It's just that every other country in Europe, apart from the UK and, its actually Belarus, has made a different decision.
We can't know what is necessary at this stage, but the UK government has not performed well in this crisis so I am not inclined to automatically assume we are right and all the foreigners have got it wrong!

email from AUK chair tonight says

For riders working towards the Randonneur Round the Year award, the "year" will be considered to be a consecutive 12 month period during which AUK Events could be ridden, so you will be able to pick up where you left off once Events are restarted. If you have already ridden your March 200km, this will be credited; if not, your "pause" point will be your February 200km and you will not be expected to have ridden a March 200km.

So RRtY attempts are fine

Yeah, double winter RRTY, great. :S

With all the missed travel, assuming the airlines/ferries still exist, I think I'll just move to Spain and do the missing ones.

With all the missed travel, assuming the airlines/ferries still exist, I think I'll just move to Spain and do the missing ones.

Recreational cycling is banned altogether in Spain!

Looking at the notification it seems that partly it is because of the risk of an accident and taking medical resources away from treating those impacted by virus outbreak. Doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable, although with fewer cars there’s less risk of an accident.

It shows a certain attitude to cycling - that it is seen as a sport rather than transport, hence an activity to be limited.

And I think it is more about wanting to prevent a loophole in the lockdown restrictions which might make it harder to enforce them as a whole, rather than responding to actual risk.

In contrast, the advice from the German and Dutch governments is that people should cycle.

Also, the Italians, Spanish and French have not banned other activities such as home DIY, which has a much higher rate of injury than cycling, they have not reduced speed limits for motors, etc.

have not banned other activities such as home DIY

Oh I wish this would happen, I sense a list being developed here :(

Duh, this would be after the lock down.

Also, how big is Spain? Good luck catching me, officers...

https://twitter.com/ianwalker/status/1239983355413790725

much easier to ban cyclists than ban drivers

Yeah, but it's also not a solution. It's not fact driven and I will continue to ignore any bans on cycling. You gotta fight for your right to pedal. Sorry Beasties

RRTY question - I've done a DIY 200km from October up until Feb. Let's say they start recognising DIY's from July, would that mean I've had to do at least a 200km ride up to an including January 2021?

Also, are they offering refunds for already purchased calender event entries?

That's more an organiser thing. I know the Highlands 1000k guy is offering some money back. I assume it's not the full amount because he worded in such a way to infer there were already sunk costs in the event.

I received an email cancellation where I had to specifically ask for the refund, otherwise it would be donated to the village hall.
It’s not a lot on its own but I’ve entered one every 2 or 3 weeks until July and had already written off next weeks Petworth ride. It soon adds up. I’ll probably write them all off as I’m saving a lot of other expense at the moment.