Audax rides

Forgetting Brexit, I'm hoping most of the Covid shit has died down by then. If not, my summer "campaign" LOLz is gonna look pretty shithouse.

Yeah I haven't been able to figure out what Brexit will do to everything, both bureaucratically and financially yet. Assuming it's going to cost more in some way.

More money, more hassle, more time.

Hard to know isn't it? New, aggressive variant on the one hand vs vaccine and warmer weather on the other.

It's anyone's guess how the first half of the year will play out. I wouldn't book anything before May but I'd hope things would be ok by August / September. But, if in doubt, assume things will go on for more rather than less time.

I'm eight months into my 3rd RRtY but the way AUK is interpreting the latest Covid guidelines means any future 200s (for the moment, anyway) I do have to stay within London. I've seen chat of the London Spiral ride in the cycling in corona times thread, and I have a couple of pals who did a London boroughs 200 on new years day, but fuck me, their report of it sounded grim.

Nevermind, eh.

3rd RRtY

Why? :)

:D

...something to do?

(there's something comforting in the knowledge I can ride 200km without much bother. I worry if I stopped doing them I might ride way less than I do. But I can obvs do them without the silly points.)

No, I get it. I do the same thing. I just find RRTY difficult in terms of scheduling and conflicting with other events so I did one and left it well alone after that. I've basically done another one with the missus but I'm not entering any of the 200ks (unless it's something I've not already done).

I might look at doing some gravel 200s or something a bit different. The other thing I was thinking about was doing AAA Hyper SR or maybe doing more AAA events in general.

Could you not amend your RRTY entry so it starts and finishes in a tier 4 area such as Kent? Would adding the bit from getting to and back from that different area add a big amount on to your ride?

This effectively means that any route starting at a location within the AUK SE region must be wholly contained within ONE of the following geographic areas

Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, Luton, and Milton Keynes
Berkshire
Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, and West Sussex
Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire
Essex, Southend-on-Sea, and Thurrock
Hampshire, Southampton, and Portsmouth
Hertfordshire
Isle of Wight
Kent and Medway
London (all 32 London boroughs plus City of London)
Norfolk
Oxfordshire
Surrey
Peterborough
Suffolk

What does this mean for my DIY Brevets?

Entries submitted with a 2020 ride date will be/have been accepted on the understanding that they comply with AUK guidelines, the current version of which is outlined above, and will be progressed on that basis.

If you have already emailed me to cancel or reschedule then I will be in touch in due course.

Entries submitted in 2020 with a 2021 ride date will be set to status, ‘pending’, which means that you will need to email me to either confirm the ride date sometime before you start the ride or else cancel the brevet as appropriate.

If you are riding outside the AUK South East area then local regulations will apply.

DIYSE Entry Form

I recently launched a DYSE Entry form - diyapp.paudax.com - to streamline processing of DIYSE entries. I am currently working through a backlog of entries (I have received 80+ entries since 20th Dec…) and aim to get up-to-date this weekend, so if you have not heard from me lately, please be patient.

The DIYSE Entry form uses Google services and requires users to be signed into Google, which effectively means to have a Gmail account. You do not need to use the Gmail account, you just need to be signed in. Many of you will have a Gmail account already, if not, then Gmail accounts are free and straightforward to setup. There are ways around this restriction however this form Is intended as a temporary solution pending a more comprehensive solution becoming available, so please bear with me.

If you have recently submitted a DIY entry through the AUK website, please resubmit via diyapp.paudax.com

Thank you for your patience and support,

All the best for 2021,
Paul Stewart
Audax UK DIY South East

Would add 40km minimum, so pretty doable with little effort tbh, but I feel like it sort of goes against the AUK guidelines.

Yep, fair point.

The idea of riding a 200 with London....the horror.

It's meant to be the same area you live in, otherwise the whole thing is even more pointless.

They've also added the option to skip months if you consider it impractical under the guidance, which is entirely reasonable for Londoners.

yeah, I saw that too, and guess it is reasonable, but for some reason I feel weird about it

shrugs

I was one who opted for the Spiral Ride last month and it wasn't too bad when I did it. Got a bit grim around the East London portion, especially around Barking and Dagenham, but I was going through there around midday on Christmas Eve so possibly extra traffic with people shopping or something not sure. Looking like there's going to be a few more imaginative London rides for the next couple of months at this rate too.

Interesting, I hadn't seen that. Agree with @plasticniki in that I wouldn't be too keen on it but good to know. Thanks.

the way AUK is interpreting the latest Covid guidelines means any future 200s (for the moment, anyway) I do have to stay within London

Yeah... interesting interpretation. This is their Tier 4 guidance which you will have seen but I'm sharing for the benefit of others:

Tier 4: 2 riders per event route per day. Maximum distance 200km. The whole route must be contained within the original Tier 4 area. (Note: as per published Government guidance, the 32 London Boroughs and the City of London comprise one area for tiering purposes and the same will apply to the Tier 4 area of Essex and the Tier 4 area of Surrey).

Not sure I agree with their interpretation, which nobody else seems to be using. If my club used their interpretation it would mean our members couldn't ride into Essex, which is 7 miles away.

Which would be a bit daft for a road club.

To be fair, I don't know how else they can be interpreted - Gov.UK guidelines are very specific to stop people moving between areas:

"Travelling within a Tier 4 area
If you live in a Tier 4 area, you must not leave your home unless you have a reasonable excuse (for example, for work or education purposes). If you need to travel you should stay local – meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live – and look to reduce the number of journeys you make overall. The list of reasons you can leave your home and area include, but are not limited to...outdoor recreation or exercise. This should be done locally wherever possible, but you can travel a short distance within your Tier 4 area to do so if necessary (for example, to access an open space)

Travelling out of a Tier 4 area
You must stay at home and not leave your Tier 4 area, other than for legally permitted reasons such as:

travel to work where you cannot work from home
travel to education and for caring responsibilities
visit or stay overnight with people in your support bubble, or your childcare bubble for childcare purposes
attend hospital, GP and other medical appointments or visits where you have had an accident or are concerned about your health
to provide emergency assistance, and to avoid injury or illness, or to escape a risk of harm (such as domestic abuse)"

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tier-4-stay-at-home

If my club used their interpretation it would mean our members couldn't ride into Essex, which is 7 miles away.

There's the tiniest of grey areas in that exercise and travel have been treated separately in every version of the guidance, and it says exercise is unlimited but you must not travel outside your area.

British Cycling says those in Tier 4 "should not leave their areas to take part in cycling activities or events", which is marvellously useless - does that mean strapping a bike to your Range Rover or riding it?

OTOH the actual underlying law (which is different from the guidance) says that all of the Tier 4 council territories are "the Tier 4 area", as if there's only one such area.

Anyway, let's hope riding any sort of velocipede gets banned from 8 pm tonight, rendering all of this moot.

From the AUK website:

ENGLAND
All event validations in England are suspended from 00.01 Tuesday 5th January 2021

Just England? Got a link?

https://audax.uk/news/covid-19-update-04-january-2021/

So, presumably for stuff like RRtY it's paused again and the T actually stands for two?

RRTwoYears