Audax rides

I did the Capitals of East Anglia 300 for the second time today. Rode with a clubmate who did his first double metric century a couple of months ago and fancied doing a double Imperial century. Usual full value approach - the cream tea in Norwich was a particular highlight, but the fish and chips at Dunwich was also pretty good. Didn't manage to finish the garlic bread and lasagne in Watton though.

Edit: 14 hours 10 minutes total time on the road. Service was a bit slow at Jack's Café in Ipswich but the sossige, egg and chips were appreciated.

Edit2: Even managed to bag a Strava KOM during the ride.

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Anyone doing Asparagus & Strawberries 400 next weekend? Have entered. First proper audax this year after a few DIY's looking forward to it.

I've bailed on BoB just as I'm not sure how I feel about going abroad this year in the end.

Reckon I'll defer to next year for more of a 'normal' experience plus just ridden 1000 for LLEL and now less enthusiastic about another.

how you find the LLEL route?

It was certainly challenging -Exeter to Lands end was lots of the steep single track you'd expect down there, slow going but atmospheric, especially Dartmoor.

Nothing I'd call gratuitous though. A Cornwall ride is going to be hilly -eg I love Andy Corless routes but there is an element of gratuitousness with some of the hills to them in my opinion (which is no criticism!)

Lands end to Exeter was actually a fast section for me, bits of the LEJOG route and a less lumpy way to Exeter. Holiday traffic close passes were awful though. My voice is actually hoarse from yelling 'prick' at drivers.

Last section from Exeter to London was tough mainly as I rode in 12 hours of heavy rain on no sleep and it wasn't as flat as I'd thought.

I aomehow made it back to the scout hut first, after hallucinating a small group ahead of me who I never quite caught up with for most of Saturday 😂

Well done!
I had to DNS with knee probs so have been sulking for the last couple of days. Hope to do it another time.

Yeah it was relentless on the knees. Well worth riding another time if you can, lands end as a halfway point was a good incentive especially as I've never been down there for LEJOG or anything.

Next ride of this sort I do I'm fitting a 40t and Wolf Tooth I think.

I think the final numbers were 50 odd on the start list, 25 or so started, maybe 10 or so finishers?

Surprising more didn't start given the number of riders in London. From tweets and thread snippets here and there I think I know who half the riders were - lots of usual suspects for stuff like this.
I already have 40 / WT plus compact chainset: I reckoned this merited the lowest possible gears!

I've just booked flights for Transiberica and BoB is the week after so it's unlikely I'll bother heading overseas again so soon after.

50 odd on the start list, 25 or so started

That's pretty annoying. I've been looking at events for months and everything has been marked as full so I hope non-starters are removing themselves from lists and not just bailing on the day.

Yeah it's poor etiquette, people should really be encouraged to give a bit of notice for a 1000 especially.

Then again I'm always amazed when I speak to people about booking restaurants and they'll book 4 places and cancel the other 3 on the day, depending on what they're in the mood for. This kind of thing never crosses my mind.

Twats.

AUK specifically put a tweet out asking for people to make sure they're riding or remove themselves from entry lists so people who do want to ride can get a place.

After my ride last week I now have 3 months left on my Fixed RRTY attempt so hopefully I'm going to make it. Had hoped to get more calendar events in over the summer but as I'm sure everyone is finding, quite tricky to get a place on any around London or nearby. Had forgotten the requirements for other rewards so nice to see my profile pop up with the Randonneur 500 and Brevet 1000 following the last couple of rides.

Had hoped to try and get 25 points over the year for the Fixed Wheel Challenge Badge, but with having to skip over January and February don't think I'll do it as will only make it to 20 points for the Audax Year. Might be able to batch up a few 100km rides over the next few months if they would get me 1 point each. I think it explains that points can be awarded for 100km rides on the FWC regulations page, though I'm not sure if I'm just misinterpreting it https://audax.uk/awards-pages/fixed-wheel/fwc-regulations/

Borders of Belgium - anyone doing this still?

I emailed Rhonny last week to DNS.

The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to the whole of Belgium based on the current assessment of COVID-19 risks. I don't see travel restrictions getting better given the unlocking coming up and anticipated increase in cases.

A ride to keep on the to do list.

1 point per complete 100km.
1:1 Ratio AAA to FWC points.
So a 100km with 1.5 AAApoints (the min available for 100km) would net you 2.5 FWC points.

Did you get round LLEL ok?

Well done, bet it was horrendous traffic wise around Goonhaven and Quintrell Downs.

I riode LLEL too and finished with 2.5 hours in hand. It was a lot more challenging to me than expected and the last day I felt the ever present stress of the time limit.

I had a false sense of confidence after a very smooth going 600 up here in Scotland. The 12.5 AAA points should have been a hint... For me the surprisingly hard hills were the Black Downs between Exeter and Langport, steep and relatively long in comparison to most of the stuff in Devon and Cornwall.

I agree with @honk that the level of traffic and driving in Cornwall on the A roads was diabolical. I pulled over at one point to let the back up of traffic pass and had to wait 5 minutes to get a gap to get going again.

I was shocked by the DNF rate on the ride when finishing. My riding partner Anne and I finished at 10.30 and were mid-pack of a total of only 12 potential finishers out of 33 starters.

A big chapeau to everyone who finished, and especially to Ivan for riding the route fixed.

If I was to do it again I'd not ride as a pair over such a long distance, it introduced a lot of challenges but on the other hand did make the travelodges half the price!

Agree on the Black Downs, especially coming back over them on the third day!

As well as Ivan there was another guy (Julian?) riding a Cinelli single speed, which is also pretty impressive over that distance. Forget what ratio he was riding but it was very spinny - I passed him around 1am Saturday morning in the Black Downs and I think he finished too.

Must be challenging doing a hilly route like this as a pair as everyone climbs / gets tired quite differently, I was in quite a fast group over the first night which fell apart as soon as the climbing began properly.

We road with Julian on the outbound leg through the Black Downs before he cracked on ahead. He was riding really well and was about the 3rd finisher I believe. Within the first 100km his front brake caliper's spring broke and it wouldn't release off the rim, so he had to rig up some rubber bands to get it working again.

It was good to meet you briefly in the first 5km before you went to chase down Jas and the fast riders. Well done! I had a similar experience where I constantly felt like we were last on the road and had to speed up to catch up with phantom riders ahead, only to then get passed by said phantom riders who were in fact behind as they'd had later starts from the sleep stops.

You too!

Yeah I was convinced a group was ahead of me who'd bivvied somewhere past Exeter to beat the rain that was forecast. Spent much of Saturday 'chasing them down', except they didn't exist.

I also thought I saw a dead body in the road (!) at one point so I think my mental faculties were a little off on the third day. :)

Julian is a very strong single-speed rider, having ridden the Shark every month last year I believe. Have managed to persuade him to join ACH so now have four finishers for LLEL I believe!

The ride was fairly firmly pitched at experienced randonneurs only so was surprised by the DNS/DNF rate as well - @motoko witnessed that when I found out I was 8th back just after him & Anne.

I had previously abandoned the Cornish Riveria Express due to the atrocious levels of traffic so was mentally prepared for that, but of course it's only got worse over the last two years and will probably continue to deteriorate until the sea level has risen enough to destroy Cornwall as a tourist destination.

Turns out I messed my calculations up, not compensating for my 30mm rear tyre, so rather than being on 77" then gearing down in Langport to 71", actually did it on 79"/74", which might explain the amount of walking I had to do but generally happy with my setup.

Having experienced the Blackdown hills before on the Brimstone 600 knew what to expect and opted to avoid them on the way back. Had originally planned to bivvy outside Taunton Deane services, but having seen the forecast and the thought of carrying an extra kg of gear didn't appeal so made a last minute £80 booking for Tiverton Parkway Travelodge which was worth every penny. This also meant my last day the shortest which I knew psychologically would help a lot, and could set off at the relatively civilised time of 6:30 to make the control closing time at Langport with ease.

That's pretty annoying. I've been looking at events for months and everything has been marked as full so I hope non-starters are removing themselves from lists and not just bailing on the day.

One of the irritating things about audax is that there isn't really any shame attached to not showind up in the same way as say, time trialling. I think most people who DNS an audax just fail to appear.

For anyone who hasn't done them, in a TT, if you send your apologies beforehand, that is recorded on the result sheet, so if you are seen to DNS without having told the organiser beforehand, it is seen as being a bit unsporting.

I've had to send apologies for three audaxes this month. I got refunds for two of them - which I wasn't expecting - but I hope it means the organiser had a reserve.

I was shocked by the DNF rate on the ride when finishing.

What was that - were lots of people out of time?

Sounds like a real mixed bag of reasons from sickness, mechanical, lack of enjoyment or lack of progress.

I'm not sure how many people packed due to not making intermediate control timings. I know orgs can be quick flexible with these if you make the finish. Given how the quickly a lot of folks went from the start I think most of the DNFs were actually riders ahead of us within the first night and day.