Audax rides

I don't think Mille du Sud is BR or BRM

No, I think there was a load of politics and Sophie parted company with ACP.

"
Behind the good health of the Super Randonnées, however, lies a growing malaise affecting their organizer. Sophie has lost confidence in the ACP steering committee, whose methods and decisions she does not understand. She no longer feels recognized for her work (in addition to the SRs, she also manages, since 2017, the Flèches and the Traces Nationales). On November 1, 2021, she announced her resignation to the President of the ACP, Luc Coppin, in a letter in which she requested the transfer of the Super Randonnées to the association she chairs, Provence Randonneurs. In the same letter, Sophie affirms her desire to continue to work for the good development of Super Randonnées, in France and abroad.

On December 18, 2021, on the proposal of its steering committee, the ACP General Assembly votes simultaneously to transfer the Super Randonnées to Provence Randonneurs, and to remove the Super Randonnées from the list of the events required for obtaining the Randonneur 10000 award. Nevertheless, until October 31, 2022, the Audax Club Parisien continued to include the Super Randonnées among the events required for obtaining the Randonneur 10000 award.
"

From: https://www.superrandonnees.org/history-of-sr

As for your rides, you should be able to tell from the AUK results page whether your rides have been BR or BRM.

I think I've got carried away watching too many cycling videos on youtube and seem to have just entered as both in all the Wessex events.

https://www.dorsetaudax.org.uk/audax-wessex-series/

Now I need to find the GPX files for them all...

This Saturday we organised the first BRM event in Vietnam. A 200km ride up through the orange plantations north of Saigon.

Overall a great success, with more time people will learn the skills and understand the self sufficiency a bit better. We had one club who didn't register but took part and had a motorcycle alongside them the whole way with spare wheels!

People are still getting used to the rules and maybe in more AUK fashion (advisory route) rather that ACP (mandatory route), managed to find shortcuts where possible. We'll need to make sure in the future we have secret controls. Navigation was a challenge for most people despite them having Garmin 1030 in some cases , knowing how to use it is a different matter.

Some complaints about how hot it was, but as organiser I can only control so much!

Some youtube videos from local riders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJBsv4DppJQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUP7XyxkreE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkNkHqmHXds

Looks amazing!

How many riders took part? Looks like big numbers.

Yes very cool, great job organising!

In extremely niche news I did HotA as a DIY fixed on Sunday. This might be the way forward to ensure I get the Fixed Wheel Award this year, just lumpy 100s with at least 1 AAA point. That way I only need to be out for half the day (ish) but can still collect two points towards the award. Time poor dad making marginal gains etc

I did HotA as a DIY

Your not claiming audax points for taking part in a sportive?

I submitted the route as a Mandatory DIY and then rode it and uploaded my gxp. DIY FAQs on external events suggests this is legit

Depends, it's possible to do so:-

See FAQ19 here: https://www.audax.uk/about-audax/event-types/do-it-yourself-diy-events/diy-faqs/

HotA is on the Audaxy end of the Sportive spectrum.

the Audaxy end of the Sportive spectrum.

Your right, when did that start?

The weather was freezing, two food stops, no support car and very hilly, so audax enough. Have zero plans do further sportives as aduaxes, but this was a special group thing as a one-off

I think the rules were changed about 4 years ago to allow this kind of thing. Prior to that it wouldn't have been allowed.

this kind of thing

I can almost hear the sneer in your voice hahaha :)

I'm all for it. There's so much shite within certain parts of AUK about what constitutes the "spirit" of an Audax that I really don't have time for. So many rules have been created (and time wasted IMHO) to protect a competitive element of a non-competitive cycling association.

Could one enter a road race and submit it as a DIY?

Nope.

"the event must be non-competitive, as required by AUK regulations and insurance."

Otherwise I'd have entered all my ultra races.

I don't think there's been a rule change, it's just in the past some people have frowned on DIYing sportives because they're grumpy bastards rather than there being any specific rule against them*. In practice you can submit anything and you're unlikely to be rejected.

(* There is still a rule on the books that bans drafting of people who aren't also entered into the same audax, which would disqualify many DIYs, were anyone to actually care, which they don't)

The fact that sportives are timed and in some cases prizes awarded for finishing places, etc. might actually breach the non-competitive rule though so they have a point.

Not intended!

cases prizes awarded for finishing places

If an open roads sportive did that in the UK they'd also be breaking the law on organising road races.

(or at least what the law is claimed to be in a million blog and forum posts)

I don't think there's been a rule change

It used to be the case that all non-audax events were not allowable for audax purposes, with two specific exceptions: the 24 hour and Dunwich Dynamo.

Yeah, but for the vast majority of people sportives aren't really competitive in that sense, however they're competitive in that you'll probably get some dickhead trying to nudge you into the barriers in the finish straight in order to gain a couple of places/seconds.

AUK's stance is more concerned about en route support and that "hair shirt" Audax ethos.

AUK's insurers stance is more concerned about insurance. Having separate insurance to cover you whilst you ride the other event is doable, but presents a logistical/legal problem for AUK to rationalise.

AUK has also got its weird contradictory thing about 24h TTs where it actively wants people to ride the Mersey Roads 24h TT (because historical and to help support that event with entry fees) but then frowns upon awarding points for any other 24h TTs.

Otherwise I'd have entered all my ultra races.

I looked into putting my first TCR down as a DIY but it wasn't a runner. As it turned out I deviated from my route a few times so might not have been validated in any case!

The events that don't claim to be races, like TAW, presumably would be OK under current rules.

Fair. I was thinking of Italy but some UK sportives award different medals for different finishing times (Gold medal, time is under 6hrs, that kind of thing) so it would then depend on how their insurers define "competitive".

Yep, I've entered "other events" as DIYs before. If it's a ride and not a race and I will generally ask my DIY guy if it's cool just to make sure.