Audax rides

R.e. Pete Kelsey, he is out of hospital after an operation and is now back home recovering and focusing on his rehab.

Good to hear. Sounded very nasty.

Anyone here doing Sunseekers and Moonrakers 300 this weekend?

Does anyone have a gpx for 'Oh! to be in kent'?
Would like to ride it but I'm going to be at work that day, so I'll ride it in my own time.
Can't find anything on RWGPS like I usually do. Maybe this is the first year it's running?

A mate of mine is looking for a tandem pilot. I'm not available so posting here for any tandem-curious or expert tandem riders...

"Are you free on Saturday 22 July?

A reduced-eyesight friend of mine (Dick McTaggert) is down from the Scottish Borders for a couple of weeks. We did a Super Randonneur series (including the Bryan Chapman) together a few years back and several other brevets since then.

Dick wants to ride the Suffolk Borders Extravaganza 200 brevet on 22 July on my tandem. Unfortunately his planned captain has had to pull out and I am already booked on the Saxons 400.

You want an opportunity to ride a tandem. This would be a good way to try tandeming with an excellent stoker who can see fine off the bike."

Just checked my diary - Dick helped me get round my first 400 back in 2010 and would be good to repay the favour, but we're off on holiday the day before.

Thanks, yeah, it's a bit late notice and in summer in this place EVERYTHING IS ON ALL AT ONCE so it makes things tricky. Figured I'd post here to help 'em out.

Will PM you.

I've just done this as a DIY.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/43485365

It was a 5-day / 1500km jaunt from Dieppe down to and along the western French coast. A consolation present to myself for missing Krakow-Tarifa, doubling as research for PBP by riding round Rambouillet, and my summer holiday, checking out where we are going down the west coast. Riding down from home to Newhaven the evening before made it up to 1600km in 5 days + 1 hour.

I rode it pretty full on - and needed to to get back in time for moules, frites and beer at Dieppe before rolling on to the ferry.

Mostly pretty flat, but I engineered a couple of climbs on the first day to keep it interesting. I love riding in France. It's so empty. Really long evenings in summer, light almost until 11pm. Obviously, need to fill your boots if you see a food shop that is open.

Took bivvy kit - which I needed for the ferry as no cabins - but found hotels each night. No hassle taking bike into room each night.

Route was pretty good but not perfect. Lots of beautiful villages and mostly quiet roads. But I will never go on another voie verte - so boring, just completely flat, straight and surrounded by trees, and give way to side roads every couple of kms. And it was a mistake to route close to Nantes as lost loads of time. The other big cities worked well for hotels, though (stayed in Laval, La Rochelle, Poitiers, Chartres).

What I love is the time-efficiency of it - nip down to Newhaven in the evening and start riding at 5am, get 5 full days in, and back home for breakfast on day 6. No faffing with bike boxes, etc.

La Rochelle was stunning - loads of people sitting outside cafes and restaurants round the old port in the centre, all singing at midnight when I went past.

No photos - too lazy and too little time!

Not sure if I'll get it validated as I was going to do the full thing as a 1600 but then chopped off the UK leg to make it simpler, but I think I forgot to change the start date, but not the end of the world!

food shop that is open.

More chance of catching and cooking a Dodo then seeing one of these in France.

I basically carry a day's worth of food as a buffer.

I've just taken to eating the people that run places that should be serving food but have such limited opening hours they don't have anything. With a nice glass of chianti, etc..

Yes, makes sense, but I'm vegetarian so can't do that unfortunately

Just ask if they're veggie first.

Anyone riding 10 Peaks 200k this weekend?

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40420797

Signed up for this, familiar roads. Wonder why route goes through Biggin Hill and not the much nicer Beddlestead climb up to Clark’s Lane. Think might go that way anyway.

I'm signed up too, did it last year and was a nice day out. Might also go Beddlestead way.

Wonder why route goes through Biggin Hill and not the much nicer Beddlestead climb up to Clark’s Lane.

Most of the time this is because the preferred route might not be easy to direct people along. Organisers have to take into account people who ride using a routesheet and no GPS, so instructions that would need to be "Take the 7th unmarked left hand turn" become problematic, and more obvious signposted/named roads take preference.

It's one of the many nuances organiser's have to take into account when presenting their route. Another one is traffic: what may be a lovely road at 3pm may turn into a horror show at 5.30pm when the slower rides might be coming through.

If the ride isn't one of the mandatory route things (doubt it in this case) then you're free to take whatever route you want between controls.

I get that but doesn’t really apply in this instance, will be quiet traffic wise early on and simple for route sheet planning too. Anyway am looking forward to it!

Actually thinking about it the short descent on Hesiers down to Beddlestead is rather unpleasant with lots of hidden bumps and a gravel bank and barbed wire fence on bend at the bottom, so maybe that’s why. The gravel bank did recently span across the entire road but a path through has been cleared now fyi.

I did a small DIY 100 around the Applecross peninsula this week and it was… interesting. Almost 2000m of climbing, a big chunk of which was on the Bealach na Bà. Fixed gear probably wasn’t the best choice.

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You know that handlebars are designed for two hands... one on the left, one on the right or cock or whatever. Drunkesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Great picture.

That's how I climbed to one of the controls on Brimstone, just with shoes on the aerobars :)

Oh! To Be in Kent report

Rode this yesterday, I'll keep it short. Was supposed to be introducing @jmg412 to Audax at this one but he DNS'd because he doesn't know how to use chairs.

Muggy, windy day. Rolled out solo and not feeling great after a long week, Dulwich Paragon train rolled past and I kinda stuck with them for a bit until we hit Layhams then I decided discretion was the better part of valour and let them go. Thought I was in for a solo day of pootling (which I was totally cool with), but then, somewhere past Biggin Hill I heard the cheery voice of @WhitleyJay greet me. Chatted for a few kms, he was riding with a couple of Peckham CC members and I joined the group. Pace was pretty brisk and to cut a long story short, we kept going faster and faster, finishing up with an average speed of 27.1 km/h which for me at least is quite frankly ridiculous.

Highlights:

1. Took a chance on a butchers in Tenterden set back from the High St just to the right of that café that sometimes gets used as a control stop, came away with two massive and satisfyingly dense sausage rolls for £4

2. Headwind for 30ish kms between Pluckley and East Peckham, WhitleyJay and I doing the bulk of the work and keeping the pace high, #lfgssexpress

3. Lady pulled up to the Co-op in East Peckham on horseback and asked if someone could get her an ice cream, I was more than happy to oblige!

Great day out, a hard one and my legs are mashed up today. Complete absence of content apart from one pic, sausage roll pockets on WhitleyJay's top tube bag. Epic.

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