Audax rides

Good to see you and a cracking ride! Doing negative splits on an audax seemed like a strange strategy but made for a fun day out

Oh wow... i was there, my first ever audax. Longest day ride by about 70km and most elevation in a day by a fairly long shot, so wasn't maintaining a pace anything like that. Fair play!

Well done, not the easiest day to get a first 200 under your belt!

Did the ACME Hopstock 200 at the weekend (#5 in my RRTY attempt). Went far too hard in the opening 100km having rolled out first (more by chance than anything else) and only passed by one spritely fellow in the opening 10 minutes.

Blew up after Marston Moretaine and had to have a period of quiet reflection in a bus shelter (how cliche) with some crisps before getting back on and riding through to the control at Spoke (amazing choice of control). Rest of the ride was a bit of a slog even with the tailwind but the arrivee was also a beer festival.

My partner arrived just after me (having got train to Chelmsford then short ride to Littley Green) and we had beers, fish and chips, and Ayres doughnuts that a friend had given us. Quickest 200 of the five so far (give or take half an hour), which was pretty surprising given how I felt for most of it.

Looking forward to Straight Outta Hackney next month. Brace of Bramleys clashes with my club hill climb so will have to find a perm...

has anyone here done any audax/randoneurs abroad?
I’m cycle touring for a while in Europe and beyond and would like to do the odd event.
France and Italy are the first stops.

I think you might struggle ATM, with PBP on. The ACP site has a list of BRM ones AFAIK.
Audax randonneur Italia have similar.

Yeah: PBP, ALPI4000, MdS

If I was going to be based somewhere for a bit I might look at nearby events. It's mostly only the big ones I'm interested in though - I'm not going through the hassle of travel to ride a 200k.

There's a list of rando orgs somewhere online.

The big ones but I'm sure there's a list of clubs/organisers somewhere
https://www.audax-club-parisien.com/en/our-organizations/brm-world/#calendar

Actually that does have shorter events. Maybe I was thinking of a different URL

Also: https://www.superrandonnees.org/sr-list

I’ve done about 18 x 1200+km brevets on four continents.
https://www.randonneursmondiaux.org/59-Calendrier_2023.html might give you some ideas for longer brevets.

The BRM list linked above will tell you most of the shorter brevets. Most countries have very front-end-loaded calendars during PBP years.

Ah, yes, that's the other list I was thinking of!

It's a Google sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQEKjmKDVfUEqPK5hDBYK56IaS5BEmW5L9QseDHJfjtV0FvtxhOuNp9oGRLeoAklNy8hDyGAxxp8fdn/pubhtml?gid=1480200001&single=true

I need to tick off an ACME event and I think a 200 is the way to go as I can't face any longer distances around there (what if flat... But too much? 🤔)

Up the Uts always looked interesting as I've never visited the Uts, but not sure it's still running.

Thanks for all the advice guys 🙏

Considering dipping my toes into audaxing...question I have for Londoners is how much activity is that's easily reachable from London. I like the idea of events that are reachable from central London without need for car and/or overnight stay in B&B and wondering if that's common?

purists will say that is the charm of audax ;)

Audax Club Hackney, Brixton and Kingston Wheelers run London audaxes. San Fairy Ann audaxes are nice and easily reach-able from London so do ACME.

You must ride calendar events for full value.

Kingston Wheelers events probably your best bet as they start from Raynes Park. There are a couple of others (a 600 I can't remember the name of now) that starts from Kings Cross

Depends how early you're willing to get up for a train to get to an 8 or 9am start...

There's two coming up that you should be able to do without a car:

https://www.audax.uk/event-details/10542-straight_outta_hackney

https://www.audax.uk/event-details/9980-brace_of_bramleys

I'm doing both of them (unless weather is totally shite in which case I won't). Get yourself signed up to either of them and drop me a PM if you want to ride together.

Echo what others have said, the tool on the AUK site should also let you search events within XXkm of [postcode] which is useful.

It's even possible to ride a super randonneur by only entering events that start from within the M25, if you get the bug.

I'm entering the Rowlands Ramble this weekend. 213k from Kingston / Surbiton.
Quite long, but it would tick your box.
Will be my first Audax event, so you wouldn't be the only newbie there.

A question for the Audax veterans in this thread;
Usually on a long ride like this, I would stop a few times for coffee / food.
Should I plan to do that at Controls?
I'm a bit unclear if Control = 'stamp a ticket' or 'stop for cake'

Essex R&R?

It can be both. If it’s a manned control, there might be some food and drink out for you and someone will stamp your brevet card. Most likely though the controls will be free controls, meaning you buy food from a shop, or sit in Costa or whatever, making sure you ask for and keep the receipt as proof of passage. Make sure you carry a bit of food with you too (some don’t; I always do). Oh, and info control means you need to answer a question on the route, the name of a pub, or something like that. Obviously though you can also stop for cake and coffee whenever you feel like it.

Good info, Thanks!

The organiser should normally clarify in the rider notes how many infos / manned controls there are.

From memory I think there used to be a manned control with food at Rowlands Castle, roughly halfway. Don't go mad as most of the climbing is after this point : )

As it's a KWCC event you generally get fed and watered pretty well on your way round, usually ale at the finish too.

I’d plan to do both tbh - controls can be a meal stop or just get a stamp/answer a question on the card.

If you’re well fuelled you can either decide to skip queues at a control and just get a stamp if you’re feeling good, or take a well earned break, sit down and refuel.

Eat enough to enjoy the day and remember it’s all about doing it in your own time/at your own pace. (These are what I normally forget and so bonk/DNF/hate myself and everyone else with 100k to go).

The way I normally do it is to carry a reasonable stash of snacks that I can easily eat on the bike or quickly tuck into at a control, and then stop for a proper feed around the halfway mark, ideally something like 110k so I feel like I've already broken the back of it. But however you do it, eat along the way, probably a little more than you think you need.