Audax rides

Well this thread did a terrible job of talking me out of it...
Signed up for Moonrakers, so will see how I get on.

Thanks everyone for the advice!
Will prioritise layers, lights & leccy.
(Couldn't think of an L word for snacks...)

Lunch

Good luck

Definitely over pack. Having too much stuff on a night ride is a minor inconvenience, having too little food or warm clothes is really not fun.

As others say, dress for a temperature lower than forecast, from experience I would subtract 5 degrees as base case, but it could be more.

And it doesn't warm up until later than you might expect. The coldest time is usually after dawn, and you are tired and damp so feel the cold much more.

An anecdote from last year. I was doing an overnight ride on a tandem and, about midnight, on a short descent, the bike was wobbling strangely. I realised that it was because my stoker was shivering, because he had too few / the wrong clothes. So I stopped and gave him my extra spare base layer.

It's not a bad idea to carry one of those foil blanket things.

Nice one. All being well, I will be there too.

Have also entered, with ice caveat

Thanks, this is very helpful.
Will load up the big Carradice.

@jackbepablo D’oh can’t believe I forgot that.

https://www.strava.com/activities/12649694393

This took way fucking longer than expected. The only other 600k I've got close to 'full valuing' was the Pendle. Hot tip: don't crash.

Who knew the Fens had such killer climbs eh?

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My missus just put this ride into her work charity thing and based on the hours, her work has donated almost £800 to a local charity! How cool is that?

I've done Moonrakers twice, first was really mild but last year was maybe the coldest I've ever been on a bike, especially the hands so keep a good eye on the weather forecast and take several degrees off the temperatures forecast when thinking about your clothing strategy. On the plus side it was a very clear night with a full moon.
In terms of route and terrain, riding down to Poole is fast and flowing on main roads which are quiet at night. The route back from Poole is a little lumpier with more lanes which along with the sleep deprivation slows things down a bit.
I'll be stamping cards in Devizes (first control) so see you there (I did the Poole contral a couple of years back and that was tougher than doing the ride)!

Cool. And motivating I'd guess.

No idea if you started and you probably know already, but: start eating almost at the start.
Alternating drinking and eating (a bit) every 15 minutes means you're fed and hydrated.
And so much yes to the bring one more item of clothing than you'd think necessary.
Don't know how cold it is on the island right now, but if (big if) I ride in winter temperatures, having a really windproof top and a down thingy for breaks/when it gets really cold is nice.

Not motivating but nice bonus. It was after the ride. She had no idea about their charity thing and only stumbled on it today.

So it's a one off on those dates or something?
If it wasn't she could make this charity a lot of money...

I don't know exact details. I guess it's something they run where you can do something for any charity and they will donate some amount based on the duration of your activity. I guess they presume you know about the scheme in advance, but in this case, we just do dumb shit like audax and it qualifies. :D

She was just looking to book holidays and saw it on the company portal so she loaded her 600k ride in and picked a charity, so a local soup kitchen just got £787 or so.

I know my employer does a charity matching thing, where if you raise £x, they will double it. But her one was much simpler, they'll hand out up to about £800 for some duration of activity you call 'fundraising'.

Does anyone know whether an ECE ride (100km AAA ride extended to 200km) counts towards the Brevet 1000 award? Yesterday my profile was showing the 1000 award but now it has been knocked down to the 500 award.

Yes, ECEs are equivalent to any other same distance ride for AUK awards. If it's showing your 5 rides as approved I'd blame buggy IT. Maybe email the web admin?

Yesterday it showed as 5 x 200km and 3 x 100km (and there was a Brevet 1000 certificate) but today it's showing 4 x 200km and 5 x 500km (and a Brevet 500 certificate). I've messaged admin so hopefully I can get it sorted. Can't bear another wet weekend this month!

Ride report - A Brace of Bramleys
~4 wks ago I helped at a local church bike workshop & got chatting to a gentleman of the parish named Pete.
Pete's regular chaingang were slowing and covering shorter distances in fair weather only etc - he knew of my riding habits and we agreed to put something in the diary.
Start line at Surbiton racket club included pastry, coffee, bananas, flapjacks - the splendid hospitality you come to expect from Kingston Wheelers Audax chapter. We were out on the road shortly after 0730 and agreed to make hay while the sun shone and cover maximum distance before Storm Ashley. Pete was going great guns on the front and we were flying along at 30-35 km/h all the way to the hills of Egham with a handful of hangers on.
The storm arrived around Swallowfield and by the time we reached Bramley control we were down to 3, and there'd been one rider already through the control. My apple donut at Bramley was superb and we headed out rejuvenated by cake into the rain, mud and howling headwinds.
That part of Hants/Berks has some tight and muddy single-tracked roads as well as some big sweeping hills, I remember various sections of road from both the Wiggle Magnificat Sportive and also the Amesbury Amble 300. We were making good time, dropped our last hanger-on and chased down a random clubman with whom we rode to the info. After the info at Whitchurch (99km) I started getting sleepy, proper heavy eyelid sleepy - I need to make less of a habit of coming into Audax sleep-deprived, I tried to wake myself up with adrenaline by descending as fast as possible - my judgement is rather poor when I'm tired and hungry, but despite a wahoo-recorded 73 km/h I was no better off by Alton.
The remedy for this soporific episode was caffein and sugar at Alice Holt café (145 km) - Despite the din of hundreds of small children it was all I could do to keep my eyes open and observed our riding buddy from earlier e-breveting in the car park, avoiding the rug-rats and sliding into 2nd place on the road!
We returned to the deluge, shivering and teeth chattering to discover that Pete's Garmin had tried to do a firmware update, stalled and could not be recalled to life. After a bit more shivering in the rain and swearing at an integrated circuit we set off again, but now the roles were fully reversed, me on the front buzzing from my millionaires shortbread and double espresso and Pete rapidly running out of steam behind…. I don't remember too much about that section, except that on a descent into Godalming I bottled it at a T-junction due to an oncoming van but Pete was still good for the rapidly closing gap and after a brief squeal of sodden disc-brake smacked into the back of me landing me on my arse in front of said van! No damage to man or machine and we were soon back to familiar territory of Surrey hills, Munstead, Wonersh, Blackheath, and then Combe lane (slower than you've ever known it) - all downhill now - Green Dene, Horsley and Effingham, places rich with muscle memory - back riding at evens again with Pete fully operational for a tailwind assisted blast through Esher, back to base just after 1600 enjoying a plate of Pasta and sauce and talking about a 400 in the new year and whether or not we could make the 6PM evening worship!!
I think Pete is now an audax believer and I had a blast riding an Audax like it's a sportive.
All that remains is to wash my bike

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16:00 finish damn. I crawled in at 19:00, fun ride, very wet but i wasn't cold, with some nice chats here and there. I don't much like the last section after Combe Lane in the gloom tho, feels pretty hairy until the streetlights of Esher.

It was a tough day out so finishing was a good result. given some of the leafy roads, winds and standing water, getting home in one piece was a relief! I can imagine that Green Dene in the dark/wet is a load less fun than when you can see what you're doing!

Also did Brace of Bramleys - mostly because I realised I hadn't done a single audax this year and felt I should justify my continued membership of audax uk/check i can still do a 200.
It turns out I can, I just don't really want to. For the first few hours I felt comfortable that I'd be finished by near 5ish, then relentless rain/headwind/plugging tyre holes took its toll and I finished around 7 as well. Was slightly disconcerted to find the finish was full of civilians out for dinner/drinks on a Sunday night. Bit too much of a reminder of what a weird thing it is to be doing.
Good event, though hasn't really helped me re-capture any enthusiasm for regular audaxing.
Possibly least amount of photos I've ever taken on a bike ride, though this prety much sums it up.

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a reminder of what a weird thing it is to be doing.

Stay weird.

Who wants to be a fucking normal?

More soggy pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oym7xPmV6wKgFu347

Great - definitely an accurate record of the vibe!
In the bike rack pic I recognise that Mosaic titanium GT1 with the orange forks, that's Adam's and is somewhat unique.... were you on the blue spa? I think I may have seen you super early on in the day, possibly at the start.

Yes a dark blue Spa Cycles Elan with silver mudguards 👍