Audax rides

Does anyone have a good flatish 200k out of south london?

I haven't a clue where the route sheet is but about twenty years ago I had a 110 mile route from Bexleyheath.

Basic route, roughly from memory is 'Bexleyheath, Orpington, Otford, Wrotham, Wrotham Heath, West Malling, East Malling, Wateringbury, Yalding, Hunton, Sutton Valance, Pye Corner, Egerton Forstal, Egerton, Charing Heath, Pluckley, Bethersden, Smarden, Headcorn, Cross at Hand, Collier Street, Laddingford, East Peckham, Hadlow, Crouch, Wrotham Heath, Kemsing, Otford, Eynsford, Swanley, Bexleyheath'.

It wouldn't take much to push that to 200km, nothing in Kent is totally flat but it is not heavy climbing, I used to ride it on 72" fixed

I've got this pinned in RWGPS but can't remember if I have actually ridden it or not: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28814051

Thanks, nicked that. Maybe I'll start my SR series early.

yeah, @yepre this is my route! After a lot of tweaking years ago this ended up being my go to 200km (explainer: I made a route which passed Teapot Island, called it something like Niki's Teapot, after we rode it we discovered it need tweaking, so my pal John did some tweaks).

I also have another, to Rye but it's a bit climbier. Still nothing very bad.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29377058

Anyone doing Moonrakers on Friday? Weather looks alright. Looking forward to it, aside from getting my bike on the GWR.

Yep! Looking forward to it also.
Been studying the route.

Will be pottering along on a dark blue Roberts.

Also doing Moonrakers, with @WhitleyJay and a few others. Still in a layering conundrum...

Wear lots of layers!
I had an early start yesterday and it was about 3 degrees vs forecast 7. Comfortable enough once I got going, but chilly if you have to stop.

The classic take 5 off the forecast. I'll be somewhere between quite cosy and full Michelin Man. Lightweight Zoa stashed and ready to deploy at stops!

Same, insulated brevet jacket with an insulated gilet, down jacket in a drybag for stops... looks clear and above freezing though, I'll take it.

Finished moonrakers and sunseekers!
Very stoked with myself. Longest ride I’ve ever done.

Would’ve been much harder if the temperature was lower. Can’t believe some of you did it in ice last year?

Best parts
Riding through the dark to Salisbury was great - low mist everywhere. Proper spooky. Then arriving at the beach as the sun was coming up. Yeah!

Also the great selection of food.
Cakes, flapjacks, potatoes, Dahl.
Controls were nicely spaced and well stocked. Everyone from Bristol Audax Club was cheery and helpful.

Hardest part was probably the third quarter. Tiredness hits you, the hills were very annoying, and the drivers even worse.

Coming back into Bristol was interesting. Wind-ey cyclepaths are confusing if you don’t know the way and up against time. Darkness didn’t help!

I was on semi-slick 28s, and lots of the ride could’ve benefitted from something a touch wider (Definitely the last part on the strawberry line, and bristol’s wet cobblestones)

I just think I’d enjoy Audaxes more if I was just.. a bit faster.

I’m very good at going slow for a long time, but I’d like to be faster.

I’m on a lugged steel bike with an upright touring position. So not doing myself any favours, but I’m sure people have ridden faster on heavier.

Maybe join a club and get some
Go-faster Coaching?
Maybe give aerobars a go?
Or just enjoy life in the slow lane.

But overall, I had a great time. Think I’d do it again, I’m certainly keen to do another 300.

Aerobars only buy you time in some places if you're using them, being fitter can buy you time everywhere. Still, sounds like you had fun. Time limits and deadlines for trains and stuff are the bane of my riding life at the moment I think. Touring with no real deadlines or really easy ones is much nicer than rushing to meet strict times.

I'm feeling a little bit clever for incorporating a 200k into our recent tour. Now I just need the 300, 400, 600 for this season and then another 2(?) year's worth for the 10 SRs thing.

Nicely done! I think this particular event really benefits from taking it relatively easy.

It was great to luxuriate in the various cups of tea / flapjacks / cakes / plates of baked beans on the way round, smug in the knowledge that the £20 entry is about 100x the value of the nearest sportive.

If you want to finish audaxes faster, the quickest way to shave off elapsed time is probably to minimise stoppage first, then work on upping your average speed second (joining a club wouldn't hurt with that)

These are the stats from when I rode in Nov 2018

Total Duration
14:40:50

Moving Time
12:54:46

Stopped Time
01:46:04

Mine aren't far off that this year - my (GWR hell) train wasn't til later so not really much advantage of being back early, especially on no sleep.

Really well done, 300 is a seriously big ride!

Without getting to numbers-y like hippy said even a wee bit faster on the road will help, jumping from 19 km/h to 21km/h you'll be back a fair bit earlier and that's not that big of a speed jump. also numbers-y is making the most of the good times while taking it easy. Is there a tailwind or is a flat and easy going? then use it and up your speed without going into the red. It can be tempting to cruise with a tailwind or when it's a easy section, but if you put in similar effort as if it was rolling or whatever there you're really getting a speed benefit without putting in "extra" work. It'll bump up the avg speed and lower your total time without penalty. It's also a bit lame but a HR monitor helps me to keep my heart rate out of the red but keeps me honest when it's time to work, eg if I'm crusing at 100 bpm then I could prob give a bit more. This is all in an effort to finish in good time. But again hippy is right, if you want to properly get around quickly being savage and organised at checkpoints will reduce it big time. if you stop 5 times for 30 mins that's 2 and half hours. you stop for 30 mins twice but 10 mins three times that's another hour off your total ride time and you've probably just gazed out the cafe window a little less and decided your saddlebag was fine as-is, and put your helmet back on and kept going.

So I've saved you energy with tailwind and two hours off your total ride time and you haven't done anything :)

My old method was carry everything needed for no stops, validate by GPS or at least ATMs, aero tuck on a TT bike, talk to no one. How to turn audaxing into a training ride and remove any aspect of enjoyment :)

That’s great. Thanks all.
Definitely right about stopping less.
Looking at my stats, there was almost 3hrs of stoppage time. It definitely adds up!

And I think YAL’s point about making hay while the roads flat is probably right too.

I usually overtake people on hills (maybe because I’m quite light) then immediately get overtaken on the flat, so definitely could be me getting lazy…

Either way, I don’t want to come across too negative. Had a great ride, and I’m super pleased with myself!

I’m just dreaming of the times that hippy listed.

Definitely right about stopping less.

Well done!
And that's correct - you need to increase your average speed by a lot to make up for an hour of stoppage. Much easier to finish quicker by trimming your stops than to ride faster!

I’m just dreaming of the times that hippy listed.

So am I these days, so am I :D

Great manifesto, this.

Ride Report – Moonrakers & Sunseekers 300

@WhitleyJay and I rode Moonrakers & Sunseekers from Bristol this weekend. With a 10pm Friday start, and the luxury of some annual leave that needed to be used up before the end of the year, I opted for taking Friday off work to set me up well. I ruined this by meeting former colleagues on Thursday night and getting horrendously drunk. Awful night’s sleep led to an even more awful hangover all day Friday then the joys of GWR out to Bristol.

Big turnout of well over 200 riders, setting off in waves. We actually set off as a group of 6 with @Amcharl and a couple of others into what resembled a mini-PBP swarm of red lights on our way out of Bristol. Jay and I rode fixed, the rest on gears. Usual uneasiness around riders you don’t know, combined with a crawl up a little hill in suburbia behind geared riders was enough to set me off, I moved out of the group and accelerated in an effort to escape the bulge. This seemingly set the tone, Jay followed and we were off. Swift progress through Bath and then Bathwick Hill; hit it a little bit too hard but just about hung on. We continued at a decent pace to the first control at Devizes, minimum faff and a quick hello on our way out to the rest of our group who were coming in. Wouldn't see them again until the finish.

The pace only quickened from there on fast roads through the moonlight and occasional mist. Salisbury control at 92 kms had a fantastic selection of cakes, and whilst I was stuffing my face Jay made an astute observation: We were surrounded by efficient, mile-munching machines. Aero, tri bars, Fairlights… We had absolutely no business being at this control at the same time as them on our fixies. We rolled out before getting too cold and were soon into agonisingly flat section so I barked instructions: "2km turns until the next junction, no smashing, GO!" Negative splits had our average speed creeping up and up, by the time we encountered the info control at 132 kms our average speed was a hair off 27km/h. Madness. Petrol station iced latte downed and we aimed for Poole and hot food. As soon as we hit Bournemouth it was noticeably warmer. Slow progress and a bit of sand surfing through the Promenade at 4am or so, not a soul around. Control at Poole at 157 kms and some very welcome warm food. It was here, over a jacket potato with sausages, beans, etc. that I made my grievance known: The sound of freewheels in the dead of the night is really pissing me off, downright antisocial.

Leaving behind another efficient stop we made our way out of Poole and into the most testing section of the ride, a couple of hills almost had us walking but we pushed through past Milton Abbas and a few more hills. A little after first light we descended into Sherborne, I should have taken it easy but ended up chasing max souplesse in an effort to shake the dozies. Not long after, but certainly flagging in the daylight, we arrived at Podimore Services and what should have been the welcoming bosom of Greggs at 228 kms. Except it wasn’t warm in the slightest. In fact, sitting inside it was probably the coldest we were all night/day. We didn’t hang around long and continued towards Glastonbury, but shortly after leaving the services disaster struck: Jay felt a debilitating sharp pain in his right knee and we stopped straight away. I doled out some ibuprofen and mandated we roll super easy, but it was not looking good. At all.

We made it to Glasto where after a failed attempt to buy a knee brace Jay called it and said he was done, time to check logistics for getting back to Bristol. Turns out, not easy. The decision was quickly rowed back and we continued, gingerly through The Levels to Axbridge. Somehow Jay kept going on one leg and at a decent pace through to the end of The Mendips. All that was left was some grav on the shared path of the Strawberry Line dodging dog walkers, and a maddeningly convoluted way back to the ride HQ through Bristol city centre.

Enjoyed most of it. But riding through the night, at pace, fixed... well, it hits differently.

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Haven't done any audax since pbp, this defo makes me want to ride through a night again. Heal up soon @WhitleyJay hope it's not serious