Audax rides

2022 I did 101 events: 4 perm, 9 cal, 88 DIYs.

2022 I did 101 events

I hope you sought professional help and are on the mend 🙏🏼

Oh also, the fixed wheel secretary takes it on word for points with the DIY rides. Think the abridged wording he said to me when I was asking if I need to run any additional proof was 'it's a niche section of a niche part of a niche activity so he's happy to trust people and liars generally find themselves getting caught out eventually'.

Necessary evil when you decide you want to win the AAA trophies. :)

Entered but the NHS has been having problems deciding whether DVT or infection or nothing. Why?

Just be sure to email him before you start any fixed wheel challenges. I once got a whole seasons worth of fixed points declined, lol.

The Indian audaxers caught out for driving 600km routes at a steady 25kmh to cheat at audaxing never fails to amaze me.

WTF?! Why? Cheating at something you can't "win" seems even madder than the usual shit we see in sport.

Wasn’t there that one guy that was found out driving the Rapha Feative 500?

#fortheroundel

@hippy Complicated and half remembered, but I think he was also going for some kind of record, also done in the car.

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1964582447011613&id=100083468071872

#deletefacebook

The most exhausting part of our role as overseers for Ultra cycling in India in our capacity as Audax India brevet organisers has been to constantly be vigilant about cheaters! While only a small percent of people actually try to cheat at BRMs, Ultra Races and other events…. Every single person who gets away with it deprives all the others of their rightful gains AND ensures that the entire sport in India is dragged down into the dirt with them! Audax India officials, Club Representatives, Ride Officials spend countless hours investigating, gathering evidence and in this case maintaining a dossier on what can only be called as a repeat offender… with an emphasis on the Offensive part!
All of us who are involved in this sport are constantly kept on our toes to keep the community clean instead of focussing on the joy of this activity and on improving performance collectively! For sure our performance in International events shows that we need to work on our physical and psychological preparedness…. BUT should not be perceived to be performing badly because ‘Indians cheat on home ground’!! In this past 2-3 weeks, Club Representatives Chiro Mitra of Delhi Randonneurs and Mahendra Mahajan of Nashik Cyclists Foundation have in separate incidents spent huge personal time and effort to catch 2 riders cheating on their brevets! This is an ongoing process…. And frankly draining because it is impossible for us to understand what makes these people cheat on these events! Every Gross violation of the rules leaves us ashamed by association, while the cheaters lack the capacity to even comprehend that what they do is wrong!
One such person who has a long case history of rampantly questionable riding is Vivek Shah, aided and abetted by Pinky Jha one of the Bicycle Mayors of India Detailed case history is below…. let me just say that many of us in this community have been aware that their moral compass is not just ‘off’ it is entirely missing!
Vivek has been on a K2K Guinness World Records attempt past few days, clocking 500km+ per day, raising suspicions from numerous people…. that lead to having him tailed for the past 2 days and nights....and catching him red handed getting into his vehicle and moving forward on the route at the speed of @25km per hour for the next 11 hours between Hyderabad and Bangalore! This included some stops at petrol pumps in which he got out and back into the vehicle! See videos of him stretching and being attended by his crew Pinky who couple of month back denied that he would EVER cheat and denied knowledge of any wrong doing when he was caught cheating at another event!
Detailed Case History….
• His Crew Member/Crew Chief Pinky Jha and Vivek had been caught violating rules during a brevet with a support vehicle. When stopped Vivek got into an altercation with officials and presented arguments that demonstrated a lack of moral fiber! These incidents were reported by Club Representative Vinod Purohit of Cyclone Cycling Club and Club Rep, PBP finisher and Everesteer Mehul Joshi of 2gather club
• He has had 2 counts of similar behaviour (assisting his father to cheat and getting into arguments with race officials) with Sugar free Cyclothon another big annual cycling race in his city conducted by an independent group.
Divya Tate and Inspire India team had suspicions about his Ultra Spice RQ but no proof and no case history at the time.
• Audax India team made the mistake of approving Pinky as a Club representative without being fully aware.
• Pinky nominated Vivek's name for Ride Responsible late last year, and was refused by Raghu Vishal with an explanation about his past record! Her argument that those had nothing to do with BRMs was explained to her in detail, that unethical conduct in any cycling events demonstrates that you are incapable of doing the task assigned to a Ride Responsible of ensuring that rules are NOT broken!
• Then Vivek was caught cheating at VRAW by another PBP finisher, Prerak.
• The 3 PBP anciennes Prerak Shah, Viraj Shah (India’s only R10000 Awardee) and Kishan Gondaliya agreed to crew for Vivek Shah at virtual RAW organised by RAAM. They agreed to attend to crew duties for specific time slots during mornings & evenings at Fit Formance (gym) in Ahmedabad where Vivek Shah had his bike & turbo set-up for attempting virtual RAW.
• The event started on 16th June 6pm IST and the three of them attended to their crew duties on 16th evening and then again on 17th morning and evening shift slots.
• On 18th June at 6:05am IST Prerak went to the gym and was surprised to find that Vivek was asleep while the gym’s owner, Mrunal Ved, was riding on Vivek’s virtual profile on the FulGaz platform .
• Prerak was aware enough to verify that Mrunal was actually riding on Vivek’s profile on Fulgaz by reading the iPad set-up on Vivek’s bike and that Mrunal was riding on a stage of 90Km distance.
• Vivek woke up 15 minutes later and then attempted to explain the circumstances that the gym owner, Mrunal, was only curious to try out the set-up and had been riding for only 10-15 minutes.
• However, the gym owner then immediately corrected Vivek by claiming to have been riding for the past 45 minutes and that Manthan Patel (another crew member) had also ridden the previous night for 2 hours.
• Prerak left the gym around 8:30am and immediately had detailed discussions with Viraj & Kishan about what he observed and heard while at the gym.
• Viraj verified with Manthan over a phone call that he rode on Vivek’s bike & turbo set-up the previous night. The 3 had a team meeting and decided that they wanted no part of this and quit the crew, later reporting this incident to Ahmedabad Club Rep Vinod and The Cycling Club Of Baroda Rep Raghu, who were fully aware in any case of Vivek’s behaviour.
• ALL the people who have been involved in reporting them are upstanding members of the Audax India Community and of the broader cycling community!
• Then a decision was taken for Audax India to disassociate with Pinky and Gandhinagar club as it was obvious that she was complicit in his cheating. Now it become clear that she is actively engaged in his cheating and unsuited to the role of ‘keeping the sport clean’!
• Vivek’s entire K2K event has been conducted in stealth mode. First post of having embarked on this was after 48 hours with a claim of having ridden 1200 (later corrected to 1000)!
• With his track record, a large number of people were attempting to follow him, track his progress and eventually some decision was taken by a couple of people to tail him and catch him in the act. There is a large volume of footage not attached right now. Do note the time stamps and geo location in videos.
The 2 of them are barred from riding any Brevets under Audax India! Let us all pledge to keep the sport clean! Let this and every other incidence of cheating be highlighted so we can remain self respecting Audax India Randonneurs!

#wowfuckingmad

So they drive at 25kph for like 7 days to set a GWR? I guess they just pop out now and again to film "evidence". You're also supposed to collect independent witness statements so I wonder what they were going to submit to GWR...

It's totally nuts. It's almost less effort to just ride it legitimately.

I rode a 300 in India a few weeks ago and at each control, had to send WhatApp photos to a group created for the brevet. Brevet card, specific location, face, all timestamped in real time. This was on top of brevet card stamps and requiring ATM receipts at a couple of control locations. Pretty intensive monitoring of proof of passage.

Yeah, for real. But how fucked is your ego to go for a record sitting in a car?

There's still no guarantee you didn't drive between them at cycling speed. :) Maybe in India you can get away with driving around at 20-30kph but I'd love (not really) to see someone try that here! :D

What’s the audax scene like in India? I’m always intrigued about how this sort of thing varies around the world

That deserves a longer answer than I can give here. I have only ridden a couple of Indian brevets, an overnight 200 in 2017 and the recent 300. My impressions are snapshots of a couple of locations and times, rather than anything comprehensive. India is a big country with a regional differences.

Given that caveat - traffic is mostly slow moving but focussed on gaining a few centimetres regardless of the consequences, pollution is ever-present and can be the worst you’ve ever experienced, the routes are mostly on major roads but tend towards flat (in UK terms), riders are friendly, helpful and welcoming and on a range of machines from cheap to flashy. Riding speeds are generally a little slower than I expected, particularly climbing speed. That might be different in a hillier part of the country. I am usually mid-pack or 1/3 from the front in the UK but finished in the front group at both brevets. There is quite a bit of conspicuous consumption in the society and the medical and IT sectors are somewhat over-represented in cycling. As cyclists, your social status is somewhere below cows but above pedestrians. The controls are fairly intensively monitored and may require ATM receipts, a brevet card stamp, a specific selfie or all of the above at the same time.

The expectation is that riders will have locally-compatible ATM cards and mobile/ WhatsApp access. You are required to join Audax India Randonneurs to enter a brevet, which is more difficult to do from outside the country. The phone number you provide is expected to be your WhatsApp contact. Email addresses may be given by the organiser but are not frequently monitored, in favour of a ride-specific WhatsApp group. At least for the Mumbai-based group I rode with.

I have ridden brevets in quite a few countries including Australia, Thailand, Israel, Greece, Germany, Portugal and Ireland. There is a small group of globetrotters that frequently ride brevets in unusual countries, mostly Americans and mostly riding 1200s. They could give a better overview.

That’s really interesting, thanks. I’ve only been to India once and I found the traffic pretty hard going everywhere just being a passenger so I’d imagine could be quite stressful on bike

It was head on a swivel stuff and I found it stressful, particularly when it got dark and as we approached Mumbai on very busy major road flyovers without any shoulders. The junctions felt particularly worrying to me.

Super interesting! Boru from Herne Hill Velodrome was due to cycle across India as part of his RtW trip and I noticed he skipped out quite a big chunk of it for this reason.

I remember researching routes when I first saw the thread referenced above. Lots of them seem to be out and back, along the same road? Assuming due to road quality or some other reason.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/44508562

Even big roads can have huge potholes or really crappy asphalt patches or wheel-eating speedbumps. Roads can be in the middle of reconstruction without warning. Small roads are even worse and can disappear into sand. It is easier to make quick, reliable progress on big roads.

why has no1 tagged me?!

that cheating thing is very funny !

why has no1 tagged me?!

Have you ridden brevets in India?

I kinda like the idea of roads turning to sand... reminds me of home. As for "massive potholes randomly appearing, even on major roads" - UK roads are shithouse. I would look forward to seeing a challenger.