Audax rides

Broken spoke has scuppered my Buzzard :( Sorry Ed/Zanda, have a great ride,

I think skimping on buying a new set of spokes and using the old ones when I changed rims (different type of rim, similar spoke length needed) has caused them to fail prematurely, that's the second one since I swapped a few months back.

Bah!

what wheel - front or rear?

^ never mind.
See you on LEL I guess.

Thanks for the offer zanda, marcusJB offered me a spare rear as well but I just thought it was too much hassle on the eve of the ride :/

Just cut my losses with the £6 entry fee,

Hope it's going well for you mate, see you on the other side!
(Probably sooner than LEL as well, thursday eve?)

Dont hink I'll be able to do thurs. Away for work.

Ed are you on this bloody ride? If so, you must be way off the front.

Ive been from last to first twice and havent seen you.

Shit. Heard stories about a bad stack near the start.
Someone went down and another rider cartwheeled over the top.

One rider bruised the other had a nasty gash on his arm.

Hope you're ok ed.

Did Hereward the Wake 300.
9.00pm start, so riding all night and then some very hot stuff yesterday.
Great ride, lovely countryside.

Now for LEL. Overweight and undertrained. , .
I'll have to keep telling myself that it's just a bike ride and go from there...

Are you still alive ed/zanda?

(I'm hoping to do a DIY 200 tomorrow to break my dry spell, here's hoping I don't have to drop out of that as well)

I'm ok, but there wont be any HAC points from my effort.

tbh the route is a bit....... shit.

It seems like a good warm up to the mersey 24. Lots (and lots) of heavily trafficked A-roads. I got near the front of the pack, saw no one for about 6 hours, got run off the road (A30) by trucks 3 times, andon the approach to Exeter started asking questions like "what the fuck am I doing this for??"

It was hot, it was no fun. Worst of all I was starting to question whether I even wanted to ride LEL. That was the final straw, and I packed with about 280 in the legs.

Came home to my pregnant wife, slept in my own bed and watched ventoux today. dont regret it a lick.

No word from Ed though. Hope he's ok.

I asked about - the guys in the crash hit a massive drain/hole at he back of a pack (not called or pointed out), but the descriptions didnt sound like him. Think he might just be lying low.

hope so

I can't blame you, I just would not want to ride a 600 in this heat. No way. That's a great effort even though you DNF. Someone I follow on Twitter pulled out far short of that.

Ed DNS, he said elsewhere on the forum somewhere. Plus I see him 'grammin...

Only 16 of the 32 registered started apparently.

A friend and I were 14 and 15. surprised there was a 16 tbh - we left about 15 mins after the start.

Friend had a disaster and lost his phone and wallet after 1st CP. managed to find the phone but the wallet is MIA. Needless to say he packed.

shame as some company would probably have made the difference.
X rated rides are fkn lonely if youre solo.

still cant really get over how unappealing that route was. there was about 20 miles from shaftesbury that were nice, but It felt like a route that should have been started at midnight and ridden through, with quieter traffic levels.

the drivers in the SW really dont like or respect cycles.

bit frustrating to look at the parqour and realise that the route got a lot better after exeter.

but still dont regret packing

Glad to hear Ed is ok

Ahh gotcha fella :/
I want to say commisersations etc but as you say sounds like you made the right choice of the two...

Doesn't seem like much in the way of good words about the ride on YACF either.

@zanda
Blimey. Feel shaken up just reading your report. Glad you're ok.

@Vesalius: we exchanged nods this morning/noon about 20 miles outside Cambridge! I only clocked it was you as you got level with me! Was with two others, I was in grey short sleeves, other were in pale blue and lime green.

Haha!! I had a sneaky suspicion that might have been a spot!

I didn't realise it was you man, I blame it on the sun.

(It's too damn hot out there!)

.

^^^Where were you headed anyway? :)

Cambridge ride! Furthest I (we) have ever gone in one lump as a Dunwich training run.

It was fine apart from the pain in my arse which had actually subsided by the time I got home. Need a(nother) new saddle. Also my shorts managed to mangle one of my bollocks on the ride back from KX so that's something else nice for you to know.

I'm not surprised you didn't recognise me! We've only met on one TNRC but I've seen you on a couple of audax vids that have been posted in this thread as well so your face is more familiar to me.

I'm not stalking you.

Yet.

How was the DIY?

Cool!
(Although I'm struggling to imagine how the shorts managed that haha?)

The DIY on the whole was alright :)
I did stratford->stretham(just past cambridge)->stratford worked out about 208km, and managed to set my fastest 200km (around 8hr45mins door to door).

Although the route I took had too many busy roads imo :/ so will have to revise it a fair bit in future, I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone as it stands.
(route here
)

What route did you take?

Also saw a mini tornado on the way home haha!

LEL is nearly here, though I'm not riding! so instead I wanted to float a few ideas for Audaxing over the next few weeks...

I have the Old 240 on Aug 17th, which, despite the name, is 400km, so I need to get in some miles.

26th July: Look Mum No Sleep - is anyone else signed up to this?

4th July or 11th July: I'm going to ride the Meridian Hills 200km (http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/WW11/), riding out from Mile End and starting the Audax at the Green St Green Control, with the out and back it's 270km.

Anyone interested?

Decided not to do the Suffolk lanes ride. Route looks great but it's almost a 3 hour trip to the start. Which means that much again to get home. So I might just do a DIY L to B on Sunday. It won't be a DIY in the audax sense though as I haven't registered the route and it's only 85km. It also avoids the two main hills and others such as Turners Hill. Considering riding back but there is always the train option if I get melted by the sun.

Did L to B yesterday and back. Started at 7.00 am to avoid cycling in the heat. That was a good call. Friend came with me on the way down. It was his first long ride so we took it easy. He was also riding fixed but a bit overgeared for the hills. Lunch with friends and then I rode back alone. Pretty much non-stop on the return journey with only 2 short 10 minute stops. 4 hours 5 mins. Felt like I was taking it easy. Strange.

As all my recent rides have been audax it was strange not looking out for controls and fishing out my FWC card at the end. All good training though and of course great fun.

Oh yeah, cycled the first leg with my shorts inside out. Doh.

Having now done Dunwich and feeling quite pleased with myself on hitting (nearly) 200k without feeling too mashed, my thoughts are turning to 200k audaxes and the speeds required.

So I'm down for the Chris Negus Memorial 200k in September which says it's 216km and with a speed of 15-30kph. Using my magic maths that's a maximum time limit of 216/15 = 14.4h for the whole thing.

If it starts at 8am (which it does) does that mean that your man's going to hold the final control open until 10:24pm?

I know this sounds blindingly obvious but it's not actually mentioned anywhere on the AUK site as far as I can tell.

Did L to B yesterday and back. Started at 7.00 am to avoid cycling in the heat. That was a good call. Friend came with me on the way down. It was his first long ride so we took it easy. He was also riding fixed but a bit overgeared for the hills. Lunch with friends and then I rode back alone. Pretty much non-stop on the return journey with only 2 short 10 minute stops. 4 hours 5 mins. Felt like I was taking it easy. Strange.

As all my recent rides have been audax it was strange not looking out for controls and fishing out my FWC card at the end. All good training though and of course great fun.

Did you do that for a DIY arup?

It wasn't a proper audax DIY. You have to register the route first to do that and get it approved. You then have to get a real or electronic brevet card and ride it. I have yet to ride a real DIY with controls etc. It's one of my goals for this season. It's my first proper season really. Season finishes on 31st October.

There is a list of min / max times for each distance. Don't know if I saw on the site or in the handbook. The organiser for the ride may also increase or decrease the time.

I may be up for that Chris Negus Memorial 200k ride myself. Just need to check if it's a childcare weekend or not. Should be able to get an earlier train up there on a Saturday too.