Audax rides

Yep. It's always a faff, stressful or the double whammy of stressful and a fucking faff.

Triple whammy of paying a fortune for the fare

Haven't done an Audax for ~7 years so I don't really take bikes on trains any more (apart from commuting bike at pissed'o'clock when too hammered to ride home sensibly) but for all of the Audax riding I used to do I think I only had one or two non-good experiences in 60+ return train journeys. Even then the only problems were minor shit like the bike spaces were full despite having a reservation but guard used common sense and still let me get on the train.

lovely, no probs. glad it still holds up. used to enjoy the shit weather slogs out that way, peversely.

Oh, very true, in the UK, that's a given.

You're value of good might differ a lot from mine. I don't mind shit conditions or annoyance, but not when I'm paying through the fucking nose for it.

Yeah, this was also in the time when I'd know >12 weeks out that I was doing an Audax (e.g. BCM, K&SW, etc) and so I was able to snipe the really cheap advance tickets. Think I paid £12 for a London to Bristol train for BCM and about £20 for Waterloo -> Exeter. When I did a one-way recce of the LEL route in 2009 I got a 1st Class ticket back from Edinburgh for about £40.

GWR (and LNER) are much worse than they used to be. Cos no guards van and the hitachi "bike spaces" are a joke: you need to hang the bike, tyres >35c don't fit, deep section (>45mm rims) don't fit. If you have wide bars and someone else is there you won't fit even if you have a space booked. Etc, ad nauseam.

It was still shit ~10 years ago. I think I only ever got to use a guards van (or equivalent) twice in my life. Once when I bought my Colnago in ~1998 and got to sit with it in a proper old school guards van on the way back from Portsmouth, almost the whole van to myself so the bike could just lay flat on the floor.

Other time was, I think, a train back from Edinburgh where the bikes went in an area in one of the front coaches with hooks for ~20 bikes and proper space for non-standard bikes (recumbents, tandem, etc).

The rest have been standard shit bike provision like the 3 bike space with wheel benders opposite the toilet (common on SWR trains), or nothing at all and the bike just squished into some space in a vestibule.

Impulsive > Planner

Popping my head back into the thread to say I completed my RRtY and am now on the Audax UK Roll of Honour, hooray. Now I am immortalised until the heat death of the universe. Cool.

Cheers to anyone and everyone in here who gave me advice. Made it a Bakers Dozen on Sunday by doing the Shark, which was surprisingly fun, given my previous experience on AAA rated events :)

Well done. I found RRTY quite a tricky one to schedule when I used to race a lot more. Some people go for the 10x badges and stuff but I don't really see the point of repeating. Maybe when I retire. What are you planning next?

We're going to Exeter tonight (if the train works) to ride a variation on the Kernow and SW 600k as a DIY. Which reminds me I need to enter it.

I really struggled on The Shark, my first time doing it. I was too economical at the controls. Got round with at least two hours in hand still, but decided I couldn't face heading back into Greenwich so went directly home after Hogtrough (walked that for the first time too). Same distance, more climbing in fact, but no points! Ha.

I did Kennet Valley Run on Saturday.
Really nice roads and the start line in Reading was rideable sparing the tedium of rail.
100km major headwinds and hail to begin with but the return leg was a load easier.
I'd snapped a chain on the previous day's commute and grabbed my summer bike so it was my first audax on gears which turned out useful as all my mates bailed by the halfway point and I was a bit under-dressed so it was head-down-big-ring all the way home.
Good fun tho and I reckon that with better weather, Kennet Valley Run would be quite pleasant really

Excellent effort, well done! The Shark is a punchy one to finish one, blaze of glory and all that. Still on my to-do list even though it is on my doorstep. Perhaps one to DIY should the Weather Gods smile on us at some point this year...

Good job. Its hard to keep up. I started an effort in October thinking I'd do the cold months first and it would then feel easy, but was sick the whole of January. So started again now, feels like this could happen ad infinitum.

Still don't think I've done the Shark. Been on my todo list since forever but just never make it. We did the other lumpy one down there though, Ivan's one. Greenwich Mean Climb. 5000m of gain in 300k

Fastest 600k ever?

We got to Paddington to find all the fucking trains cancelled due to flooding so no K&SW for us this weekend.

Don't you have to complete it to get a time?

I think you have to start it too.

The Essex & Suffolk Estuaries 100k for me today. Typical spring 'all weathers in a day' weather. And wind. Lots of wind...
Only had a minor humour fail when I took a wrong turn and started to follow the route away from the finish for an extra half hour in wind...

I did the Shark for the fourth time. Each time I've been a bit slower, but I think the wind was a factor this year. Also it was earlier in the year, usually it's been in April, after the clocks have gone forward.

Oh no!

I did Kennet Valley Run on Saturday.

I've done this a few times. It's a lovely spring ride. Quite flat but it does go into reasonably wild country around wolf hall. You really feel like you are going over the spine of England.

We started the BBC 600k instead. Late after someone didn't set their alarm properly and then we didn't want to ride through the Peak District in the dark so got an early hotel. We ended up bailing after 430k because it was going to end up being a bit close for comfort with finish time and the grrl had knee dramas so a finishing "sprint" wasn't going to be fun. Rode 50km to Grantham and got the train home.