Audax rides

The Pendle ride report you probably have not been waiting for...

http://thesquarepusher.blogspot.co.uk/

Top reporting! I'm was going to report back on My First Audax (100km) today but it seems silly in comparison.

I still found it hard. Very hard. Report to follow.

Nah, go for it, I'm always keen on hearing other's first foray in audax, even if it's a 100k one doesn't make it less acceptable.

Well done to CC AC Hackney, the weekend's weather looked to be a total nightmare (too much for me, I saw the forecast up North and postponed a trip).

Amazing countryside! Absolutely. So many superb locations strung together like that would be enough to make any cyclist weak at the knees.

Returning for the Old 240? What about LEL?

Nicely done again folks, that's some first-rate masochism.

Yeah, Ed's right - the distance is irrelevant, it's what happens during that distance that's interesting. It's just a list of numbers otherwise!

I'm not riding LEL, I wanted to back in January, though decided I'd rather go touring instead. This is partly why I'd done so little other distance before the Kernow - no main goal to train for.

The weather was nowhere near as bad as forecast, thank god, but still, a long dry night would have been a bit nicer!

ahem... AC Hackney... ahem...

I still found it hard. Very hard. Report to follow.

Looking forward to it :)

Well done to CC Hackney, the weekend's weather looked to be a total nightmare (too much for me, I saw the forecast up North and postponed a trip).

The weather was nowhere near as bad as forecast, thank god, but still, a long dry night would have been a bit nicer!

ahem... AC Hackney... ahem...

Yeah definitely agree on the weather, it was mainly the stretch from east to west coast that was tough with the wind, and the heavy rain shower in the night/morning.
And when we were feeling quite low battling against it we had to reason with ourselves that it had actually been a hell of a lot better than expected, and we could have had, and were expecting it to be worse...

...so HTFU! :p

Those periods of riding are definitely enjoyed afterwards with the satisfaction of making it through tough conditions without giving up. Certainly not enjoyable at the time!

Thankfully that's contrasted with other points on the ride where rolling along with a tailwind and sunshine, good company and great scenery, that's when you're loving it on the bike as well. :)

Here goes: today I did my first ever Audax: the London Midweek Sightseer 100.

I was expecting a a fairly easy 100k on roads I am familiar with. I knew I could ride at the required speed and found the 50-odd miles to Brighton quite easy the other week. Brighton was my previous longest ride, and this audax was just over 60 so it should be fine, right?

I rode the ten miles out to the start and found I was the youngest person there by about 20 years. I was told I could tag along with three guys who knew the route and we set off without me having enough time to buy the food I told myself I should buy before starting.

The blokes I was riding with set a decent, though comfortable pace and I was keeping up well until my saddlebag, held on with two (yes, TWO) sturdy pieces of poundshop string snapped off. The scout in me was prepared, however, and I cable tied the bastard back on. Unfortunately I had been dropped by the group and hit the first control (Hammersmith) alone about 20 minutes later.

I had ignored the advice of buying a map holder and as I was carrying the route card in my teeth, decided to fashion one out of a cable tie, a piece of card I found in a bin and two pieces of toe strapping tape. It proved extremely hardy.

By the midpoint control at Island Gardens (best jerk chicken ever) I had formed a little peleton of out-of-town riders who I guided through the streets of London. To be honest I thought they were a bit slower than I'd care to ride but I was happy to ride with nice people rather than bomb about on my own. After lunch me and an older looking bloke called Geoff set off together round Greenwich which resulted in us going 6 miles off course. Yes. In Greenwich. He needed me for the route knowledge (pah!) and I needed him as he was a total Audax OG. 50 points this season. Did I mention he was 65? I'm 27 and we were very well matched for pace.

We headed back in towards town which was a pain as the route was incredibly windy with hundreds of turns and lots of time on cycle paths. At this point the slowness of the route was getting to me. I'd been in the saddle for five hours and only covered about 60k. There were no stretches of open road to get a head of speed up. However, as we came up the Thames towards the central London bridges I was back in my element and we snaked over Westminster, Chelsea, Albert and Putney in double quick time. I thought we were really close to the finish, which was true as the crow flies but the route had to take us through Richmond and Bushy Park. Geoff kept me company with his many Audax stories and didn't seem to fade with the light, which kept me going.

We made it to the finish at about five which meant, including my ride out I'd spent about 8 hours in the saddle and covered only 120k. That must have been why my arse and neck/upper back were starting to hurt so much. Not distance, just time. My legs felt relatively OK.

I chose to ride home, aiming to make it a round 100 miles with rides there & back plus diversions en route. I stopped at a Sainsbury's to pick up a EVERYHINTINTHEFUCKINGSHOP because I'd only eaten porridge for breakfast, jerk chicken at lunch, a bottle of coke and two water bottles full of plain water all day. One of the many good things about riding with Geoff is that he didn't let us stop and kept a slow but ceaseless rate going, meaning I had no chance to get any snacks.

My bike was fine. I chose to use my pompino because it is my bike.

I'm aiming to do a 200 and a 300 before the year's out, a 400 in the new year, and then I'm moving onto training for an ultra marathon (on foot) for next July. Bring it on.

@doppel:

grand form.

but you should always ride off on your own and wonder where everyone else went. only then can you truly experience the dichotomy of the loneliness and celebration of independence that is audax.

also, running is for skinny Africans and weirdos. running is a feeder to triathlons.

and triathletes are the sort of people that think those tacx computer trainers are a good training tool.

Too late, I was talked into my first tri by my girlfriend a couple of weeks ago. I didn;t have any of the "proper" tri gear though so give me a pass on that. My cycle was by far the weakest bit and I've signed up to another later in the year.

I'm so sorry.

Here goes: today I did my first ever Audax: the London Midweek Sightseer 100.

Well done. I was also on that one but had my first DNF. Quite annoyed about it as I was on good form.

Here's what happened. A friend who has just finished building his first bike wanted to come along. He offered to give me a lift in his van when I said I was going to get the train from Clapham. So I arranged to meet him at 08:30 near East Croydon. I texted to say that I'd arrived at the appointed time and he replied that he'd lost track of time and hadn't left his house. Got there half an hour later. Still determined to have a good ride I shrugged it off but wasn't happy.

Stuck in traffic we arrived at the start about 10: 15, 45 minutes after the appointed start time. My brevet card had been left for me and I phoned Bill to let him know that I was starting late and that my friend didn't have a booking. My friend then spent some time fitting the toe straps he had asked me to bring but didn't have clips.

Soon after we actually got started he removed the toe straps as they weren't helping. When we finally got to Hammersmith he noticed that his crank bolt was loose so we wandered up King Street and found a bike shop on Shepherd's Bush Road. Really nice guy who fixed it for free and also tightened up his also loose chainring bolts. Surprised by this rare friendly bike shop experience we continued with me smiling with gritted teeth. We got to Notting Hill the other crank bolt was loose so we popped into Evans on Westbourne Grove. He was feeling very guilty and suggested that I continue on alone but I didn't want to leave him stranded just to get my points.

Got to Island Gardens at 3:30 and was so looking forward to that goat curry that I didn't have last year because the queue was too long. My friend said he was too tired to continue but another friend had joined at Kensington gardens so we continued on together. It was after 6.00 when we got to 70k and I had work at 7.00 so I decided that rent had a higher priority than audax points so had to pull out.

Still, the weather was nice and I got some miles in.

Ah dear what a pisser!

Sorry I missed you Arup. I did see your brevet card at the start and half expected to catch you on the way round. Did you enjoy it?

Did enjoy it and managing to stay on route where I'd got lost last year.

Well done for sticking with your friend.

If it'd been me with my usual riding partner I'd have burnt him and quicklimed the remains.

(Explains why I don't have many friends.)

Did I look after your bike outside the loos on the Greenwich ascent?? We were in the CTC Wantage shirts.

It's a good route for a non-Londoner to see the sights but it's definitely not a quick route. The bit from Greenwich to Tower Bridge following NCN4 is extremely hard work and slow with cobbles, many twists and turns and peds everywhere.

My other half got very tired around Richmond Park and we finished in 6h03m moving time just before 5pm. Most of the stopped time will be for traffic lights as we only had two short breaks for lunch and morning coffee. I did it in 5h27m and finished at 4pm last year.

Ha! Yes you did :)

I think the tiredness comes from the constant need to control the bike around the docklands stretches, which manifests as soreness and fatigue come the Richmond sections.

As I say, I think I could do the distance on country lanes and not find it nearly so hard.

Cool! Audax on country lanes can be easier but are often hillier! You'll almost always get more arranged stops for refreshments and a breather too.

We were working to a time limit (which we missed!) to get home for our daughter so last 20km were a bit stressful! Quote from my other half just now which agrees 100% with your assessment...

"I’d have probably managed the last 20K better if we’d not been on a time limit because we’d have stopped and had coffee. I was also mentally tired because of the concentration required to cycle through folk and negotiating wiggly cycle paths and narrow gates."

On some Audax I just use the Garmin to navigate as there's not much you can do wrong. You need a sheet holder for the more complex rides like this one.

And just like that I've chosen my next one.

Shaftesbury CC - Chris Negus Memorial 200

That look good, reckon you'll have a great time, if the route is similar to the 2012 one;

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/403172/embed
/embed

Worth doing a Shaftesbury run if only to experience the utter yet net-curtainy joy that is the Shaftesbury club hut. Amazing.

Also: posting today to say, having met and ridden 100 with the guy running it, Nick, I wanted to give props to the Suburban Breakout 100. It is on July 7th starting from a well known cafe whose name escapes me up in Finchley, but I do have an approximate location stored in my phone, which is N2 9ED. Hopefully his pal Ken, NorthLondonLight on here, who is a LMNH fixture some of you may know, can elucidate or post an e-invite or something equally up-to-the-minute.

I'm hoping to attend since I seem to be making a career of 100s, but have never done a London one.

I'm hoping to attend since I seem to be making a career of 100s, but have never done a London one.

Sound like you'd already done the Brevet award Skully, probably the 500 (5x 100s) or the 1000 (10x100 or 5x200)*.

*have no idea how many 100s you've done.

Hah^!!

That reminds me. When the organiser of my 100 yesterday sends off my brevet, what happens to it, where is it logged and what do I get?

I'm old and drug-addled Ed, so I only really want to do 100s, and can't really remember.

That reminds me. When the organiser of my 100 yesterday sends off my brevet, what happens to it, where is it logged and what do I get?

Are you a member of Audax UK?

Excellent first audax report by the way.