Really (really) long term audax goals

[Deano]

Playing the long game, anyone have any lifetime ambitions in audaxing?

Possibly I could get 3 X Ultra SR? All being well, I'll get my first Ultra SR this season, I reckon this is a goer.

10 X PBP? This is Chris Crossland's fault. We were both helping at Barnie during LEL 2013, and I mentioned how much I'd enjoyed PBP 2011, but I wasn't sure I'd ride in 2015, cos I'd had such a good time and didn't want to sour the memory. But Chris pointed out my relative youth, and said I could set the record for most PBPs by a Brit. The bugger didn't point out that a) Teethgrinder already had like six by then, and b) he'd used the same line on my mate Dave, who rode his first at 22 or so. Verdict: unlikely, I don't fancy riding 1200s into my seventies, however much I love PBP.

And organise a 200 km from Darlo to Fox's Pulpit for the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Quaker movement. It'll be 2052, plenty of time to plan, I might even try to get the meeting house as a start/finish point. And what a place it is.

[quixoticgeek]

ACP Randonneur 5000 and 10000 is on the wish list.

J

[Deano]

Ah, I forgot to mention the ACP 10000. I organised my own Super Randonée 600 and all. Guess I'll have to ride that soon to qualify (no one has yet, mainly cos of lockdown, but there aren't many compromises in the route).

[felstedrider]

Should be my 25th SR this year.  If I go 3*ultra then I’ll be 53.

The next PBP will be my 7th and I’ll be 50.  10 is feasible.

Should make my 1,000 points by the end of 2022.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

It would be great to become one of those unassuming bombproof old blokes who are pretty much guaranteed to get round the toughest brevets (e.g. Jim Hopper) but I think that will always remain a dream.

PBP x 15 would be nice. 10 x PBP Randonneur (6 to date) and 5 x PBP Audax (2 currently) would get me there before 70. Margins against DNF become really tight after 70 unless you start from a particularly high level. I’d like to do PBP on upright trike, fixed and velomobile to go with the tandem, geared and Moulton finishes. There would be a certain ‘completeness’ to doing the 80 and 84VS starts to go with the 84, 90 and 90VS starts but ageing discourages it.

My ACP R10000 has been short a SR600 for three years. Mostly need to start it again now as some big years have time-expired.

Collecting 4Continent ISRs in all flavours (1200, 1000, 600, vanilla) would be good. Only a 4C 1200 ISR on the shelf so far.

Completing the full Fleche de France perm series at randonneur pace (only 1 so far) is on the wish list. Only a handful of Brits have done them all. Just below that is the Diagonale or EuroDiagonale series (nil) at touring pace. No Brit or Aussie has done them all yet; I’m not sure if any Anglophone has.

Several of these long-term plans will turn to dust if carbon budgets kick in hard and I move away from Europe.

[Lightning Phil]

Retire, though it often seems like Hotel California

I started in my mid  40s.

I like to get to 10 x SR, I’d like to do another LEL, I’d like to do another PBP, I’d like to do WAWA again.  I tell myself I’ll retire from the long ones after that, but we will see.

I’m leaning more towards mini tours with a proper bed and meals in between. 

[Peter]

Ha!  You may well all be "prisoners of your own devis/ce" who "can never leave" but I've seen precious few pretty, pretty boys!

[John Stonebridge]

Id like to reach the same number of SRs as George Berwick (24)...Im on 15 just now along with at least a couple of other Angus based gents.  I think we're 3rd= on the all time list of Scots SRs behind George and Tom Hanley on 20.   

& possibly 1000 lifetime points (on around 660 just now).

There was a time when I was aiming for Brevet 25k but Ive never been that keen on LEL (the most obvious 1300k+ event) and I do most of riding solo meaning that team events aren't really my thing.     
   

[ravenbait]

For my lungs to get better enough for me to get back to it.

Sam

[Peter]

Sam, I don't know if COPD is the problem but my brother has that.  One of the best days out of my riding "career" was a couple of years ago when we did a 50k together in North Yorkshire (we live miles apart, he in Durham and I near Manchester).  It wasn't far but there was all the company and comestibles applicable to "proper" audaxes, so it was great.  I think you are very far north, aren't you?  I'll have a look at the Audax permanents page and see what I can find, but I expect not much at the shorter distances.  Obviously, I don't know what kind of distance you might be looking at but I certainly wish you well with your health.

Peter

[iroiromono]

For me my longish term goals 5 year horizon is to get my

AUK Brevet 5000 and Brevet 25000
Need a 1000 for both (LLEL this summer) and then a 1300+ for the later (LEL)

ACP Randonneur 5000 and 10000
2x 1000 (LLEL + ?), a SR600 (Deanos) an LRM event (LEL)

Hopefully thereafter my Ultra SR in the 2026 season.

[JonB]

• Ultra SR - currently on 7 but no 8 feels challenging at the moment
• 3 PBPs - currently on 2: one on gears and the other on fixed, in discussions about a possible tandem ride for the next
• Randonneur 25,000 would be nice but not quite sure how I feel about LEL and that's the main method of completion if riding in the UK (I had to pack on the last one and not sure how I feel about doing it again)
• I do like the idea of the 10,000 points/100,000km award but at 58 I fear that it may be beyond me, I'll see where I am after PBP 2023, currently on 593, so some way to go

[AntLockyer]

realistically if I manage a 200km at any point in my life I'll be over the moon.

[Wycombewheeler]

Id like to get the 4 continent 1200 ISR and complete pbp at each of the time limits,  so far only 90 hours complete

[psyclist]

I'm hoping to complete the ACP Randonneur 10000 with the completion of a Super Randonee in 10 days time.

In South Korea there is a series of 6 rides called the Adventure Series. 200km perm rides with lots of climbing. I've completed one (on fixed!), and intend to get the set. The most challenging one is 234km with 6337m of climbing.

[HK]

All in the bin - Covid & vasculitis.

Passed some pretty big goals in 2019 & 1 in 2020 despite some bouts of raging vasculitis but unrecognised by good old AUK - seems women’s achievements on the whole count for very little.

[T42]

All in the bin - Covid & vasculitis.

Passed some pretty big goals in 2019 & 1 in 2020 despite some bouts of raging vasculitis but unrecognised by good old AUK - seems women’s achievements on the whole count for very little.

Bummer.  My heart run-ins 4 months after PBP 2015 pretty well put the tin hat on it for me.  My target is to get up to doing 200k rides again, but Audax speeds are out of the window now.

Hope you get back to it, HK.

[ravenbait]

Sam, I don't know if COPD is the problem but my brother has that.  One of the best days out of my riding "career" was a couple of years ago when we did a 50k together in North Yorkshire (we live miles apart, he in Durham and I near Manchester).  It wasn't far but there was all the company and comestibles applicable to "proper" audaxes, so it was great.  I think you are very far north, aren't you?  I'll have a look at the Audax permanents page and see what I can find, but I expect not much at the shorter distances.  Obviously, I don't know what kind of distance you might be looking at but I certainly wish you well with your health.

Thanks, Peter. I don't think it's COPD. Chest x-ray yesterday, finally, so we'll see what's what. I hope it's just some weird lockdown air pollution allergy thing exacerbating the asthma that swine flu gave me, or maybe a new and exciting form of post-viral after the bout of what I thought at the time was flu last February (2020) and which never really went away.

I can do 50km just fine, although the 20kph I do it at is a fairly low steady pace. I've got my eyes on 200km and up.

Sam

[Nick Firth]

I'm almost there, ONLY need a ride of 1300k or more for a 2nd Brevet 25000, all depends on what Doris, Halfcock & Witty come up with on the 14th, got a sneaky feeling there's gunner be Scunthorpe variant or some other bullshit to throw a spanner in the works. OK I've got next year but how long can you keep following the pace car trying to keep the tyres warm & at the same time running out of fuel, hope the AUK board let us just get on with it, fingers crossed.

[Peter]

@ Sam

you sound pretty much where I'm up to, Sam, with the distance, and I hope it goes well for you.  With me it's Atrial Fibrillation and some rather alarming numbers, though I feel well enough.  I think I could probably do a 200, but I'd hate to be wrong!  Like T42, I'm not sure about Audax speeds anymore.  But I'd settle for 50s, just somewhere else for a change!

All the best

Peter

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I did have the ambition of 30xSR, but having done 15x straight, I didn't get around to it last year and don't expect I will get round to anything this year.  I've enjoyed doing different things, so not sure I will get back to the long events just yet.

[FifeingEejit]

Id like to reach the same number of SRs as George Berwick (24)...Im on 15 just now along with at least a couple of other Angus based gents.  I think we're 3rd= on the all time list of Scots SRs behind George and Tom Hanley on 20.   

& possibly 1000 lifetime points (on around 660 just now).

There was a time when I was aiming for Brevet 25k but Ive never been that keen on LEL (the most obvious 1300k+ event) and I do most of riding solo meaning that team events aren't really my thing.     
   

I struggle with LEL, it's basically riding home (even more so with the turn in Dunfermline) and then turning away again, so I need to find a decent 1300.

My tracking spreadsheet says I'm aiming for:
AUK B5000
AUK B25000
AUK UR
and Eventually getting to 100000 points would be nice but I've not even made 20000 yet

ACP 10000 I need an SR600, an LRM and another 1000 which should also get me past the 10000 mark, and by March 2024 :-S

[Deano]

@ Sam

you sound pretty much where I'm up to, Sam, with the distance, and I hope it goes well for you.  With me it's Atrial Fibrillation and some rather alarming numbers, though I feel well enough.  I think I could probably do a 200, but I'd hate to be wrong!  Like T42, I'm not sure about Audax speeds anymore.  But I'd settle for 50s, just somewhere else for a change!

All the best

Peter

I could maybe put the Overground Underground 50 (or something similar) on next year, as I think we'll have a hall in Northallerton all day. I've not seen Trev in yonks, even though I keep expecting to whenever I'm round his haunts. Though it's been a while, them's my winter roads.

[Pete Mas]

I had ridden audaxes, up to 400km, before, but only started chasing SR in 2007, at the age of 50, with the aim of riding PBP. I've never been a fast rider, but enjoyed the satisfaction of completing a PBP, LEL, and several long Italian brevets. By 2019, I had managed 12 SR's in a row but failed to complete a couple of 600km rides that year. Then 2020 messed up any serious cycling plans, and post-retirement, I have relaxed a bit , so the idea of rushing round on longer audaxes , watching the time limits, doesn't appeal so much... Still enjoying local 200's, 300's, and even route checking 400's over 2 days, and other helping out a bit at the KWAC audaxes. As for RRTY, I did that once, and have no plans to do another one. So to those wishing for retirement, enabling more audaxes: be careful what you wish for! You might find that you enjoy shorter rides, other types of riding, or even spend time on other hobbies instead.

[Peter]

@ Sam

you sound pretty much where I'm up to, Sam, with the distance, and I hope it goes well for you.  With me it's Atrial Fibrillation and some rather alarming numbers, though I feel well enough.  I think I could probably do a 200, but I'd hate to be wrong!  Like T42, I'm not sure about Audax speeds anymore.  But I'd settle for 50s, just somewhere else for a change!

All the best

Peter

I could maybe put the Overground Underground 50 (or something similar) on next year, as I think we'll have a hall in Northallerton all day. I've not seen Trev in yonks, even though I keep expecting to whenever I'm round his haunts. Though it's been a while, them's my winter roads.

Dean, you have a PM