Author Topic: Poor Student 2021 (Read 3640 times)

iddu · « **on:** 27 October, 2020, 08:54:39 pm »

OK, it's on, having checked it over during a wet Saturday.

Please read https://sites.google.com/site/idduaudaxing/home/ps200 before entering, for C-19 restrictions.

TomAplomb · « **Reply #1 on:** 29 October, 2020, 03:31:06 pm »

Looking forward to it.

Lightning Phil · « **Reply #2 on:** 29 October, 2020, 06:24:19 pm »

I know you say no juggling for late comers to join their mates. A later start may suit me better as it gives time to drive round from home without getting up too early. If I enter reasonably early is there an option to opt for a later start?

iddu · « **Reply #3 on:** 29 October, 2020, 09:45:00 pm »

I'll put you at #90. Of course, you might end up being Billy Nomates

Wycombewheeler · « **Reply #4 on:** 30 October, 2020, 08:27:21 am »

I love this ride, especially widdershins. but what are the views on ending up cycling with people other than those you start with?

My view is that the rule of 6 shouldn't mean socialising with several different such groups in the same day. But it's possible riders could separate from their starting group within minutes, and so have spent very little time with the group and of course they could have maintained 2m from all of them at all times.

Also if oxford or other parts of the route end up tier 2 or 3 will the ride still go ahead?

TomAplomb · « **Reply #5 on:** 30 October, 2020, 12:21:29 pm »

Quote

Also if oxford or other parts of the route end up tier 2 or 3 will the ride still go ahead?

Oxford City is entering tier 2 from Saturday (31st Oct). The primary restriction of tier 2 is no indoor socialising of mixed households.

So riders from Oxford like myself may not be able to ride, or it may mean that indoor cafe stops may be off limits.

Whether an audax is allowed to enter a tier 2 area, I'm not sure...

De Sisti · « **Reply #6 on:** 30 October, 2020, 03:14:54 pm »

Quote from: Wycombewheeler on 30 October, 2020, 08:27:21 am

I love this ride, especially widdershins. but what are the views on ending up cycling with people other than those you start with?

One doesn't have to ride in a group. Nothing wrong with riding solo.

mattc · « **Reply #7 on:** 31 October, 2020, 11:55:36 am »

INFO: The start is outside of the current Oxford City Tier2 restriction area. And it's outside in the .. outdoors sense!
SPECULATION: dependent on Pat's routing, you can avoid the City area entirely.

OPINION: if there are no changes - between now and Jan 2nd - in the Covid restrictions along the route, I will* eat my facemask. It is too early to say.

*maybe

LiamFitz · « **Reply #8 on:** 08 November, 2020, 03:46:49 pm »

Looking forward to it. I rode much of the route in the Summer and the council have properly resurfaced some of the roads around Compton Abdale - sadly not all of them. But it made for a much nicer ride over the lumpy stuff

Liam

Jamesha · « **Reply #9 on:** 09 November, 2020, 10:00:03 pm »

Just entered. One of the positive things about Covid is that I am doing some events that I have not done previously because my normal ones are not running.

iddu · « **Reply #10 on:** 23 December, 2020, 09:51:18 pm »

Due to imposition of T4 on Oxfordshire from Boxing Day this has now been cancelled - it's unlikely that 30/12 review would downgrade level in sufficient time, so unfortunately no 2021 PS...

Jethro · « **Reply #11 on:** 24 December, 2020, 11:33:33 am »

Having ridden this event in the past when "dancing on ice", I have come to prefer the perm version by starting and finishing in Chipping Campden and done in reverse (doing the hilly bits first).

Will hopefully have another go in 2021

Pip · « **Reply #12 on:** 30 December, 2020, 09:59:13 pm »

A great pity. On the one hand, the traditional clockwise version on first Saturday or Sunday of January was always a formidable test. The weather could be exceptionally challenging with extremely cold temperatures and ice, torrential (cold) rain, but occasionally there would be some (cold) sunshine.

There was often a headwind out to Malmesbury, where randonneurs would eat their cold sandwiches outside the supermarket in the cold. The leg from Malmesbury to Cirencester was invariably flooded, but climbing the White Way from Cirencester was a chance to get warm before overheating briefly on the steep climbs between Compton Abdale and Chipping Campden. In fact, one edition I got so hot after the steep ramp up to the A40 that it was necessary to cool down...even now I'm unsure if that actually happened.

One year, maybe 2014, the lanes between Malmesbury were inundated, naturally I punctured in a loch. Somehow I managed to change the tube whilst my friend Saul pissed on his fingers to stave off frostbite.

Anyway, after the traditional stop at the Bantam tea rooms, as darkness fell, a posse always formed to tackle the supposedly 'flat' route back. This included a horrific climb up through the woods at Batsford and a nasty drag up to Lyneham. Amazingly, it was never as cold in the dark night air as it was during the day. Deep down, I began to enjoy the ride by the time we had ridden 180 kms and I couldn't feel my fingers and toes any longer.....it felt, I think the word is, ....rewarding.

One time, Phil Dyson had three punctures on the last stretch to Yarnton. We both ran out of tubes and coordination. We were actually on a fastish ride. Needless to say, it was freezing cold, my dribble had frozen and I abandoned Phil to walk back while I finished the ride, collected my car to drive back, and lent him my bike to complete the brevet. Such happy days. Anyone who completes the Poor Student in January has done well, it is a classic audax test of rider and machine taking in some stark winter landscape.

Now then, when I rode it one time in warm Spring sunshine...it was lovely, but where's the story in that?

Jeff E · « **Reply #13 on:** 31 December, 2020, 08:49:24 am »

Thanks Pip for a timely heart warming Post during these bleak times.

mattc · « **Reply #14 on:** 31 December, 2020, 08:53:27 am »

Beautifully evocative

phil d · « **Reply #15 on:** 31 December, 2020, 09:26:00 am »

Quote from: Pip on 30 December, 2020, 09:59:13 pm

One year, Phil Dyson had three punctures on the last stretch to Yarnton. We both ran out of tubes and coordination. We were actually on a fastish ride. Needless to say, it was freezing cold, my dribble had frozen and I abandoned Phil to walk back while I finished the ride, collected my car to drive back and lend him my bike to complete the brevet. Such happy days. Anyone who completes the Poor Student in January has done well, it is a classic audax test of rider and machine taking in some stark winter landscape.

I remember it well. And am eternally grateful to have been riding with the one person out that day whose bike I could ride without adjustment! As I recall there were three of us riding together, and all named Philip!

The three punctures caused by the tiniest of splits in the casing, which in the cold and dark we just couldn't find. Unusually I wasn't carrying a folding spare. In retrospect it was quite funny - swap tubes, search unsuccessfully for thorn / flint, blow it up - everything seems OK, ride for 100 yards ad BANG!!. Repeat. Twice.

De Sisti · « **Reply #16 on:** 31 December, 2020, 09:34:10 am »

Quote from: Pip on 30 December, 2020, 09:59:13 pm

..the steep climbs between Compton Abdale and Chipping Campden.

Living in the Cotswolds, I have only ever ridden up the Compton Abdale climb twice; and on those
occasions it was during the Poor Student. I've descended it many times though.

LiamFitz · « **Reply #17 on:** 31 December, 2020, 06:46:04 pm »

This would have been my 10th go at it (in a January).

I remember the year we went anti clockwise and we had a gale of a tailwind from Camden only for my rear gear cable to snap so I got none of the benefit spinning down to find a bike shop in Cirencester (where they struggled to believe that anyone would be riding a 200 km event in January).

I remember the year when my commitment to vegetarianism was severely challenged by the lamb stew at the Garden Centre outside Malmsbury. There was also the year when it rained so much that I didn't realise that the rice pot I'd bought in Chipping was filling up with rain water faster than I could eat it. There was the time I got so lost at Shipton that I almost broke down in tears and then Nic Windle turned up and shepherded me home.

And there are all the years when I get to say hello to everyone I know in the world of Audax in the carpark before the off...it's the only time I see them all in one place. The Poor Student is the epitome of audax events for me and I'm sad it's fallen prey to the virus this year..

But I'm looking forward to Jan 2022 when I'll finish in daylight (along with the tooth fairy and a unicorn on an eliptigo).

Lightning Phil · « **Reply #18 on:** 31 December, 2020, 08:30:22 pm »

I first rode this in Jan 17, which was anti clockwise, so hills first. It was a mild year.

I rode with my niece, whose previous longest ride was about 100km. I stayed overnight with her parents. I was wearing samples of the LEL 17 jersey and gilet. A few riders tried on the gilet in Chipping Campden. My niece struggled in the Cotswolds hills, so I was nursing her up each hill, feeding her jelly babies, and keeping silent about how much more there was. She got a puncture which I fixed in the process getting a mucky face. An audaxer mentioned the number of hills left when there were about four more to go. We had words and I got her through to the descent to Cirencester where we caught Neil C and another rider. Neil got chatty with my niece though he may deny it

They weee flagging when we caught them and the conversation made the miles pass to Malmesbury.

We were towards the back by now, and after eating in the cafe , it was getting dark by the time we left. My niece had been on Instagram during our stop. I work in IT, so consequently try to eliminate technology other than GPS during my rides.

On the last leg, more stops for top up energy via jelly babies. She was recording it on Strava and we stopped to celebrate her first 100 miles. She lives near Oxford and gained energy in those last km, we caught another audaxer and sprinted for the finish. We then sat down in the services with about another half dozen Audaxers. Full value but she was ecstatic. The aim was to get her round, and she managed it.

Went to where she lived with her parents where I had a shower and clean up before driving home. She asked for a hug to say thank you before I headed home.

I also rode it again in 2018 and 2020 both clockwise on my recumbents. Hope to ride it again in 2022, will it be clockwise or anti clockwise?

It’s a fine outing.

rafletcher · « **Reply #19 on:** 31 December, 2020, 08:35:33 pm »

^What a lovely description

bhoot · « **Reply #20 on:** 31 December, 2020, 11:07:22 pm »

In 2013 it was our first ever 200km audax as a "could we possibly do LEL?" test before entering. Partway round we learned from fellow riders that all the places had already been taken (the entry had opened that morning I think) which was a bit disappointing. Anyway we survived the ride and even managed to go to a friend's party in Oxford that evening. We also did the very wet ride in 2014 that Pip referred to. So inundated were the lanes after Malmesbury that there was a road junction that looked like a canal junction - and rather appropriately had the description on the route sheet of "L - road markings not distinct" or something similar. No party after that one, just an altercation at Oxford station regarding taking the tandem on the train back to London.