Moving onto GPS validation would also allow for completely different routes, for instance I have a 100 with 2 AAA points which I can only run as DIY by GPS, as it doesn't work in any other way... it would need something ridiculous like a dozen control points. But it's a great route...
The idea that you can go from A to B in an almost straight line is not in line with the times and the volume of traffic (Covid-19 aside), so GPS validation would solve that problem
Or just do what other countries do, and use mandatory routes.
Difficult one. On one hand it would be good to be able to validate via GPS, but I have had pitfalls with my GPS recordings before. Particularly on my previous Garmin 810 which has fouled up and deleted rides (including a 600), so in that case I would only have been able to validate using the brevet card. The garmin had this bizarre "feature" where if you charged it 'on the go' and then took the charging cable out, it would presume you wanted to power the device off unless you pressed a 'no' button with a 10 second warning. But this process could start several minutes after taking the cable out. So one could look down and see your unit had decided to deactivate. Maddening.
All being well there is an article in the next Arriveé about what happens when GPS devices fail on an audax...
We should appreciate that many people who are getting into cycling will be pretty wide-eyed at the prospect of spending a significant sum on a head unit that provides both navigation and recording (a smartphone can't necessarily be relied on to perform as well). On my first audax (a populaire) I was navigating using a phone using a route I'd made a route on based on the routesheet (Which I got wrong...) and ended up riding with some old sweats who kindly let me ride in.
Audax isn't just for veteran cyclists. Looking at my receipts I got my first road bike in April-May 2018. I did my first populaire in mid-May (Ten Thames Bridges) and my first 200 in June (A Catholic Education). At that point Audax UK was my only cycling club.
I finished building my bike end of November 2017, I did my first audax, a 200k BRM, on Jan 27th 2018. Pretty much 2 months later.
We do permit validation of permanents via GPS (in most cases, using a digital brevet card). I have no great romance for brevet cards and I'm conscious that they probably cost quite a lot of money over the course of the year. But from what I can see they strike a reasonable balance between ease-of-administration for organisers, accessibility and low-barriers-to-entry for riders as well as being fairly technologically foolproof (not counting during the Rowlands ramble when I rode straight past a control and had to backtrack 3 km up a hill)...
I like the cards. They cost about 10-25p each. It's not like they are expensive.
The survey seemed to be angling for an app. Which might be good as an alternative to info controls and getting cards stamped. But the last thing AUK needs is another large IT project...
*shudder*
If there was an app that would only be used at controls so it registered your location and time when you pressed a button that would match the validation of the Brevet card. Would be simpler than tracking and would be much less prone to failures and would not even require the phone to be on for most of the ride.
These lazy days are making me think.....
The Dutch have trailed a system where by when you got the control, as well as getting a stamp, you gave the controller your brevet card number, and they entered it into some system on a tablet, which tracked who was where and when.
Other options would be to include a simple barcode on the card, scan it at the control, boom, done.
I've not had an email about the survey, What was the subject line so I can search my spam folder?
I think digital validation is a stupid idea, it's yet another way where Audax UK is trying to be Special™, and setting itself apart from the rest of Audax. It's bad enough that we don't have enough BRM rides, without stepping even further away from how it works elsewhere.
J
