Audax Dreams for the New Season

[Wal]

After two years away, due to injury and ankle reconstruction this year, the dreams are as follows:

1. Make a little baby Wallace! 
2. Get on the bike, work up to a 100 - 200km, or more...
3. Get started on an SR or my ISR (possibly a 200km in Vancouver will have to check if they have an Audax club).
4. Undertake my first organised Audax, rather than DIYs of which there are only 18, 50km DIY rides.

Here’s to dreaming and doing, nice to be back!

W...

[LittleWheelsandBig]

British Columbia Randonneurs is the powerhouse of Canadian audaxing and a good crowd.

[Wal]

British Columbia Randonneurs is the powerhouse of Canadian audaxing and a good crowd.

Thanks LWaBW, braw, i’ll Have a look at the BCR website and coordinate with the hols...

Aye,
W...

[Graeme]

Well, points would be nice. But I’ve been saying that for ten years now 

So I might try and I might not. I mean, really.

Have you considered planning a route to take advantage of the weather? Yesterday I caught the train to Durham and cycled home. 203km. Manly flat once out of County Durham. Tailwind most of the way which knocked an hour off my 100km time and two hours off my 200km time. Also: it was fun having a tailwind all day. Might I suggest this for a Spring / Summer ride?

[Ivo]

Well, points would be nice. But I’ve been saying that for ten years now 

So I might try and I might not. I mean, really.

Have you considered planning a route to take advantage of the weather? Yesterday I caught the train to Durham and cycled home. 203km. Manly flat once out of County Durham. Tailwind most of the way which knocked an hour off my 100km time and two hours off my 200km time. Also: it was fun having a tailwind all day. Might I suggest this for a Spring / Summer ride?

I did the same on monday, cycled from home via a flattish route to Zutphen and took a train back. Only drawback was that the wind predictions weren't 100% accurate so I had a sidewind for a few hours on a very exposed section. My time cushion for the return train was a bit tighter as planned due to this.

[Graeme]

It does take some of the pressure off to start with a train journey and ride home: I don't have the courage to cycle away from home and catch a train back.

[Ivo]

It does take some of the pressure off to start with a train journey and ride home: I don't have the courage to cycle away from home and catch a train back.

I took some pressure off by passing a few railway stations in the 2nd half of my ride so I could bail out (but forfeit the DIY permanent) if I would risk my train back. Fair enough as spending most of the day with a head wind is an advantage.

[Bobby]

Just renewed for 5 years so perhaps it will be a good season 

[wilkyboy]

Fixed-SR (third), Essex-SR (sixth), RRTY (seventh), organise more calendar events (The Cambridge Pork Pie on 17 March is next), get more Cambridge permanents on the board (I've got quite a few in the works, two nearing completion).

I'm booked in for TINAT 400 and The ACME Grand, the latter will set me up nicely for an early entry to PBP and will also bag me the Brevet 25k (which needs a 1000km ride, no substitutes AFAICT).

But really I'd just like to ride my bike with more people and in new places, instead of my usual solo DIYs and route-checks.

[Ian H]

It does take some of the pressure off to start with a train journey and ride home: I don't have the courage to cycle away from home and catch a train back.

The advantage of a train home afterwards is that, given a hot enough day and a hard enough ride, you will always have seats to yourself (if not half the carriage).

[citoyen]

Ian H - Talking of getting the train then riding home, I'm seriously contemplating your Back to the Smoke 400. Turns out that if I left home in East Kent at 6am, I could get to Exeter in time for the noon start. That's quite remarkable - although I'm not sure how I feel about trusting the trains...

Aside from that and the Scottish 1k, I'll probably only do Perms/DIYs and local rides simply in order to keep expenditure to a minimum.

[Ian H]

It's mostly the Sunday trains which are problematical (engineering works and the like), which is more of a problem with bikes cos the rail-replacement buses generally won't take 'em. 

[eck]

It does take some of the pressure off to start with a train journey and ride home: I don't have the courage to cycle away from home and catch a train back.

The advantage of a train home afterwards is that, given a hot enough day and a hard enough ride, you will always have seats to yourself (if not half the carriage).

Indeed Ian. Some of you may remember this, but it's perhaps appropriate to resurrect the Might McNasty's closing words of a huge perm (Three Capitals, Round the Coast?) he did some years ago. He finished the ride in Edinburgh and embarked on a train for the short trip back to Fife.
He said that the carriage "was somewhat crowded, but my powerful scent soon secured me a seat." 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Scottish Star perhaps?

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Slightly more than a minimum SR this year, as won't be taking a week out to cook for LEL. 

Season is centred around the Porkers and the West Highland 1000 but hope to take in a couple of Dutch audaxes from Bunnik while I'm working in The Hague, which would add a fifth country to my Audax account (small beer to some here I know) and possibly a sneaky Cambrian series ride or two later in the year (or even book a week in Brecon and do a different Cambrian perm each day)

[Graeme]

But really I'd just like to ride my bike with more people and in new places, instead of my usual solo DIYs and route-checks.

This is what I'd like to do too. So I've booked a few Sundays off to specifically ride events. BCM, Border Raid and Borderland Late Season. I'm also going to accept that I need to travel to enter other events if I don't want to solo DIY all the time. Considering Straight on at Rosie's for Feb.

[phantasmagoriana]

Just seen that the Snow Roads is running at the end of June. I'd quite like to give this a go as my first (and probably only, TBH) attempt at a 300.

[Karla]

It does take some of the pressure off to start with a train journey and ride home: I don't have the courage to cycle away from home and catch a train back.

The advantage of a train home afterwards is that, given a hot enough day and a hard enough ride, you will always have seats to yourself (if not half the carriage).

Indeed Ian. Some of you may remember this, but it's perhaps appropriate to resurrect the Might McNasty's closing words of a huge perm (Three Capitals, Round the Coast?) he did some years ago. He finished the ride in Edinburgh and embarked on a train for the short trip back to Fife.
He said that the carriage "was somewhat crowded, but my powerful scent soon secured me a seat." 

There was then the lady who sat down opposite me and a friend, in the middle of an empty carriage, after we'd already arrived, on the train south from Glasgow after a long weekend's winter climbing on Rannoch Mor.  She made some very choice comments when we got off at York, but why on earth had she stayed sat there the whole journey long when there were plenty of other spaces?!

[Ian H]

There was then the lady who sat down opposite me and a friend, in the middle of an empty carriage, after we'd already arrived, on the train south from Glasgow after a long weekend's winter climbing on Rannoch Mor.  She made some very choice comments when we got off at York, but why on earth had she stayed sat there the whole journey long when there were plenty of other spaces?!

Perhaps she was simultaneously aroused and disgusted with herself.

[Ivo]

It does take some of the pressure off to start with a train journey and ride home: I don't have the courage to cycle away from home and catch a train back.

The advantage of a train home afterwards is that, given a hot enough day and a hard enough ride, you will always have seats to yourself (if not half the carriage).

I guess that it doesn't beat a group of Russian hikers entering a train carriage, after a weekend of spraying themselves with industrial strength midge repellent

[eck]

There was then the lady who sat down opposite me and a friend, in the middle of an empty carriage, after we'd already arrived, on the train south from Glasgow after a long weekend's winter climbing on Rannoch Mor.  She made some very choice comments when we got off at York, but why on earth had she stayed sat there the whole journey long when there were plenty of other spaces?!

Perhaps she was simultaneously aroused and disgusted with herself.

Then there was the lady who had to sit with five of us, still in cycling kit,  returning "fresh and fragrant" from a York Arrow. She looked a little hesitant, so one of us assured her that we were really quite normal.
She smiled and said, "Oh, how disappointing".

[j_a_m_e_s_]

100AAA first and foremost, double RRTY, and as many FWC points as this will attract.

100AAA - ✅💯
Double RRTY - ❌ (Anyone remember the snow on the Dean?)



One ride left this season and my thoughts have turned to next season. I just don't know yet. Another Wessex SR for definite, maybe my first 1000. I'm not sure.

[Whitedown Man]

R10000, and my first ride longer than 600k

Subject to one remaining validation, R10000 

First ride longer than 600k 

[telstarbox]

Hoping to do my first 300 - Oasts and Coasts.

Debating whether to attempt it on my Decathlon hybrid (which got me through a 200 just fine) or upgrade/get used to a road bike before April.

300 went OK, I was aiming for a Randonneur 1,000 award this season and ended up with that plus a Brevet 1,000 too, subject to validation. The new bike has been a new lease of life!

[andyoxon]

Do some local 200km rides and then attempt an AAA 200km in Shropshire/Wales.