Surely this strikes at the very heart of what an audax is?
What differentiates an audax from "just another long ride" is the committment to complete it at a particular time. There should be the same requirement on a perm (of any flavour) as there is on a calendar event, else they cannot be considered equal. The ability to make the committment moments before you start is stretching it (and yes, I've used that facility, though not less than 12 hours ahead), but to be able to start, fail to finish and try again another day and call it the same ride is a step too far.
The insurance is a side issue.
IMHO.
that's what i thought, too - that the spirit of audax included the requirement to commit to a certain date.
I can empathise with the sentiment behind it, too - you don't just 'nip out when it looks a nice day', which is a slippery slope that could result in any ad hoc ride, sportives, tours, raids, and even commutes being logged as audaxes.
In other words, audax is not for the fair-weather cyclist (or at least shouldn't be geared towards helping them), but, I was wondering if the rules were to be bent because of the fact that ice is different to other bad weather in that it is actually dangerous rather than just requires more endurance.
I'm not expecting such a bending of the rules to suit myself I should add, but I just thought if there already is, and others are taking advantage of it, then I might as well too.
However neither is there a rule that any randonnee must also be an audax
so I'll probably just plan to head out for one anyway when the roads don't look too dicy but not bother with logging it as an audax.