Author Topic: Checkpoint V. Control??  (Read 2526 times)

αdαmsκι

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Checkpoint V. Control??
« on: 20 July, 2021, 07:03:02 pm »
What's the difference between a checkpoint and a control?

On A&S400 this weekend Ixworth was a checkpoint where Huggy et al. where stamping cards and handing out water. In effect it was not much difference to the control I ran for The Way to the Sea, just with more food on offer as my control was over halfway round.
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LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #1 on: 20 July, 2021, 07:04:31 pm »
Nothing in reality. Generally controls in most countries, usually a checkpoint in Oz.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

αdαmsκι

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Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #2 on: 20 July, 2021, 07:09:04 pm »
That has always been my feeling too, so why even have a checkpoint as an option for organisers?
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Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #3 on: 20 July, 2021, 07:18:50 pm »
My feeling, and that’s all it is.   Is that a checkpoint is signalling someone will be there to check you through but don’t expect anything more than that. A control signals there is something more substantial there with ability to get food and drink etc.

Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #4 on: 20 July, 2021, 08:28:55 pm »
As above. I tend to use 'Control' when there are full facilities including food and toilets. I've used 'checkpoint' when I've been standing at the roadside in a layby getting strange looks from passing motorists usually with a barrel of water and a big pile of bananas, but it may not even be that.

Notfromrugby

Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #5 on: 21 July, 2021, 12:01:43 pm »
I use checkpoints as an alternative to info controls, they allow you to set the validation time window and they are a bit more rigorous.
However, I only use them early on in the brevet, so that it's not too hard on volunteers' time.

That said, with GPS validation and E-brevet app here to stay, I probably won't use them in the future.

Kim

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Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #6 on: 21 July, 2021, 12:04:14 pm »
Shouldn't they be called 'info checkpoints'?

Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #7 on: 21 July, 2021, 01:45:15 pm »
My feeling, and that’s all it is.   Is that a checkpoint is signalling someone will be there to check you through but don’t expect anything more than that. A control signals there is something more substantial there with ability to get food and drink etc.

Seems the most sensible suggestion.

On the odd occasion I have come across a checkpoint, it has been somebody standing in a layby with a clipboard checking off riders.
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Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #8 on: 21 July, 2021, 01:53:12 pm »
Shouldn't they be called 'info checkpoints'?

They would all be called checkpoints if Audax was an English-speaking invention. But we use “control” (or contrôle) because that’s what the French use.

Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #9 on: 21 July, 2021, 02:23:31 pm »
I think I agree with almost everyone else - my expectations are around facilities. With a control, I'd feel disappointed if there was no chance to sit down in a bit of shelter, and have a drink and a bite to eat, but with a checkpoint anything more than a controller and a rubber stamp is a bonus.

Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #10 on: 21 July, 2021, 02:37:24 pm »
Wait, there's controls/checkpoints other than petrol stations or Coops?

Jeff E

  • Formerly JRe
Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #11 on: 21 July, 2021, 06:21:15 pm »
No Mark, these are just a group of Senior Citizens reminiscing over the good old days.  When National 400s had Controls run by CTC Groups who laid on marvellous spreads.    Nowadays an Audax isn’t an Audax unless they start in a Car Park and the Controls are Garage Forecourts and Co-Ops.  And I cannot see Boris letting us go back to the good old days

αdαmsκι

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Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #12 on: 21 July, 2021, 07:38:22 pm »
That all makes sense.

In which case I'll make the Meopham Nurstead point on The Way to the Sea a checkpoint then. (This year it was going to a Tesco receipt until jsabine offered to stamp cards.)
What on earth am I doing here on this beautiful day?! This is the only life I've got!!

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LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #13 on: 21 July, 2021, 07:47:59 pm »
As pointed out earlier, I will now expect to find food/ toilets/ shady spot at every info control.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

bhoot

  • MemSec (ex-Mrs RRtY)
Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #14 on: 21 July, 2021, 08:37:31 pm »
Many years ago (early in my Audax career) I rode one of the Isle of Wight/New Forest events - the 160km - for which the first "control" after the start was up by Needles battery. I feel sure that someone explained that was a "checkpoint" not a control as it was necessary to check you went there but very difficult to impose normal control timings as any delay in the arrival of the ferry in Yarmouth would mean being out of time at the Needles given it was only abut 8km up the road. It seemed plausible to me at the time and I have never considered it again until this thread.

Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #15 on: 21 July, 2021, 09:27:49 pm »
Of course, all of this is fairly well explained in the Organiser's Handbook, eg '4.2.2 Types of Controls' :-)
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hellymedic

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Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #16 on: 21 July, 2021, 09:40:51 pm »
No Mark, these are just a group of Senior Citizens reminiscing over the good old days.  When National 400s had Controls run by CTC Groups who laid on marvellous spreads.    Nowadays an Audax isn’t an Audax unless they start in a Car Park and the Controls are Garage Forecourts and Co-Ops.  And I cannot see Boris letting us go back to the good old days

I did several Audax rides in the 90s with car park starts and garage controls. I'm not quite an OAP cos I'm a WASPI.

Full service controls were never a constant feature.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #17 on: 22 July, 2021, 12:27:26 am »
Wait, there's controls/checkpoints other than petrol stations or Coops?

ATMs...

Notfromrugby

Re: Checkpoint V. Control??
« Reply #18 on: 22 July, 2021, 11:27:44 am »
No Mark, these are just a group of Senior Citizens reminiscing over the good old days.  When National 400s had Controls run by CTC Groups who laid on marvellous spreads.    Nowadays an Audax isn’t an Audax unless they start in a Car Park and the Controls are Garage Forecourts and Co-Ops.  And I cannot see Boris letting us go back to the good old days

Not much to do with Boris... the last National 400 happened in 2017. Since then, nobody has been in a position to take the baton. The bar had been set pretty high, but that doesn't mean it had to stay that high.
It certainly would be nice to see it coming back in all its glory, there are a number of organisers who put a lot of effort in organising BRM events with manned controls, not sure why nobody seems keen to have a go at the National