Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Audax => Topic started by: xrichx on 04 July, 2017, 07:55:33 pm
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Audax appealed to me *precisely* because of the non-competitive ethos: it seemed to be the opposite of the racing-obsessed, macho, 'wish I was a professional athlete' sportive scene.
I've really enjoyed taking part in Audaxes because you feel included, and the achievement is that you finish, not that you come first, second, third etc. Call me a mug, but I believe in that.
So it's disappointing to see folk post here and there that they were 'first back', and post passive-aggressive Strava links that make it clear they do regard it as a race in some way.
Is it just me? Or is this increasingly a 'thing'?
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Audax has always been used by racing cyclists as training. Some early Audaxers were formidable riders who aimed to set times, so nothing has changed there.
Please remember that what somebody else does on an Audax doesn't actually affect the validity of your ride. Audax is a simple objective pass/ fail test. Everything else - first back, full value or anything else- is just for individual amusement.
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Do you care? Does it bother you? I would say dont worry about it. Audax will never publish times. At most, the organiser may say that it been completed in a new record time.
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Audax is about you and your own time that it takes you to complete the route .... most people give it their best shot and want to finish within a good time
If you are a fit/fast rider you will want to finish in the top ten and will be proud and boast
If you are unfit/old and slow, you will/may get pissed off if people are faster than you, especially if they brag/boast about their achievements :P
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I have been first and I have been last. The biggest drawback of both can be the same - nobody to talk to.
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most people give it their best shot and want to finish within a good time
Really? I thought most people wanted to have a good time?
I've been first and I've been last. I've had a great time and I've been fecking miserable.
Speed is only one aspect of the ride.
If you are a fit/fast rider you will want to finish in the top ten and will be proud and boast
If you are crass you will want to brag about it. Few are impressed- if you're actually fast you would be racing.
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If you are a fit/fast rider you will want to finish in the top ten and will be proud and boast
And if you do, you're quite likely to be disappointed in the reception your boasts receive.
While if you've just spun round in a fantastically quick time I will be delighted for you - no, really, it's simply fabulous that you've done it and it's giving you so much pleasure - I'll probably have a little more empathy with (and admiration for) the rider who's dealt with a bike's worth of mechanicals, bounced off the time limits all the way round, and finished anyway.
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most people give it their best shot and want to finish within a good time
Really? I thought most people wanted to have a good time?
I've been first and I've been last. I've had a great time and I've been fecking miserable.
Speed is only one aspect of the ride.
If you are a fit/fast rider you will want to finish in the top ten and will be proud and boast
If you are crass you will want to brag about it. Few are impressed- if you're actually fast you would be racing.
depends how old you are .... I'm old, but enjoy giving it my best and I've always been competitive.... When I was younger, I was the same (used to do triathlons)
Compare apples with apples .... compare your time with other people who have ridden the same course/segments on the same day with the same wind/weather conditions, and also compare your times with other's in your own age group
every ride that I do, is against the clock .... thats the way I am, and I know there are many others who do the same
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If you are a fit/fast rider you will want to finish in the top ten and will be proud and boast
And if you do, you're quite likely to be disappointed in the reception your boasts receive.
While if you've just spun round in a fantastically quick time I will be delighted for you - no, really, it's simply fabulous that you've done it and it's giving you so much pleasure - I'll probably have a little more empathy with (and admiration for) the rider who's dealt with a bike's worth of mechanicals, bounced off the time limits all the way round, and finished anyway.
I'm sure that people like Kristof Allegaert will agree with you
(https://thabto.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/obama-winking-333.jpg?w=655)
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I don't do strava, but if I can record the whole ride on my gps, I like to upload it to garmin connect to show my wife and kids what I've been doing while they have a lie in. I like to build up a time bank in case of mechanicals, but I also want to stop at a 'spoons or cafe for a veggie breakfast, something unthinkable when I used to chase gold times on sportives. Enjoy the ride, the food (and beer!) and the scenery, and let the fast ones get on their way, and out of the way ☺
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I don't use Strava. I often post links to a tracklog on Ride With GPS to allow others to see the route and I believe this may be useful in future years. I view Strava links in the same way.
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I don't think I've ever seen any posts / Strave links relating to the OP in This Parish; in fact the only comments are about getting full value!
I've only ever posted any of my rides on Strava to get a free little cloth patch off Rapha (the only item of theirs I own)
I am first back on a lot of my Audax rides though as they are solo perms or ECE .....
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I'm sure that people like Kristof Allegaert will agree with you
Splendid - thank you for that vote of confidence. I didn't realise you knew him, but it's nice that you're able to relay his views with such certainty.
It's just a shame he's so much faster than me that I'll never get a chance to ask him about it.
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I'm sure that people like Kristof Allegaert will agree with you
Splendid - thank you for that vote of confidence. It's just a shame he's so much faster than me that I'll never get a chance to ask him about it. I didn't realise you knew him though, being able to relay his views with such confidence.
never met him, but like I said .... you race against yourself .... give it your best shot on every ride and hopefully you will get some PB's along the way if the wind is in your favour.... if you are fast, well done, brag about it but don't be fussed if slower people get cheesed off... and if you are slow, don't get cheesed off if there are faster people than you (there's always people who will beat your personal KOM)
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I really don't care one way or another.
I upload my rides to Garmin Connect for my own records, and I allow that to forward to Strava too.
If I post a link here, I post the GC one, not the Strava one, because its less performance-oriented; I'm just trying to show a route.
For shorter events, I might be vaguely interested in my time, but for longer events like a 600, I actually plan to use the full 40 hours available.
I aim to finish at the end of hour 38 ( leaving 2 hours for contingency ).
If I'm finishing much earlier than that, it means I could possibly have had a longer sleep-stop ( subject to making the first control after the sleep-stop in time ).
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Interesting. My current penchant for long distance time trialling is less competitive than audax. That's a turn up for the books.
I care very little for Strava and virtual racing, but I do the odd self congratulatory social media post.
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Please remember that what somebody else does on an Audax doesn't actually affect the validity of your ride. Audax is a simple objective pass/ fail test. Everything else - first back, full value or anything else- is just for individual amusement.
This. As long as they're not doing anything that might spoil things for others involved. (And this one goes both ways: I've been almost as irritated by people bimbling along obliviously in a group the entire width of the lane on a Perfectly Good Descent as I have by dodgy passes from the fast boys who think it's a race.)
I don't see much point in competing with anyone other than myself on Strava, and audaxes aren't the best time for it, but if someone wants to, then why not?
Strava, like the bicycle, is a tool that can be used in non-competitive ways. Linking to the log of a ride is a convenient way to show people the route.
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I've won a few Audaxes.
That's the beauty of DIY.
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I really don't recognise anything in the OPs post. Once you're riding you're in your own 'bubble' whether you're quick, slow or whatever it doesn't matter and what others are doing on the same event has no bearing on your ride. If someone posts a Strava link I'll have a look and might think 'they were quick' but that's about it, I certainly wouldn't read anything into it.
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I wonder if we've been misinterpreting the OP's concerns. They may be common, but I don't think boast-post strava links are that frequent.
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I would suggest "not in the spirit of yacf" perhaps. Audax itself is a very broad church.
most people give it their best shot and want to finish within a good time
Really? I thought most people wanted to have a good time?
It's the really tough rides where bloody-mindedness was most needed, that are looked back on with most pleasure. Any enjoyment at the time was only of the most twisted kind.
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First back = not enough time at the cafe stops. ;D
Strava, like the bicycle, is a tool that can be used in non-competitive ways. Linking to the log of a ride is a convenient way to show people the route.
Absolutely. I use it to keep a record of how far I've ridden and where I've actually been, since I'm navigationally-challenged enough not to have a clue half the time. (Oh, and it's handy to track component wear, too, but hardly anyone but me seems to bother with that bit.)
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Yes I've been 'first back' (once, about 3 years ago ::-) ) and I upload to Strava, although I don't think I've posted them here. It's my way of tracking my mileage.
But does it matter. Really?
An audax is about getting round, enjoying the ride, company and finding new places. It doesn't matter whether you're first back or get back 10 seconds inside the time limit (done that too :P ) - we all get exactly the same result.
Having ridden PBP in 2015 and needing to 'keep going' due to an 80-hour ride limit as a Vedette I'm convinced I missed out on a lot just to make sure I made it inside that limit. If I ride PBP again then I'll probably go slower, enjoy more and not need to worry so much about the spare time I was needing to build up, which in PBP's case wasn't needed anyway.
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Somebody has to be first back.
Braggers gonna brag, strava or not.
Not really in the audax spirit of "quietly badass" but no big deal. I can see how it grates though.
Amazing how many folk have been both first and last back. Me too!
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It's bad when the organiser tells you that you have to 'win'.
Quite a few years ago, at the start of the Trefil Travail, Dave Lewis announced that his finish controller had let him down, but not to worry as Ian [pointing at me] will get back first and man the control.
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I've won a few Audaxes.
That's the beauty of DIY.
I've got the lanterne rouge on all of mine, what am I doing wrong?
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I've won a few Audaxes.
That's the beauty of DIY.
I've got the lanterne rouge on all of mine, what am I doing wrong?
The optimist/pessimist conundrum.
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I've been first to the first control and very nearly last to the arrivee on the same event. That was a good day out.
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Some good comments in there. Good time not absolute time, but for me part of having a good time is enjoying the riding and pacing.
I pretty much know my place and am comfortable with it. I do like to know fastest times but only so I can be impressed. I am happy that there are people who can ride that fast for that long and - as I haven't got a snowflakes chance in hell of competing with them - I really don't care if they brag or not. What always interests me a lot more is their experience. I don't know if you remember that account of the 'winner' of the last PBP. It wasn't the winning it was the way he did it that was compelling and enjoyable to read about.
The spirit of Audax is to enjoy a ride and the letter of the law is to finish it inside a time window with upper and lower limits. I am not going to dictate what constitutes another's enjoyment. As long as there is no official timing and so on I am happy to let the fast guys and gals pretend it's a race.
I totally understand why it irks people, and yes I kinda agree that if they wanted a real test they might do a long individual time trial or a TCR, but heh. I do remember on my failed PBP getting demoralised by the Euro club trains with fast bikes and no luggage and sleep vans and support and thinking that wasn't the spirit of Audax, but I have to accept it's just the way that they do things and is well within the rules. If they enjoyed it, well, chapeau!
I got to a control second once. Felt pretty good, briefly. My favourite ride was the first Richard Ellis when his family came out to the controls, that stuck with me. My favourite riders are the nutters who ride fixed, or hybrids, or elliptigos, or pashleys, or the first timer, or the young 'un, or the one doubling their previous distance, and even occasionally the very fast ones.
Strava... well I find it motivating. I am 'friends' with a lot of the ACME crew and a few others and it really helps me get out on the bike when I see that they have been putting in the rides. I do compare average speeds and I do like to compete on that when I am in the mood (maybe one ride in 10) but as most of them are younger than me it's a game I most often lose! And it is a great training diary, though connect would be good enough for that I guess.
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There's nothing inherently performance related about using Strava. The vast majority of Strava users don't view it as the must-get-KOM tool non-Strava users seem to. For most, it's just a useful way to log and track and share rides.
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It's a very useful service (the free version is better than some paid apps). The leaderboards and KOM/QOM chasing are entirely optional.
Btw this third-party plugin will overlay some or all of your Strava activities on a map, which is pretty cool. http://www.jonathanokeeffe.com/strava/map.php
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There's nothing inherently performance related about using Strava. The vast majority of Strava users don't view it as the must-get-KOM tool non-Strava users seem to. For most, it's just a useful way to log and track and share rides.
I fully agree. In addition to logging and sharing my own rides, I find it highly useful to use Strava to see what rides others in my cycling network have been doing, both from an information perspective and for motivation to get out myself.
Having just helped out for the first time on a 400 last weekend, it was interesting to see the mood of riders across the whole spectrum. The faster riders tended to come into controls looking fresher than many of the slower riders, but the 'smile-factor' was evenly distributed across the field.
Everything that I see about Audax rides aligns to the personal endeavour. The only competition I see is in points accumulation, not comparative speed.
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There's nothing inherently performance related about using Strava. The vast majority of Strava users don't view it as the must-get-KOM tool non-Strava users seem to. For most, it's just a useful way to log and track and share rides.
This.
I use it as an archive of roads and places I have ridden... interesting to look at times up various Alpine and not so alpine climbs. There are some nice features, for instance yesterday I rode to work (admittedly I raced to work) with (read against) a guy I never met before... Strava automatically links the two rides and gives you the option to get in contact with the rider in question... it saves the hassle of being sociable, exchanging names and all these formalities that are seen as being weird in this day and age... ;D
It shouldn't be taken seriously for performance comparisons, as the data are neither reliable nor necessarily genuine.
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I presume you mean the posts in the Audax FB group.
You'll note from the replies they get that no one gives a stuff about any of that. Just ride your audax events you want, enjoy the scenery and company and challenge, and ignore the other stuff. In the days of yore the only people they could bore with "first back" exclamations were themselves.
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I presume you mean the posts in the Audax FB group.
The FB group has more members than AUK. By no means all AUK members are on FB.
I suspect at least half of those on the FB group are not AUK members. Perhaps they need friendly guidance in the ways of the randonneur. A few who become too objectionable are taken outside and shot removed from the group.
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Although Audaxes aren't races, there is no formal 'non-competitive' policy in AUK. Any non-competitive 'Ethos' is a tacit understanding by social groups within Audax.
If there are fast riders who don't mix with those riders with a non-competitive ethos, then they won't pick up that Audax Spirit, as that only exists as an understanding among 'non competitive' riders.
Those faster riders may be more focused towards structured training, where public disclosure of performance is a motivational tool. I think that's truer of fitness cyclists, as racers tend to play their cards closer to their chests.
It might be becoming more of a thing as younger riders, inspired by Transcontinental rides, come to Audax. Randonee in the US was boosted by the idea of PBP as the RAAM you could do yourself.
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I think the move to mudguardless, bike packing machines shows us where Audax is going. If I hadn't already got rackbags, bar bags and panniers, and had the money, I might be tempted to buy aerobags to go quicker, but then I'd probably spend longer watching the world go by!
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Quite glad I removed myself from the Facebook group after a couple of weeks.
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There's nothing inherently performance related about using Strava. The vast majority of Strava users don't view it as the must-get-KOM tool non-Strava users seem to. For most, it's just a useful way to log and track and share rides.
I fully agree. In addition to logging and sharing my own rides, I find it highly useful to use Strava to see what rides others in my cycling network have been doing, both from an information perspective and for motivation to get out myself.
Having just helped out for the first time on a 400 last weekend, it was interesting to see the mood of riders across the whole spectrum. The faster riders tended to come into controls looking fresher than many of the slower riders, but the 'smile-factor' was evenly distributed across the field.
Everything that I see about Audax rides aligns to the personal endeavour. The only competition I see is in points accumulation, not comparative speed.
Strava is a great tool to not only check your rides and your fitness level, but also those of others.
use strava properly .... use the heartstrap, check what zone you arte cycling in, check your heartbeat, check your average cadence etc and compare it to others who do similar rides ... go one step further and add a powermeter
join groups such as AUK Audax UK, Blue Dot Club, UMCA, Londo Edinburh London and similar clubs, and see how other cyclists are training and what their stats are. YACF also has a Strava club
find members who cycle similar to you and follow their rides/training routine, compare your speeds with people of your own age group
One of the people who I follow is Steven Abraham .... amazing cyclist .... his ave heartbeat on a 350km+ ride is in the 70's
Strava is cheap for premium membership, add the free stravastix app and you have a very good program .... I'd happily pay 5 times more per month for this service. It has helped me immensly in my cycling, and I have also found many new routes nearby which other cyclists train on
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Or just ride your bike!
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The Straggler and I are famous for being Lanterne Rouge, but quietly go about our business and enjoy the whole Audax experience, spending time with as many riders and organisers, helpers, cafe staff etc as we can.
We never meet the faster riders, only at the start, it can be lonely in our twilight world. We do get to eat the leftovers though. Raymond got a top ten points finish last year, so do we really care about times?
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The back is where the action is.
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Strava is great if used to help friends enjoy rides, share routes and get a community going. My club has recently had a debate about club runs and how some people felt they were getting longer and faster. Well some of them were and some of the people who wanted a shorter ride with a long coffee stop started putting rides on starva and inviting others. Suddenly there are more rides with leaders and more choice. Posting rides with slower times can encourage others to come along who feel your pace suites them.
Strava can also be used in a way that spoils club runs. People treat them like competitions and wait for the Strava segment and them sprint off for a fast time, never sharing the work and looking for fastest section times.
So it depends how you view Strava and fast times. I used to be quite quick and the fast club run now averages 35kmh, yes that is not a mistype 35. More happy with the 27kmh average moving speed now.
BB
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We're still pretty relaxed about these things - try discussing PBP with a French rider, there are three questions in quick succession and one will be "what time did you do?"
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I was first back once. :facepalm: I had a train to catch, so I got up early on the third day and was lucky to get to the turn before the headwinds kicked off. I can't remember being a lanterne rouge but I've DNFd a few times, once after 1km from the start, which presumably made me 'last' of the starters. I did once sprint for a town sign on an Audax, but that was for a laugh - it was on the Rural South where East Stratton had set a tour-de-france style banner across the road as part of the village fete, and Chris Beynon and I felt it had to be done. What another rider thought about two steel framed bikes with mudguards racks and panniers going head down for an imaginary line I don't know. But we enjoyed it.
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I think the move to mudguardless, bike packing machines shows us where Audax is going. If I hadn't already got rackbags, bar bags and panniers, and had the money, I might be tempted to buy aerobags to go quicker, but then I'd probably spend longer watching the world go by!
Going quicker to spend more time at rest watching the world go by, from a cafe, pub or field, is what I would be very tempted to do if I had the legs and lungs.
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Posting rides with slower times can encourage others to come along who feel your pace suites them.
This is a really fucking brilliant point that hadn't occurred to me. The usual problem for a newbie joining an unfamiliar group is that when they ask about the pace, people always say it'll be 'relaxed' or 'sociable' or some other term that may mean a gentle day out on the bike, or slogging your guts to keep up with Proper Cyclists. I expect the opposite is also true, but unless there's a risk of hypothermia, most people have sufficient good manners to stick to the pace of a slower-than-expected group for the duration and simply not come next time.
Strava means you can measure it objectively, rather than resort to guesswork based on demographics, choice of kit and apparent level of clue - all of which can be misleading. Given a decent number of Strava users on a ride, the flyby feature is a good way to see how a group behaves in terms of how spread out things get and the amount of stoppages.
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I think the move to mudguardless, bike packing machines shows us where Audax is going. If I hadn't already got rackbags, bar bags and panniers, and had the money, I might be tempted to buy aerobags to go quicker, but then I'd probably spend longer watching the world go by!
Going quicker to spend more time at rest watching the world go by, from a cafe, pub or field, is what I would be very tempted to do if I had the legs and lungs.
I find it very hard to pass a 'spoons without stopping, but if I think I have enough time in hand, I enjoy a pint.
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I think the move to mudguardless, bike packing machines shows us where Audax is going. If I hadn't already got rackbags, bar bags and panniers, and had the money, I might be tempted to buy aerobags to go quicker, but then I'd probably spend longer watching the world go by!
Don't believe the hype. I'm really not sold on x1 chainsets, gravel bikes, disk brakes, bike packing bags etc. To my mind they are just marketing, trying to sell you something that you don't need by making you want it.
With regard to bike packing bags I think the frame bags are less aero as most of the time the wind is across you to come degree and they limit access to bidons. I think that strapping lots of stuff to handlebars is not the way to go especially if your bike isn't mid or low trail specific. I think the rear bikepacking saddle bags are marginally more aero than a traditional saddle bag but you have to take a lot of stuff out and repack if something is towards the bottom of the pack, I think that they are no less aero than a rackbag.
Traditional audax style bikes have evolved for a reason and are the perfect machine for the task, I do note that there are some new machines coming to market that are changing what is defined as a normal audax bike but you do not need to rush out and buy one
(for what it is worth I run a traditional audax bike for clubruns, club 10s and audax and commute on a a gravel bike running 650b wheels whilst a Mk3 Moulton takes up pub bike / runaround duties. When the work bike is replaced my current thinking is to go back to 700c touring bike with v brakes)
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Where gravel bikes score is in being able to take big tyres, which are a good idea on our terrible roads. I interviewed the 'first back' in last year's Mille Pennines, and he used an 80s light tourer with 700c wheels replacing the 27s, the spare space was filled with 38mm tyres.
Younger riders on modern bikes can be first back on shorter rides, but experience offsets youth at longer distances.
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Where gravel bikes score is in being able to take big tyres, which are a good idea on our terrible roads. I interviewed the 'first back' in last year's Mille Pennines, and he used an 80s light tourer with 700c wheels replacing the 27s, the spare space was filled with 38mm tyres.
Younger riders on modern bikes can be first back on shorter rides, but experience offsets youth at longer distances.
I think 28 mm is the sweet spot, when it comes to tyres for rough tarmac and many bikes can take 28. Going over 30 mm typically means losing out on rolling resistance, as most big tyres are not made for roads. Even when it comes to like for like, I have a pair of Hutchinson Sector 28 and I have the equivalent 32 mm on another bike, noticeable difference in speed, not much difference in comfort over rough roads. They both run at 70-80 PSI. Problem with 28 and over is mudguard, the light types typically won't go over anything bigger than a 25 mm
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They both run at 70-80 PSI.
??? I'm not sure what the point of wider tyres is other than being able to run them at lower pressures.
And back on topic, I'm never likely to be first back except when DIYing, but I'm always interested in my time and usually post all my rides of Strava. I don't see where there's a problem, unless someone has eaten all the cake before I finish.
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I'm never likely to be first back except when DIYing, but I'm always interested in my time and usually post all my rides of Strava.
Me too. Usually interested in a segment or two as well... it would be easier to impress myself if there were an over-75 age group though!
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Posting rides with slower times can encourage others to come along who feel your pace suites them.
This is a really fucking brilliant point that hadn't occurred to me. The usual problem for a newbie joining an unfamiliar group is that when they ask about the pace, people always say it'll be 'relaxed' or 'sociable' or some other term that may mean a gentle day out on the bike, or slogging your guts to keep up with Proper Cyclists. I expect the opposite is also true, but unless there's a risk of hypothermia, most people have sufficient good manners to stick to the pace of a slower-than-expected group for the duration and simply not come next time.
Strava means you can measure it objectively, rather than resort to guesswork based on demographics, choice of kit and apparent level of clue - all of which can be misleading. Given a decent number of Strava users on a ride, the flyby feature is a good way to see how a group behaves in terms of how spread out things get and the amount of stoppages.
Yes. No. Yes, no and no, yes. We've had both problems on Wednesday evening rides. Back in April, we had a ride when loads of new people turned up – because they'd heard we were cool, friendly, warm, fast, slow, their kind of pace, or whatever – so we had about 30 people, lots of them new, age range from early 20s to about 60, almost 50/50 male/female; great! But it turned out to be problematic; the large group caused problems getting out of town and most of the new people were slower than the regulars, which meant they formed a self-contained group with the regulars who stayed back to shepherd/guide/encourage them along, getting cold due to riding at a slower pace than they'd reckoned on. So we put a guide pace on the website but the rides are still tagged as "social/no drop". Then last month we had a similar number of new people but this time they were all shooting off the front, racing each other up hills and not waiting at the top and so on. Statistics are all very well but are they measuring the people who will actually be there or the people who simply turned up once or twice?
Thinking about it, I remember a similar incident on a CTC ride last summer. Bloke turned up for 65 mile ride described as very hilly. All seemed to be fine till we almost back and he had consecutive incidents of being unable to unclip, due to being totally knackered. Turned out he'd never ridden further than 30 miles before. Ambitious is good but not over-ambitious.
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I stick all my rides on Strava, as a simple record of everything. Garmin Connect is much harder to view in discreet timescales...
Strava also does a nice heat map showing where you ride... mine (below) shows how I get around...
Strava allows photo uploads too, which is a great feature. I see places all over the globe, and it's fun to browse.
I don't look at segment times except very occasionally comparing my own repeat times on sections of Audaxes that I've done more than once, and I tend to look at segments over 20 minutes... you can exclude everyone else if you like...
I'm pretty sure most Strava users who ride Audaxes ignore segments too, based on comments I have read on hundreds of different rides, however non-Strava users would not realise that, so may get a wrong impression.
Gradually I have built up a group of followers, who are interested in what I'm doing, and who leave kudos and encouraging comments.
They are scattered over the globe, including USA, Australia and Europe, but mainly U.K.
Many of them don't ride the distances I do - often it's commutes and slightly more adventurous weekend rides - so mad Audax capers appeal to them. There are also many members of the audax community who meet me on a ride in 'Timbuktu' and we get along, and then we keep an eye on each other, to our mutual benefit I would hope.
I get questions occasionally- a recent one was 'how you you stay awake for a 600?' and I explained my strategy whilst trying to emphasise that we are all different, so what works for me, might not work for another...
When you get nice comments saying your rides are mad / mega / amazing etc it's a wonderful motivational tool, and it gets me out on the next ride....
For me it's also a bit of social networking and keeps me in contact with other riders I've met on the road.
I've been first back and also last. In the early days as I recovered from my bad accident my confidence was extremely poor, and my social skills were almost nonexistent. That's why I got a reputation for bouncing controls. I had to actually relearn how to talk to people, and initially I had a range of stock responses that I learned in advance and then used over and over. Many of you have no doubt heard them. I was on painkillers and antidepressants, and I probably boasted occasionally, but that was a symptom of my brain injury, and I hope you'll forgive me. As I've matured in this audax world I've learned to 'smell the roses'... and let's not forget that the idea is to ENJOY your ride, whatever that means to you...