Author Topic: AAA points why bother  (Read 4028 times)

AAA points why bother
« on: 17 February, 2021, 02:05:08 pm »
An Audax with AAA points why does no-one use rule 7, 2 and have the route mandatory? Even on the national 400 most people decided to follow the advice at one control and go down the glen to the A 9 avoiding the hill. You wonder why, its a national event and usually its the best possible route. Is this the future of Audax, just look at the Snow roads. Now only open to audax members  after some sportive riders showed them how to cycle over the hills😅. Was always good to cycle with the Angus chain gang. I miss O'wer the Edge audax.  You had no choice Tom made shure you cycled his route. 👍

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #1 on: 17 February, 2021, 02:10:59 pm »
Quote
... just look at the Snow roads. Now only open to audax members

 ??? 
News to me! (Snow Roads organiser)

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #2 on: 17 February, 2021, 02:14:43 pm »
Quote
how to ride over the hills
with a support vehicle following them all the way round. 
That's the way to ride over the hills is it? Aye?  :facepalm:

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #3 on: 17 February, 2021, 03:11:15 pm »
An Audax with AAA points why does no-one use rule 7, 2 and have the route mandatory? Even on the national 400 most people decided to follow the advice at one control and go down the glen to the A 9 avoiding the hill. You wonder why, its a national event and usually its the best possible route. Is this the future of Audax, just look at the Snow roads. Now only open to audax members  after some sportive riders showed them how to cycle over the hills😅. Was always good to cycle with the Angus chain gang. I miss O'wer the Edge audax.  You had no choice Tom made shure you cycled his route. 👍

This again?

Yawn
@CorbieLinnRider

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #4 on: 17 February, 2021, 04:31:54 pm »
Eck  Open to audax riders only, was going around. Russell so tell me why you entered if you did not like the route.  Did you not want to earn the altitude points. Audax needs a reworking of the rules. What happened to the must be self-sufficient rule no bag drops, carry everything you need etc. Perhaps the sportive rides were playing at the bending of the rules game. I went up to Dingwall for a kicking ( thats a good way to get fitter) from the elites of Audax Ecosse, was surprised how unfit they were. Must remember Strava only shows ride time not total. Another rule no posting of ride time, lots of rules that are broken.


Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #5 on: 17 February, 2021, 04:43:25 pm »
Quote
Eck  Open to audax riders only, was going around

By "going around", what do you mean?

I think I did say something in the communication leading up to the event that, if it was going to be oversubscribed, I would give preference to AUK (and Angus Bike Chain club) members. That is not the same as saying it was open to AUK members only, is it?

IIRC, the last Snow Roads event in 2018 had about 70 finishers, of whom roughly 20 were not AUK members. (Not counting the handful of riders whose cards I didn't validate because they wilfully broke the rules by having a support vehicle.)

So, "going around"?  ???

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #6 on: 17 February, 2021, 05:14:12 pm »
2019?  Well done for tearing up some cards, but will they care as it will go on Strava. Audax should be about challenging youself. Far too many just want easy points. I could run 7 of our old  audaxs but with the rule changes i would need a control on each hill🤭. 

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #7 on: 17 February, 2021, 06:07:49 pm »
Quote
2019?
Erm certainly not 2019.  :hand:
Last run in 2018... unless you know something I don't?  ???


Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #8 on: 17 February, 2021, 06:26:05 pm »
Was wondering why it was not run in 2019, have you passed it on to another organiser. Better watch out it might go home and run out of the Aberdeen area again.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #9 on: 17 February, 2021, 06:26:42 pm »
Quote
2019?
Erm certainly not 2019.  :hand:
Last run in 2018... unless you know something I don't?  ???

Might be confusing the amount of times IroIroIroMono has done it for an event?

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #10 on: 17 February, 2021, 06:55:40 pm »
You had no choice Tom made shure you cycled his route. 👍

How did he do that? Did he follow every rider round the course? Secret controls at every junction?

Just making the climb the shortest route is no guarantee. Certain riders OTP (who will remain nameless) have been known to go The Long Way Round to avoid hills. On one particular route*, this tactic became known as the Larrington Manoeuvre, though I can neither confirm nor deny any suggestion that this is a clue to the identity of the culprit.



*NB not an AAA points-scoring event
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #11 on: 17 February, 2021, 07:52:51 pm »
He had his ways, out on the route checking at the one place you could deviate, without adding lots of extra time. One year my touring bike missed a flight home, had to phone up and ask if it was ok to use a race bike. Year before one turned up with no mudguards, he let him cycle round but never signed the card, was ok if you asked beforehand. Only had good numbers on PBP years. Ran the best audaxs, all the riff-raff never entered 😄.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #12 on: 17 February, 2021, 08:31:28 pm »
I heard that ^^^^.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #13 on: 18 February, 2021, 09:01:37 am »
Russell so tell me why you entered if you did not like the route.

We've been here before many times.

As I seem to recall (it was 2015 and you're still going on about it!) there had been heavy rain in the lead up to the event, and the riders leaving the Kildonan control in the dark were advised by the controller to take the longer route via Helmsdale due to part of the road being washing away, and it not being visable in the dark.

Being my first visit to the area, and not knowing the road, I took the advice of the Controller.

So it's not about not liking the route or missing out a climb. Replacing a 15km section of a 400k event with 25km section due to safety concerns is just common sence.

Edit - Just checked... there were no AAA points on offer for this event
@CorbieLinnRider

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #14 on: 18 February, 2021, 10:16:15 am »
This was the advice i was told.

ITS COLD, DARK, SHEEP AND POTHOLES ON THE HILL.

Only one part was correct as it was the middle of the night, you warm up on the climbs no sheep on the road or potholes. Has Audax lost its scene of adventure, Russell shame on you for wimping out😅. Russell have a look at the profile lots of nice climbs over the course thats why i entered.

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #15 on: 18 February, 2021, 10:28:19 am »
No lights Russell? you need lights whe cycling in the dark to see the road ahead🤭

Wycombewheeler

  • PBP-2019 LEL-2022
Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #16 on: 18 February, 2021, 10:48:10 am »
Even on the national 400 most people decided to follow the advice at one control and go down the glen to the A 9 avoiding the hill. You wonder why, its a national event and usually its the best possible route.
Been quite some time since there was a national 400, or even a AAA event,  so I'm not sure what has prompted this rant.  But I would expect the reason for following the advice at the control is the same as following the route,  the person giving the advice had better local knowledge than the rider,  in addition they may have information of changing conditions since the route was issued.

Eddington  127miles, 170km

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #17 on: 18 February, 2021, 11:13:06 am »
I would say its because its the highest climb on the Audax🤔. Road had no signs of being washed out and i cant remember much rain during the week before, was up in the area.

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #18 on: 18 February, 2021, 12:18:31 pm »
The rules of audax (in this country) are you can follow whatever route you like between controls. If you’re unhappy with that you can file a motion at the AGM.

Likewise the AAA people have chosen to award points to events where the hills are sometimes optional. That’s their prerogative.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #19 on: 18 February, 2021, 12:35:30 pm »
Even on the national 400 most people decided to follow the advice at one control and go down the glen to the A 9 avoiding the hill. You wonder why, its a national event and usually its the best possible route.
Been quite some time since there was a national 400, or even a AAA event,  so I'm not sure what has prompted this rant.  But I would expect the reason for following the advice at the control is the same as following the route,  the person giving the advice had better local knowledge than the rider,  in addition they may have information of changing conditions since the route was issued.

Believe it to be a long running


megajoulesexpenditure

  • More Pedalling Less Paperwork
Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #20 on: 18 February, 2021, 01:59:04 pm »
 :facepalm: ::-)

An Audax with AAA points why does no-one use rule 7, 2 and have the route mandatory? Even on the national 400 most people decided to follow the advice at one control and go down the glen to the A 9 avoiding the hill. You wonder why, its a national event and usually its the best possible route. Is this the future of Audax, just look at the Snow roads. Now only open to audax members  after some sportive riders showed them how to cycle over the hills😅. Was always good to cycle with the Angus chain gang. I miss O'wer the Edge audax.  You had no choice Tom made shure you cycled his route. 👍

Wycombewheeler

  • PBP-2019 LEL-2022
Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #21 on: 18 February, 2021, 02:49:45 pm »
I would say its because its the highest climb on the Audax🤔. Road had no signs of being washed out and i cant remember much rain during the week before, was up in the area.
And a rider in a control being advised of issues on the road should ignore that and see for themselves?

Eddington  127miles, 170km

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #22 on: 18 February, 2021, 03:19:10 pm »
I knew the controller, i just though no way would they drive over a singletrack hill road to check.  Annoying that some people don't check nearby sections of the route if they run a control.

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #23 on: 18 February, 2021, 03:27:15 pm »
Likewise the AAA people have chosen to award points to events where the hills are sometimes optional. That’s their prerogative.

I've never been made aware of large scale avoidance of climbing on AAA-rated events, but would be happy to investigate this if concerns are raised to aaa@audax.uk, and work with organisers to improve control placement if necessary. DMs also open for anonymous tipoffs :)

You can of course make the route mandatory but this wouldn't even make a difference in the scenario outlined here where controllers advise riders to take an alternative, flatter route due to conditions as that's a valid deviation from a mandatory route anyway.
“That slope may look insignificant, but it's going to be my destiny" - Fitzcarraldo

bairn again

Re: AAA points why bother
« Reply #24 on: 18 February, 2021, 04:42:31 pm »
Audax should be about challenging youself. Far too many just want easy points.

Annoying that some people don't check nearby sections of the route if they run a control.