ACME Anvil Winter Series

[psyclist]

I'll be repeating my ECE of the SAE and ride 101km from home to 'spoons which should be 2.5km for me 

You could always start campaigning for an additional alternative starting venue, perhaps the Wetherspoons in Bishop's Stortford. Ideal distance to split your ECE into a 60 / 40km ride, and that trainline from London is rarely affected by bus replacement services.

I know at least one helper who would be happy to sit there all day stamping brevets ...

[jiberjaber]

I'll be repeating my ECE of the SAE and ride 101km from home to 'spoons which should be 2.5km for me 

You could always start campaigning for an additional alternative starting venue, perhaps the Wetherspoons in Bishop's Stortford. Ideal distance to split your ECE into a 60 / 40km ride, and that trainline from London is rarely affected by bus replacement services.

I know at least one helper who would be happy to sit there all day stamping brevets ...

.. but it always[1] rains when an Audax starts from 'spoons in the Western suburb of Takeley [2].


[1] based on empirical evidence of Easter Arrow last year.
[2] incorrectly marked on most maps and known by the locals as Bishop's Stortford

[Bikeabilityman]

Audax starts from BS ‘spoons? Get’s my vote!

[psyclist]

[2] incorrectly marked on most maps and known by the locals as Bishop's Stortford

A bit of digging later, and I think that you are forgetting that "under the Poor Law of 1834, Takeley became part of the Great Dunmow Union".

Even more interestingly (!), the first settlement in Bishop's Stortford was in Roman times, as a staging post between Braughing and Colchester. 

[psyclist]

Audax starts from BS ‘spoons? Get’s my vote!

 

[jiberjaber]

[2] incorrectly marked on most maps and known by the locals as Bishop's Stortford

A bit of digging later, and I think that you are forgetting that "under the Poor Law of 1834, Takeley became part of the Great Dunmow Union".

Even more interestingly (!), the first settlement in Bishop's Stortford was in Roman times, as a staging post between Braughing and Colchester.

Is Western Suburb of Colchester stretching it a bit ?

[drossall]

Audax starts from BS ‘spoons? Get’s my vote!

Interesting. Might even be achievable as an ECE for me...

There again, the point of this is to start at the westerly end of the course. So, if a BS event were to go west, I could do the same thing again, and start at a Spoons in Stevenage or somewhere...

[Bikeabilityman]

A BS start means I could do a 100km loop to the start which avoided the A507, which I’m really getting fed up of now.

[Tomsk]

psyclist, your organising career starts here! An ACME event in the Essex Borders 

[Oscar's dad]

psyclist, your organising career starts here! An ACME event in the Essex Borders 

I think psyclist needs to get organising.  Isn't he the founding (and perhaps only) member of ACHE?

[psyclist]

If the weather is not too bad this weekend, I'm planning on riding the first Audax wholly within Essex that gets AAA points ... 1.25 points by my reckoning. However even if my DIY is successful, I'm not sure it'd get much interest from the wider community as its not all road based, and would require validation by GPS.

I'll take a look at options for a more civilised adventure, as there is a lot of potential in the western fringes, both from a routing perspective and in attracting a few new faces, given the ease of getting to Bishop's Stortford.

[Tomsk]

^  Could there be a few checkpoints and infos to get a route approved for a calendar event?

Long ago in my brief BC [Before Children] CTC organising career I put on a 'Hilly 30' [miles] early season reliability ride in E Herts, where all the 2 hour group were out of time and quite a few failed to finish in the 2.5 hour option. Up and down every side road on the chalk hills - mandatory route with surprise checkpoints - one marshall hid in a phone box, for extra shock value, but also perhaps for shelter as it was a showery day and windy too!

This was actually the first time I met [soon to become legendary] Audaxer Jack Eason, recently retired ...heavy steel tourer, massive saddlebag, finished with about a minute in hand and of course had ridden about 30 miles from home!

[psyclist]

Could there be a few checkpoints and infos to get a route approved for a calendar event?

Possible, but it would take quite some rework. I'll consider options once I've ridden the route.

[grams]

Are on-the-line entries available this weekend? December's snuck up on me rather quickly!

[Bikeabilityman]

I can’t believe it’s not butter. No no no! I mean I can’t believe it’s almost three years since I went there (Feb ‘16), so this Saturday I’m (all being well) cycling to Tewkesbury ‘spoons for a Mark Rigby AAA 200. Now what shall I sew my winter series badge to?

[Tomsk]

Are on-the-line entries available this weekend? December's snuck up on me rather quickly!

On-line entries will remain open until Thursday midnight. Paper entry forms will be available [or bring your own ready filled in] for entry on the line.

[Tomsk]

Forecast for Saturday is looking 'interesting': damp, very mild, breezy.

This season's must-have accessory: Mudguards, generously flapped - apropos of which, I have a new batch of ACME flaps [long] in stock, as well as some extra wide for your gravel/rough stuff bikes.

Plastic bags for covering saddles and chairs at the pub/cafe is a good idea too. I'll see if I can find room in my panniers for a few towels as well.

[Jack]

Ooh, great; I was hoping there'd be another run of these.

Will I be able to buy a pair of ACME flaps on Saturday in person?

How much?

[Tomsk]

I will have as much of the ACME shop as I can cram into two panniers along with the control stuff, as well as some of Huggy's stock of kit. Mudflaps included, no problem: £15.00. Cash preferred, but I can do cheque, paypal, BACS, if really necessary. Cash is easier to keep track of on the day, I find.

[Tomsk]

110 entries!

Not very many DNS notifications ... yet.

Thremhall Coffee Shop is concerned about numbers being down - I reckon about 30% DNSs for a wet ride, as opposed to 15-20% 'normal', but we have waterproofs don't we?

I'll be at the 'spoons as near to 8 as I can, get everything set up, have breakfast with helpers and be ready to go asap ...

[jiberjaber]

I think it's not going to be as bad as some might think, forecast was for rain easing off by 10AM in the area of the ride....  so maybe an hour of light rain at the start.

Not quite sure anyone ECE'ing the start will be so lucky though 

[ElyDave]

Have a good ride tomorrow chaps, hopefully not too challenging.

I'm hoping to have some measure of capability (if not fitness) back for January's edition.

[freeflow]

If anyone is flagging by Great Bardfield don't forget the excellent and cyclist friendly Knead cafe(Blue egg cafe). Its at the post office at the top of the climb out of Great Bardfield.

[grams]

Have fun everyone. We've chickened out because of the likely rain and some other options that have come up.

[psyclist]

I think it's not going to be as bad as some might think, forecast was for rain easing off by 10AM in the area of the ride....  so maybe an hour of light rain at the start.

Not quite sure anyone ECE'ing the start will be so lucky though 

Dry currently, but the rain radar shows a swathe of rain heading across the country. It’s breaking up a bit though, so might not be too bad by the time it gets to us. The first bit of my ECE will be dry at least, with the first of the light rain hitting in about 1 hour.