Welcome to the forum
Audax
Jackie and I did our first audax ride yesterday. Picked a perfect day for it although the bikes came back muddier than some of the x races this season. A small 100k by audax standards run by Victoria cc so pretty local to us although discovered some great new roads. Great food and very friendly in their own club house at Ugley.
If you were one of those kids at school who liked getting stickers for good work Audax could be for you. Answering questions on the brevet card and getting It stamped. It was like a large ill disciplined club run at the start then like a poorly attended sportive (about 100 riders which is pretty standard apparently) with no signs. We had downloaded gpx file which I would suggest is a must as to keep looking at the info sheet would slow things up considerably. Will probably do some more. Loads to do on the Audax website and all pretty cheap. Felt a bit alien not having to rush around at the start as it was all very relaxed - definitely not a race. I had in my mind what an Audax rider looked like but there was a complete mix. From Sheldon Brown lookalikes with lots of panniers to Rapha clads with deep sections to a fast group from the organising club who hammered round. Anyway if you want to try something different i would recommend.
If you were one of those kids at school who liked getting stickers for good work Audax could be for you. Answering questions on the brevet card and getting It stamped. It was like a large ill disciplined club run at the start then like a poorly attended sportive (about 100 riders which is pretty standard apparently) with no signs. We had downloaded gpx file which I would suggest is a must as to keep looking at the info sheet would slow things up considerably. Will probably do some more. Loads to do on the Audax website and all pretty cheap. Felt a bit alien not having to rush around at the start as it was all very relaxed - definitely not a race. I had in my mind what an Audax rider looked like but there was a complete mix. From Sheldon Brown lookalikes with lots of panniers to Rapha clads with deep sections to a fast group from the organising club who hammered round. Anyway if you want to try something different i would recommend.
Comments
When I was a lad many of the successful long distance time triallists came from the CTC and Audax world rather than from shorter distance time trialling. 400km epics or legendary rides like Paris-Brest-Paris and London-Edinburgh-London were ideal preparation.
Mark F