Kept crossing the route of the Derby sportive while out today. Great to see so many different types of people and bikes out, lots of ladies and a lot of quite young kids as well.

Did laugh at the Carsington feed station though – sportive riders grabbing gels and half bananas or whatever at a table set up at the entrance to The Pudding Room.

100 yards up the lane and for £2.50 and they could have had a decent mug of coffee and an amazing slice of cake!

Except that they’d already paid for their energy gel & half a banana.

Are we after a sweeping generalisation of… Audax riders can plod along for days, ride funny looking bikes, carry maps and eat lots and lots of cake. Sportive riders are either wannabe racers or unfit people who walk up the hills on the course. What do i win?

Sportive riders are either wannabe racers

some Audax riders are too, theres certainly some riders who want to get home first

I bet none of them said hello 🙁

I’ve only done one Audax, cheap as chips to enter and the midway checkpoint was at a pub.
All very civilised.

Audax 1 Sportive -0

£8 or so to ride a proper distance with excellent quality cake/food stops and good craic 8)

£40 and up to do similar route(shorter) congested with cyclists and few broken custard creams and orange squash scattered over a pasting table 😆

I do get the feeling that a sportive is a money making machine where as an Audax seems to be run by enthusiasts. I may be wrong and I usually am.

I do get the feeling that a sportive is a money making machine where as an Audax seems to be run by enthusiasts

That’s exactly what they are.

Audax win everytime run by enthusiasts to give back to the sport

Ill audax every day before i ride another **** sportive.

Did the etape caledonia once on a free entry , feared for my life more that once….. Heard huge crashes and crunching of gears behind me more than once. Decided just to ITT it and not hang on anyones wheel . It was safer. Certainly feel safer riding that route when its not closed roads and all the loons are not on day release from the golf course.

Mean while when that was happening i usually do the snow roads 300k audax for about 6 quid Stopping at some lovely cafes along route , taking in some awesome views and riding with folk who know how to handle a bike and dont do stupid things like stop pedalling on a hill or try and pull over at the side of the road while going along in a peloton at 40kph…..

Sportive riders are usually immaculate in brand new Assos kit, Audaxers are more laid back in their faded old waterproofs! Another generalisation, but I’ve ridden both and that’s what I noticed 🙂

I’ve done a few sportives around the 200km mark. However, by far the fastest rides I’ve done at that distance have been the Audaxes. I did one last weekend which averaged around 28kph overall average. The last 30km where absolute balls to the wall racing.

Sportive riders will go and ride and have fun and not give two tosses about who else is riding, or what they’re doing.

Audax riders want everyone to know that they don’t do sportives. Plod along at about 12 mph and have a superiority complex about their chosen event format.

You have clearly never done and Audax.

Sportive riders will go and ride not give two tosses about how they ride,anyone else,traffic regulations,littering or what they’re doing.

Everyone knows Audax riders don’t do sportives. Plod along at about 16 mph and rightly have a superiority complex about their chosen event format.

(it scans better this way)

Well if we’re generalising……when I worked in a bike shop sportive riders would come in, proclaim loudly that they were doing a race followed by inquiries about which gels had the most kick, what recovery drinks should they take, question why we didn’t sell carbon fibre bottles and all interspersed with frequent reminders about the upcoming “race” they were doing and how many 100k the route would be.

Then they’d start walking about half naked whilst trying on as much day glow Castelli as they could, making frequent references to how expensive their bike was.

On top of that they’d probably ask if we could just give their bike a quick service, it just has a grinding noise coming from the hubs and bb 🙂

Audax riders can ride and fix their bikes. Sportive riders may be able to….

Clearly never met any members of audax ecosse you mean wanmankylung.

I remember going out up to durness duress 300k with a certain embra nutter. On a raleigh 20 and a rain cape.

The 6 of us at the front got held outside at the arrivee as it hadnt opened yet – we had exceeded the max speed ( it was raining we just wanted it done by this point. )

i just have fun, and enjoy the views, just riding a bike

Well if we’re generalising……when I worked in a bike shop sportive riders would come in, proclaim loudly that they were doing a race

We can all laugh and joke, and point fingers at overpaid bankers on Pinarello Dogma’s, and grumpy old men on lugged steel bikes with down tube shifters, but… It’s this that really gets me!

As long as people are having fun on bikes, how you do it is up to you. But FFS, it’s not a bloody “race”, so stop calling it one! Nobody wins, nobody gets any prize money, and people set off at different times. If you finish with the fastest time of the day, feel free to gloat that you were the fastest rider there on the day, you’re probably a big fish in a small pond anyway but chapeau (to a point). But tell me you “won a race” at the weekend and you immediately elevate yourself into the premier league of ****…

Well, that went well…..

trail_rat – yip I tend to make that mistake. Audax and Audax Ecosse are two very different beasts.

when I worked in a bike shop sportive riders would come in, proclaim loudly that they were doing a race followed by inquiries about which gels had the most kick, what recovery drinks should they take, question why we didn’t sell carbon fibre bottles and all interspersed with frequent reminders about the upcoming “race” they were doing and how many 100k the route would be.

Scarily true!

On top of that they’d probably ask if we could just give their bike a quick service, it just has a grinding noise coming from the hubs and bb

You missed the bit when they ask, nay almost demand, to jump the service queue because their “race” tomorrow is so much more important than fixing the puncture on Mrs Smith’s old Raleigh shopper that’s her only mode of transport around town.

Still, they’re not as bad as triathletes.

Audax riders usually know how to use a bin.

Half of Audax riders are autistic.

Audax has less than 10,000 starters a year (although most of them seem to want to point out on the internet how great it is.)

How many people do Sportives?

How many people do Sportives?

ride London on its own had 25,000

Popular ? Good

See also the popular music charts and people driving white cars. 😉

9 out 6 audax riders can’t count.
Sportive riders seem quite insecure.

Wow, so much hate for sportives and not a hint of elitism 😉

Just back from Ullapool sportive, 90 miles of swoopy hilly madness sitting with various other riders all of whom just seemed like, you know, decent guys who like riding bikes as fast as they can…

Can honestly say that in several years of working in bike shops and riding sportives I’ve never come across any of the above stereotypes, unless of course I AM one of those stereotypes and just haven’t noticed! 😯

Popular ? Good

Matter of opinion obvs.
Audax has been going for years and very few people seem to want to do them.
Sportives have come from nowhere in the UK and are now massive. They must be doing something that appeals to people.
Most internet threads about the subject are either trying to point out how great audaxes are (like this one) or are about sportives and some punter pops up saying how much better audaxes are & slagging off everything to do with sportives. Despite this, audaxes remain events that very few people seem to want to do while sportives are massively popular. Wonder why?

Despite this, audaxes remain events that very few people seem to want to do while sportives are massively popular. Wonder why?

75% of people are idiots.

Or alternatively, 75% of people actually like riding big popular events, if I wanted to go for a ride in the highlands by myself I can, would and often do.

If I want to ride a big loop with the guarantee of lots of other riders on the road at the same time I enter a sportive, because it’s a totally different experience to ridng by yourself.

Frankly the image of Audax that springs to my mind is small numbers of antisocial old giffers who don’t like sportives because they consider £25 too expensive and don’t like other people very much 😆

Sportive are popular because they spoon feed the partispant and pander to their ego. Spoon feeding is not necessarily a bad thing if it get people riding. Defiantly not a race though, if you want to race have the balls to enter a real race.

Frankly the image of Audax that springs to my mind is small numbers of antisocial old giffers who don’t like sportives because they consider £25 too expensive and don’t like other people very much

Couldnt be further from the truth.

What exactly does “Audax” mean? “Sportive” is easily understood, but Audax sounds mysterious…

Couldnt be further from the truth.

Maybe not, but I don’t think the average thread on the subject does much to dispel that impression.

Audax sounds mysterious

that’s because you’re not pronouncing it correctly.

What exactly does “Audax” mean?

It’s Latin for bold or daring.