[Closed] Audax is becoming addictive!

I joined audax uk last night, first 100k towards the end of the month. 🙂

I really should look at these. Sportives are awful IMHO.

Did one last year and really enjoyed it - lots of the good bits of a sportive with no down bits.

I must do some more...

I really should look at these. Sportives are awful IMHO.

Its the reason i looked, Price also helped

Audax UK Membership - £19
Most events I've seen £2-£5 with really big ones just over £12

Loads in my area, North Yorks

been doing them for nearly 20 yrs. they are very good, tho the last one I did, was full of loads of roadies, in full race kit, without guards.

each to their own I suppose.

Brilliant aren't they. I started last year; doing my first 400km a month today. Eep.

Best audax in the world

http://audax.lvis.org.uk

(I'm biased, my club organises it but we do get excellent feedback)

It's all about the cake!
[img] [/img]

Love Audaxes. done quite a few, including one 300km one, northumberland, weardale, cumbria, scotland, northumberland. epic day out, 15 hours riding.

first stamping point was a guy in his car, handing out flapjacks and water in the middle of nowhere 🙂

Yay for Barry's!

Hope it's not as cold as last year

i'm not sold - did one in jan with my dogma K and someone moaned that i didn't have mudguards.

I told him there is not room on a dogma and i didn't mind.

don't get it?! you can't fit mudguards on a proper roadie.

the mudguard thing used to be in the rules, makes sitting in cafes and riding in groups a bit nicer.

Yay for Barry's!

Hope it's not as cold as last year

I did the Ball Buster in the 2012 heatwave...more of the same this year please Clubber!

acjim - Member
Yay for Barry's!

Hope it's not as cold as last year

We're guaranteeing 20+ degree weather this year*

*weather is not guaranteed. Temperatures can go down as well as up. Temperature units to be specified at the LVIS Audax organisers' choice.

better than the 2deg weather last year - to be honest as long as it's dry i don't really care

2 degrees? It was 1 degree or less. I had icicles on my BB! (not a euphemism 🙂 )

I've fancied one for a while, but wonder about reading the route card whilst might throw me off track.

Really like the idea of having a go at a 200k kind of distance (previous best is 100 miles) and the events sound great. Sadly the Bristol ones near me are sold out.

i'm not sold - did one in jan with my dogma K and someone moaned that i didn't have mudguards.

I told him there is not room on a dogma and i didn't mind.

don't get it?! you can't fit mudguards on a proper roadie.

Its not you getting wet they are often worried about but the guy behind you.

Audaxes are great, been doing them for years, to start with just for the challenge of going further having got bored with time trialling, more recently to keep the base fitness up for other things.

I've ridden plenty of audaxes at all distances on un-mudguarded road bikes and not been moaned at. It's mostly conditions-based and whether you want to meet any new friends. If you're happy getting filthy and don't annoy the cafe owners by spreading that onto their furniture* then it's live and let live as far as I'm concerned.

*Even with mudguards, I rode a DIY-route 200k on 30th December on which it rained so hard during the first 50km that two of us semi-flooded the corner of a nice cafe in Crewkerne with the water running out of our kit. It was that or hypothermia 😕 Type 2 fun.

I've ridden plenty of audaxes at all distances on un-mudguarded road bikes and not been moaned at.

The non-'guarded riders on the Jack & Grace Cotton audax in January were a PITA. The roads were filthy and narrow, which meant that we would often have to drop back to avoid being jetted with slurry.

I did the Jack and Grace Cotton ,and yes the roads were wet although guards are not needed now its not nice riding behind someone without them !!
Clubber I will be doing The Ball Buster ,cant stop for cake though im on a diet and want to finish in the light !!

There are random cake tests at the finish. Anyone who's found not to have consumed sufficient cake will be DQ'd.

Sorry, we're only thinking of you 😉

As to guards, there will always be a few miserable sods who'll moan about not enough mudguards, too flash bikes, whatever. It's nothing to do with audax, just a reflection that there will always be a few grumpy people. Luckily the LVIS audax has very few (if any) of them 🙂

Re sold out events near Bristol ,there are events coming up all over the west country in Minehead ,Cirencester,Cheltenham, Bishops Lydeard,Alveston in thebext couple of months

I've done one a couple of times in October - Season of Mists - it's only 100km but it's proper hilly including a bitch of a cobbled climb straight out of Hebden Bridge, and pretty relentless too - if you're not going up a hill, you're going down one.
I'd like to do some epic ones - around 300km at some point - maybe later in the year.

Actually the point about Audaxes selling out is an interesting topic for discussion, I reckon.

10 years ago, an audax was popular if a couple of people turned up on a tandem. Now, we have audaxes like ours, and no doubt others, that sell out hundreds of places in a week or so. That's a pretty positive story. I guess that it's part of the natural progression of more people getting into cycling (including the much derided but ultimately positive thing of the 'leisure' crowd getting into it), trying out sportives and now discovering audaxes.

http://kidderminsterctc.smugmug.com/Audax-Events/The-Elenith/2292089_cLqdsr/123786315_5rVdqHV#!i=123787977&k=T8KStBt&lb=1&s=A

my brothers ultimate audax machine - nutters the lot of you 😀

Edit - curses, didn't link to actual photo - 300km on a BMX, I kid you not, complete with mudguards & lights for the purists 🙂

I've ridden plenty of audaxes at all distances on un-mudguarded road bikes and not been moaned at.

The non-'guarded riders on the Jack & Grace Cotton audax in January were a PITA. The roads were filthy and narrow, which meant that we would often have to drop back to avoid being jetted with slurry.

surely you can't take a tow and then moan about getting a bit wet!

I couldn't get past cos the lanes were too narrow!

'ELITE AUDAXER ON YOUR RIGHT!!!!!!!'

😉

aounds fun!

Got two 600km Audax later in the year, plus a series of 200/300/400km ones as well.
Mudguards? well I hardly see a soul so no biggy. Riding 100/200km and even 300km is okay without. Over that then a more touristy bike comes out, guards and all.
If it was wet, then a rear 'clip on' at least.

If it was wet, then a rear 'clip on' at least.

Did a 600k with clip on 'guards once. Never again. The incessant rubbing was worse than getting wet.

For the OP, if you fancy a challenge, how about attaining [url= http://www.aukweb.net/results/fame/ur/ ]Ultra Randonneur[/url] status?

Notice it's under the 'fame' section of the Audax UK site, a bit of an oxymoron. 😀

We did get coming through !yelled at us on a 100km audax by a bloke with a go pro.I noticed that the roadies who do sportives were lacking on Mr Pickwiicks March Madness ,an undulating 200k event from Tewkesbury

Did a 600k with clip on 'guards once. Never again.

I know what you mean. Proper guards on the comfy bike.

looked in to them years and years ago when i lived back in UK, but never did any.
now in Germany, and last time I looked, they only really seemed to start with the 200km+ ones (which tbf is what Audax is all about). didn't seem to be any where near the number of rides as UK.

quite fancy ticking off the 100km and 100mi again. not done that for a very long time.

Ultra status ? that requires some serious time and commitment,next year is Paris Brest Paris and the series to 600k need to be done for that .I would like to do it but im not sure I can get enough riding in !

Managed two this year, double what I managed last year 😳

100k round Rutland in January with a horrible headwind for the second half and the Radway 150 last month - my mates first audax, horrendous first half into the wind, great day out. Need to try and manage a 200 this year.

Love the relaxed attitude, the tea and cakes at the start and finish, the cheap entry, the range of bikes and riders.

Favourite memory is seeing a tandem parked at the finish of an event a couple of years ago with a pheasant strapped to the rear rack. Never see that on a sportive!

There is so much cake on some events that you weigh more at the finish than the start!!

Lovely ride on the Start of Summertime 200km Sunday just gone.
Looking forward to the 3 Down 300km this Saturday.
Then the Hell of the North Cotswolds before lifting the pace for a summer of road racing.
Got a 400 and 600km to look forward to later in the year.

Link to a 106km one, organised by my club on the 4th May.
Mid Cheshire to the bottom of the Wirral and back, with cake stop at the famous Eureka Cafe, (what do you mean you've never heard of it! 🙂 )

[url] http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/12-984/ [/url]

Audaxes are the best value cycling events out there, and are (or were) pretty relaxed. The LVIS Audax is a fine, if not finest, example of the breed. 🙂

Only done one. Not sure if I'd do it again.
It was the LEL though...

3 Down Audax just done. 310km, Chalfonts in Buckinghamshire to Fordingbridge in the New Forrest.
Classed as easy and flat? not quite.
I learnt that a race 'type' bike gets a little uncomfortable over that distance, rear mechs sheer off (two mates abandoned)wheels buckle ( i need to learn how to true one back again) thick bar tape is your friend, Cookie dough milkshake is sublime and a simple Garmin Edge 200 will navigate you over 200 miles without fault.
And that on top of the New Forrest isn't somewhere you want to be in sideways rain.

Popping my Audax cherry next Sunday by attempting the Gourock 200km. Can't say I'm looking forward to it. Never ridden that far in my life, nor has the 'friend' who talked me into it. Naturally I'm getting the miles in today and not sitting at a computer..... 😐