The Great Escape 2015 - 200km audax - London-Essex

[arallsopp]

Anyone planning to follow @arallsopp has clearly not been a student of the forum for long enough...

ah... but maybe I've spent the last 6 years attending express orienteering and navigation courses, becoming a leading exponent of direct line routing, terrain association and dead reckoning.

Spoiler

I haven't.

Seriously though, I'm only in it for the narrative, and my experience is those extra kinks have the best mile to narrative ratio.
When you ride behind me, route miles are the administrative lags between adventures.

You, of all, know this.

 

[iLB]

"adventure is the deliberate courting of uncertainty... " Quite.

Nice that your avatar originates from the self same ride.

 

[Rustybucket]

Crikey - I hope Im allowed to use my Garmin, god knows where I would end up without it!

 

[arallsopp]

Crikey - I hope Im allowed to use my Garmin, god knows where I would end up without it!

That's interesting, 'cos only God knows where I might end up with it. Hopefully God to ground comms are good on the day

 

[John Shingler]

Hopefully God to ground comms are good on the day

nope ..software update that day

 

[Lisat]

Sadly not doing this ride now as I managed to break a bone in my wrist yesterday and will be off the bike for a few weeks.
I have emailed organiser so hope someone else can take my space.

 

[StuAff]

"adventure is the deliberate courting of uncertainty... " Quite.

Nice that your avatar originates from the self same ride.

...or following what your Garmin tells you when it's a bit confused...

 

[Rustybucket]

Just had the final instructions sent through by email. Whats with all this checking in & answering questions? Didn't know I was entering Mastermind??

 

[velovoice]

Just had the final instructions sent through by email. Whats with all this checking in & answering questions? Didn't know I was entering Mastermind??

Er... it's an audax. You might want to read up on it before the big day.

 

[ianrauk]

Just had the final instructions sent through by email. Whats with all this checking in & answering questions? Didn't know I was entering Mastermind??

As pointed out by @velovoice

It's an Audax. Have you done an Audax before? By the sounds of it - not. Are you by chance thinking it's a Sportive, when you just turn up and ride as fast as you can - following little arrows?
There are no marshalls, no little arrows, no numbers to pin on your jersey, no timing chips, no published times of finishing. You either use and follow the route sheet or use a GPS to follow the route.
You get a Brevet card when you sign in at the start which you have to fill in as you hit each info control. Usually a question like 'At the road sign at the crossroads, how far is it to Maldon'. Like the sample below
Of course you don't have to fill in all this info or get the stamps if you just want to ride the route. But it's all part of the Audax experience.

 

[ianrauk]

"adventure is the deliberate courting of uncertainty... " Quite.

Nice that your avatar originates from the self same ride.

That pic of @arallsopp was taken by my very good self on that Essex ride. The first long one we all did when we cycled back home. (My first 100+ miler)
I was riding @Auntie Helen 's trike when I took it.

 

[Rustybucket]

As pointed out by @velovoice

It's an Audax. Have you done an Audax before? By the sounds of it - not. Are you by chance thinking it's a Sportive, when you just turn up and ride as fast as you can - following little arrows?
There are no marshalls, no little arrows, no numbers to pin on your jersey, no timing chips, no published times of finishing. You either use and follow the route sheet or use a GPS to follow the route.
You get a Brevet card when you sign in at the start which you have to fill in as you hit each info control. Usually a question like 'At the road sign at the crossroads, how far is it to Maldon'. Like the sample below
Of course you don't have to fill in all this info or get the stamps if you just want to ride the route. But it's all part of the Audax experience.

Thanks for the explanation - I was just going to turn up and follow the route on my Garmin. Much more like the sound of this Audax, Im quite slow so dont treat Sportives as a race anyway.
Will now ride this on my slower & more comfy Steel CDF - ill probably be doing 160miles in total that day!

 

[ianrauk]

Thanks for the explanation - I was just going to turn up and follow the route on my Garmin. Much more like the sound of this Audax, Im quite slow so dont treat Sportives as a race anyway.
Will now ride this on my slower & more comfy Steel CDF - ill probably be doing 160miles in total that day!

I'll be doing the same mileage as I will be cycing to and from home to LMNH's

Your most comfy bike is the best bet.
There are 400 iirc participants signed up, so it will be no problem finding someone else and/or groups who ride at the same speed as you. One thing about Audax I have found is that it's very sociable, but if you don't want company or to chat with others then it's also fine to just cycle on your own doing your own thing.

See you there... look out for the Cycle Chat shirt.

 

[wanda2010]

My first Audax. Scared and excited

My (hyper-expensive) 650x28c tyres finally arrived during the week so I'll put them on the Trek and see how they do. Aiming to use them on the Normandie Tour too.

 

[StuAff]

My first Audax. Scared and excited

Ride your bike a bit.
Eat some cake.
Ride your bike a bit more.
Have lunch.
Bit more riding.
Bit more cake.
Ride to finish.
Yet more cake, and a big grin