My first Audax

Tonymufc

I'm riding my first Audax this sunday. How do these stack up against sportives? I want to do a good few of these over the winter as I feel it will help me hold on to the fitness built up over the year. Any thoughts.

Wooliferkins

Cheaper, less of the posey version of the weekend warrior taking part. Been doing them for years they're fine. Like most things made by the weather and the company. You might get short shrift if you have no mudguards.

brownleather

Which one are you doing?

Tonymufc

brownleather wrote:

Which one are you doing?

I'm doing the 160km Cheshire safari on Sunday with a few friends. My winter hack has been well and truly de-webbed and dusted off for a month or two now. I still want to get the miles in. Seemed like a no brainer. Really looking forward to it.

Tonymufc

Wooliferkins wrote:

Cheaper, less of the posey version of the weekend warrior taking part. Been doing them for years they're fine. Like most things made by the weather and the company. You might get short shrift if you have no mudguards.

Mudgaurds and lights accounted for.

clanton

The most significant difference is that its not waymarked, you navigate yourself using route sheets. If you don't have a map holder this can be a PITA although often there will be locals taking part who know most of the route.

Tonymufc

I was hoping that my mate has got a map. If not then we maybe in for a long day in the saddle.

NWLondoner

Tonymufc wrote:

Wooliferkins wrote:

Cheaper, less of the posey version of the weekend warrior taking part. Been doing them for years they're fine. Like most things made by the weather and the company. You might get short shrift if you have no mudguards.

Mudgaurds and lights accounted for.

Don't forget your beard and sandals :shock:

The whole idea of having to get your chit stamped/validated at several points of the routes puts me off Audax's.

brownleather

NWLondoner wrote:

The whole idea of having to get your chit stamped/validated at several points of the routes puts me off Audax's.

The whole idea of paying over the odds, for crap food, with stupid courses puts me off Sportives.

Anyway the saying is, People who do sportives pretend they're racing, people who do audaxes pretend they're not.

ugo.santalucia

Audaxes are better in autumn/winter, whilst sportives are better in spring/summer to go full speed. Having to constantly check a route card slows you down, inevitably.
That said, having to pay extra for a stupid transponder is simply ludicrous

fcum

am doing this with a mate- will be on a blue aeron

did get a bit lost last time in the cheshire lanes - so new map holder fitted!!

see you on road and given your userneame tonymufc we can discuss relative merits of glazers ownership

amaferanga

brownleather wrote:

NWLondoner wrote:

The whole idea of having to get your chit stamped/validated at several points of the routes puts me off Audax's.

The whole idea of paying over the odds, for crap food, with stupid courses puts me off Sportives.

Anyway the saying is, People who do sportives pretend they're racing, people who do audaxes pretend they're not.

Nowt stupider than audax courses that most of the time take a particular route only so its possible to prove you've done the distance (so you get your meaningless points for the equally meaningless non-competitive points competition :? ), instead of the nice quiet, interesting route. I did a couple of audaxes in the Peaks, but got bored with the info controls (e.g. looking out for the signpost after the third drain after the second church after the fourth gate after the second village at the bottom of the third hil)l so I could prove I did the distance (100km!) and just rode the route instead. I've been cycling in the Peaks for almost 2 years now and have enjoyed all my own routes better than the silly audaxes.

The only audax that is worth doing IMO is PBP, its just unfortunate that you have to do the silly British ones to qualify for it and be a member of a beardie organisation like Audax UK.

ColinJ

fcum wrote:

did get a bit lost last time in the cheshire lanes - so new map holder fitted!!

I was set to do a 200 km audax in Cheshire - A Mere 200 - but when I saw the complexity of the route sheet I immediately bought Memory Map software and a Garmin Etrex GPS!

The route sheet was about as good as a route sheet can get but if there are hundreds of instructions (and there were!) and you only make a mistake on (say) 2% of them, that would be quite a few navigational errors to try and sort out.

Audax by GPS is the way to go! I've navigated about 5,000 km so far without getting lost once.

Tonymufc

fcum wrote:

am doing this with a mate- will be on a blue aeron

did get a bit lost last time in the cheshire lanes - so new map holder fitted!!

see you on road and given your userneame tonymufc we can discuss relative merits of glazers ownership

Absolutely mate. I'll be one a red trek 1200, spesh lid and goatee beard.

Tonymufc

amaferanga wrote:

brownleather wrote:

NWLondoner wrote:

The whole idea of having to get your chit stamped/validated at several points of the routes puts me off Audax's.

The whole idea of paying over the odds, for crap food, with stupid courses puts me off Sportives.

Anyway the saying is, People who do sportives pretend they're racing, people who do audaxes pretend they're not.

Nowt stupider than audax courses that most of the time take a particular route only so its possible to prove you've done the distance (so you get your meaningless points for the equally meaningless non-competitive points competition :? ), instead of the nice quiet, interesting route. I did a couple of audaxes in the Peaks, but got bored with the info controls (e.g. looking out for the signpost after the third drain after the second church after the fourth gate after the second village at the bottom of the third hil)l so I could prove I did the distance (100km!) and just rode the route instead. I've been cycling in the Peaks for almost 2 years now and have enjoyed all my own routes better than the silly audaxes.

The only audax that is worth doing IMO is PBP, its just unfortunate that you have to do the silly British ones to qualify for it and be a member of a beardie organisation like Audax UK.

Its my first audax so I'll have to make up my mind after I've completed it. That said, the main motivation for doing it is to try and get in some good milage over the winter months and keep hold of a good base of fitness. Its a lot more appealing than spending hour after hour on the turbo.

Aggieboy

Tonymufc wrote:

I'm riding my first Audax this sunday. How do these stack up against sportives? I want to do a good few of these over the winter as I feel it will help me hold on to the fitness built up over the year. Any thoughts.

Be careful where you park.

Tonymufc

Aggieboy wrote:

Tonymufc wrote:

I'm riding my first Audax this sunday. How do these stack up against sportives? I want to do a good few of these over the winter as I feel it will help me hold on to the fitness built up over the year. Any thoughts.

Be careful where you park.

Thats cruel.

Shouldn't be any problems with car parking as I'm riding to the starting place.

Horta

I wondered how long the audax/sportive argument would take to rear it's head in this post, well done wooli and brown, first and second post!

Why do we have to slag each others paticular cycling perversion off? It's like crap programmes on telly, if you don't like 'em, don't watch 'em!!! :evil:

Me? I ride road, track, mtb. Have raced, toured, commuted, been a courier, hell I've even ridden around Australia. Am now into mtb enduro and sportives, haven't done an audax yet. But I must admit I get put off by all the reactionary ol' curmudgeons who slag off sportives every chance they get. Is it because they don't like all these Jonny come latelys, muscling in on "their" pastime and not having the good grace to follow in their wheeltracks?

Just ride your bike

Rant over...... and breathe.

Ciao amigos

Tonymufc

Just ride your bike

Never a truer word spoken. Well done that man, my sentiments exactly.

vorsprung

NWLondoner wrote:

Tonymufc wrote:

Wooliferkins wrote:

Cheaper, less of the posey version of the weekend warrior taking part. Been doing them for years they're fine. Like most things made by the weather and the company. You might get short shrift if you have no mudguards.

Mudgaurds and lights accounted for.

Don't forget your beard and sandals :shock:

No beard and sandals here

The whole idea of having to get your chit stamped/validated at several points of the routes puts me off Audax's.

I've never done a sportive. Mainly they seem a bit short. If I take a trip up to Wales and then only do 100km it seems a bit of a waste of time.
When you are doing a couple of hundred miles stopping to get your card stamped is no biggy
Some people have mentioned their route sheet hate. There is no reason why a UK audax could not be fully signed. PBP is, after all

Philip Whiteman

Horta wrote:

I wondered how long the audax/sportive argument would take to rear it's head in this post, well done wooli and brown, first and second post!

Why do we have to slag each others paticular cycling perversion off? It's like crap programmes on telly, if you don't like 'em, don't watch 'em!!! :evil:

Me? I ride road, track, mtb. Have raced, toured, commuted, been a courier, hell I've even ridden around Australia. Am now into mtb enduro and sportives, haven't done an audax yet. But I must admit I get put off by all the reactionary ol' curmudgeons who slag off sportives every chance they get. Is it because they don't like all these Jonny come latelys, muscling in on "their" pastime and not having the good grace to follow in their wheeltracks?

Just ride your bike

Rant over...... and breathe.

Ciao amigos

Well said. I ride audaxes and sportives. There are excellent and crap events in both fields as with most things in life.

To be honest the only difference occurs where blinded people sit in their little closetted territory condemning the other camp - often with very little evidence and out of total ignorance. It is all fundamental tribalism.

As you wisely point out, 'just ride the bike' - in what ever form.

Bill D

I could definitely recommend fixing a route sheet holder to your handlebars, to avoid having to stop & check the route all the time. You could easioly make one out of something flat like a bit of thin plywood or plastic and fix it to the stem/bars with a couple of cable ties. If you put it next to your bike computer you can easily check the mileages for the turns.
Hope you enjoy it: weather forecast isn't great but I suppose it's what we have to expect at this time of year. Let us all know how you get on.

Tonymufc

Bill D wrote:

I could definitely recommend fixing a route sheet holder to your handlebars, to avoid having to stop & check the route all the time. You could easioly make one out of something flat like a bit of thin plywood or plastic and fix it to the stem/bars with a couple of cable ties. If you put it next to your bike computer you can easily check the mileages for the turns.
Hope you enjoy it: weather forecast isn't great but I suppose it's what we have to expect at this time of year. Let us all know how you get on.

Will do. The weather doesn't really bother me. I won't be the only one getting pi55ed wet through. I should add, like others have said, I don't really care which event I'm riding, I just want to ride. It does seem a shame that a few feel the need to slag the other one off. Remember that we are a minority sport/road user so really there should be alot more unity within the ranks. The sport is growing at a fast rate so sooner or later things will HAVE to change. There won't be any room for elitism. Not that I consider myself elitist, but there is a degree of it within our brotherhood. Bloody hell I've just made sound like the masons.

zoomcp

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Audaxes are better in autumn/winter, whilst sportives are better in spring/summer to go full speed. Having to constantly check a route card slows you down, inevitably.

get a GPS the money you save by not entering spotives will buy one over the course of a year.

once you've got it set up it takes about 20 mins to convert the average Audax route sheet to a route (there is usually only one shortest route between controls which will be the same as the route sheet) you then get guided around the route with proper SatNav type beepy instructions all the way round; it can also tell you when controls and infos are coming up.

Many events have the GPX file available to download off the calendar page too; or else have been put up by riders on bikely; which can be downloaded

I did a 200 Audax yesterday; all by GPS; it was a joy! (although I had the printed route in my back pocket in case it went wrong!)

Philip Whiteman

zoomcp wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Audaxes are better in autumn/winter, whilst sportives are better in spring/summer to go full speed. Having to constantly check a route card slows you down, inevitably.

get a GPS the money you save by not entering spotives will buy one over the course of a year.

once you've got it set up it takes about 20 mins to convert the average Audax route sheet to a route (there is usually only one shortest route between controls which will be the same as the route sheet) you then get guided around the route with proper SatNav type beepy instructions all the way round; it can also tell you when controls and infos are coming up.
Many events have the GPX file available to download off the calendar page too; or else have been put up by riders on bikely; which can be downloaded

I did a 200 Audax yesterday; all by GPS; it was a joy! (although I had the printed route in my back pocket in case it went wrong!)

Even quicker when the organiser offers GPX downloads. More audaxes are offering GPX files and in some cases, the route on Bikely.

brownleather

Horta wrote:

I wondered how long the audax/sportive argument would take to rear it's head in this post, well done wooli and brown, first and second post!

Why do we have to slag each others paticular cycling perversion off? It's like crap programmes on telly, if you don't like 'em, don't watch 'em!!! :evil:

Me? I ride road, track, mtb. Have raced, toured, commuted, been a courier, hell I've even ridden around Australia. Am now into mtb enduro and sportives, haven't done an audax yet. But I must admit I get put off by all the reactionary ol' curmudgeons who slag off sportives every chance they get. Is it because they don't like all these Jonny come latelys, muscling in on "their" pastime and not having the good grace to follow in their wheeltracks?

Just ride your bike

Rant over...... and breathe.

Ciao amigos

I'm all for all types of cycling. I do TTing, MTBing, commuting, Ride with a Racing Club, I even Ride with the pensioners from the CTC when I want an easy ride, I don't do all that many Audaxes, but I don't need a "route" to go out and enjoy cycling.

Sportives just seem to go out of their way to make a stupidly hilly route, living in Wales I could do a stupidly hilly route every day of the week and it wouldn't cost me £0.

I also don't get the Sportive culture.....questions like "I need some light wheels for sportives, what do I get?" Seem silly, any old wheels for Sportives will do.......if you want nice kit you don't need to justify it by "needing it sportives".

Paris-Roubaix, Flanders, and the Etape, now they are what it's about.

Tonymufc

Well, I completed my first Audax and I must say that I really enjoyed it. The pace wasn't exactly electric, but then I don't think it's meant to be. The ride was made a bit easier as one of our group had a garmin. There were the sterotypical beards and sandals, but also quite a few youngish (like myself) riders taking part. With a nice warm brew at the start and tea and soup at the finish ( all free ) it made for a good days ride. I rode to the start and rode home so my culmative milage was 120 miles. Not a bad days work. Bring on the next one.

Philip Whiteman

Tonymufc wrote:

. The pace wasn't exactly electric....

but sometimes they can be....

Glad you enjoyed it.




.

fcum

Tonymufc wrote:

Well, I completed my first Audax and I must say that I really enjoyed it. The pace wasn't exactly electric, but then I don't think it's meant to be. The ride was made a bit easier as one of our group had a garmin. There were the sterotypical beards and sandals, but also quite a few youngish (like myself) riders taking part. With a nice warm brew at the start and tea and soup at the finish ( all free ) it made for a good days ride. I rode to the start and rode home so my culmative milage was 120 miles. Not a bad days work. Bring on the next one.

did not see your bike - to have that chat about glazer

did notice there was another blue aeron so that could have been confusing

found pace ok on way out to eureka. Group of about 20 though it started whittling down towards the cafe stop

on way back joined a few of the fast 200 and had abbotsford park road club go past which resulted in some unexpected interval training for the last half hour :shock:

good days ride

Tonymufc

We set off towards the back of the group so if you were towards the front then you would of missed me. Eureka. The only cafe I've been in that took 20 minutes to make me bacon and tomato on toast. My mate had beans on toast. 1 slice of toast and about 20 beans. A bit underwhelmed would be an understatement. What time did you get to the cafe. We pulled up at 12.00 with aload of Manchester wheelers.

redddraggon

I was in the Eureka on Sunday too.