Audaxers / Randonneurs - Share your knowledge and experiences!

Not in Ireland so can’t comment specifics. My experience is that the occasional person/group will treat 200s as a race, though it is variable. Most don’t. Even less common for longer brevets.

It is worthwhile to try and stay in a group as it makes your day much easier from the drag reduction. Even if you’re only occasionally taking pulls. If keeping up means going over ~0.7 IF though then probably not worth it because you will probably blow up. If the group is too big though, sometimes it will end up actually being slower due to having to herd cats at stops, provided you like to keep your stops short.

The fastest strategy is to go the pace you can maintain, and minimize stoppage time.

Locally, our fastest riders are going to be sitting at 34-36kph for a 200-300, though that group likes to stop for a 20minute lunch and coffee midway usually on a 200. When I ride with them I’m usually sitting at maybe 230-240 in the draft and taking pulls at 270+

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Racing an Audax in my opinion is totally against the spirit of an Audax… haven’t done many but that’s my feelings. To me its about the journey. You should enjoy the day, the ride, the company, the coffee, the lunch. the dinner, the solitude and the lone miles on the road at 3am the morning. Go at a pace you will enjoy, never try to go someone else’s pace and complete within the time limit.

Want to race, go with the lead grupetto, get a top ten placing… find a 200km road race and go for it, Leave the Audaxs alone.

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Nothing wrong with going fast, working together and completing a distance under a target time… If you call that racing then that’s fine…my definition of race/racing is aiming to beat others, placings 1st, 2nd, 3rds… Top ten…etc

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I don’t intended to race the audax, I think its clear that it isn’t a race, but its a challenge to complete (for me, as I haven’t cycled that far before) and working towards making a decent time for me is part of the fun and would rely on cycling with others - My curiosity is how others treat the ride and what I can expect when trying to stick with the front group.

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I programmed my Garmin to give me my average riding speed and my overall average speed (including stops). Found instructions online somewhere. That has really helped with pacing. For the audaxes I’ve done (up to 600 km) I’ve aimed for 25 kph riding speed and upwards of 20 kph total speed, because that way it’s easy to stay on top of the time. Like others have said, it’s good to minimise stops, though if you’re a fast rider of course you might want to stop more. In my experience also the fastest riders would do something like 28 kph.

At the end of my targeted Audaxes this year, I got to do a 1002km 3-day Audax. This was in the UK and organised by the Kingston Wheelers → London – Anglesey – London Event Details| Audax UK - The Long Distance Cyclists' Association

I did finish and elected for the Full Value package, with 1/2 hour to spare in the 75 hours allocated.
We started 10pm on the Wednesday and rode through to Thursday evening for Night/Day1 . Then overnight stop in Machynlleth, Wales (367km). Day 2 around Anglesey and Snowdonia National Park (316km). Another overnight in Welshpool, Wales and then back on Day 3 (314km).

An interesting result is the power decrease over the 3 days. I rode conservatively always with the last day in mind (only having done a 600 over 2-days previously) and also the hilly Day 2. The power graph of each day shows a significant drop. I did have short but good sleeps overnight and ate very well.

Red is Day1, Light Blue Day2 and Dark Blue Day3
Day2 had a lot of climbs hence higher power up to 30mins

In the end I was struggling to hold above 20km/h despite a flat last 56km.
I’m currently on the Low Volume Grand Fondo Plan (3 sessions per week) and supplement that with 2-3 commutes per week.

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Just found this thread, @killroy123, and wanted to say: I think it’s super cool!

And this whole post is way underrated! Every word is pure gold!

Awesome stuff, folks.

Question:
What does “Audax” actually mean and where does it come from? I speed-read this wiki page on “Audax” and still can’t figure out where the word comes from or what it means? Is it just a made up name for a type of ultra ride? Help me out! I’m new here. :slight_smile:

(my only experience in ultra riding is vicariously through my wife, plus the time I rode half of the ‘trenching’ challenge with her.)

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I’m going off another wiki page :laughing:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/audax#Latin

Latin: Adjective: Means bold or daring / foolish and fool-hardy.

Think it came to use in the UK to explain long distance cycling hence why its a separate word…but I could be wrong

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Perfect clarity!

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I am not particularly fast and I’ve ridden a 200 at 28 km/h (I am super proud of that one) We had some strong people pulling from the group though. I have to admit it was a bit too fast and I bonked and lost the group and the final 40 km or so were painful.
The total climbing for this route was about 2500 meters so not exactly pancake flat (not steep either).

Brevet season in Spain starts in February. I’ve had sub-freezing temperatures in February and extreme heat in the September events.

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In the UK, 2023 rides are starting to open up for entries… PBP 2023 starts to seem a little closer!

Convince me why I should enter PBP? I have pre-qualified through LEL so it seems obvious that I should do it, but somehow not that excited by it. It seems it will be crowded and the route is not that exciting. What do you like about it?

Don’t know where you are getting your facts from, but LEL first ran in 1989 not 1894!

The internet. Obviously.

Well your source whatever it is needs correcting!

I started riding sportives and audax back in 2010 when I came back to road cycling having spent the previous 15 years on my mountain bike. At the time I didn’t know the difference.

I’d say what I like about audax is the vibe and the types of characters it attracts. The 70 and 80 year old who’ve been riding them for over 4 decades and still use lighting technology and bikes from the 80s to the youngsters in their 20s and 30s on about a modern a bike and setup as you’ll see.

The types of bikes are everything from folding bikes, mtn bikes, ordinary road and touring bikes, time trial bikes, recumbents, velomobiles, trikes. Everything from DI2 and aero wheels , to fixed gear bikes, to down tube shifters. Hydraulics disc, rim brakes. Traditional luggage , bike packing luggage though the latter as many are finding slow you down on audax.

You’re not competing and someone finishing before you, has zero effect on your enjoyment of your day out. There are all sorts of approaches, some maintain a high average and short stops at controls, some maintain high average but have decent stops, some rider slower but have minimal stops. The last group are wily old campaigners and can often be back sooner than those who ride fast. They spend minimal time stopped maybe less than 5 mins stopped over 200km etc in some cases. No one cares how quickly you completed an audax, and in the UK no times

I love the places the routes take you and type of lanes and places you’d never find unless very local to the area. Even in your own local area you can be surprised at places audax takes you.

I love the night riding which is essential if you’re going to tackle 400km and above events. I’m also a big fan of dynamos as battery lights are generally a world of recharging faff and pain on all but the shortest audax.

I’m also an organiser and love putting events together and seeing riders coming back having had a great day or weekend out with smiles on their faces and tales to tell. You see the first back, you see the last back, and they all get the same reception.

You hear tales of riders suffering problems, and other riders sticking with them to get through a bad patch or fix a mechanical. No one goes I can’t help this rider as it’ll ruin my “race”. There really is a lot camaraderie on the road.

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No one will try and convince you. It’s entirely up to you. My only comment on PBP is that it’s a 4 day festival of cycling with a 1230km ride to take part in it all. Seeing whole villages supporting the event 24hrs a day is something else.

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So here’s what might be a silly question:

I’ve never done anything much over a metric century but love watching people doing ultra stuff and reading ride reports/books from transcontinental riders.

My local coffee shop/bike hub puts on various ultra events and have one in June '23 that looks like a perfect “beginners” event at 320km.

Assuming that you can average out 20kph (which is low as there’s maybe 80km plan flat and last 20ish is all down) its 16hours ride time.

I’m currently working on a polarised plan until mid December. I’ve never done even 50% of the distance but it really grabs me. How does everyone get in long distance stuff? Leaps into the unknown?

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Yep, once you do 100km, you can definitely do 320km as well, it just takes more time and calories :slight_smile:

Only thing to consider: whatever niggles you have during 100km ride will amplify over longer duration. Try to keep as comfortable as possible. If you plan to use clip-on aerobars, ride on them 1-2 months during preparation. It strengthens your neck that gets often sore.

EDIT: helpful TR blog posting about planning pacing for long events. Although, it seems more race oriented. For my own long solo rides (12-24h) I limit initial over-enthusiasm to HR cap, ~70% of cycling HRmax, which usually falls into 60-65% of FTP.

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Sounds perfect to start, although I would try earlier 200km on your own or with friends, 100 out and 100 back, taking plenty of time. Try a few of those to get used to the time in the saddle & distance.

For the actual event break it into 100s. The morning 100, afternoon 100 and evening 100. I always try to conserve any efforts into the last 100. i.e. remind yourself it’s all about the last 100. An easy average of 20km/h at the beginning may seem hard at the end.

As @svens says comfort is key. Niggles add up over time. Comfort gets you further down the road over long distances.

Hope it all goes well! Half the fun is in the planning and anticipation.

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