Saturday 15th October 2022, 150Km Audax

150Km Audax "An Autumn Day Out"
Ride report by Jeff
 

Context

Preparation
A few weeks ago, Howard invited me to come on a 150km Audax  event. Since
then, we have been preparing for the event.
The first type of preparation is to familiarise ourselves with the route. Although
we didn't want to do the full 150km route before the event, over the weeks
leading up to it we went on rides covering different sections of the official route.
This also meant we were going on longer rides, and building up our endurance
(maybe that bit was more for me than him!)
Secondly, we had to make sure we could keep a good pace, and cycle together
well as a team. We had been on some bike rides with just the two of us before, so
we know each others strengths and weaknesses. But we also added in
something new that I'd never done before, which is a chaingang. This is when you
go one in front of the other so that the person behind has less air resistance and
can relax a bit, and you switch around when the person in front gets a bit tired.
Finally, we had to make sure we knew what to expect on the day. So, over a series
of pub visits and sneakernet exchanges, we had prepared lists of things to bring,
cafes we planned to stop at, and a rough schedule - which if everything went
according to plan would have us finishing about an hour before the time limit.

 

 

Part of the things to bring was sufficient food to power a human through a 100
mile ride - flapjacks made the night before (energy gels etc too).
 

About Audax
Audaxes are long distance cycling events, which are explicitly not races. There
are different lengths of Audax events, and this one was a 150km event, with a
total actual distance of 156km, which is just under 100 miles.
There are also time limits for completing these Audaxes, which means although
it's not a race, it is still a challenge! If you don't reach the end by the finishing
time, you DNF the event.
What is to stop someone from not completing the route? At the starting point,
you are given a "Brevet card" which you need to keep a hold of at all times
through the event. There are control and info points at certain points
throughout the ride. At control points, a judge will stamp your card to say that
you did pass through the control point. Control points are normally at cafes. Info
points are signified on your card with a question about a feature of a certain
location, for example, asking for what it says on a particular sign in a particular
village. You must write the answer on your card.

You can only finish the event if all of your info point questions have been
answered correctly, and you have all of the control point stamps.

 Our plan
Timings
In order to complete the Audax, we would need to maintain an average speed of
15km/h over the whole day. While we normally cycle faster than that, this speed
also takes into account stopping at cafes and junctions and control and info
points. So really, we need to be going quite a bit faster to allow time for those
necessary stops and also in case of any surprise accidents.
On our usual rides, we can maintain a moving speed of 20km/h, but for such a
long ride we have to be careful not to exhaust ourselves, so we estimated our
average moving speed over the ride to be 18km/h.
The total amount of time allowed for this event was 10hr 20min. Assuming our
18km/h moving speed, that gives 1hr 40min for breaks, info points, control points,
and emergency stops.
That is not really very long, given the amount of time things can take, and how
many things can go wrong. Punctures could take about 10-15 minutes to fix, and
we don't know how many of those we might get. Cycling for 10 hours straight is
exhausting and I wanted to have an extended cafe stop where we get something
"real" to eat, and drink a coffee. I asked for 20 minutes for the cafe stop, but
Howard requested I cut it down to 15 minutes. Phew, hardly time to order a
coffee and it to cool down to drinking temperature! Each of the info points
would be a quick 5 minute stop, where we can have a little stretch and eat an
energy gel, and the control points could be over 5 minutes if there's a queue to
get stamped. If the weather took a change, we would need to stop to get
changed into suitable clothes. Traffic lights and junctions always add up, too, and
finally we were aware that we would encounter several level crossings which
you can get stuck at for a while.
That said, our plan allowed us 5 minutes at each control and info point, and 15
minutes at a cafe. With those out of the way, we expected to finish an hour
before the closing time, which would give us a bit of room for emergencies.
Weather considerations
Ideal weather for a long distance bike ride would to me mean fairly still air (or a
tailwind the whole way, but that's asking far too much), a dry day, and a bit of
cloud so I'm not blinded by the sun and don't get sunburnt too easily - but a bit of
sun poking out from time to time to light up a beautiful view.
However, reading the weather forecast through the week leading up to the
event, we were scheduled to have strong winds and showers.
Strong winds can be dangerous, especially cross winds, as they can push the
front wheel and make you veer around the road. Head winds are hard to push
through. And tail winds are pretty good, actually, but since our route is a loop, we
wouldn't be exposed to the tail winds the whole time.
Rain is also a risk, as the wet roads make it more likely to slip and harder to stop.
This means even with the tail wind, we might not be able to take full advantage
of it as we want to keep a sensible speed in the rain. The rain has these effects
for drivers as well as reducing visibility, but the best we can do about that is put
our lights on and hope they're driving appropriately for the weather.
So, the weather was not scheduled to be fantastic. In particular, Howard pointed
out a section which would be gruelling in the wind - 18km on a straight road
directly into the SW head wind, at the time of day with the strongest wind, and
mostly along a high ridge so very exposed to the wind. This would be the perfect
place to exercise the chaingang we'd practiced, and also an ideal place to stop at
a cafe to boost morale. We were hoping that the tailwind at some other points
would help us make up the time that we could lose on such a tough section of
the course.
The ride
The night before, I was too excited to get a full nights sleep. And in the morning, I
almost forgot to have breakfast, so I took my breakfast sandwich with me out
the front door.
Howard picked me up at 6:50 as planned. My bike was already in the back of his
car as I'd dropped it off the day before. In the starting hall in Trowell where we
collected our Brevet cards, there were Audax magazines scattered about, and
tea, coffee, biscuits available. Since I had hardly been able to finish my breakfast
sandwich due to the excitement, I didn't partake.

This photo came out a bit strange...

Although the Audax event was meant to be about 95 miles, we had planned to do
a little extra to make it up to a full 100 miles, which we did after collecting our
Brevet cards. Our little extra few miles were planned for the start of the ride,
where we went almost half of the required distance up a hill, then returned back
down to start the real event. This meant if we completed the full Audax, we'd
have slightly less than 100 miles completed, but we did have a plan to finish the
little extra we needed.
Coming down the hill, we shot past the starting point at exactly 8:30am. There
were a few cars outside the church hall where the event started, but a lot of
cyclists exiting the driveway about to make their way onto the road.
There were two friends that we were also aware would be participating in the
Audax, Graham and Thomas. Our plan was to stick to the plan we'd created, but to
go along with them when it was sensible. In the morning, they said they'd be late
arriving, so we didn't stop to wait for them.
As it happens, we passed them only a few hundred metres into the route, where
they were walking up the hill to get their Brevet cards and all that.
Very very shortly into the journey, we encountered our first level crossing, which
was closed when we arrived. I used that time to try and get the eyelash that I was
sure was bothering my eye out of it. While we were waiting, a bunch more
cyclists pulled up behind us, making quite a big group. The train eventually went
by, but the barriers were still down - another train! I took off my glasses and
gloves and rubbed my eyes some more, quickly putting them back on when
finally the second train came through. And I realised only once we had crossed
the crossing that the nose bridge of my glasses had come off, so I ran back but
couldn't find it on the grassy embankment. So, I gave up and we just carried on
with the ride.
My eye did feel calmer after that, and my glasses weren't unpleasant without the
bridge anyway. Though we were now behind many of the cyclists.
In addition to that bit of unluck, the glasses I was wearing were not sunglasses
as I was expecting a cloudy, rainy day, but so far the low sun was very bright and
the sky was mostly clear. Rain was scheduled for about 9am, though, and at this
point it was around 8:40 perhaps.
We headed south through Sandiacre, through Breaston, Sawley, and down the
marina road to Kegworth. By this point, we'd caught up with a portion of the
group that had overtaken us at the level crossing. There were still big groups of
cyclists, but it seemed that the faster lot had broken off ahead by this point.
On the marina road, we passed two separate cyclists at the side of the road with
upturned bikes, fixing punctures. We would pass more cyclists with punctures
through the ride, but this is the only instance I remember the location of, as
there was two of them. I suspected it would be due to thorns or something, as
Autumn is truly here and the marina path had a lot of plant debris. However, I
encountered one of the puncturees later in the ride, and she told me it was a
metal splinter in her brand new tyres!
Hardly getting into Kegworth, we took the road out east and resumed our
southward heading through Sutton Bonnington.
I asked Howard whether he thought Graham and Thomas would catch us up by
the time we got to the first info point in Cotes. He guessed that they wouldn't
catch us up until maybe 50 or more kilometers into the route, based on how long
it might take them to walk up the hill and get their Brevet cards. Not 5 minutes
after we had that conversation, they pulled up right behind us!
Although at this point the wind wasn't as strong as it would be later, we were still
headed into a head wind, and the groups of cyclists had dispersed more so we
were in our own little group of 4. Howard suggested a little chaingang to get
through the head wind, which Thomas was happy to lead to start off with. He
was going at quite a pace actually, it was a bit hard for me to keep up with him,
but I knew we were saving time and energy by having him do most of the
pushing against the wind.
Although Howard told him we can rotate when he gets tired, he never did, and he
led us at a great pace up to fox hill, where I fell behind since my hill game is weak.
They slowed a bit to wait for me near the end, and we carried on again at our
breakneck pace to Cotes where we jotted down the post box Saturday collection
time and quickly scarfed down some flapjacks.
We were on a schedule, so there was no time to hang around. We pressed on SE
to Barrow upon Soar, then crossed the canal to Quorn. In Quorn, we had joined
up with another small group of cyclists. One of them shouted "stopping", but
several of them right in front of me stopped a bit faster than I could react. I
steered left to dodge the person in front of me's back tyre, and hit his leg with
my front wheel just before I came to a stop and fell on the pavement.
This is only two or three weeks after my first fall was on some gravel. This time
luckily wasn't so bad, as the fall was a bit slower, I was able to roll on the ground
more, and I was wearing long sleeved clothing so there were no scrapes on my
body. Once we ascertained that everyone was okay, I headed off again to catch
up with Howard who had waited for me. Thomas and Graham might not have
noticed that we had fallen behind, but it wasn't a big deal - as I mentioned before,
we were not planning to strictly stick together, and we'd surely manage to
regroup at the control point.

The first control point was just up the road from Quorn in Mountsorrel. Up the
gravel path into Stonehurst farm, their bountiful display of gourds and pumpkins
swarming with milling cyclists. We rested our bikes for a moment while our
Brevet cards got stamped. Once again we quickly gobbled up some sugary
snacks, and swiftly got back on the road, reforming our group of four.

Now, our heading was a little more to the east, but not enough to get an
advantage from the wind. It was more or less a crosswind as we headed through
Sileby into the more sparsely populated rural areas of Leicestershire. We passed
the small settlements of Rearsby, Ashby Folville, and Twyford.

That led us to the start of the first long but not too steep ascent of Burrough hill,
taking us NE. On a previous ride, a few of us had had lunch at Burrough Court on
this hill. Unfortunately it is closed on a Saturday (what kind of cafe...???) which
we had at least verified beforehand, so we couldn't stop there. Howard had
kindly gone at my pace up the hill, and Graham and Thomas had kindly waited at
the top for us. This wasn't a control point, but since we were tired from the hill,
we slurped some energy gels and took a quick breather. A few cyclists passed us
while we were stopped, and we greeted each other.

Howard pointed out to me the mast in Walton on the Wolds, which is visible from
almost anywhere on our route in the Leicestershire section at least. It is really
tall. I should also note, by this point, we had not been rained on, and the sky was
still blue with only patchy clouds.
This is where we get to the areas I haven't been to before. After Burrough on the
Hill, we headed to Somerby, Pickwell, then on North then East through basically
countryside to Wymondham. This is where the second control point was, at a
windmill cafe. Here, Graham and Thomas decided to stop for a bite to eat, but
Howard and I were on our planned schedule and knew where we wanted to eat,
so we set off and left Graham and Thomas to their cafe stop. There were many,
many bikes at this stop, and since it was around 12:30, I think there was a lot of
cyclists who had decided to have their lunch break here.

Onwards Howard and I pressed, with a nice little tail wind up to Sproxton then
Croxton Kerrial. Up ahead in the distance we could see one of the tandem bikes,
with a pair of cyclists on it. I believe there were two pairs of tandem cyclists.
They have quite a bit of power together, and they had overtaken us near the
start of a ride - not because we had stopped, but because they were just faster
than us.
After Croxton Kerrial was a mad descent followed by a mad ascent - about 70
metres. Even Howard was on his lowest gear for this one. I think I stepped off
and walked for a bit of the way, aware that if I pushed myself too hard now it
would hurt my energy levels later in the day. Walking up hardly made me slower
than Howard cycling up anyway. Does that give you an idea of how steep it is?
And immediately after this horrible ascent, we make a turn onto the dreaded
head wind ridge. Just as planned, we started our chaingang formation. Certainly
there was a head wind, and it wasn't an easy section. However, the wind was
underperforming - it wasn't as windy as the weather had predicted. The
chaingang had a very noticeable impact in the wind that there was (it was still
quite strong!) so we continued our planned formation to about halfway along
the ridge.

Here is where we planned to make up the teeny little extra distance to make it
100 miles. Well, we wouldn't really see our total distance until we come to the end
of the route so we may need to do a little extra loop there, but anyway... Here we
turned off to a cafe that was 1km off-piste - The Potting Shed, just by a garden
centre. We left our bikes outside, stuck Howard's Garmin on charge, refilled our
water bottles, and got ourselves some coffee and a sandwich each.

At this point, we checked the timings and how we were doing according to the
schedule. We were actually a bit ahead of the time we were expecting to be,
giving us a good 25 minutes at the cafe to rest. Before we got to the cafe, my
arms and neck were quite tired from holding me up on the bike, but felt much
better after our extended stop.
Getting back onto the saddle though was a bit less comfortable. My bottom and
legs felt tired and a bit worse than before we stopped. However, once we got
moving again, my body got back into the swing and we continued our battle
against the head wind, a bit more gently since we were now full of food.
We turned out of the Six Hills head wind around Old Dalby - taking note of the
sign on the info point - heading down, down, downhill through Willoughby on the
Wolds, Wysall, and Costock, where Love and Piste was our final control point of
the ride.

Many cyclists were around at this stop, and I recognised one of them for his co-
ordinated teal outfit and bike. We had a nice little chat, as I was not feeling such
high pressure to get back quickly at this point. Mentally, I was full of excitement
and energy rather than anxiety or fatigue.
After getting our Brevet cards stamped, I felt the very first little droplet of water
hit my arm. It wasn't surprising, since showers had been forecast all day which
we had managed to dodge. We knew we'd dodged them because some of the
areas we went to did have wet roads, implying it had rained not too long ago.
So, I put my waterproof jacket on, and the rain got slightly heavier, but not to the
point where you'd even say "it's raining". The sun was still out as well, casting a
bright double rainbow behind Love and Piste.

There was now 30km left of the ride to do, and we had about 2hr 30mins until
the time limit ended. We set off in the sprinkling rain, leaving the faster riders
enjoying their coffee at Love and Piste. The rest of the ride was very much
through familiar territory again for me.
East Leake, West Leake. It had already stopped spitting with rain by this point so I
stopped to take off my rain jacket. We rejoined the route we took on the way out
just before Kegworth. Back up Sawley Marina lane, up to Breaston. Unlike the way
out, we went straight on at Breaston, up to Risley. One group of cyclists who
were faster than the two of us overtook us twice - after the first time, they took
a wrong turn and ended up behind us again.
Continuing up, we skirted around the outside of Sandiacre, passing by two golf
courses on a peaceful little path. Finally, we passed over the level crossing from
the start of the day - which was open this time - and headed up to the church
hall. On arriving there, we found that Thomas and Graham had finished about 20
minutes ahead of us, and had already left.
Checking our distance, we had both narrowly exceeded 100 miles! So, we locked
up the bikes outside, and headed in to the hall for some more coffee, and of
course to get our cards for the ride stamped and approved.

 

Total distance: 100 miles or 162 km.
Official Audax distance: 155km.
Official Audax time: 9hr 21mins.