An Audax query

Colin Blackburn said:

David Martin said:

In fact, Audax regulations specifically prohibit the publishing of
finish times. If you finish between 4-8 hours of starting then you win.
If you don't, you lose. It is a fixed standard, not relative to the
other riders.

It is worth noting that some controls will take a considerable time to
serve food when busy. Factor this in to your calculations.

From what you say here and in your other post, I wondered whether any
audaxers carry food themselves for the journey or is there a general
reliance on the food stops?

I take enough food to keep me going, but there is nothing quite like
hot food when you have just slogged up a mountain into the wind without
the right low gears and are feeling [censored] to make you feel happy again.

My typical diet is a mixture of port pies (works for me!), geobars, and
drinking plain water (one bottle) and slightly diluted lucozade sport
or boots isotonic (about 75% strength - full strength is too cloying)
in the other bottle. I take a small tupperware tub or sachets to
replenish the isotonic.

Cheese and ham toasties, soup, pasta all work well as cafe stop food as
long as I don't have too much in one go. The hot apple pie with cream
and icecream was wonderful at the last control on the Cabrach circuit,
even if the ice cream was really cheap watery vanilla stuff.

Being the sort of prepared for everything person, I always end up with
food left over, but if you do get stranded miles from anywhere, having
to walk ten miles in the rain to the nearest phone/town etc. then you'd
be really glad to have that extra chocolate bar/museli bar in the bag.

I even saw a bananaguard on the last audax. top kit according to the
owner.

...d

David Martin said:

My typical diet is a mixture of port pies (works for me!), geobars,
and drinking plain water (one bottle) and slightly diluted lucozade

Port pies? Aren't they a bit messy to eat?

--
Ambrose

David Martin said:

My typical diet is a mixture of port pies (works for me!), geobars, and
drinking plain water (one bottle) and slightly diluted lucozade sport
or boots isotonic (about 75% strength - full strength is too cloying)
in the other bottle. I take a small tupperware tub or sachets to
replenish the isotonic.

Pork pies mmmm,

MSeries said:

David Martin said:

My typical diet is a mixture of port pies (works for me!), geobars, and
drinking plain water (one bottle) and slightly diluted lucozade sport
or boots isotonic (about 75% strength - full strength is too cloying)
in the other bottle. I take a small tupperware tub or sachets to
replenish the isotonic.

Pork pies mmmm,

naaah, a proper Wez Coundry veggie pasty. And cider (just a half)

MartinM said:

MSeries said:

David Martin said:

My typical diet is a mixture of port pies (works for me!), geobars, and
drinking plain water (one bottle) and slightly diluted lucozade sport
or boots isotonic (about 75% strength - full strength is too cloying)
in the other bottle. I take a small tupperware tub or sachets to
replenish the isotonic.

Pork pies mmmm,

naaah, a proper Wez Coundry veggie pasty. And cider (just a half)

think i'm going like cycling with you guys !!!!

MartinM said:

Just out of interest; do you have to obtain the time on
intermediate controls on your Brevet card? I was just going to
stick little home (ok work) made ones in for my first control to
save time as it is a pointless control just to ensure you stick
to the route and apparently too many infos is frowned upon. They
never seem to worry about the time with the roll of stickers in a
jam jar approach.

Officially I don't know but I can't see why it should matter for
intermediate controls, especially on a permanent. Generally though the
DIY controls on permanents will be receipts that will have the time on
them anyway. I would have thought independent times on the first and
last controls would be the important thing. I can't see how awarding
yourself a sticker as you leave your house would do.

I've collected loads of stamps on calendar events without a time, and
it hasn't mattered. On an event in February I was 45 minutes late for
the first control because I was 2 hours late starting. The controller
(he was still there as there was a BP event on as well) grumbled a bit
but wrote in the closing time as my control time. I was in time for all
the others though. On LEL they were threatening to disqualify anyone
who was late for 2 successive controls, but I think that's
understandable on an ultra where the controls may be open for days.

--
Dave...

dkahn400 said:

MartinM said:

Just out of interest; do you have to obtain the time on
intermediate controls on your Brevet card? I was just going to
stick little home (ok work) made ones in for my first control to
save time as it is a pointless control just to ensure you stick
to the route and apparently too many infos is frowned upon. They
never seem to worry about the time with the roll of stickers in a
jam jar approach.

Officially I don't know but I can't see why it should matter for
intermediate controls, especially on a permanent. Generally though the

On the Tour of the Hills there were queues at the first few controls
and they were very thorough; I would have been Not Pleased if this
delay had caused me to lose out on a gold badge. Whereas last year on
the Upper Thames you were given a numbered disc to throw into a bucket.
I think as long as the organiser can satisfy himself that you were at
the right place it is OK; there is no way anyone will be able to forge
one of my stickers.

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

Colin Blackburn <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

From what you say here and in your other post, I wondered whether any
audaxers carry food themselves for the journey or is there a general
reliance on the food stops?

Cafes etc will not repeat the goodwill of stamping hordes of sweaty
cyclists' cards if they don't drum up reasonable trade.

Please don't eat your sandwiches at cafe controls!

OTOH you'd be a fool to ride without bonk rations...

The answer is that you eat both 'their' food and 'yours'...

Except at a certain cafe near Stonehenge, where you have to wait until
they are distracted and nab a sticker (unless you want the most
polysaturated food known to man)

Tesco's at Newbury flatly refused to allow a jam jar this year, this
was Not Good as we had to use McD's (well actually I nabbed a sticker
then went to tesco's, it was a clash of principles!

Quoted message said:

If, however, you should find yourself late for a control and the
controller has gone 'ome you needn't necessarily despair. You can
usually make a DIY alternative control either at the same place or as
close as possible. You can do this by buying something and getting a
printed receipt with the date, time and name of the town on. You may be
able to get a pay-and-display parking ticket (to the bafflement of
nearby motorists) or a printed balance from a hole-in-the-wall machine.

This was the case for me on the Ron Kitchin Memorial ride. The route
had been revised along with some of the timings this led to me arriving at a
food stop and checkpoint in good time but they had been given different
revised times that were out of kilter with the original average speeds and
had scarpered. I badly wanted cake too :-(

The chap at the end of the ride made a note of my lack of a stamp and
the reasons for it and my brevet card was still validated.

Dave Larrington said:

Since I mostly use liquid fuel on audaxen,

hmm; a rather contentious plural; audaccii is still my guess, but it
could be equally audaces or audeaux. And I'm tending towards Oddax as
the correct pronunciation.

MSeries said:

MartinM said:

MSeries said:

David Martin wrote:

>
> My typical diet is a mixture of port pies (works for me!), geobars, and
> drinking plain water (one bottle) and slightly diluted lucozade sport
> or boots isotonic (about 75% strength - full strength is too cloying)
> in the other bottle. I take a small tupperware tub or sachets to
> replenish the isotonic.
>
Pork pies mmmm,

naaah, a proper Wez Coundry veggie pasty. And cider (just a half)

think i'm going like cycling with you guys !!!!

just hope we don't end up in what has to be my worst ever control; a 24
hr service station at about 04something; the only "seats" (actually
piles of Sunday papers) were taken by two other dead cyclists so I
ended up with micro'd soup leaning against a chiller cabinet, no door
just a blind, so all the freezing cold air wafted over me. And it was
full of beer. And shut.

MartinM said:

hmm; a rather contentious plural; audaccii is still my guess, but it
could be equally audaces or audeaux. And I'm tending towards Oddax as
the correct pronunciation.

I looked in a latin dictionary, which showed "Ow-dax". "Oh-dax" seems
to be more common, though.

--
Danny Colyer (my reply address is valid but checked infrequently)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Danny Colyer said:

MartinM said:

hmm; a rather contentious plural; audaccii is still my guess, but it
could be equally audaces or audeaux. And I'm tending towards Oddax as
the correct pronunciation.

I looked in a latin dictionary, which showed "Ow-dax". "Oh-dax" seems
to be more common, though.

yebbut the Romans didn't have bikes so it has to be the French
pronunciation. I only ever hear Ow or Or from other riders, but Oh is
correct French, although it could still be as in though or as in box.
BTW is there an English word which uses the soft J?

MartinM said:

yebbut the Romans didn't have bikes so it has to be the French
pronunciation. I only ever hear Ow or Or from other riders, but Oh is
correct French, although it could still be as in though or as in box.
BTW is there an English word which uses the soft J?

The closest I can think of is "casual", which of course doesn't actually
use a J.

--
Danny Colyer (my reply address is valid but checked infrequently)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Danny Colyer said:

MartinM said:

yebbut the Romans didn't have bikes so it has to be the French
pronunciation. I only ever hear Ow or Or from other riders, but Oh is
correct French, although it could still be as in though or as in box.
BTW is there an English word which uses the soft J?

The closest I can think of is "casual", which of course doesn't actually
use a J.

vision, derision, excision. Come to think of it do the French have any
hard J's?

MartinM said:

just hope we don't end up in what has to be my worst ever control; a 24
hr service station at about 04something; the only "seats" (actually
piles of Sunday papers) were taken by two other dead cyclists so I
ended up with micro'd soup leaning against a chiller cabinet, no door
just a blind, so all the freezing cold air wafted over me. And it was
full of beer. And shut.

Oh don't, reminds me of Woolley Edge Services at about 02:30, no seats,
not even papers. Sat on floor leaning against broken coffee machine !

MSeries said:

MartinM said:

just hope we don't end up in what has to be my worst ever control; a 24
hr service station at about 04something; the only "seats" (actually
piles of Sunday papers) were taken by two other dead cyclists so I
ended up with micro'd soup leaning against a chiller cabinet, no door
just a blind, so all the freezing cold air wafted over me. And it was
full of beer. And shut.

Oh don't, reminds me of Woolley Edge Services at about 02:30, no seats,
not even papers. Sat on floor leaning against broken coffee machine !

is that on the proposed Y-E route? need a better name for the ride BTW.

MartinM said:

is that on the proposed Y-E route? need a better name for the ride BTW.

The Jacobites Retreat?

...d

MartinM said:

MSeries said:

MartinM said:

just hope we don't end up in what has to be my worst ever control; a 24
hr service station at about 04something; the only "seats" (actually
piles of Sunday papers) were taken by two other dead cyclists so I
ended up with micro'd soup leaning against a chiller cabinet, no door
just a blind, so all the freezing cold air wafted over me. And it was
full of beer. And shut.

Oh don't, reminds me of Woolley Edge Services at about 02:30, no seats,
not even papers. Sat on floor leaning against broken coffee machine !

is that on the proposed Y-E route?

No, this was on Spurn Head 400, the ride was descibed as Laurence of
Arabia does Paris-Roubaix because of the sand blasting we got on the 6
miles of very bumpy road to Spurn head with sea on both sides of us.

in message <[email hidden]>, Colin Blackburn

(') said:

David Martin said:

In fact, Audax regulations specifically prohibit the publishing of
finish times. If you finish between 4-8 hours of starting then you
win. If you don't, you lose. It is a fixed standard, not relative to
the other riders.

It is worth noting that some controls will take a considerable time to
serve food when busy. Factor this in to your calculations.

From what you say here and in your other post, I wondered whether any
audaxers carry food themselves for the journey

I certainly have always carried /some/ food; more experienced audaxers
seem to carry less and rely more on being able to buy food en route.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they
;; do it from  religious conviction."          -- Pascal