Audax Rides

cdaly_

Rode the Long Heron 200k on Saturday, still knackered...


Oh my. That was ... intense...

A lovely scenic route, perfect weather but the surfaces...

We rode everything from smooth tarmac (didn't think we had any in Ireland) to bog tracks 'repaired' with shattered brick/pottery shards.

The Royal Canal is the subject of an upgrade to become worthy of the name 'EuroVelo 2' which consists of replacing narrow meandering tyre-width mud track bordered with bottom-bracket-high, leg-sapping, dew-laden grass with stretches of tyre-ripping, wrist-vibrating, leg-sapping hardcore interspersed with short stretches of tyre-hissing sanded surface which feels like a hand to the back after the hardcore.
I'm sure it'll be lovely when it's finished.

As part of the construction work, sections of canal bank were closed, sometimes by means of high, barely climbable, un-notified fence. Needless to say, these were duly climbed.

The ride took the full day from 07:00 to 20:20 and much of Sunday was spent sleeping it off.

Thanks very much to the organiser for a gorgeous, relentless, terrifying (though almost traffic-free) route. I'll be back to do it again.




Someday...

ford2600

Rode the Pink Elephant today with the chief.

Route is nice as ever, and a great day to spend a bike. Some rain and wind but it's West Cork in September so no complaints

A great route in store for all the entrants in 2 weeks time

selwyn froggitt

I cycled the Pink Elephant Audax yesterday.

I've done the event/ridden the route half a dozen times before,it's great to have an event like this starting in the Cork city suburbs and local to a good few of the starters.

This Audax has a bit of everything from mountain roads,forest tracks and fresh water lakes through to the Atlantic coastline,brilliant.

The road from Ballyvourney through Coolea and then on to Gougane Barra is superb and simply impossible to get bored with.

The weather was reasonably OK,but quite gloomy nearly all day and the lights stayed on.

Well done to everyone that finished and a big thank you to the organiser who always does an amazing job.

devonp

rode the Orwell 200 as a permanent today to complete my first(and perhaps only!!) Audax Ireland RRTY

was able to start/finish from my doorstep in Leixlip. i pffafed about as usual in the kitchen before getting going(behind schedule) only to have to come back to collect my water bottle from just past Intel (2.5Km out), so bottle collected started again!!
this was a spin of 2 halves, the first half a great tailwind & cross tailwind as far a Portarlington with only a few specks of rain allowed me to make good time.
then i hit the headwind and things got, how will i put it... challenging
cycling across the wide open spaces of the Curragh(the home of FLAT racing in ireland...its not flat those gee gee's probably take those 4-6% drags in their stride...i didn't). at another racing venue , Punchestown, i really started to feel the cold and probably bonked...limped into Rathcoole and was never so glad to see a Subway(normally won't go near the joint), i must have looked a state the nice man behind the counter asked if i was ok? anyway had a coffee, sub and crisps and out i went, it felt Baltic for the first 10 mins . i got going and the shelter of the city helped. it was getting dark and i hadn't brought my specs ...i nearly came a cropper switching to the cycle path near churchtown(missed the little lip from the road)
got to Joe Daly's and then headed back through the traffic to Leixlip, hit a few potholes in my semi blind state and made it back home to the finish.
happy to have done the RRTY
kudos to those around here who do consecutive RRTY and/or are serial RRTYers

i whimped out of doing the temporary fever hospital group spin today and opted for the better (but busy) roads of the Orwell.
kudos to the mudlovers who took on the TFH; how did it go ??

cdaly_

TFH was grand. T'was pretty cold but 4 layers took care of that. The push into the headwind from Fore to Garristown wasn't too bad what with hedges providing shelter much of the time.

I got to try out my new Igaro D1 usb charger. Did a great job. I was running osmand as satnav on the phone and, for interesting technical reasons, had the screen lit the whole time. While stopped, I would lose battery but while rolling, it maintained battery level. For the last 30km, I had the screen off so it would just light up for turns and, in that time, the battery recovered around 2%. This was all while running lights from the dynamo at the same time.

Matt Bianco

TFH is a fine route and as cdaly said, the hedgerows were a big help in sheltering form the north-easterly that picked up over the day in both strength and coldness!

Great to meet the wide variety of riders over the course of the day from the first time audaxer to the returning Race Around Ireland veteran returning after a serious injury as the combination of great routes and riders makes audax the phenomenon it is

brownian

Sorry I missed the TFH - was all set but then attacked by man flu. Hopefully get it done as a permanent in the next couple of weeks....

terrydel

Any on between now and April?
If I decide to do Mallorca 312, these would make ideal training.

NamelessPhil

Plenty! http://www.audaxireland.org/events-calendar

You can also ride permanents on any day that suits you if you can't make an organised ride.

Daroxtar

Well done those out on Saturday morning. I spoke briefly to a few people at the control in Longwood, anyone of you? (I wasn't cycling, just popped into Spar for some groceries)

Matt Bianco

Daroxtar wrote: »

Well done those out on Saturday morning. I spoke briefly to a few people at the control in Longwood, anyone of you? (I wasn't cycling, just popped into Spar for some groceries)

I was one of the group of Dublin Wheelers you met - hope you add to the Mick Byrne as many great routes in the AI calendar especially the Titanic Torr, Dying Cow and the dreaded Brown Stuff as you mentioned liking climbing

Daroxtar

Matt Bianco wrote: »

I was one of the group of Dublin Wheelers you met - hope you add to the Mick Byrne as many great routes in the AI calendar especially the Titanic Torr, Dying Cow and the dreaded Brown Stuff as you mentioned liking climbing

What is the Brown Stuff?

Grassey

http://www.audaxireland.org/events-calendar/gazetteer/400km-events/brown-stuff-400/

ford2600

Daroxtar wrote: »

What is the Brown Stuff?

If you ask you have to ride it!

Not the easiest of audax rides to start with.

I rode it on 23/07/16 in a moment of madness as a permanent; which is your only choice as it hasn't be on since 15 as an event(it was but on for PBP). I was on road including stops for 20h30m; that's a long day on your own

If you are going to dip your toe in audax, try Tara 200 maybe given location. Pat Doocey's Iron Mountains 300, Carlingford 300 or Antrim 300 would be other good options( worth the drive, it was even worth a night in Newry!)

If heading south Pink Elephant 200, Inner Ring 200 (mark 3 now I think) or 3 Rivers would be great options

cdaly_

Daroxtar wrote: »

What is the Brown Stuff?

The name comes from the old OSI paper maps where higher elevations would be coloured in various shades of brown. When asked about the route, the organiser would point at the map and say "Just ride around the brown stuff"...

Looking at the current online OSi map viewer, it should be called The Yellow-Purpley-Brownish Stuff or perhaps in OpenCycleMap, The Darker Green Stuff...

nilhg

First taste of Audax today, headed down for the Birr 200, not sure if it's an entirely typical one, kinda faster than I was expecting.

Wet , windy, mucky but very enjoyable spin with some very nice lads

NamelessPhil

The Birr 200 and the Orwell 200 are both fast Audax events. They're both flat enough and usually have people testing their legs.

nilhg

NamelessPhil wrote: »

The Birr 200 and the Orwell 200 are both fast Audax events. They're both flat enough and usually have people testing their legs.

My legs were well tested yesterday, that's for sure.

The first thing that struck me at the start yesterday was the amount of bikes without mudguards,especially given that the weather yesterday was well forecasted, for most of the day there were 8 or 9 floating in or out of our group, I was the only one with guards or from what I could see much more than the usual amount of gear/spares that you'd see on a club 100 any weekend. Most were more local than me but it would have been a long wait if they had to make a call for help from the road.

Quite a few of the roads travelled did come up to the expected Audax standard though, smoot tarmac is inn short supply in East Galway/North Tipp

All in all a good day out

The Noble Nudge

Has anyone a link for the Orwell Audux in April?

nilhg

The Noble Nudge wrote: »

Has anyone a link for the Orwell Audux in April?

http://www.audaxireland.org/events-calendar/gazetteer/200km-events/dublinmeathkildare-orwell-200/

devonp

http://www.audaxireland.org/events-calendar/gazetteer/200km-events/dublinmeathkildare-orwell-200/
you can get details of all Audax events etc from the Audax Ireland site above

its on the 4th March this yr

there is a 300Km version during the summer, it takes in some of the Slieve Blooms (Wolftrap mt.)

ford2600

nilhg wrote: »

First taste of Audax today, headed down for the Birr 200, not sure if it's an entirely typical one, kinda faster than I was expecting.

Wet , windy, mucky but very enjoyable spin with some very nice lads

You are still waiting your first taste of Audax! If you have a cx bike or a decent winter bike and are nearish to Dublin I'd be inclined to ride anything Ronnie Moore organises, or head south and ride Inner Ring or Pink Elephant. Yola 200 looks interesting to but a bit of a hike also

I just sent entry in for 3 Rivers 300 in April, which is a brilliant day on bike; first time as an event this year in a long time

The Noble Nudge

devonp wrote: »

http://www.audaxireland.org/events-calendar/gazetteer/200km-events/dublinmeathkildare-orwell-200/
you can get details of all Audax events etc from the Audax Ireland site above

its on the 4th March this yr

there is a 300Km version during the summer, it takes in some of the Slieve Blooms (Wolftrap mt.)

Thats the one with the very sexy medal??
Ive some thinking to do on it...March might be a tad bit early for my training only one century spin under the belt so far...

LennoxR

ford2600 wrote: »

You are still waiting your first taste of Audax! If you have a cx bike or a decent winter bike and are nearish to Dublin I'd be inclined to ride anything Ronnie Moore organises, or head south and ride Inner Ring or Pink Elephant. Yola 200 looks interesting to but a bit of a hike also

I just sent entry in for 3 Rivers 300 in April, which is a brilliant day on bike; first time as an event this year in a long time

I do a lot of mixed road and gravel riding on my cx bike, I'd be very interested in doing one of those rides, but they don't seem to be on this year?

ford2600

LennoxR wrote: »

I do a lot of mixed road and gravel riding on my cx bike, I'd be very interested in doing one of those rides, but they don't seem to be on this year?

https://www.audaxireland.org/events-calendar/gazetteer/200km-events/long-heron-200/

https://www.audaxireland.org/events-calendar/gazetteer/200km-events/faceless-monk-200/

Those two are on, although at least 3 of his others are not.

https://www.audaxireland.org/events-calendar/gazetteer/200km-events/yola-200/

That's on

NamelessPhil

I rode the YOLA last year. It's on good roads, no gravel. They're small roads but perfectly fine.

Now this ride in Mayo later in the year is definitely off-topic. http://www.audaxireland.org/events-calendar/gazetteer/200km-events/mayo-western-lakes-200100-mtb/

py

ford2600 wrote: »

You are still waiting your first taste of Audax!

Genuinely curious as to why you say that? Is there minimum elevation required to be an official audax?

Carawaystick

py wrote: »

Genuinely curious as to why you say that? Is there minimum elevation required to be an official audax?

Ford probably (not to put words in their mouth) means that the large entry number audaxes with many "racers" are a different sort of event to the small entry numbers events.


Once you do over 200km and get your brevet completed correctly, its an official audax

ford2600

py wrote: »

Genuinely curious as to why you say that? Is there minimum elevation required to be an official audax?

It was a half serious joke!

200km rides are the shortest audax events, an introduction to what is required in terms of self reliance with regard to navigation, bike repair, nutrition etc etc which can then be used on the longer events if a rider decides to step up.

The couple of fast early season events are just very long versions of a strong cycling club's Sunday spin; big group (by audax standards), probably not a mudguard in sight, riders with very little idea where they are. Riding in a group like that, there is an increased risk(still relatively small) of an accident.

To my mind your average Sunday club spin riding around main roads is a poor product in comparison to what audax can be; hidden villages, historic sites, empty country lanes, riding with the array of characters who ride these events and encounters with locals along the way.

What happens when you crash and break your collarbone in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of strangers? These are unsupported events, they are not sportives where the entry fee covers a broom wagon of some description.

Start at 7 with staggered 10 min groups nips this in the bud

Mefistofelino

ford2600 wrote: »

...and encounters with locals along the way.

And if you ride any event with Ford2600, he knows them all.
Every. Single.One.

Remember Alan Partridge's " Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank"? This is like "Audaxing with Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh"