Audax navigation?

[Ajax Bay]

They should look at some other sports.

IOF control descriptions are designed to be (and are) 'international' - I can/could run in any country without language knowledge.
Spec doc: IOF-control-descriptions-2019

 

[tdk27]

If you are a bit of an idiot, don't mentally prepare for the route, and just merrily trundle along saying "hullo trees, hullo sky" with half an eye on the GPS map then you won't get lost but you might ride straight past a control and not get your card stamped.

I do my navigating with GPS, but I spend some time in advance going through the full route, getting a bit of a sense for it on the computer. One of the things I also do there is make sure I have POIs defined for each control, and I have my GPS device programmed to show me "distance to next POI" and to beep when I reach one.

 

[yello]

I love route sheets*. They are works of art and genuine memorabilia. That said, I don't use them. I did once, even to the point of rubber banding one to my forearm (that was not a repeated experiment) but these days I follow my aged but trusty Garmin Edge 305. Reason being that I audax to ride, not to pass some test in decrypting navigation. Sorry, that wasn't meant to sound as harsh as it came out. No, point is, I found I was stopping too often for my liking to read the next instruction. I preferred to glance at the breadcrumb trail before an intersection and trundle on without the need to stop (give way signs etc excepted)

*French route sheets are different and basic in comparison, nowhere near the level of detail. Don't expect them to navigate you through a town for instance. They'll take you to the town limit and then you're on your own until you pick up the intended road out - ime anyway, and maybe different organisers do things differently. So it pays to know the next town on and follow road signs.

 

[yello]

I do my navigating with GPS, but I spend some time in advance going through the full route, getting a bit of a sense for it on the computer.

Ditto. I used to - back in the day, before gpx tracks were commonly provided - map the route from the route sheet myself and upload it to my Garmin. That familiarised me with the route, any funky bits or places to pay particular attention to, and gave me a general sense of direction. It's a habit I kept up even after gpx's were being provided by the organisers. Come the day, it was kinda cool to reach a place on the route and think 'ah, yes, I remember this bit' (for whatever reason)