Setting up a 200km "Audax"

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Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
I think your 'check the route to see if there's a shorter way' advice is spot on and allows a DIY route designer to minimise the 'extra distance in case' approach. I'd just not introduce the 'cheating' concept, because noone's cheating anyone.
How did your last DIY go, btw?
I've never done one. And to be honest I doubt I ever will (never say never tho'). Riding solo I'm happy to just record my rides privately on rwgps.

TBH the OP never mentioned DIYs . As I read the OP it was a query about how to set up a ride that was like a (calendar) audax, and had similar spacing of checkpoints. No intention of submitting it for validation. So my reply was how to replicate the control spacing I've seen on calendar events. Maybe I mis-read it.

My suggestion "try cheating" was a suggestion of how to test the proposed controls so it was similar to what you might encounter on actual (validated) audaxes. Works just as well without the "c" word. Maybe "Try finding shortcuts" instead if you prefer that.
 
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Aravis

Putrid Donut
Location
Gloucester
FWIW I had no difficulty understanding what was meant by "cheating", and the use of the word seemed entirely appropriate.

I had much more trouble understanding what the thread was all about, but now that the penny has finally dropped, I like the idea. I'd never seriously thought of trying to set up a ride using advisory routing and traditional proofs of passage. By why not try it for once, whether or not there's any intention of trying to validate the ride? My first attempts to sketch out ideas have quickly led to frustration, unsurprisingly. We'll see where this leads.

Bizarrely, one of the reasons for avoiding proof of passage type events is that ordinarily I never leave my bike unattended on a ride, and the need to do so, even on a calendar event, feels like a major obstacle. I now discover that a GPS track can be used as evidence that controls have been visited correctly on an advisory route, so that objection is dealt with.
 

Ajax Bay

Guru
Location
East Devon
To illuminate the issues and gestation of a DIY route, I thought I'd offer these links to show:
a) the 'straightline' route between selected controls (where PoP is possible)
b) the Google Walking route (to 'prove' 200km) - link
c) my route (from last autumn)
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/31299411
1570968357645.png

Google Walking: BP,+Taunton+Rd,+Bridgwater+TA6+6UE/Porlock,+Minehead/Old+Station+House+Inn,+Blackmoor+Gate,+Barnstaple+EX31+4NW/Bishop's+Lydeard,+Taunton/Street/BP,+Taunton+Rd,+Bridgwater+TA6+6UE
One has to check the Google Walking to check that no unmetalled bridleways are being followed - GSV is one's friend.
Adaption to correct the line at Wheddon Cross and east of Bridgwater.
1570969653360.png


Hilly route (by choice) including drop into and climb out of Porlock; drop into and double chevron climb out of Lynmouth, and much later a diversion over the Quantocks (up the Cothelstone climb) to go via Bridgwater to pick up a front light (expected to finish before dusk, but start not early enough \ progress not fast enough) before heading out to Street and back (loop).
Hope this is of interest.
 
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