I have to admit to being somewhat "shocked" (in a tongue-in-cheek fashion) when there was some chat after one Audax I did about how a very fast time had been done by the group who were back first. I had genuinely thought that people didn't know this sort of thing. Turns out I was wrong.
Sportive or Audax
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w00hoo_kent
One of the 64K
- Location
- Maidstone or Greenwich
You can always tell. And sometimes just presume. First 1000 mile 24hr motorbike ride I did in the States I got a rep for being very quick, but I'm pretty sure the 15 hour time that was being repeated back to me wasn't me, I'd thought I was closer to 19. I'd not been hammering it. Those events seem very close to Audaxing to be honest, and the competitors look surprisingly similar in the main I was a fresh face 30 something and very much at the young end of the scale.
w00hoo_kent
One of the 64K
- Location
- Maidstone or Greenwich
Thinking about it, the Scottish one they did the program about had 'fastest riders'. That may have been TV needing a 'winner' to try and make sense of it, but in most things who came first won't go unnoticed even if it is unrewarded.
jefmcg
Guru
If you are looking for a 200km out of London I'd recommend the Ditchling Devil (Brighton and back. I've done this as a perm, and volunteered twice) or Straight Outta Hackney (Cambridge and back. Haven't done this, but at the finish you get beer and venison burgers, how can it not be good). If you are keen to do one this year, there's still The Ghan 5 September. (Oxford and back. Done this one, but I was jetlagged and had been off my bike with an injury for 9 weeks, so I bonked and it's all a blur)
jefmcg
Guru
It worried me that there were no women in the photos, so I did a bit of research. Apparently they are the early finishers - I had thought they were going to photograph everyone, but perhaps I was wrong.
Anyway, these are the folks who cycled 1415km in roughly 2 days. It was always going to be a big of a (numb) sausage fest.
On the same page there's some of Charlotte's colour photos. Some finishers in there are women, but nowhere near 50%.
And unfortunately there's this one. Not for the faint hearted.
jefmcg
Guru
I don't think that helps much. There are over 200 photos there. Ignoring the tandem stokers, the wife and helpers, there are only 2 women.
I guess it's not surprising, the riders would have come in over 3 days, 24 hours a day. Unless they had shifts of photographers, they were only going to catch a few riders. The first riders makes more sense than anyone else.
Still, let's celebrate the two lovely solo women riders I identified (and apologies to any I missed by scanning hundreds of photos just looking for boobies!)
DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
- Location
- Reading, obvs
She has a pair that aren't the same size.
DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
- Location
- Reading, obvs
Water bottles.
Excellent, I could do with reading that - when will it be posted?
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
This thread has got me mulling over what the sportive/audax scene might look like in 10 or 20 years time. It's interesting to see the rapid proliferation of Sportives broadly matching the increase in profile and participation of cycling in UK. The same cannot be said of Audaxes I think.
So these days a lot more cyclists do sportives than audaxes. I wonder if some may start doing audaxes in the future or will audax just finally peter out as the current participants get too old? I only have experience of 100km mountainous audaxes and that attracts a fast, sportive-type rider as well as the traditional audaxer. I don't know what it's like on the 200km+ ones, presumably a bit more hardcore carradice?
Being a bit controversial, I bet that the long distance audaxes will slowly die out as the participants sadly slowly die out. High profile events like LEL excluded. Shorter sportive-distance audaxes will do OK and the distinction between these and sportives will narrow. Sportives will cease to explode in number but there will be a lot more participants in these than audaxes
So these days a lot more cyclists do sportives than audaxes. I wonder if some may start doing audaxes in the future or will audax just finally peter out as the current participants get too old? I only have experience of 100km mountainous audaxes and that attracts a fast, sportive-type rider as well as the traditional audaxer. I don't know what it's like on the 200km+ ones, presumably a bit more hardcore carradice?
Being a bit controversial, I bet that the long distance audaxes will slowly die out as the participants sadly slowly die out. High profile events like LEL excluded. Shorter sportive-distance audaxes will do OK and the distinction between these and sportives will narrow. Sportives will cease to explode in number but there will be a lot more participants in these than audaxes
w00hoo_kent
One of the 64K
- Location
- Maidstone or Greenwich
There is the possibility that the participants don't want them to become popular and are willing to (possibly subconsciously) let them die rather than risk 'undesirable attitudes' flooding them. I belong to at least one hobby that I think, despite their protestations of wanting to expand are almost definitely doing that.
Because of the low buy in I think even if that is happening they will last longer than you think, keeping traditions alive is a big thing in the UK and there doesn't need to be much of a next generation to promote them, and if you focus on self sufficiently all people need is a bike to do them.
Interestingly they project an image at odds with some of what people have been saying about them on here. Would they not get more take up if they pushed the touring/gentle ride aspects that appear to exist rather than the hard as nails Steve Abrahams one?
Speaking as someone who was thinking as they got to the third quarter of the Ride London, "you know, I think I might enjoy audaxing..."
Because of the low buy in I think even if that is happening they will last longer than you think, keeping traditions alive is a big thing in the UK and there doesn't need to be much of a next generation to promote them, and if you focus on self sufficiently all people need is a bike to do them.
Interestingly they project an image at odds with some of what people have been saying about them on here. Would they not get more take up if they pushed the touring/gentle ride aspects that appear to exist rather than the hard as nails Steve Abrahams one?
Speaking as someone who was thinking as they got to the third quarter of the Ride London, "you know, I think I might enjoy audaxing..."
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
I'm not aware of any reliable data for numbers of riders taking part in audax and sportives.
Sportives, with their big company backing and flash websites, are certainly more visible, but are there really many more, or are they generally any bigger, than audax events?
As regards audax fading away as participants get older, the UK arm (of the biggest long distance cycling club in the world) was founded in 1976.
That's nearly 40 years ago.
The majority of those original members must surely now be either too old and infirm to cycle long distances, or dead.
Yet lots of people are still audaxing.
If we accept audax attracts older riders, it must be the case that cyclists who wouldn't consider audaxes when they were younger do so as they get older.
So today's clean shaven young sportive riders are tomorrow's audaxing beardies.
Sportives, with their big company backing and flash websites, are certainly more visible, but are there really many more, or are they generally any bigger, than audax events?
As regards audax fading away as participants get older, the UK arm (of the biggest long distance cycling club in the world) was founded in 1976.
That's nearly 40 years ago.
The majority of those original members must surely now be either too old and infirm to cycle long distances, or dead.
Yet lots of people are still audaxing.
If we accept audax attracts older riders, it must be the case that cyclists who wouldn't consider audaxes when they were younger do so as they get older.
So today's clean shaven young sportive riders are tomorrow's audaxing beardies.
outlash
also available in orange
- Location
- ice station zebra
I'll wager the wannabe racers that love their sportives that are heading into audaxes are only doing the shorter options (up to 200k). Once the novelty wears off, they'll drift back into golf, triathlons or rugby while the audax scene will continue to attract the crowd it always has done.
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