Hi thinking of doing my first audax on 28 th March. It's Wormingford near Colchester 110k. Done a few sportives but never an audax, wondering what to expect..... Any takers?
I notice someone has already mentioned the brevet card that you will need to get stamped at the checkpoints (or in which you will have to place your answer to a simple question to prove you got there). A friend of mine once pulled up outside a pub in a red, black and blue mix of tights, lycra and snood to record the name of the landlady from above the door for his brevet card. His arrival was met with a shout of "
Hello, Spiderman's here!" and much chuckling from inside the pub. Top heckle.
You will also be given a route sheet, written in what at first looked to me like heiroglyphics, with symbols to represent T junctions, traffic lights, oblique junctions, and and changes of font to signify whether places are signposted or not and whether you pass through them or not (etc, etc). My wife can't believe
anyone can follow such instructions. For the first few audaxes, I stuck with a mate who already knew where he was going, and it took me a while to pluck up the courage do do one solo. It soon becomes quite straightforward though, but at least one of your party will need to have the route sheet displayed in front of them at all times as there will be no marshalls or special roadside signage for you. Other riders will generally shout out if you take a wrong turn, but every little mistake will make the route sheet more and more incomprehensible as the distances will no longer tally.
Being an old git who hasn't gone metric yet, I always like to convert the Kms to miles before printing off the route sheet. I've also started to amend the route sheet to show the actual distances for each individual stage, and reset the distances to 0 on my trip computer for the start of every stage. Otherwise, any difference betwen the stated distances and your trip computer's recorded distances can make it a bit tricky to find turning points in the last few miles of the ride - especially if you have gne wrong somewhere. Last time out, every time I looked up to see a junction, there it was right in front of me.It was worth half an hour's preparation before printing off the route sheet.
As for the people, I 've always found them to be a great mix of all sorts. Male, female, young and old, sporty and just plain dogged. There might be no marshalls and no mechanics, but I've always found a great spirit of togetherness and helpfulness among the other riders. You will enjoy it.