h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Audax - Long Distance Cycling with Added Cake - A87807784
Author: Orcus - U94957

Hi, thought I'd write an article on a (perversion) hobby I've taken up this year. There is already a guide entry on this A29638777 but I don't think it cuts the mustard and mine is much much more comprehensive I think.

Hope you enjoy it.

Thoroughly enjoyed that.

I'm still reading it. One note, could you clarify whether recumbent bicycles are allowed? I assume they are as you mention tandems and trikes, but seeing as the rules organisation is French I'd like to confirm this.

When I purchased my recumbent, the seller told me the story of how the UCI banned recumbents because they performed so well in a race back in the 1930's. That ban had a chilling effect on recumbent sales ever since.

Recumbents are mentioned - they are very welcome on audaxes and have been used to complete PBP and LEL. Someone was riding one on the National 400 I did this year (a chap who goes by the moniker Wobbly on yacf)
You can ride *anything* as long as it is human powered and small enough (1 metre wide and less).

UCI have nothing to do with Audax by the way.

As I said, I haven't had a chance to read the entire entry yet. I just skipped down to the pertinent section.


I've recently gotten back into riding. I'd never heard of audax until you mentioned it. I don't think it's very well known around here yet. But there does seem to be some increasing enthusiasm for non-competitive distance riding. I've been on two Critical Mass rides in Houston and a few group rides on Galveston, Island. Houston has some great bike trails and is becoming more bicycle friendly lately. (The current mayor is actually hosting a ride/fund raiser.)

Audax does exist in the USA - until quite recently there was a Boston-Montreal-Boston 1200 km brevet but that's not really your end of the country. Most UK cyclists haven't heard of audax either.
I don't know if there is anything around Texas.
There was much interest on yacf recently about a race from coast to coast (RAA- ride across america) but although long distance - that's not audax.

Just brought this up on a footie forum I frequent. One serious rider (carbon bike, training rides in the Pyrenees etc) hadn't heard of Audax and once they'd googled it, couldn't see the difference from Sportives. I've said it's cheaper and there's cake. Fair description?

That would fit the bill. It's not quite the same as Sportives - they top out at 100 miles usually and are timed - there is no timing in audax - racing is strictly forbidden.

Although I did 'win' my third audax

(there is a division within audax - some are quite happy with banter like this, others will have a sense of humour failure. It's quite easy to 'win' if noone else it trying to beat you of course )

Which reminds me, an abbreviation I've forgotten.

FVFM - Full Value For Money - riders who use the entire time available - i.e. those that are SLOW.

I did a quick google and found there are a few Texas Randonneur groups. There's even one in the Houston area. Unfortunately, they are based in the Brookshire area which is on the other side of Houston and about as far out of town as I am if not a bit further. (Houston is geographically vast. I believe the technical term is "ing huge". It defines the concept of urban sprawl. The greater Houston area is 75-100 miles across.) However, it's not so far away that I won't consider it. Besides, riding on my side of town isn't that thrilling anyway.

An easy ECE then

I've modified the article a little bit through proof reading and comment from other audaxers. It now stresses a little bit more the volunteer ethos of audax as opposed to the profit making goal of sportives. There are other minor tweaks also - along with a section to say that they're just bike rides and there is no need to worry about rules, regulations and equipment/clothing advice.

Modified again. I've added sections on how to enter an audax and UK legends of the sport as correcting some factual errors

I read this with interest, because I thought audaxes might appeal to my son.

It's certainly comprehensive and has told me lots of things I didn't know. I thought, for example, that the bike had to conform to certain rules. I didn't know that the shortest audaxes might be suitable for casual riders - even me!

It did, however, take me a while to work my way through to the end. For someone keen to learn about audaxes it will be useful to have all the information together - but don't let anyone persuade you to add anything!

A couple of queries
In the section Brevet Randonneur Mondial I didn't quite understand the sentence beginning 'Most 200 km+ events'

In the section Your Bike there seems an extra 'that' in 'Keep an eye on chain wear and that'.

You mean it's too long. Yes I know

Hopefully that sentence on BRM rules is clearer now - they make most events BRM in PBP years to give riders a whole series of rides to qualify. Riders come from all over the UK and need local events a lot of the time. Also if you fail to finish one ride in your SR series then it gives you more than one chance.

I've removed the superfluous 'that'

I've drawn a line under this now - no further additions. A couple of guys over on yacf.co.uk have requested permission to serialise this article in their cycling magazines, I think that would be great and have asked that they link to h2g2 when they do so

Thanks for the qualification.

I enjoyed this, too - I love reading about cycling even though I do very little myself, and Audax sounds audacious indeed...

Some things I picked up on while I was reading through:

- What do you mean by the term 'seriously elderly'? Just people with a large calendar age, or people who are not necessarily very fit?

- Footnote 4 mentions Allure Libre before the term features in the text, and similarly with Footnote 10 and Perm.

- Footnote 15 pretty much repeats what is in the text.

- I had a quick look on the AUK website, and it was difficult to find details of awards for recumbents, etc - could you include a direct link to http://www.aukweb.net/results/other/ at that point rather than to the AUK homepage?

- A couple of typos I spotted - mudgaurds and mits. Is 'lube' a well-known word? I know it as I maintain my wheelchair but I guess it is an abbreviation for lubrication/oil. Not a major thing - fine as is, but I just wondered.

- I'm not sure about the value of the Glossary, as you do define most of the words in the main text anyway.

- The section on Audax Speak is brilliant! Could you put all the phrases in single quotes ' so that it is easy to see the phrase and then the translation?

- The Legendary Audaxers section is also excellent. I think it might sit better to be before the Glossary/Audax Speak section, but that's just my thought.

OK.... I finally got around to reading the whole entry, starting last night and finishing this afternoon. It's an excellent article.

As for proof reading it's pretty clean. The only things I noticed were a couple of minor typos. There's a superfluous "in" in the second paragraph of the *Clothing* section; "pressure on your hands but in in poor weather..." Also, in the *Navigation* section appears the word "begning" following "sealed jiffy bag".

Also, the terms 'brevet' and 'brevet card' are used a few times before it's clear what a brevet is. Also 'perm' is used before it's introduced as well. The glossary is great, but readers may not expect a glossary and so won't know to scroll down to it.

Now, this may just be me, but I wasn't familiar with the term 'sportive'. That may just be due to it not being often used here in Texas (or that I just don't follow sports in general.)

Anyway, I've already forwarded this article to friend of mine. We've both recently become bicycle enthusiasts and have participated in some social rides in Houston and Galveston. I did a search and there does appear to be a randonneur group North of Houston. Maybe in a few months we might be up for making a brevet.