Ride report: The Cheese Toastie 200 Audax

On the weekend after our France and Belgium cycle tour I had another early alarm...5:30 am and I found myself trying to get out of bed and catch a 6:40 am train out to Crawley, near Gatwick airport.

I had entered the Cheese Toastie a few days earlier, kind of unexpectedly. No more entries were available for the Elenydd ride in Wales. Lucy was away on holidays, so I thought I would sign up for another 200 km event to keep my fitness levels up . This event was also organised by "El Supremo", so plenty of food and support were to be expected. And not a particularly hilly ride this was, in theory.

Got to the start just after 7:45 am, where a few other machacas were getting ready for the off. 11 of us had registered for this ride, although only 10 started it. The route Dave had planned for us was as follows, split in four different stages of 75, 55, 50 and 25 km each approximately.



With fresh legs, the first leg went by very quickly. I joined a couple of Bromley-based riders shortly after the start, and rode with them for the remaining of the ride. Incidentally, I had ridden with one of them in our Veteran Car run to Brighton, back in November. This was good, as I always enjoy riding in company especially on long rides. Also, I was not quite sure that I had plotted the route correctly on the gps from the routesheet, as it sometimes it is not obvious to follow it on the screen (although, it really is once on the road!)

With Mike and Steve, the London riders, we made good progress on our way to Pyecombe, where we would finish stage 1. Earlier on we had one Info control, which are strategically located points to make sure that you do not cheat and shortcut the route. After that, we sped up towards Pyemcobe, where, on top of serving as a control, Dave was turning out cheese toasties (thus the name of the ride!) on his portable gas-oven. Other British delicacies were on offer, such as cheese and onion fritters, pork pies, and saussages. Knowing that I have a sensitive stomach, I opted for the cheese toastie and other sweet stuff. It still surprises me how good value this rides are, for £7.5 you get plenty of drink/food at three feeds. And Dave gets up at 3 am to get all this food ready for us. Hats off to him. Having discovered audaxes, I doubt I will ever enter another type of organised ride unless it is not for profit.The atmosphere was great, with plenty of riders doing the 100 km also on the day.

Cheese toasties feed stop, 75 km into the ride

Audaxes are also good to spot some good bike-porn. This time I saw a very interesting bike that at first thought it was a Moulton, but which then, with the help of other rider, decided that it was home-made.

Is it a Moulton or is it not?

Fed and hydrated, we set off along the bottom of the South Downs. Here the roads were beautiful but rather bumpy. We went past two of the famous climbs in the area: Ditchling Deacon and Devil's Dyke, which for the first time ever, I did not climb on the day. After this, some bits of busy roads followed. This is one of the disadvantages of riding someone else's routes.

We made good progress here as well, and I completed another 100 km in well under 4 hours, keeping up a moving average of >27 km/h. Everything was going great and I had good feelings. Midhurst was the next control, where we did the Audax thing and went for some garage food to obtain a receipt as proof of passage.

Forested areas in the vicinity of Midhurst

After Midhurst, we had another bit of main road, and then off again to the lanes. Towards the end of this leg I started to feel pretty knackered, and could not really keep up with the other guys. Although I suggested they go ahead, they decided to stick together, which I really appreciated. I am not sure what went wrong here. I had a sore knee pretty much all the way, which I believe it was due to the seatpost being higher than normal. After I adjusted it, it seemed to get a bit better, but the pain continued for the rest of the ride, although it was not too bad. Also, we kept an average that was a little above of what I am used to, which may have also had an impact after 150 km into the ride. And lastly, the food. I normally stuff my face with a hearty breakfast in the morning, and keep eating every 30-45 min. But today I had rushed it and did not get much food in. Also, I was feeling very hungry and the bananas and chocolates did not seem to calm that down. Despite the feed in Pyecombe (at 10:30 am!) I had not had any proper food in a while, and I was feeling it. Lesson learnt.

Luckily for me, the guys were in the front pretty much all the time, which made it easier to keep pedalling at a reasonable speed. Despite my bad feelings and hanger, I was still averaging over 25 km/h. But I truly needed some food.

One of the things I like about cycling in Britain is the cake eating culture. Cycling gives you "cake points". If you ride with Brits, they will always stop for cake and coffe somewhere during the ride. And so we did this time. Two cakes and a sugary coffee and we were off for the last, easiest stage.

Only 24 km separated us from the finish. I had recovered a bit, but Mike and Steve were still impossing a brisk pace which I sometimes struggled to follow. The roads were undulating all the way, but every single bump looked like a proper hill now. I used the granny ring a lot today, also because of the pain in the knee. In less than 1 hour we were back in Pease Pottage, where Dave and his helpers were waiting with yet more food and drink.

I had a great day out. The route was pretty good, although it would have been even better with less of the busy roads in Stage 2 and 3. Some other memories of the day:

• Weather held up, not a single drop of rain, and reasonable temperatures. I much rather have 10C and clouds than 30C and sun like we had in some of the summer rides.
• Plenty of dead animals on the road: rabbits, foxes, squirrels, badgers, even one owl. 
• Great companions, Mike and Steve. Really like the camaraderie and friendlyness of these rides.
• Interesting chats with the organiser and helpers upon arrival. They were all pretty experienced riders themselves and were only too happy to share their knowledge of the long-distance cycling culture. Adivice such as "if you go for a kip while riding, make sure you point your bike to the direction you need to keep going after you wake up". It seems that many riders go for a nap, then carry on riding in the opposite direction for miles. 
• No stomach problems today, although knee was unhappy
• My fastest ever 200 ride, in just over 9 hours including stops. 7h and 53 min moving average, despite my tiredness and funny knee. 
• Forested areas in the South, really nice roads and feeling of remotness.

All in all, a very good ride with the usual super catering from "El Supremo". Other audax organisers charged you nearly the same amount and do not provide anything other than the brevet card, so I wonder how this happens?

Now looking forward to our Green & Yellow Fields this coming Friday, a ride with a midnight start and 300 km.

The stats were as shown below

Ride Report: Tea and Biscuits 100 audax

On Sunday, we rode our first audax of 2012 (and only our second audax ever!). It was the Tea and Biscuits 100, organized by Dave 'El Supremo' Hudson, the same organizer as our first audax, so we had an idea of what to expect.


Having ridden 100km last weekend I knew that I'd be physically capable of doing the distance, so I was just hoping to be able to complete it comfortably and without too much misery! Luckily, this proved to be an achievable goal.

We woke up before 6am to make our train out to Guildford and cycled though London in the dark. At the station in London we encountered a few other audaxers but many more drunk people waiting to get home from their nights out in London -- who seemed bewildered and bemused by our presence in lycra and hi-viz.

We reached the start point at Newlands Corner about 30 minutes before the start time, giving us plenty of time for a hot drink and some light breakfast. We marveled at how many other people could convince themselves to come out for a ride on a cold January day--it was 2 degrees at the start (36 F) and was forecasted to go up to about 5 (41 F). 115 people had signed up for the ride (entry only cost £1) but the organizers weren't sure how many would start. It seemed like quite a few though!

Brave souls ready to battle the cold!

At 9:00 we headed off, not in a mass start, but we ended up in a big group pretty quickly due to the traffic lights in Guildford town centre. Newlands Corner is at the top of a hill which meant an absolutely miserable freezing cold descent three times throughout the day (at the start, after we had looped back there for the halfway stop, and at the end of the day when we headed back to the train station), all of which came after we were thoroughly cooled off from standing around at the feed station. But thankfully that was pretty much the only miserable thing about the day.

The first half of the ride was a loop, with a checkpoint strategically placed in a pub parking lot. For this part of the route many of the riders were in a large, loosely formed group. It would break up a bit on the hills but then tend to re-form again. We tried to stick to other groups for most of the first half of the ride and were largely successful until some hills at the end. We were on bigger roads than Alberto and I normally ride on, but it was still rather early on a Sunday morning so the traffic wasn't too bad until our approach to Newlands Corner for the halfway stop. We arrived at the bottom of the aforementioned hill at about 11am, just in time for everyone who was headed to the Newlands Corner carpark to spend a day in the Surrey Hills. I had to take the hill pretty slowly, and the traffic was not particularly respectful. Still, we made it to the halfway stop without incident and in good time.

Newlands Corner is also popular with walkers and mountain bikers.

After a brief snack we decided to head out again before we got too cold. This would be a basic out-and-back route to Billingshurst, and we cycled most of it alone, the field having spread out quite a bit by then. After our second freezing descent of the day, we hit the hill heading out of Shere towards Ewhurst. The road was relatively quiet, which was lucky because I had to take it really slowly! It wasn't particularly steep, but just seemed to go on forever. This did give me a chance to practice getting out of the saddle and pedaling though, which is pretty much a prerequisite for me learning to get better at hills this year. The hard work was rewarded by a long, fun descent and also a spot of sunshine! We cycled on to Billingshurst where we had an information control (there is a specific question on the brevet card which can in theory only be answered if you have actually been to the place in question - such as identifying some information that is on a road sign there). After a quick banana we turned around to retrace our steps back to the finish at Newlands Corner.

A great sign we spotted en route.

I hate to say this, but it was such a great feeling to pass a large group of cyclists who were still headed in the direction of Billingshurst as we headed back to the finish. It meant that we (hopefully) would not be the last finishers, a big improvement over last year's 200 when we finished about 2 hours behind the rest of the field! The long, fun downhill turned into a pretty arduous uphill on the way back, and I had to stop and rest a few times, but eventually made it all the way up without walking. This was the route we took at the very end of our audax last time around, only everything looked so different in the daylight. I don't blame myself for having to walk up that hill after having cycled nearly 200km already back in September--it was tough!

Anyway, we again cycled up the final hill to Newlands Corner to get our brevet cards stamped one final time. I told Alberto to go ahead and get his card stamped when he reached the top -- he says he only beat me by about five minutes but we'll find out the truth when our brevet cards are returned! We only waited around for a few minutes at the finish in order to make the 2:59 train back to London.

All in all, a great January's day out on the bikes! We finished in about 5 hours 30 minutes (including stopping time), with a moving average of 21.4kph (around 13.5 mph). Our overall average was close to 20 kph -- we only had 30 minutes of stopping time, mainly due to it being so cold! Alberto reached a max speed of 57 kph and I reached 53 kph.

Surprise in the post...

A very strange letter was awaiting for us today. Strange because it had my own writing on it!

I had completely forgotten about those two C5 pre-stamped envelopes that I sent to the organiser a while ago when we registered for our first Audax...After a bit more than two weeks our validated brevet cards have finally arrived! So now it is official, we completed the 213 km ride in 13h 35 min!!! Well done us!

Full Brevet card with stamps and times (click to see in larger format!)

Definetely have to aim a bit faster next time!

 We're now planning the next few rides, and hopefully I will be doing a full 200, 300, 400, 600 and maybe a  1000 km series next year. Lucy remains unsure about this and keeps sending me weird looks...That will be my Reyes Magos wish for the New Year!

Ride report: The New Uppertea 200 Audax, Stages 3 and 4

So there we were on our first audax, seemingly keeping up with the crowd as we kept meeting them at the controls. The morning had gone very well and as we left the second control we both had high hopes for the afternoon...

Stage 3: Sutton Scotney to Upperton (69 km)
...but the indian summer heat was starting to kick in, and on our first climb after the control I started to fade too quickly. I think, despite the rest at the control, that I hadn't been drinking enough water. We had to rest in the shade for a while before I felt ready to continue on... and even then I thought it would be better to go at a slightly slower pace rather than push myself too hard and need to stop again. We carried on, only pausing again in Liss when we had to wait at a level crossing for a train to go through. We also managed to convince a pub owner to fill our water bottles up, despite the pub not being open yet. It was that kind of heat that they took pity on us!

Level crossing at Liss.

We eventually turned on to the A272, which we had been worried about being quite busy. But by that time I was feeling quite strong and it was mostly downhill, so we kept up well with the traffic and the km's kicked by pretty quickly. Finally we turned into Upperton, going up the tough hill and finding the third control with the El Supremo feed station we had heard so much about!

We sensed trouble when we arrived and the organisers were already starting to pack up the feed station. They confirmed we were the last riders on the course and it seemed like there was quite a bit of time between us and the previous guys. Still, there was lots of lovely cake, a nice hot drink, and basically any other kind of food we could wish for. We tried to eat and drink as much as we could and then prepared ourselves for stage 4, which we knew would mean night riding.

El Supremo feed station.

Stage 4: Upperton to Newlands Corner (47 km)
We put on our hi-viz vests, changed our sunglass lenses to clear lenses, and switched on our lights. We had to go back on the A272 for a while, this time less easy going as there was a climb out of Petworth that really killed me! Having to climb on such a busy road was stressful and I was starting to feel very tired from the day's hard work. We took another break by the side of the road and Alberto snapped some pictures of the sunset while I tried to gather myself together for the last 45 km.

We road on into the night, keeping an eye on the clock as we knew we would be cutting it close for the final control. After Billinghurst, we were supposed to go onto the A29 which looked really busy with people coming home from their Saturday activities. Alberto took a quick look at the GPS and plotted a route on quiet lanes instead. Then we were in our element of night riding and I was feeling much better again. That is until the final tough climb of the day in Ewhurst! I had to walk it and Alberto was kind enough to ride slowly with me rather than leaving me to walk alone in the dark!

We made it to Shere, the last town before our destination and then up a gradual climb to Newlands Corner. Alberto kept shouting out distances on the GPS (1 km! 500m! 300m!) and we could hardly believe it when we turned into the carpark at 9:30pm, just half an hour before the cutoff time! We were several hours later than everyone else (and apologised profusely to Richard the Audax secretary for having to wait there for us!), but we made it! After our brevet cards are validated, we will officially be randonneurs!

For those interested in the stats:

- Moving time: 10h 7m
- Stopped time: 3h 04m
- Moving average: 21 km/h (not bad!!!)
- Overall average: 16.5 km/h (including stopping, meaning we cut it very fine to get to the last control!)
- Max speed: 51.3 km/h
- Trip odometer: 215 km

Ride report: The NewUppertea Audax 200, Stages 1 and 2

"Time is miles" - quote from the Upperton control stamp

Our Audax ride started at 8 am from somewhere near Guildford, in the southwest of London. We had to have breakfast, cycle to Waterloo, catch an early train, cycle to the start and register for the ride. So alarm went off at 5:15 am but could only open my eyes at 5:35 am. By 6:20 am we were already out of the house and about to descend down to Waterloo...and then I realised that I had a flat tyre! Rushed back into the house and within 5 min I had a new tube in and pumped up to 110 psi. Apparently the valve could not hold up for much longer and realesed all the air overnight...

With all this we missed our train. Not a big deal on a normal ride, but it meant that we would be late for the start. The clock was ticking. And therefore the miles were ticking (see quote above!). We would be cycling behind schedule and also we would not be able to enjoy the atmosphere at the start, with tea and biscuits. Oh well. Got to Guildford and cycle up to Newlands Corner, met some people cycling in the opposite direction, met Dave & Richard (the organisers), got our brevet cards and without delay went back down to Guildford for stage 1. We will see Dave later at the Upperton control. Richard, not that we knew, would be waiting for us much later back at Newlands Corner for the final control. We started the ride at 8:25 am.

Stage 1: Newlands Corner - Three Mile Cross (46 km)
After a gentle downhill we were on relatively busy roads (not at this time of the morning though) heading northwest of Guildford, via Jacobs Well, Pirbright, Frimley Green, Yately & Eversley, Spencers Wood and finally Three Mile Cross. The route was mostly flat and urban, as it approached Reading towards the end. The temperatures were very comfortable and we were riding on summer clothing all the way. At some point we got passed by two other audaxers, who we will meet again at the first control. We managed to average >25 km/h and the stage took us less than 2 h, which is probably the fastest we've ever ridden in quite a while! We made it to the control with more than half an hour to spare which, considering our late start, was not bad at all! Met a few others that were leaving and as proof of passage we got two juices at the gas station, put our receipts in our pockets, and off we went on to stage 2. It seemed that were were the last ones already.

Smiley Lucy after >25 km/h average, at the Three Mile Cross control

Stage 2: Three Mile Cross to Sutton Scotney (45 km)
The temperatures were going up by now, it was 20 degrees or more, very unusual for this time of the year, when it should be more like 10. Left the control and happily rode another 45 km. This time we soon entered the beautiful English countryside, with pretty much traffic-free roads. After reaching Silchester, we rode along an old Roman wall, after which we got to Ramsdell. The roads were very flat so far. We went past Ramsdell, Ibworth, Deane and Steventon, to then ride along a very long section of country lanes that went gently uphill (the old A303 we belive!). We made a diversion from the original route to avoid busy roads, making a few more km than necessary, in exchange for some nice views and quiet lanes. At this point we felt ready for another break, so we pushed on to the second control. It really helps spliting these kind of rides into various stages, so that you have short goals to meet to keep yourself motivated. After about 2 h of riding (>23 km/h) we got to the second control in yet another gas station. We met the same riders again, which must have got there about 20-30 min before us. I chatted about bikes (duh!) and specifically about audax bikes (duh!) as am thinking on getting/building one. I got excited about long audaxes as we spoke to the veterans. One of them had even ridden the Paris-Brest-Paris back in 2003! Definetely something I am aiming for (in 2015!)...

Lucy battling the rolling hills

Applying sunscreen at the Sutton Scotney control, not a very scenic stop

It had been very easy going so far, decent average of >24 km/h and very little stopping. We even had more than 1 h to spare at the second control, we had our hopes up, felt pretty good and got a little relaxed. 90 km and another ~125 km to go. An "El Supremo" feed in between after stage 3. The rest from now on was not that easy...

Ride report from stages 3 and 4 coming soon!