Arrivée 151 Spring 2021 by Audax UK

Arrivee s t s’ e cycli c n a t s g-di zine the lonbers’ maga – K U Audax tion – mem021 a 2 associ 51 • spring 1 e u s Is

A very British madness

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Arrivee

INSIDE ISSUE 151

sts’ ce cycli istan ine long-d agaz – the embers’ m x UK Auda tion – m g 2021 associa151 • sprin Issue

Membership matters

Just a Sec

Notice of AGM

Cycling shorts

Letters 08 A very British madness 32 page

Front cover… photo: ©Tim Allen Paolo Cappo in the death zone – page 32

We’re on the road to nowhere

The white road less travelled

There ain’t no mountain high enough

Bear with me for a grizzly adventure

Clarion call to the hills

A very British madness

A wild ride in search of national treasure

Barking mad – how dogs changed the course of history

It’s a long way down the holiday road – on a tandem

Joy riding on yon bonnie braes

AUK Calendar events

OCD cyclo climbing 2020

36 54

Contacts 61 Prize crossword

Events entry form

Welcome to the spring 2021 issue of Arrivée

Arrivée151Spring2021

Uneasy rider

If you’re of a certain vintage, you may remember the Chopper bike. It arrived in the early 1970s at around the same time as flared trousers, platform shoes, Parka jackets with fur-trimmed hoods, football hooliganism and Glam Rock. Unsurprisingly none of these things, except for the hooliganism, survived to the end of the decade. The Chopper was a marvel, an icon of the age… and a triumph of style-overcommon sense. It was covered in shiny bells and whistles… few of which had any purpose, other than to make the thing look cool. The big, fat back wheel came with a steel “disc brake” which was purely decorative. Similarly, the row of coil springs beneath the long saddle – suggesting some sort of suspension – was just for show.

Worse still, the gear change was positioned on the central cross-bar, causing the bike to wobble alarmingly when the rider changed gear. The knob on the gear stick had a habit of unscrewing itself and dropping off… leaving a lethal metal spike at the rider’s groin level. The long saddle also encouraged young riders to take on passengers – double the fun… and double the risk of injury. But the worst thing about the Chopper only revealed itself at speed. With all the weight at the rear of the bike, the front wheel had an upsetting tendency to lift off the ground. How many young riders, in that split-second before hitting a tree, thought to themselves: “Blimey! I’ve invented the wheelie”? It was priced at around £32 – equivalent to £500 in today’s money – so was beyond the reach of many families in the

cash-strapped seventies… which was probably a good thing. To be fair to Raleigh Cycles, the Nottingham-based company whose fortunes were turned by the arrival of the Chopper, later made versions that addressed these stability and safety issues. Anyway, back in the early 1970s we had a fairly cavalier approach to health and safety. Owning a Chopper might have been risky, but it came with considerably more kudos than sporting one of those triangular Cycle Proficiency Test lapel badges – which singled you out as a thorough-going nerd. Those of us who lived through the decade tend to bathe in a rosy glow of nostalgia – the thrills, the danger – the haircuts! There was no such thing as the nanny state, poking its nose in, and spoiling the fun. Modern safety rules and regulations

mean that it would be impossible to design, produce and sell a product like those early Chopper bikes today… a good thing, maybe, but leaning back on your Chopper bike, grasping the cow horn handlebars, you felt like Peter Fonda in Easy Rider… what a great film. Mind you, that didn’t end well either, did it?

Tony Lennox former editor, Birmingham Post and Warwickshire Life, 45 years in regional newspapers

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS… Caroline Fenton, AUK Membership Secretary FIRSTLY, WELCOME to all the new members who have joined us and thanks for your confidence that 2021 will turn out to be a better year than 2020 for Audax riding. And secondly, welcome back to all our renewers. Not unexpectedly, our membership numbers at the end of 2020 were lower than at the corresponding point in 2019, by around 300 members, but the good news is that in general the number who have chosen not to renew is no higher than last year. This was our first renewal period using our new membership system and I am really pleased with how it went from my perspective. I particularly appreciated that members could update household memberships (add and remove) directly online instead of asking me. One aspect that wasn’t so good was payment with credit/debit card using the PayPal service – several of you got in touch to say you were experiencing problems. We did contact PayPal support and it seems that they no longer guarantee that card payments will be possible and they often push setting up a PayPal account which I know some of you don’t want to do. The good news (but too late for this renewal round) is that we now have another payment provider – Stripe – for card payments. We hope this will be more reliable, and usefully the fees are lower than PayPal. If you do have any comments on the renewal process or the new membership system more generally, please do get in touch by email to membership@audax.uk or by post to the address inside the back cover of this magazine. With lockdown restrictions still in place as I write this, new member enrolments (normally strong in the period between January and April) are somewhat down again. As I had to estimate the required number of December Arrivées back in November, I requested too many and we will have some copies left over. So we will run our “send to a friend” offer again – let me know if you have a cycling friend, colleague or relative who might be interested in joining AUK and we will (stocks permitting) send a complimentary copy to whet their appetite. Finally, if you joined recently and would like some extra reading whilst other activities are limited then I still have reasonable stock of most issues from 2019 and 2020. Drop me a line to enquire about availability and postage rates.

2021 KW Audax Rides Schedule, lockdown conditions permitting… The KW Audax Chapter is planning monthly rides from March through to October, building up to an epic flagship new 1,000 km event in July down to Land’s End and back, please click the ride links for further details and how to enter: • Sun 14 Mar – Gently Bentley 200km • Sat 17 Apr – Amesbury Amble 300km • Sat 15 May – Dauntsey Dawdle 400km • Sat 12 Jun – Wander Wye 600km • Wed 7 Jul – London – Land’s End – London 1,000km • Sun 15 Aug – Rowlands Ramble 200km • Sat 11 Sep – Fifth Continent 300 km to celebrate 100 years of audax! • Sun 3 Oct – Brace of Bramleys 200 km

www.audax.uk

Just a sec It is now almost exactly a year since the Board took the unprecedented step of suspending all AUK activities. I do not think any of us expected then that we would be taking the same decision again at the start of 2021. As the nations of the UK announce their plans to release lockdown, it is looking increasingly likely that we will be able to resume our own activities sooner rather than later and I am sure that day cannot come soon enough for our members. For my part, I will spend a significant amount of time over the coming days and weeks scrutinising the guidance and legislation coming from the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations in order that I can advise the Board in its decision-making. We are fortunate that we have already gone through the hoops for the formal return to organised outdoor sport in every part of the UK so we will be in step with other national governing bodies as we move forward. We have taken a slightly different position on permanent events which we are not treating as organised sport; meaning we can be slightly more flexible but also that we are on our own when it comes to interpreting the guidance. Even the very largest funded NGBs have struggled at times to keep up with changes so please bear with us as we try to resume as quickly as the guidance allows.

GRAEME PROVAN, General secretary, Audax UK Spare a thought too for our organisers as they try to plan ahead in uncertain times. I am sure they will do their best to put on your favourite events wherever possible but they will need your patience and forbearance as they do so.

delegates to ensure that organisers are supported in their planning and decisionmaking. Meanwhile Permanent Events AGM Secretary, John Ward, is preparing himself The formal notice of our AGM is set out for the Herculean task of manually below. This year’s AGM will be different opening permanent events as they from recent years and the meeting itself become available to ride. will be at least partly virtual. Further John reported that, despite the details will follow as soon as we know lockdowns, there had been circa 6000 the most likely format. permanent validations during the latest You will see there are a number of season compared to 6600 the previous director elections taking place. I am season. hopeful that most of our outgoing Membership Secretary, Caroline Fenton, executive directors can be persuaded to also reported that she had been pleased serve another term but there are two with the membership renewal process on vacancies for non-executive directors the new website. and it would be heartening to see AUK’s IT Manager, Kevin Lake, joined contested elections for these posts. the meeting to report on progress with the IT Refresh Project. He and his team BOARD MEETING had largely been concentrating on Our latest board meeting took place on improvements to Phase II before the 13th of January. proceeding with the planning for Phase We discussed the ongoing suspension III. They were looking at implementing the Stripe payment system as a of AUK events in some detail with a replacement for Paypal on a gradual basis. particular focus on the practicalities of resuming events as the lockdowns were As usual, you can find the minutes of eased across the country. Our Calendar the meeting and copies of the directors’ Events Secretary, Ian Hennessey, is reports in the official section of the already working hard with his regional website.

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IMPORTANT NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Arrivée magazine is very happy to receive submissions from readers. In fact, your contributions represent almost the entire content. Arrivée is written by members, for members and about members. We do, however, reserve the right to edit, amend or abridge submitted copy. By submitting copy, contributors are understood to consent to this policy. Contributors should also accept that the editor retains responsibility for headlines, design and lay-out. All submitted copy must contain the writer’s name – nicknames or aliases are not acceptable – and membership number, together with an email address. While we will always strive to present your copy to your satisfaction, in common with all other publishers, our duty is primarily to our readers, and we maintain the right to make adjustments where necessary. We will always endeavour to publish your story but it might be in a later issue as we are currently limited to 64 pages.

ISSUE 152 – SUMMER 2021 EDITION

Send your stories to gedlennox@me.com There is no copy deadline for stories as most will be published, but not necessarily immediately unless they are time-imperative. COPY DEADLINE FOR ADVERTISERS: 26 April 2021 ● Send your text in any word-processor format and your pictures as separate files (i.e. not embedded in the document). ● Images must be as big as possible, anything below 1Mb jpeg is not usable ● It is essential that your photographs are captioned, preferably in a separate document, cross referenced to your pictures. ● Include your full contact details – including your AUK number – we cannot publish your story otherwise ● Package the content into a single compressed zip archive. ● If it is too large (i.e. more than 10Mb) please use WeTransfer, MailBigFile or a cloud-based platform like Dropbox etc. ● Please do not use the old Mediafire gateway as it is no longer functional.

Notice of Annual General Meeting

Audax United Kingdom Long-distance Cyclists’ Association (“Audax UK”) Notice is given that the Annual General Meeting of Audax UK will be held on Saturday 15 May 2021. Further details about attendance and voting will follow. Graeme Provan General Secretary secretary@audax.uk Resolutions should be submitted by members acting as proposer and seconder by post or email to the General Secretary to arrive no later than the 19 March 2021. The resolution may include a statement of no more than 1000 words. The draft resolutions will then be available via www.audax.uk and on the AUK Forum for a period of not less than 21 days for review. During this period members may submit amendments to resolutions in the same manner as resolutions. Proposers of resolutions and/or amendments may similarly withdraw unamended resolutions and/or amendments, or otherwise combine, partition or otherwise redraft them so long as they continue to address the resolution’s original subject. Elections for the following posts will take place at the AGM: ● Chair ● Director – Permanent Events Secretary ● Director – Events Services (Note: the current holder was appointed by the board and the appointment needs to be ratified by the members) ● Director – Membership Secretary ● Non-Executive Directors (2 posts) Nominations with details of the members proposing and seconding the nomination and the consent of the nominated person to serve together with a statement of that person’s relevant abilities or experience of no more than 1000 words should be sent by post or email to the General Secretary to be received no later than 16 April 2021 A detailed agenda including the final resolutions and nominations and annual reports and accounts will be published on the website not later than the 23 April 2021. It is probably that the meeting itself will be partly or wholly a virtual meeting. It is important that all members ensure that their email details on www.audax.uk are accurate. Details of proxy voting will be sent to all members with email addresses. For reasons of cost, the final agenda and annual report will be published via the website save in respect of any members who applied to the Registrar using the form provided below.

Agenda for the Audax UK Long Distance Cyclists’ Association AGM 2019/20 To be held on 15 May 2021 commencing at 12:00pm 1 To record the names of those present at the meeting 2 To record apologies for absence 3 To approve the minutes of the last AGM as a true record of that meeting 4 Matters arising from the last meeting (AGM 2018/19). 5 To approve the Annual Report 6 To approve the Annual Accounts and the Finance Director’s recommendations 7 To consider resolutions 8 Election of Directors 1 Chair 2 Permanent Events Secretary 3 Membership Secretary 4 Events Services Director 5 Non-Executive Director (2 posts) 9 Date and venue of next meeting 10 Close of meeting

To: Mr L Hereward, Audax UK Registrar, ‘Polvellan’, School Hill, Mevagissey, Cornwall PL26 6TG I would like to register to receive the AGM papers and proxy form by post. Signed: Date: Name: AUK Membership No:

www.audax.uk

CYCLING

SHORTS Cycling Shorts is your platform for news, call-outs, views and opinions on anything cycling-related. We’re keen to hear your biking tales, old or new. Drop us an email with the details. We’re looking for all types of short stories from Audax riders, with a picture of yourself too if possible. Send to: gedlennox@me.com

Summertime prospect for events restart… until 17 May or, if later, the start of Step 3 when it will increase to 30. Permanent events of up to 600km will also be validated from the start of Step 3.

There was some good news from the government shortly before Arrivée went to press, in that some of the restrictions that had required AUK to suspend validation of events were being eased, holding out the prospect of both permanent and calendar rides restarting by the summer. The announcement, on 22 February, applied only to England, but it’s hoped that by the time you are reading this, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will have followed suit.

Calendar and permanent events of any length will be validated from the 21 June or, if later, the start of Step 4.

This means that AUK is able to recommence the validation of events of up to 300km that take place solely within England from the 29 March. This applies to calendar and permanent events. Permanent events will initially be limited to 6 participants per event route each day

All events will be subject to the guidance and behaviour codes published on the Audax.uk web site, where you will also find the latest updates for each part of the UK as they are announced. You will remain responsible for your own compliance with applicable guidance and legislation. In particular, you should be aware of any restrictions on travel which will apply to travel to and from events other than by bike.

Rob McIvor CS

Brothers Richard and Tony Evans have come up with a cycle tours business idea guaranteed to offer great scenery, comfortable accommodation – and absolutely no sleeping in bus stops… What’s left for an Audax rider when he’s cycled round the world on a recumbent, completed five PBPs and four LELs, and founded the Kingston Wheelers Audax Chapter? Richard Evans asked himself that question as he inched towards his 60th birthday. The answer presented itself during the summer of 2020 – set up a cycle tours business with me, his younger brother. We’ve undertaken many tours together over the years – with Richard usually planning the course while I tend to deal with logistics, like accommodation. During the Covid summer we set off together on a six-day circular tour from my home in the Chilterns to the Snowdonia coast and back – around 130km per day, comfortable accommodation and plenty of time for a nice meal out and a couple of beers in the evenings. “We should bottle this and sell it,” said Richard – and so the Glaudax Cycle Tours concept was born.

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The following weeks saw us set up a limited liability partnership, build a website, effect countless changes to the route, and make around 300 bed nights of provisional hotel bookings among myriad other tasks.

Some route changes were deemed necessary when we rode it in the summer – for example, a stretch of NCN track avoiding a busy section of A-road turned out to be not fit for purpose, and required a major route alteration. Many other sections were tweaked and improved in order to achieve their aim of finding “quiet lanes and spectacular scenery”. Having made these changes to both the route and some of the overnight stops, a further challenge remained

PICTURES: IVO MIESEN

From Audax to Glaudax putting the glamour into long-distance cycling – we would need to get back out on the road to check the entire Mark II route and to visit the newly selected hotels. Google Maps, Streetview and Ride with GPS are all very well but unless you’ve seen it for yourself you can’t be entirely sure what you’ll find. The same can be said for Tripadvisor accommodation reviews. The whole country was now in various Covid tiers, and Wales was in complete lockdown, plus the shorter late-autumn days were hardly conducive to a bike route test of that length – we’d have been trying to check half of it in the dark! A brief window of opportunity presented itself in early December after the Welsh restrictions were eased, so we set off by car on a three-day tour of the route at a sedate average of 30 mph for 500-plus miles. After a few final tweaks, the route and accommodation were declared fit for purpose, and another of our aims thereby fulfilled: “Meticulous route design”. Other features of a Glaudax Cycle Tour are secure bike storage at the overnight stops, luggage transfer and emergency assistance. Richard and I will accompany every tour in the Glaudax Sherpa van, and will hop on our own bikes now and then to join our clients – a maximum of just ten on each tour keeps things cosy. Glaudaxers will also enjoy a breakfast at the popular Musette cycling café in Aldury (musettecafe.co.uk) before setting off for stage one of the tour, and a finishers’ meal back at Musette at the end. The Glaudax website was launched in December and the first bookings soon followed. The Grand Snowdonia Tour is scheduled to run four times in 2021. The first is due to depart on 2 May and has sold out. The next tour at the end of May is selling fast. Whether

Sun-baked… Richard on PBP

Covid restrictions will have been lifted sufficiently for the early tours to run is still up in the air at the time of writing, but with relaxed payment terms and a full refund guarantee if Glaudax have to cancel a tour, would-be Glaudaxers are able to book with confidence. Oh, and did someone ask “Why Glaudax?” You’ll find the answer to that and many more questions at www.glaudax.co.uk Tony Evans

What is Superwheel?

Fellowship News the jewel in the crown of the Fellowship of Cycling… Quarterley, 144 pages per issue. No adverts unless nostalgic. Packed with members’ contributions: literary, artistic, photographic etc and not forgetting the many Patterson drawings, Reduced subs to new first time members £15 for 15 months (5 issues). Normally £20 pa. (4 issues) Cheques payable to FCOT.

Audax member John Holding brought our attention to this pertinent development after reading the story about e-bikes in our last edition. This extraordinary invention is a recent, and still developing, system that uses the downstroke compression together with the weight of the rider to harness energy. Quite good for those of us who carry a bit of reserve up every hill… it claims to be equivalent to an electric motor but without the battery, so could be used on any Audax ride.

Apply to Adam Pride, 76, Foredown Drive, Portslade, Brighton, E. Sussex. BN41 2BE

Initial energy efficiency improvements against a standard wheel of as much as 30 per cent have been observed and more precise measures are being made. It uses a weight to energy conversion system through coiled springs that return power during rotation.

Be careful what you wish for…

Bearing in mind that cycling is already considered the most energy-efficient means of transport, my interest was certainly piqued, so I got in touch with the French/Irish development

David Twitchett CS

Randonauting (via the Randonautica app) not to be confused with randonneuring, is a craze sweeping the world. The premise is the random choice of places to walk, ride or drive to, that have been selected, in part, by the quantum influences of your own thoughts. During lockdown this free app has proven very popular among walker, cyclists and ramblers seeking to extend their experience by incorporating Augmented Reality (AR) into otherwise repetitive daily exercise. Joshua Lengfelder, the mind behind this app, developed the idea that random exploration could divert people from their “predetermined realities” while trapped with reduced outlooks due to the pandemic, a worthy idea in itself without having to conjure quantum entanglement you would think. Some users report interesting and sometimes spooky synchronicities and coincidences resulting from this AR – probably because it takes you to places not visited before. Some unusual discoveries have also been claimed, such as money, drugs and even body parts in suitcases. The idea that there are any quantum influences at work with this app has been countered by physicist Daniel J Rogers in the New York Times who attests that it’s a simple random number generator wrapped up in science jargon – I have to say that I was at a loss to comprehend how my old iPhone 8, built long before quantum computers, could have such spooky abilities wired into its ageing OS… But I understand that quantum entanglement is little understood and deeply troubling, even to some of our greatest minds, including Einstein who was proven conclusively wrong in his disbelief – entangled particles are a thing, furthermore they have been around since the big bang and our atoms could be full of them. Having said all that, it’s a great idea and certainly something to entertain before we all get back on the road. if you fancy an alternative adventure you can download the app from apple and android platforms – but take care about what’s on your mind when you plot your first target…

team and they very kindly agreed to send me one of their latest production wheels for review in the next issue of Arrivée (152). That is if we can get anything delivered from the EU in the short term… Until then, the latest news about the Superwheel system can be found on their facebook: www.facebook.com/superwheelsystem

Brief note on the poetry of endurance cycling Flashing through the pages of Arrivée are snatches of the poetry of the life awheel. For whatever reason we ride a randonnee, at some point on the road the mind turns to musing. A hot summer of 2021 could bring to mind Louis MacNeice, in The Cyclist, imagining a group ‘riding their heat-wave/ Feet on a narrow plank and hair thrown back/ And a surf of dust beneath them.’ My Thorn Audax bike surprised me the other day, because it’s gone unused for so long. ‘It isn’t / a translucent insect,’ writes Pablo Neruda in Ode to Bicycles, ‘humming through summer / but a cold skeleton / that will return to life / only when it’s needed, when it’s light.’ This past year has taken the wind out of many cyclists, with the disappointing exhalation of a puncture. In La Foratura the Italian tourer Gigi Mondani has written the only poem I know of specifically about a puncture: ‘E all’improvviso Pfffff/ come una lagna! (‘All of a sudden pff! Like a whingeing moan!’) Soon tyres can sing the song of smoothrunning and we’ll hear the wind in the wheels. In Derek Mahon’s The Bicycle, they sing ‘in the memory, stars that turn/ About an eternal centre/ The bright spokes glittering.’ Cycling long-distance and poetry both revolve around dreaming. Where does it end? Do I sell my car buy a tourer with a fatter downtube and live the hippy dream, go on beyond the end of an Audax ride and on, overland to Asia? The Japanese haiku seems peculiarly well-fitted to describe endurance cycling. Matsuo Basho went on foot of course along his Narrow Road to

the Interior. His haikus are simple enough to recite with pleasure to oneself on a long Audax ride. ‘The guardian spirits of the road beckoned,’ writes the Zen master, ‘and I could not settle down to work.’ Running along the backlanes of Britain supplies something of the solace sought by a monk departing the metropolis in search of tranquillity. Miel Vanstreels has published a book of his own two-wheeled haikus, but no-one has yet translated them from the Dutch. For a poem not about the bike or touring but racing in a group, Tim Krabbe offers some lyrical descriptions in The Rider. The Danish writer Jorgen Leth exquisitely captures that critical point when the candidate for victory makes a break: ‘I see the many signs / The eyes of the men facing inwards / I see myself getting ready to jump / I get out of the saddle / look around one last time / I hear the heart of the peloton beating.’ Leth of course was director of the Paris-Roubaix documentary ‘A Sunday in Hell’, and his poetry comes closer than anyone I’ve yet found to distilling the essence of cycling, its rhythm just like that of his opening shot, the clacking of the chain running through the derailleur, that purr of the paintbrush loading oil on the transmission as it ticks by. But it is the best cycling poem? The road to find it goes ever on. ● Ben Lowings is an Audaxer from Berkshire. He’s planning a ride In Pursuit Of Spring. It follows the London-Somerset bike route taken by the poet Edward Thomas in his book.

Ben Lowings CS www.audax.uk

LETTERS In the last edition (Arrivée 150 winter) we posed the question: Should e-bikes be allowed entry into Audax events? Readers have plunged into the debate with gusto, expressing a range of opinion, but all favourable. Here’s what you had to say:

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OLD ENOUGH TO CHANGE MY MIND Sir, I read with interest your review of The Alan Linge Ribble Endurance SLe range in the winter magazine, and the measured arguments surrounding the acceptance of such machines on Audax events. More than 70 years on the saddle atop a selection of 531 steel frames, outs me as a traditionalist whose views on electric assistance can be easily envisaged. However, no longer able to enjoy Audax events, my riding is now limited to a few hundred miles a month. I dread the day when even this is beyond me, when I’ll have to reconsider my attitude to e-bikes. Regarding their acceptance on Audax rides, I feel our stated aims limit any argument for exclusion. They may need their own category and awards system – well within the capabilities of our membership to construct. If for no other reason, this year’s horrors have clearly shown the need for social inclusion, and I hope AUK will seek to address this issue. Alan Linge

I JUST WANT TO RIDE Sir, I’ve completed two PBPs in the past, but these days I’m much slower, partly due to old age, and partly my health. I gave up riding with groups of friends a couple of years ago because I couldn’t keep up when going uphill. They were kind and waited for me, but it put too much stress on my heart. On our group’s trip to Majorca I decided to rent a couple of e-bikes. One of these was a Pinarello, a ﬂashy looking speedster, which was great, though

David Cox Gerry Goldsmith

expensive. Returning home I test-rode the bike Richard reviewed, which was good except that, being a 5ft tall female, the reach was too long and the bars too low. After some research the Pinarello turned out to be the best for me – so I bought one. For winter use, I have my trusty old tourer customised with an add-on battery and motor. It’s still hard work on distance rides, and the e-bike range prevents me from doing much more than 100k. But I’d love to ride again with old Audax friends, but can’t see me getting round in time on a non-electric bike. I don’t want to gain points, I just want to ride! Gerry Goldsmith GOOD IDEA – WITH MITIGATIONS Sir, We should welcome the use of e-bikes. Their users have much in common with those riding Audax events, and to exclude them seems perverse. The more people sharing the Audax experience, the merrier. However, we should acknowledge that e-bikes confer a physical advantage and that future developments in battery technology could lead to them being used for pacing riders of un-powered bikes. I know Audax is meant to be non-competitive but the competitive spirit is often in evidence among riders at the front of events. In order to allow e-bikes to ride alongside un-powered bikes in Audax events, I would suggest two regulations – to mitigate against the possibility of future e-bikes being able to provide power-assistance at high speed, we should adopt the regulation that an e-bike shall not provide assistance above 15mph; and to acknowledge the physical assistance given by e-bikes, riders should be awarded e-brevets. So far as annual Audax awards are concerned, I would suggest that e-brevets could not count towards them. I don’t think this would act as any deterrent to e-bike riders and would, I hope, satisfy those riders who like to compete for those awards. Adrian Hanson-Abbott BREATHE EASY WITH AN E-BIKE Sir, I really enjoyed your well-written article and Richard Betts’ test ride of the Ribble. The proposal, should it arise at a future AGM, to allow regulation e-bikes on Audaxes, identified to protect the bulk of enthusiasts, would get my vote.

I’ve been in Audax for some time, mainly joining local 200k events organised by my club Beacon RCC. I’ve also completed LeJog and Side-to-Side permanents on an unsupported tandem, and relatively recently attempted the Montgomerie Madness. However, I’m a 74 year old geezer with an asthma problem. I had my first asthma attack in March 2019. I’d ridden out to marshal a Beacon Time Trial full of beans, stood around in the cold for hours and then wheezed my way back for 24 miles. This resulted in an emergency hospital admission. While in hospital I thought about replacing my bikes with e-bikes. A Brompton for mixed mode and local trips, a utility hybrid for shopping and towing the trailer and a Ribble for longer rides in the country. I can still do Audaxes within the time limits, and ride up any of the local hills between Birmingham and the Cotswolds – albeit slowly and in winch gear. I’ve kept fit on a dumb turbo and now do solo rides into the countryside with a picnic to keep my mileage up. But at what point do you decide that the risk of a heart attack to pursue a healthy hobby, outweighs missing out on the rest of family life and other enjoyments? The argument for e-bikes for utility use is, I think, won. My e-Brompton means I’m not tempted to use a car for local solo trips in the city and is a good start on my e-bike conversion. I’ll be checking out the very attractive Ribble range next year. It would be nice to be able to use it for some events. My asthma was the result of commuting through Birmingham for 40 years, mostly by bike. A recent study from Leeds University, presented at Ideas with Beers Tuesday webinar with Brian Deegan, showed how riding hard in polluted cities can damage lungs and hearts. The author advocated e-bikes because you don’t have to breathe so hard. David Cox OBE IMPORTANCE OF INCLUSION Sir, Your articles on e-bikes were well written, and raised an important issue. I really can’t see what the problem is with e-bikes taking part in Audax. Some people try to make events harder by riding fixed wheel. Some of us have made them really hard with a not-so-strong stoker on a tandem. These are personal choices and there are “boxes”

on the brevet card to show fixed wheel and tandems. What’s so different about an e-Bike? Least readers think I am pushing a personal cause I have never ridden an e-bike. However, every cyclist I know who has progressed to an e-bike has done it with considerable reluctance. Audax is a personal challenge so it’s what we achieve that’s important. For many e-bike riders the effort and achievement may be more than that experienced by a fit young athlete. It’s also worth noting that many of the new breed of e-bikes are hardly distinguishable from a road bike. It’s easy to cheat in an Audax and as an organiser I would not have a clue if someone used a Ribble e-bike, or similar. Hopefully organisers won’t be required to check all bikes with a thermal camera to ensure mechanical doping is not taking place. However, one of the most important things is that AUK needs to be as inclusive as possible. The camaraderie of all involved is perhaps the best thing about the Audax association. There is ample evidence that those who have achieved in sport often suffer badly from low self-esteem and depression when affected by reduced performance, particularly where this is related to health issues. It would be great to keep such people actively involved in Audax. In my opinion we should allow e-bikes on a trial basis with immediate effect, which will provide evidence to allow a suitable redrafting of the rules at the earliest opportunity. Colin Gray ALL POWER TO THEM! Sir, I converted my trusty Hewitt tourer to electrical assist in early 2018 as I suffer from a heart condition, atrial fibrillation (AF), that, as I get older (I’m currently 72), is not helped by hard rides. I find that I now enjoy rides again without worrying about holding up the others, as I used to have to slow down to manage my AF. It also allows me to keep up with younger riders so that I can continue to enjoy club rides and cycle touring. For my last Audax, back in 2019, I used my new Ribble electric and entered without realising that electric bikes were not allowed. I thoroughly enjoyed the Audax ride with my cycling chums around the Nottinghamshire countryside. AF is quite a common occurrence in older cyclists and if electrical assist keeps them cycling then all power to them – so to speak. Electric bikes provide huge benefits to older and health-challenged riders. Peter Morgan

IT’S THE FUTURE Sir, I thoroughly enjoyed the thoughtprovoking articles on e-bikes. My view is that Audax should encompass anything legally defined as a bicycle – and that includes e-bikes. If members wanted, all awards could be categorised as either E and Non Electric. At 71 I’ve just ordered an e-bike. In recent years I have not ridden any events as the effort is becoming too much. I still tour and ride all year-round but my riding is constrained by distance and terrain. An e-bike will, I hope, help me extend my range. I cannot be alone in this. In some countries e-bikes comprise 40 per cent of all sales. They’re becoming the entry point to adult cycling. Cycling (and Audax UK) needs to attract and hold these people. We also need to extend our welcome to people of all abilities. None of this takes away from the impressive achievements of those who ride the likes of LEL and PBP. This is less of an issue, dare I say it, than recumbents, trikes and tandems? John Mills WHO’S COMPLAINING? Sir, I thought e-bikes were allowed for BP events (says so at the website) but results not validated? So it’s really just a question of validating an e-bike category, not stopping e-bike riders from attending events I suspect an e-bike category would get very competitive and, for example, battery management would have to be added to all the other variables to be managed on longer rides. At least one internationally competitive cycle sport, mountain bike orienteering, does allow e-bikes on a non-competitive basis as a separate class, and I’ve not seen anyone complain. Carl Brancher WHO’LL VOLUNTEER IF EVERYONE RIDES? Sir, I’d have no problem with having an e-bike category for Audax. If it helps people to continue to enjoy Audax then it’s good for the sport. But will we lose volunteers if they can all cycle again? Andrew Beattie A GAME-CHANGER? Sir, It was pleasing to see Richard Betts able to get out and about on a bike. While I understand that nothing is simple, I don’t immediately see why there can’t be an e-bike category, and I for one would welcome the change. E-bikes have the potential to be such a game changer, not just in Audax, but to enable cycling more broadly. I held this opinion anyway, but more so since developing “Long Covid” this year which has left me feeling pretty tired

most of the time – classic British understatement. I feel the Audax community would be setting a strong example by opening up events to e-bikes and I agree with you that it is just more inclusive. Lee Webster BRINGING THE PLEASURE BACK Sir, Once a keen cyclist, for one reason or another I drifted away from cycling but recently had the urge to start again. At 62, and having gained a few more kilos, I was finding it pretty hard work on even the gentle hills – and I just wasn’t enjoying it. I considered of a bespoke e-bike for a while but didn’t really want to buy another bike. Then I stumbled upon the idea of the conversion kits that are now available, and decided to give this a go. For about £340, I purchased a Yose Power kit (rear hub drive) and set about installing it on my trusty and very comfy steel-framed Rourke. The resulting bike is fantastic. For sure, it’s added some weight but it has brought the pleasure of cycling back and I’ve now done about 500km just in the last month or so. There are five power levels to choose from but typically I leave it on level three which normally means that the motor is helping just on the inclines or in strong headwinds. On this level, my average speed typically comes out at 24.5 kph, which was the sort of speed I used to ride at when younger and fitter. I’m all for e-bikes and would hope that sufficient numbers of older folk and those with health issues can add enough weight to allow the addition of a separate category for this type of rider. Stuart Evans I JUST WANT TO GET AROUND Sir, Having read Richard Betts story I can relate to it. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in the early 1980s when I was about 25/26 years old, I had a lot of pain and I’ve been on medication since then. As a result, I’ve never really done much sport as I would suffer with my joints afterwards, I’ve had RA for 40 years now and still on medication. In 2013 I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and Peripheral Neuropathy, my nerves had died in my feet and hands and they felt numb and tingly and I could feel this creeping up to my knees, at one stage I was told I could be in a wheelchair by the time I was 60 after seeing a Neurophysiologist. In the middle of 2013, I was put on eight courses of chemotherapy, this stopped the progression of the Neuropathy in my legs, however it didn’t help my hands or feet, my feet are

Steve Morgan

uncomfortable the whole time, when I walk it feels like I’m walking on a pebble beach and wearing shoes two sizes too small. On the plus side my RA went into remission, apparently it was due to a drug called Rituximab which I was given when I received the chemo. I was advised by my doctor to do exercise to keep my joints moving, I tried running but it was agony on my feet! I decided to try cycling, no impact on my feet, which I really enjoyed. I went out two or three times a week and got the bug. In 2016 I’d done an organised 10-day LeJoG, and over the last 6-years I’ve done 40 Audaxs, Ride London, numerous sportives and The Dragon Ride, I’ve also done my own version of a Coast to Coast, Brighton to Western-super-Mare, 200 miles in 24 hours. Since 2018 my RA has flared up again, I’ve had to have fluid drained from my knees and Cortisone injections in some of my joints, but I’ve still managed to carry on cycling, even wearing elasticated supports on my knees, elbows and wrists. In 2019 my son in law and I did the Dartmoor Devil, I think it’s the hardest Audax I’ve ever done, my son in law hasn’t ridden with me since. Although I’ve managed to ride 4000 miles this year it’s been a struggle with my RA and the last few weeks It’s been an effort knowing that I’m going to struggle on hills! So I’ve decided to get a e-bike for the winter months, so I can go out for a 50/60 mile and enjoy the ride and the surroundings, stop for a break when I want to, and feel okay when I get home despite the elevation, I’m not interested in Strava PBs I just want to get round! I agree with Richard Betts that there should be a separate category for cyclists who need some assistance. Most riders do a Audax for the enjoyment of cycling new roads, good atmosphere and great food at the finish. There’s a good choice of Audaxs in the south so plenty of roads to explore. Cycling is for everyone. My medication at the moment is steroids and my consultant has started me on Rituximab again, which is administered as an infusion twice a year, so hopefully I can get back on my normal road bike this year. Steven Morgan IT’S NOT A RACE Sir, I think like you, that the approach to e-bike participation in audaxes in the future has to be looked at. They aren’t

races and it will certainly extend the participation age for all members. Certainly, users of such bikes will have to seriously consider the terrain and length of the event before participating viz-a-viz battery life. I am attaching a link for a new back wheel invention. My wife wanted to buy one for me, but they are sold out for now. If successful, this type of development could also impact cycling greatly, and not dependent on motors and battery. (See Cycling Shorts on page 6-7) John Holding MANAGING THE E-ADVANTAGE Sir, I read the articles, concerning e-bikes, in Arrivée 150 with interest. Generally, I believe we should welcome the use of e-bikes in Audax events. There is so much that their users have in common with people riding audax events that to exclude them seems perverse. Also, the more people out sharing the audax ride experience, the merrier. However, we should also acknowledge that e-bikes confer a physical advantage and that future developments in battery technology could lead to them being used for pacing riders of un-powered bikes. (I know audax is meant to be non-competitive at heart and that group riding is allowed, but the competitive spirit is often in evidence among riders at the front of events.) In order to allow e-bikes to ride alongside unpowered bikes in audax events, I would suggest two regulations: First, to mitigate against the possibility of future e-bikes being able to provide power-assistance at high speed, I would suggest adopting the current UK government regulation that an e-bike shall not provide assistance above 15mph. Second, to acknowledge the physical assistance given by e-bikes, I would suggest awarding e-brevets to their riders (e.g. 100-e; 200-e; 300-e etc.). If this were done, I cannot see why there should not be an SR-e or an RRTY-e if any one of the qualifying brevets was an e-brevet (e.g. brevets 200; 300-e; 400; 600 result in SR-e). So far as annual audax awards are concerned, I would suggest that e-brevets could not count towards them. I do not think this would act as any deterrent to e-bike riders and would, I hope, satisfy those riders who like to compete for those awards. I hope these points of view can be added to the debate on what to do about e-bikes in audax events. Adrian Hanson-Abbott www.audax.uk

ROAD TONOWHERE

WORDS & PICTURES LUCY MCTAGGART

Lucy McTaggart reflects on a season in the Scottish Borders, plagued by the pandemic, but which still offered plenty to celebrate and enjoy

WE’REONTHE

Ettrick Valley in it’s Autumn Splendour

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The elusive snow hare

THIS TIME LAST YEAR we were just beginning what would turn out to be one of the most difficult years of most of our lives – on and off the bike – and now, a year later, we’re still fighting our way back to the things we love to do. Our Scottish Borders Randonneurs (SBR) group was formed five years ago with the aim of encouraging more local riders to have a go at Audax, while also supporting our regular riders to go onwards and upwards to the longer rides. We had good plans in place ready for 2020. Then came Covid-19, and our strategies for the year – as well as everything else – were

scuppered as lockdown began. It was just luck that the previous autumn we’d put together a year-long challenge within our SBR events. The “Super Rouleur”, based on AUK’s randonneur 1000 – so 100km, 150km, 200km and 300km rides, over any rolling 12 months from when the rider did their first counting event, all done within SBR events. We thought it would encourage newcomers, and give those not wanting to do an SR something to go for.

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… We had good plans in place ready for 2020. Then came Covid-19, and our strategies for the year – as well as everything else – were scuppered as lockdown began

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Dick McTaggart’s Century riders head out

cottish Borders Randonneurs Chase the Snow Hare to Sanquhar… from left, S Russell Carson, Michael Browne (SBR Groupie),Graeme Walsh and Elaine Scott

The March lockdown loomed and with a record number of riders entered for the brand new Snow Hare 200km – a relatively easy terrain route from Galashiels via the Tweed valley to Peebles and on to Broughton and Biggar before crossing the beautiful gradual climb of the Spango pass across to Sanquhar, returning by the same route. Everything was set – hall booked, brevet cards done, cafés alerted, food bought, finishers’ medals made, and helpers at the ready. We managed one last trip – up to Forfar to take part in Dave Husband’s marvellous Scone 100km. It proved to be the last time we’d be able to meet up as normal and maraud across the

countryside, descending en masse to cafés, hoovering up soup and cake before continuing on. The following Monday came the news we were dreading. All events suspended. The Snow Hare would have to sleep for a while longer. Initially there was so much to do, we no time to be fed up with things. We had almost as much work unarranging as arranging but eventually the event rolled over to spring 2021. Here’s hoping we may just make it to run this time. Meanwhile Borders Randonneurs members pondered their fate and looked for things to keep them going. Lots of photos were posted to our page of solo rides to keep each other going. For us, our

Dick appreciates the borders

Crossing paths… Ross Connell near Sanquhar on the Snow Hare DIY

allotment never looked so good as summer 2020. All those non-cycling DIY jobs actually got done. We all worked within our solo cycling daily ration to keep the wheels turning and keep the brain sane. We were grateful for the wonderful summer weather so that even being confined to base wasn’t so bad. Eventually DIYs were allowed to restart, which meant we could hatch a plot for a few of us to go and see the Snow Hare’s roads. On 1 August a small group left Selkirk for Sanquhar, while I set off from Galashiels with the intention of meeting them later in the ride, giving myself a head start, knowing they’d be quicker than my

Pondering… Russell Carson

Lucy at Tweed Bridge Borders side…

… and after we were allowed on the other side

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… The Twilight Zone at the start of October attracted a very stroppy weather fairy – only three intrepid riders managed to finish in the cold, pouring rain

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current slug-legs speed. Two others started from nearer Edinburgh to do a different route but still aiming for Sanquhar. I didn’t get to see the Selkirk group until the return leg from Sanquhar to Biggar where we briefly stopped to chat. It was good to see all the smiley faces, over the moon to be back out. It was a marvellous day. That night I was still wide awake with excitement, and wondering whether a Super Rouleur might still be possible. A few weeks later calendar events restarted, with our 300km Twilight Zone being on the first weekend – 12 September. Two weeks before the event I set out with fellow SBR Ross Connell to do a route check. The plan was for me to ride with him to Longtown, launch him away to the turn at Alston for the full 300km while I turned and went home with the tailwind for a 200km. It seemed like a good plan but I would live to regret not doing the full distance

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The few cafés we used were pleased to see us back – and riders were happy to be back too Riders leave the St. Mary’s Loch cafe

while I had the chance on a decent day. I’d be too busy to ride on the actual day. The Twilight Zone at the start of October attracted a very stroppy weather fairy – only three intrepid riders managed to finish in the cold, pouring rain. My hopes of a Super Rouleur were gone for the year. I was glad we made it a rolling 12 months, so I can look forward, I

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hope, to Russell Carson’s hillier reincarnation of the hilly enough already Reiver Fever 300km in May this year. Our first calendar event back went well. It was necessarily basic with groups of no more than five riders and each group ten minutes apart. Covid paperwork was all signed off, and riders were safely away on a pretty good day,

Lucy in Spango Valley

The Snow Hare roads in winter

and everyone safely back and accounted for. What a relief. The weeks passed and we counted off our planned autumn events with relief as each one went successfully. The few cafés we used were pleased to see us back – and riders were happy to be back too. We made it through the autumn and did eventually run a very low-key Snow

Hare which gave a few riders the chance to finish their Super Rouler. The weather was foul and very windy. One rider who has to get a mention is Mark Sorsa-Leslie who did his first ever 300km on the Twilight Zone in September. He teamed up with Randonneur Chef Cuisinier du Route Joseph North who was a calming influence. We’re all hoping that 2021 will bring

better times though it does look like we’ll have some restrictions to endure for a while. Maybe other Audax groups might consider a local Super Rouleur award. It certainly gave our riders an achievable focus for the year. It will feel incredible when we can get back to being “normal” Audaxers.

www.audax.uk

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Even in the teeming south of England there are quiet lanes to be found – and Basingstoke’s Colin Bezant discovered plenty, including the chalky “white roads” of the South Downs. Here’s his report on long-distance riding in lockdown:

The White road less travelled WORDS & PICTURES COLIN BEZANT

I HAD GREAT PLANS for 2020. It was my intention to tackle the Mad March Many Rivers to Cross, followed by the Oasts and Coasts (300km around Kent), a 400km around the north of Scotland, and finally the epic Crackpot 1000, run as a calendar event for the first time in 20 years. Later in the year I would take a few days to go touring in the far north – Shetland, the Faeroes, or even Iceland. But I only rode the first of these, under the clouds of the first impending lockdown, through Devonian rain and floods. Then lockdown happened. I followed the fatuous suggestion that we should not exercise for more than an hour, not because I understood it, but in a spirit of “we’re all in this together”. As the spread of the virus began to reduce, and the guidance relaxed, I wondered what new horizons could be explored. Ride mapping software came to my rescue. One of the possible routes out of lockdown would be that you could exercise as much as you like but only in your local area. I worked out it was possible to complete a 330km route in Basingstoke & Deane’s 25km x 15km box without entering urban areas and without

crossing my route once. In the old days, before GPS, I wouldn’t have been able to memorise the 200-plus turns involved, but now I could just follow a track. I never got around to riding this, as the rules relaxed enough for me to explore further, but the principles encouraged me to ride roads less travelled. Once we were all allowed to stay away overnight, our static caravan in Selsey, on the south coast, came into play. There’s a barrier on the way to Selsey – the South Downs. As a geographical feature the Downs are not exactly the Alps, but there are very few roads across the escarpment, and most of them are busy. The best route is probably Harting Down (the B2141), but most of the routes east of that have heavy commercial traffic. The next is the A286 at Cocking, then the A285 at Duncton, the A29 up Bury Hill

which joins up with the B2139 from Amberley (a rat run from the South Coast to Gatwick). However, in the summer, there’s an alternative – the “white roads of Sussex”. Many of the farm tracks over the South Downs are hard-packed chalk. When dry, these ride a little like the famous Strade Bianchi of Italy, and its eponymous race, based on the L’Eroica. Riding a section of

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those roads was one of my highlights of the Mille Miglia in Italy in 2010. One weekend I rode the short section from Amberley to Burpham via Peppering Farm, and then, on the way back, turned right at Peppering Farm all the way over Springhead Hill, on my race bike, but with 28mm Schwalbe Durano tyres. Such adventures took my July mileage to over 1,000km, a figure I’d only ever attained only with a 600km Audax or longer ride as part of the distance. I hatched a plan to set a personal best for most miles cycled in a month during August. Everything was going to plan, but I needed a big last weekend. I’d also got used to avoiding cafes and riding over 200km self-supported, trying to minimise contact with other people in shops and cafes. It took a bit of planning to create the route. I checked the roads using Bing Maps in Ordnance Survey mode and Google Streetview, to make sure that some of the more obscure sections were proper roads and not bridle paths. On Sunday I would ride from home in Basingstoke through to Kent, and then take a dog-leg back to Selsey via Steyning Bostal. On Bank Holiday Monday, I’d get up early to avoid traffic on the roads north of Portsmouth and Southampton to get out into Wiltshire as far as Mere, then I’d do a complete traverse of Salisbury Plain before finding roads north of Andover to take me home. The two days would total just over 500km. It wasn’t proper English Bank Holiday weather; the rain had passed through earlier, leaving the roads with scattered debris, especially in my exploration of the greensand lanes south of Godalming. My route mixed familiar and new roads, the latter mostly obscure lanes with variable quality tarmac, but after the white roads of Sussex, nothing of real concern. It wasn’t very warm and I rode most of the morning with arm and leg warmers. I battled a gusty wind that veered between a headwind and a crosswind and inevitably petered out as soon as I got to the dog-leg where it became a tailwind. At Edenbridge I began to feel thin. As I wasn’t taking the ride as seriously as I would an Audax, I parked Roberts against a park bench and unpacked some homemade ham sandwiches from the Carradice bag. I’d made four, with the idea that I’d have two snack stops, but they were so tasty that I finished them, while watching life go by. I was there long enough to get cold and stiff, and put the legwarmers back on,

There was a very ❝ tempting café in the cathedral close in Salisbury, but it was a bit too soon to stop, so I took a picture of my iconic bike with its iconic saddlebag with the iconic spire behind.

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heading off into darkest Kent to explore some very obscure roads as well as the hinterlands of Chiddingstone and Hever castles. Both of these were well-concealed from public roads, so sadly no chance of pictures in front of stately homes. Chiddingstone village was full of tourists not doing a very good job of socialdistancing, so I was glad to leave it behind. I needed all of the energy from those sandwiches for the long drag up to Crowborough, on top of the Weald. My route dropped down into an area I’d only

ridden on a couple of El Supremo Audaxes and the Sussex 24-hour time trial. Needless to say, my memory of the routes was somewhat patchy. The Garmin kept me on track, past Piltdown (of old archaeological scandal fame) to Pyecombe and the cycle route with fond memories of a control on the Cheesie Toastie Audax, now just an empty lay-by, a crowded pub in Poynings and, at last bright sunshine as I headed into the gap in the Downs carved by the River Adur. I was definitely flagging, but I knew there was a shop in Upper Beeding, now a petrol station, where I could get a coffee. Sitting on the forecourt to drink my beverage I met a couple of guys riding the South Downs Way on a gravel bikes. We had a chat about my next challenge, Steyning Bostal, which I’d once raced as a hill-climb. I rode on through Littlehampton, which was as empty of tourists as Chiddingstone had been full, and took the gravel alternative to the B-road down to Selsey, where I bought beer and milk from the Co-op and settled down to watch the Tour de France highlights in our caravan. At 6am the next morning I set off. It was grey but dry and cold, single-figure temperatures. I wore my rain jacket for warmth. Havant was empty. The views from Portsdown Hill were surreal, the Solent and its tangled estuaries wild in comparison with the industrial southcoast landscapes. Eastleigh was busy, but soon I was riding through a quiet valley between Romsey and Salisbury and the sun came out. I stopped, took all the extra layers off and pretended it was high summer. My route took me through Salisbury as, bizarrely, this was the easiest way to avoid longer sections of busy roads. There was a very tempting café in the cathedral close, but it was a bit too soon to stop, so I took a picture of my iconic bike with its iconic saddlebag with the iconic spire behind. Then I tackled the Ebble Valley, with a slight detour to explore some more new roads. Lunch was a more typical Audax fare – a Subway sandwich at a petrol station on the A303, and a vast coffee, before descending into Wessex territory. The plan was to do Salisbury Plain with a tailwind, but the wind had decided to go on holiday. All the holidaymakers, however, had decided to avoid the A303 past Stonehenge and were busy blighting what should have been quiet roads. I had the last laugh though. There were temporary traffic lights in Shrewton which

A fine summer evening after storm Aiden

… I was treated to one ❝ of the most pleasant October evenings I could remember, quiet and mild, my Lumicycles blazing down the B-road to Selsey jammed up the rat run. I sailed down the outside of the queue and plugged my way onwards. The convoy of campervans that had passed me just outside Heytesbury (five miles before Shrewton) eventually passed me again in Larkhill (five miles after Shrewton). Result! My only problem was that I was almost out of liquid and my route was shop and café free, so I made a detour to Burbage, where I had my favourite Audax picnic – coffee, prawn sandwich, and salt-andvinegar crisps, with a mini pork pie just to keep me going. Then it was brisk 50km home. All-in-all it was a very enjoyable exploration. It also took my monthly mileage to a new personal best, substantially higher even than ten years

before when I had ridden the Mille Miglia, 1001 miles all in one ride. A couple of months later I thought I’d try a similar ride, this time on my Enigma titanium machine, as my Roberts Bike was in the shop for a well-earned strip down and respray. The forecast was a bit rough, so I picked as hilly a route as possible down to Selsey, just 100 miles, but taking in Farleigh Hill, several sharp climbs around Hawkley, then a few more around Hindhead, before finishing off with Bexleyhill, two different climbs on Harting Downs and Singleton Chute. The challenge was increased by Storm Aiden, which turned most of the roads in rivers. Descending through Ellisfield, I witnessed a miniature roadside whirlpool in which at

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least a hundred apples were bobbing. Just before halfway the storm blew itself out, and I was treated to one of the most pleasant October evenings I could remember, quiet and mild, my Lumicycles blazing down the B-road to Selsey – and back to the caravan in time to watch the highlights of La Vuelta and David Gaudu’s well-earned stage victory. Lockdown changed my plans for 2020, but it didn’t dampen my spirits for exploration and discovery. I found my new roads, not in new territories, but the forgotten corners of old ones, places that I might otherwise have overlooked. I did some new things and met new people, even if the conversations were at a polite distance, the spirit of the road remained.

… soon I was ❝ riding through a quiet valley between Romsey and Salisbury and the sun came out

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In the heart of the country… www.audax.uk

Forty years ago, as a fit young 33 year old, Cheltenham’s Steve Poulton, with the support of his wife, Shirley, conquered Britain’s three highest peaks by bike in record time. In July last year, now a 73 year old, battered by a relentless cancer, the disease which claimed the life of his wife in April 2020, Steve made a poignant return to the mountains to see if he could repeat the feat. This is his report:

There

ain’t no mountain high enough

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for steadfast Steve 18

WORDS AND PICTURES STEVE POULTON

THREE PEAKS BY BIKE In 1980 Steve set off from his home in Gloucestershire to cycle the 480 miles between Snowdon in Wales, Scafell Pike in England and Ben Nevis in Scotland – Britain’s three highest peaks. He cycled and hiked up each peak in a record-breaking time of 41 hours and 51 minutes – a feat recognised by the Guinness Book of Records. His support team of five included his wife, Shirley, whom he’d married in 1974. Shirley was also a keen cyclist, and the couple rode many miles together during their 46 year marriage. Shirley died of pancreatic cancer in April last year, and Steve, also battling bladder cancer, set his sights on recreating the ride in July 2020, during the brief relaxation of lockdown rules. He completed the ride in 118 hours and 51 minutes, but the effort took its toll on his health. On the final stages of the journey in Scotland, suffering from exhaustion, he developed an infection which led to a return to hospital in Cheltenham. Happily, he recovered sufficiently to be able to continue his RRTY campaign with a vengeance in August with 3 x 200km rides. Steve has been cycling seriously since the early 1970s, is an accomplished mountaineer and a long-standing Audax member who has completed five PBPs, two LELs and numerous other cycling achievements. “The 3PbB spurred me on to make the most of the end of summer by designing an assault on the Welsh Three Peaks by Bike,” he says. “Losing my wife to cancer in April, and my own brush with the disease, means I’m now supporting the charity Cancer Research UK with my cycling.” You can help Steve’s fund-raising crusade by visiting his Just Giving page: https://fundraise. cancerresearchuk.org/page/ stephens-cycle-300-fundraisingpage-181

I HAD NO INTEREST in setting records for the Three Peaks by Bike (3PbB) challenge this time. It was simply my intention to record a respectable time, worthy of my age and pedigree. It is 40 years since I set the record – and the anniversary found this body in the throes of grade two bladder cancer. But I completed the ride, even though the physical exertion weakened me, allowing the cancer to re-establish itself. It has not stopped me riding, though, and while coronavirus rules allowed, I continued long-distance riding through August and September. In the spring of 2020, under the coronavirus cloud, I began to plan for the 3PbB challenge. This obviously involved listening out for government announcements about travel, tourism, National Parks, campsites, and youth hostels. The critical date was 15 July for Scotland, Wales having opened on 7 July. I discussed my plans with Chris Lister. He was keen to climb Scafell Pike with me, an offer that I was to be very grateful for. I prepared a full set of GPS routes and cut out appropriate pages from an old road atlas.

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Sunday 12 July I left home with full panniers adding 30lbs to my normal riding weight. I’d been late to bed having updated the cycling and Facebook pages on how to track my progress, and giving a broad idea of the route. I entered Wales at Presteigne and rode on to Llanidloes – a route which was remarkably scenic, if rather hilly, which, with heavy panniers involved walking several climbs. By dusk I was above the Llyn Clywedog reservoir at 390m, so stopped in a visitor car park, put on my duvet jacket and lay on the verge to sleep.

Monday 13 July I was awake at dawn, so packed easily to continue safely downhill through Staylittle and Dylife, familiar from the Cambrian Way walking route. I enjoyed what must be the best cycling descent in Wales, down to Machynlleth. During the descent, I stopped at the Cadair Idris viewpoint. The town in early morning seemed dead, and the toilets were locked but I managed to buy some breakfast at the Co-op. I continued to Corries. Spotting a café for breakfast, I sensed a toilet opportunity. Yes, they could provide breakfast but no toilet. But the owner advised that the nearby National Trust car park for Cadair Idris had a portable toilet block. Relief! I continued to

There was no ❝ “Welcome to England” sign as I entered Chester – which was a pity

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En-suite… the toilet block canopy serves as bivvy on the first night

The toilet ❝ block’s canopy provided protection against the weather, and I settled down for the night

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Dolgellau and the southern road to take the railside path link across the Mawddach Estuary to Barmouth. I continued through Barmouth, Llanbedr, and Harlech to Porthmadog along busy roads until I discovered the old rail track was a cycle path, which was lovely despite a few hills. I arrived at Caernarvon at 3.30pm and thought that a 5pm start for the 3PbB would allow time for a meal – half a Subway tuna, cheese and corn – and a relax before the serious part. I was planning to climb Snowdon before dark. Leaving Caernarvon I almost lost time, but soon found the B4086 for Llanberis, gently rising to the Llyn Padarn-side bypass, then through Nant Peris to start the steeper climb. Despite the panniers, this went well and a couple cyclists joined me for the final few metres to the pass. I hid the bike behind the youth hostel and joined the Miner’s Track at 6.50pm. The walk to the llyns was steady and the path was dry and fast. I sensed my climb rate was barely fast enough and hoped I could retrace to the flat path in decent light. It was a relief to gain the ridge at the finger stone for the final easy path to the summit at 9.20pm. Five minutes to take the summit picture for proof, then I quickly retraced my steps, making it to the level path in the deepening dusk. It was late, but I was safe. I took a catnap before the final drop to the car park at 11.40pm. The toilet block’s canopy provided protection against the weather, and I settled down for the night.

Top one… on the Snowden summit

Tuesday 14 July As I prepared to leave Pen-y-Pass at 5.20am a cleaner arrived to service the toilets. Was this a sign that things were returning to normal? I was in good spirits as I cycled out of Snowdonia. I turned off the A5 at Cerrigydrudion for Ruthin and Mold, which was probably a mistake as the route via Corwen would have been flatter. I didn’t enjoy the climb out of Ruthin but was able to enjoy an excellent lunch from a café in Mold. I wasn’t looking forward to the ride across Chester and on across the Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal. There was no “Welcome to England” sign as I entered Chester – which was a pity. The old Runcorn Bridge led to a cycle path, but I lost time finding it among road realignment work but I think it was a worthwhile variation. So northwards now through Widnes, St Helens, and Wigan. I spotted cyclists at the Euxton Mills Hotel near Preston, so stopped for a chat and a pint of rehydrating Guinness. Continuing through Preston, I still had plenty of daylight, so continued past Barton Grange, where Shirley and I had our first married night in 1974, on our way to Skye. Towards Lancaster I found a likely bus shelter for a night-home; a good time to stop at 11.20pm.

Wednesday 15 July I was now well-placed for the climb of Scafell Pike. Road signs through Lancaster led me astray but once I recovered, I headed for Carnforth and Milnthorpe. I turned on to the A590 for a short way before taking the A5074 to Bowness. I had an encouraging call from Ross Malpass, (fastest record holder) and I asked him to contact Chris Lister, another record holder, who was due to meet me for the Scafell Pike climb. Chris, with Nick Ray, found me in Bowness. They relieved me of my panniers and I was able to “fly” to the Old Dungeon Ghyll in Langdale. Chris Lister and I left Langdale at 11.45am for the Rossett Ghyll approach to Esk Hause, gaining the Hause after two hours and 32 minutes. We gained the misty, windy summit after three hours and 48 minutes, the boulder field being

We were in ❝ Seathwaite after seven hours to traverse Scafell Pike. Was I grateful to have such loyal and fell-knowledgeable companions?

❞

particularly slippery in the wet. Nick had joined us having had new pedals and chain fitted to the bike in Keswick, and climbed through Esk Hause. During the descent, I slipped and bashed my left eye and left knee – how fortunate I’d taken off my bi-focal specs to provide better vision. There was no serious injury, and I was able to continue cautiously. We were in Seathwaite after seven hours to traverse Scafell Pike. Was I grateful to have such loyal and fellknowledgeable companions? Now around 7pm, my best plan was to rest for the night here and recover for the morning. Nick did some local research as I prepared to ride on. We opted for the Seetoller Farm campsite just a mile away, where I would use my lightweight tent. I had to rush to use the shower block, where I was also able to wash through my clothes after four days on the road.

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Thursday 16 July After breaking camp I made a respectable start at 7.50am. The plan was to reach Keswick for breakfast and then on through Carlisle and into Scotland. I had a double egg Panini and coffee, bought another pair of mitts and hit the road. Once on the A595 to Carlisle I aimed for the first café – a trailer unit where I had a super egg bun and coffee. Continuing on the Carlisle bypass I needed a catnap, so parked under an overpass – not a good idea. A couple of motorists stopped to enquire after my health and then a traffic cop suggested I move on. On the quieter back road to Gretna, I finally had a decent 15 minute nap! I enjoyed a short camera break on entering Scotland, the day after the border opened to tourists. The old A74 is now NCN74, an ultra-wide shared cycle path, now my route to Glasgow. There was no stopping at the Ecclefechan memorial to Robert Carlisle, and bypassing Lockerbie, I decided to turn back for a meal and found a fish & chip shop. It was a valuable break as it was quiet over Beattock. I finally stopped after 178km for the day at 11pm at a Services forecourt near Douglas.

Friday 17 July After a breakfast of coffee and porridge I left for Glasgow at 5.12am. All was quiet through Hamilton, Cambuslang and Rutherglen. I was by the Clyde after three hours – and a bonus to be in a quiet Glasgow city centre. I took to the A814 and shortly found a roadside stall for a couple egg baps in Scotstoun, then easily through Alexandria to Loch Lomond. On the path to Scafel with Chris Lister

Red Burn… with Chris on the path up Ben Nevis

The path winds ❝ gently upwards with views expanding all the way

❞

The A82 is fast and busy these days. Shortly after Luss I noticed the cycle path which continues to Tarbet and promptly lifted the bike over the barrier. I needed another 20 minute nap on the climb to Crianlarich. Before the climb to Rannoch Moor I bought a plate of chips. I was tail-wind assisted on the climb and enjoyed

the magnificent views opening as I gained height. Near the top, I stopped in the viewpoint car park and continued past a rowan, now a magnificent tree, which I’d first noted in 1971, growing out of a crack in a granite boulder. Rannoch Moor is an isolated but wonderful place, surrounded by

magnificent peaks, many of which I’ve climbed, so memories came flooding back. The descent into Glencoe was a headwind battle, often the case and disappointing. I had a couple of phone numbers for Fort William accommodation and phoned from Glencoe. No joy – and I wanted an indoor night. I was to meet Brian Sharp for the Ben

Sunrise on Ballachulish Bridge looking east to the Pap of Glencoe

Katie and Brian on the Ben summit

Final summit… Steve takes five beneath the shelter on Ben Nevis

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and he lived near Glencoe, so I phoned Chris for possible help to advise Brian I was in the area. Before Chris could ring back, I noted the Glencoe car park and toilet block. Fifty pence later my bike and I were inside the block, settling down for the night! Solved.

Saturday 18 July The toilet block had made an excellent emergency stop and I left at 6am for an easy ride to Fort William. I hit the High Street at 7.30am to search a café. Wetherspoons would open at 8am, so I parked and lay down in their doorway. The staff were not amused but all was well. During breakfast, Brian arrived with his girlfriend Katie Young; Chris had arranged for them to accompany me up Ben Nevis. Breakfast and two refills later we were set for Glen Nevis youth hostel to climb Ben Nevis. I parked the bike behind

the hostel, packed my small rucksack, which Brian kindly took for me, and we set off at 9.22am. The climb has been made much easier by path-grading and rock placement to create a robust and durable mountain highway. We climbed steeply from the hostel to join the track from the visitor centre and the hundreds already streaming up the path. The path winds gently upwards with views expanding all the way. I decided to take photographs on the return down the mountain as now was the time to concentrate on our steady climb. I was not rushed and had a break about half-way. As we gained height, we entered cloud and eventually gained the upper north face gully exits. The summit was busy but folk were respectful to people’s need to record reaching the summit, ourselves included. After more than three hours of

climbing we had 18 minutes on the summit to take pictures and have a sandwich. While the descent went well, the earlier views had disappeared, covered by low cloud, so we continued back to the hostel. It was now raining, and I set off for Fort William to arrive at the rail station at 3.28pm to stop the clock. Brian and Katie parked nearby and we had a quiet celebration. I enjoyed the companionship of Brian and Katie. Route-finding had not been a problem but their friendship certainly enabled me to enjoy the final phase of my repeat Three Peaks by Bike challenge. It had taken me 118 hours and 28mins, although over six days – and at age 73. Before Brian and Katie left, they phoned a local guest house, Craig Nevis, and I was secured with a comfortable night’s rest. My ride was dedicated firstly to my late wife Shirley, who was in my team in 1980 but secondly to my four companions – Chris, Nick, Brian and Katie who helped guide me through and provided instant friendship as fellow mountaineers. Symbolically, this was Katie’s first climb of The Ben. The next day I rode 139km to Lochcarron to continue my planned holiday. Regrettably, I found I’d developed a bladder blockage, as a complication of my bladder cancer. I attended the nearby Ferguson Medical Centre, who sorted my immediate problems and advised I return to Cheltenham for treatment at my local Urology unit.

Steve at the finish in Fort William

Eilean Donan Castle, Kyle of Lachalsh www.audax.uk

Rob Norris enjoys some company on his long distance rides – that’s why the 44 year old Audaxer takes his teddy bear, Captain Bluebear, with him! The bear has accompanied Rob on numerous biking adventures, including London-EdinburghLondon, the Mille Cymru and Paris-Brest-Paris. In August 2020 it joined Rob to tackle the Devilishly Elegant SR600 – a tough, testing and undulating route through Wales.

Bear with me for a grizzly adventure

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WORDS & PICTURES ROB NORRIS

LIKE MANY OTHERS, my 2020 Audax plans went seriously awry, thanks to coronavirus. I’d thought to have a crack at The Crackpot – a 1,000km event through Wessex. Then I saw that the Devilishly Elegant SR600 had been reopened for early August. In a Covid-disrupted year, this seemed a likely option for me. The Brevet card duly arrived and I headed for Tintern to sleep in camper-van luxury before an early start. The weather was forecast to generally improve over the weekend and beyond, so the plan was quite simple – bivvy out for both nights giving flexibility on where to sleep, stay as dry as possible, and always have enough rations to cater for the next refuel position being closed. DAY ONE It wasn’t particularly warm for August as I set off in morning showers at 6.45am. The first of many hills involved climbing out of the Wye Valley on small lanes, then skirting the Forest of Dean before dropping down Symonds Yat. After passing through a sleepy Ross-On-Wye I was concerned about

missing the first checkpoint on the road as the waypoint indicator on the GPS device had not showed up yet. I stopped to consult the route notes more carefully, and as luck would have it I was actually right beside it! The next stage through England was relatively flat and uneventful, through Leominster to Ludlow and having to shelter under trees from a short rain showers. In Ludlow the bear and I sat outside a coffee and cake stop just before midday, then headed to Church Stretton and the start of serious hills. The regular showers meant a few more tactical stops. Then it was the Long Mynd, tackled with gusto, but the downhill had a downside – a heavy squall with no hiding place. The clouds thickened and darkened as Wales loomed. I’ve descended the Stiperstones before. They should be called the slipperystones. The back wheel locked in the wet and I over-shot the hairpin corner. Fortunately there was nothing on the other side of the road. Nerves shattered, I reach checkpoint four.

After another impromptu rain shelter in a farm shed, checkpoint five came rapidly at the top a suitably decent 200 metre hill climb before I dropped down into Wales proper and Welshpool for the next planned food stop. Because of the drizzle I headed into a café, which required not just name and number, but also a temperature check, due to Covid safety measures. This was followed by coffee with a decorative chocolate swirl and an upmarket ciabatta sandwich. Delightful. Then onwards, but not before yet another shower caused a pause – bringing back unhappy memories. This was the spot I’d resigned myself to my first Audax failure after suffering multiple punctures on an event almost exactly four years previously. The rain shower didn’t pass, so I carried on to the next village where there was better shelter. Managing to get a signal on the mobile only confirmed the depressing view that the weather forecast was for solid rain in this area for at least the next six hours. I was heading into remote country, and into the evening, with only a couple of pubs

Bearly controlled… on the top of Llanbedr Hill www.audax.uk

ahead. It occurred to me that, thanks to the pandemic, they may not even be open – so a new plan was hatched. Stopping at the marvellous Dafarn Newydd Stores, I was just in time to get last hot food of the day before the fryer was turned off. It was gratefully consumed in a pitch-side dug-out at the local football club – which was going to be home for the evening. The plan was to dry out and wait for the rain to pass, though this would use up substantial amounts of time, making the rest of the event schedules rather tight. I’d only done 180km by this stage. It was surprisingly comfortable in the bivvy, even without a sleeping bag, using a featherweight down jacket instead. But sleep was difficult, thanks to the rain battering on the tin roof of the dug-out. I didn’t manage any real sleep or quality rest. DAY TWO The rain stopped at around 2am, so I was back on the road at 3am. The skies cleared, but this led to a drop in temperature. Night riding is generally extremely peaceful but not on this part of the ride, due to the raging torrent of a stream in full spate beside the road.

On the downhill the other side I had a close encounter with a wandering badger, but no harm came to either of us. Then it was on to a gated road, with a more obvious obstacle – hordes of sheep in the road. Presumably the road is warmer than the grass. Finally I was safely back on a main B-road, making better progress as the dawn broke. Approaching Checkpoint seven the next climb at Glyn Ceiriog defeats me. This beast of hill peaks at 25 per cent, rising 200 metres in less than a mile. At least there was the reward of a short stint on a lovely ridge road before the descent into Llangollen for breakfast. After suffering the indignity of walking the last hill, I wasn’t looking forward to the next one – the Old Horseshoe Pass, but despite being steep at the start, it never gets overly taxing and was completed in quiet solitude with no traffic to disturb the mind from the climbing effort. On to Checkpoint eight at Moel Famau car park, already getting busy with walkers. A steady rise led to a great vantage point. The road dropped steeply to a traditional hairpin, but unlike previously this one was taken in total control. Nothing was open in Ruthin on this Sunday morning, not even the Costa. So I moved on to a B-road to meet a steady stream of individual time trialists heading the other way. Around 80 per cent acknowledged me and waved back. The other 20 per cent probably need to work on their manners rather than their speed. Another undulating 25km, just after hitting the A5 to find a suitable cake and coffee stop. It had been dry so far, but a check on the latest forecast

disappointingly predicted rain for most of the afternoon. And indeed it started that way, soon after the café, across the open moorlands of Snowdonia. The rain beat down for good hour. My consolation was that I’d have enough time for reasonable sleep stops. I wondered how anyone could be mad enough to attempt the calendar event version. I doubted that my moving time would see me finish in time, even if I could keep it up without any sleep or power naps. The calendar event has about 20 per cent less climbing, making it much more feasible but still very hard. The next checkpoint at Stwlan Dam, required lifting the bike over a gate but the reward is silky smooth service road that goes up to the dam. The evidence picture I took at the top from the viewpoint was of uninspiring blanket cloud. Yet moments later on the descent it magically lifted. The weather began to look promisingly clear – at least for a bit. After a couple of busy main roads it was back into open hilly terrain. Without the rain clouds it was a wonderfully scenic crossing of the moorland. And so the “easy” climb up Bwlch y Groes – which indeed turned out to be relatively easy. The inescapable A470 was the low point of the ride. The Ochr y Groes climb to Cross Foxes is deceptively steep. I was riding into the wind with fast moving traffic. The next A-road was much calmer, then it was back to a gated road with just the sheep for company. Then it was on to Machynlleth. The aim of the day had been achieved as I was in plenty of time to get hot food from a fast food joint to maximise the calorie intake

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Technical e-shoes

Good morning Hafod

Checkpoint 1 – Hole in the Wall

via chips and burgers. As night fell, I found a bivvy spot and camped for the night in some woods, low down rather than on exposed hills. The temperature was rather pleasant, and no annoying insects, so at last some proper sleep. DAY THREE After five hours of luxury sleep I got going again at 4am. The sky was clear, there was not much wind, so I chose to forgo the raincoat, having faith in the weather forecast. At Nant-y-Moch reservoir I went in search of the Hydro Electric sign for checkpoint 13 validation. However the sign is no longer there and instead the only occupants in the car park were some dope smokers – at 5.45am – they must be keen. The temperature continued to drop on the descent to Devil’s Bridge (Checkpoint 14). On the climb I noticed some play in my shoe and initially suspected the cleat was wearing out. But minutes later it became obvious that the entire sole of the shoe was coming apart. I always carry zip ties and tape. With these I bonded the shoe together, hoping

it would last the day. Down into Rhayader for breakfast. I did my “Eat Out to Help Out” duty and ate a full English breakfast – as its 50 per cent funded by the government. From wearing three layers, leggings and gloves, I went back to just shorts and short sleeves as the temperature picked up nicely. Llanbedr Hill was the only one to defeat me on the Mille Cymru, partly because it was baking hot. This time, again, the sun was shining strongly and it rapidly turned into one of the warmest parts of the ride. This time the hill is conquered, but with my shirt half unzipped, I got stung twice in the chest by some unknown insect. No pain, no gain, as they say. After Hay-on-Wye it was on to the literal high point of the ride, the Gospel Pass at 549m. I’ve done this hill before, several times, so it held no surprises. Llight rain began, and there were big rain clouds to the west. The descent though, did hold surprises. It was definitely worse than last time – more pot holes, more stones and this time more floods. A gravel bike would have been more appropriate. The penultimate climb is a real sucker punch, being not very long but

Rob Norris is a native of Somerset, but these days lives in Portsmouth, where he rides for Audax Club Portsmouth, also known as the Pompey Wednesday Night Pub Ride. He’s been a commuter cyclist since the age of 16, and cycles mainly for leisure. He admits that he joined the Portsmouth club for the beer-drinking opportunities. He’s completed 100 Audaxes since joining the club five years ago. And the teddy bear? Captain Bluebear is the mascot of Bristol Rovers FC, the club Rob supports. considerably steep with a hazardous strip of moss running down the middle of the road. This lane clearly didn’t see much sunshine and would be devilishly difficult in wetter conditions. It led out to the penultimate checkout in the village of Trellech were I took advantage of another Eat Out to Help Out offer at the local pub, sitting outside in the mid afternoon sunshine. The final descent was a real stinker too – 25 per cent gradient and strewn with stones. And then to the final hill, passing a place called Mork, sadly there was no place nearby called Mindy. There was still plenty in the tank to finish strongly for the reward of a job well done at St.Briavel’s Castle and to reflect on the adventure. I finished with about two hours to spare. The scenery was fantastic and made all the effort worthwhile. Will Pomeroy deserves thanks for designing this epic. www.audax.uk

Clarion call to the hills

WORDS & PICTURES TIM WADSWORTH

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Mr Pickwick’s High Summer Meander is a 214km circuit through the rolling hills and valleys of the Cotswolds – the ride named for its association with Dickens’ Pickwick Papers, writes Tim Wadsworth

WITH AUDAX UK’S reinstatement of permanent events in the summer, members of the Cotswold Clarion Cycling Club were keen to take advantage. On Saturday 5 September, our peloton of four members and two prospective members, rolled out of Malmesbury, Wiltshire, and set off to ride a loop around the top of the Severn Estuary, down through the Forest of Dean and back home across the Severn Bridge. With about 2,700 metres of climbing, in our neck of the woods, it qualifies as “lumpy”. The opening pace over the flat lanes of the Cotswold Water Park was lively, with Tommy Loft and Andrew Trudgian setting out their stalls early. After 52km we arrived at our first control in Bourtonon-the-Water, sometimes referred to as the “Venice of the Cotswolds” due to its attractive bridges crossing the River Windrush. We breakfasted at the acclaimed Bakery on the Water but were soon back on the move. A long climb up to the village of Guiting Power followed. Then we either enjoyed (or endured) a nervejangling descent of a heavily-pitted Sudeley Hill into Winchcombe. After Winchcombe, the peace and quiet of the countryside was disturbed by the throaty roar of cars assaulting the Prescott Speed Hill Climb, owned since 1938 by the Bugatti Owners’ Club. Stirling Moss made his hill climb debut here in 1948 finishing fourth out of twelve drivers. In Tewkesbury we passed the Royal Hop Pole, a grade II listed building mentioned in Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers. It also happens to be famous in the Audax world – the legendary organiser Mark Rigby’s regular calendar events begin and end at the pub. After coffee and snacks, we headed for Newent. Buffered by a brisk headwind on exposed roads, we were grateful for the cover provided by the narrower, but hillier lanes. With Newent being only 24km further along the route, we made just a brief stop for our proof of passage. For some, this meant buying a reasonably priced cake at the Crusty Loaf bakery. The Forest of Dean Heritage Centre, where we could obtain a brevet stamp, was due to close at 3pm. A wrong turn and the never-ending climb up to Littledean, meant we were 15 minutes late. A member of staff, alerted by our frantic waving, unlocked the door and obliged us with his signature. Peter Cattermole was aware of a café at the nearby Mallards Pike Lake. The name has nothing to do with a fish or a

Really not Venice… first control at Bourton-on-the-Water

duck – the pike refers to a turnpike, while the mallard comes from Mr Maller, who until the early 1950s lived in a toll-keeper’s cottage. Originally known as Maller’s Turnpike, it eventually became Mallard’s Pike. We soaked up the sunshine and devoured our assorted cakes, pastries and ice creams. Fortified, we left for Chepstow. After St Briavels we were treated to a glorious fast-running drop all the way into Wales and the centre of the town. There’s always something special about cycling across the Severn Bridge. It’s a magnificent structure and the views are breath-taking, but there’s also a feeling of danger. The bridge moves as the traffic passes, and it’s only the railings that stop you falling into the

swirling currents below. Returning to England, there were only 44kms to go, but we were facing the dreaded 17 per cent climb to the Somerset Monument at Hawkesbury Upton. The stone tower commemorates General Lord Somerset, who at Waterloo lost his hat. Improperly dressed, he went to retrieve it. A cannonball tore off the flap of his coat and killed his horse. He later became the MP for Cirencester. With much grinding of gears and gnashing of teeth we summitted. All credit to Mike Greer, who, at over 70 years of age, was able to show a clean pair of heels to some of the younger riders. A useful tailwind helped pilot us back to Malmesbury, where we arrived just after 8pm with our Garmins and a Wahoo registering over 140 miles.

That bridge again… the team cross the Severn at Chepstow

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You’d think that being born and raised in the shadow of the Italian Alps, cyclist Paolo Cappo would take the gently rolling English countryside in his stride. But, as he explains, the lung-busting effort required for uphill sprints in competitive hill-climbing is tough in any setting

A very British WORDS PAOLO CAPPO PICTURES TIM ALLEN, PAUL DEAN AND MARK DAVIES

IN HIMALAYAN mountaineering, the region above 26,000 feet altitude is referred as the “death zone”, due to the irreversible damage to the brain cells caused by prolonged exposure to thin air. Hill-climbing, meanwhile, is a distinctively British cycling pursuit, hence a bit peculiar, if not completely mad. It may not exactly be the death zone – but it feels like it! Hill-climbing is an offshoot of timetrialling, with a brief and intense season from early September until the National Championship on the last weekend in October. As Covid-19 decimated Audax activity, I decided to give it a try.

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LOCKDOWN My lockdown began a couple of weeks before it was formally announced. With family and friends in Italy already under tighter restrictions, I saw it coming and cleared my diary of any cycling commitment for 2020. I decided that Audax was going to take a back seat for a while. Nonetheless, with validated long distance riding gone, I still needed something to look forward to and I took inspiration from a book – A Corinthian Endeavour by Paul Jones, the story of the National Hill Climb Championship. In late March we were repeatedly told that three months was a realistic timescale to be out of lockdown, so there was a

realistic chance that time-trialling, and the hill-climbing season in particular, might resume during the summer and throughout the autumn. The solitary nature of the sport makes it an obvious candidate for racing during a pandemic. So a deal was struck. I decided I was going to swap the saddle sores of a 20 hour randonnee, for the agony of three minutes in the death zone. I’ve always liked cycling uphill – time to see if I was any good at it! I resolved to sign up early for a local Open double race up Dovers and Saintbury hills in the north Cotswolds, due to take place in mid-September, a reassuringly long way away. Qualifying races are called “Open” or “A-type” and you need an affiliated club membership to enter, as well as sign up for a free account on the Cycling Time Trails (CTT) website. Audax UK is an affiliated club, but this season I chose to race wearing the Kenilworth Wheelers CC colours. In my head a project was beginning to take shape: I was going to qualify and compete in the National Championship on 25 October, if that was ever going to go ahead. The more I read about the mad world of UK hill-climbing, the more it made sense: it’s a relatively low budget sport, which, unlike the flat time-trialling big brother, does not rely too heavily on purchasing the latest wonder equipment.

In fact, most competitors seem to ride pretty standard bicycles, often stripped of unnecessary sprockets, nuts and bolts. It’s not uncommon to see a generous use of hacksaws to reduce weight to the extreme. In the past, drilling holes through metal frames was “de rigueur”, nowadays, with composite materials, it seems to have gone out of fashion. Either way, the equation is simple – to go fast up a hill you need a high power-toweight ratio, so you ought to bring down your weight and build up your power output over the time frame, which in most cases is less than five minutes. THE WEIGHT During lockdown, many gained weight and others lost weight, as a reflection of a change in lifestyle. I was lucky enough to be in the latter category. Working from home meant no access to the departmental staff tea room, no bottomless provision of chocolate digestives and nobody’s birthday to celebrate on a weekly basis with cake. I’ve always been pretty disciplined with my food shopping. You won’t find crisps or biscuits in my trolley, so the BMI was mostly beefed up by the above-mentioned treats and the odd curry night out. Both were now out of the equation and I lost weight fairly rapidly. By May, when businesses began to

Most competitors seem to ride pretty standard ❝ bicycles, often stripped of unnecessary sprockets, nuts and bolts. It’s not uncommon to see a generous use of hacksaws to reduce weight to the extreme

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PICTURE: ©PAUL DEAN

madness Paolo Cappo is a 48 year old Italianborn cyclist who these days is based in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. He rides for Kenilworth Wheelers CC, and he organises the popular BRUM 200 BR, a loop of the city which, these days, exists only as a permanent ride. He hopes to be able to reinstate the event in the calendar in the not too distant future. He says: “I was born in north west Italy, at the foot of the Alps, so for me climbs are the natural cycling terrain and the most obvious challenge. I didn't cycle for many years during my twenties, as I went through University and then moved to the UK to pursue an academic career. “I rediscovered the bicycle in 2005 and haven't stopped since. I joined AUK in 2016 and did my first, and only Super Randonneur in 2018. My longest Brevet is BCM in 2018, unequalled since... definitively too far for me!”

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reopen, I was down to 67 kg, from 73 and that kept slowly going down throughout the summer, until I settled at 65.5. As for the bike, I couldn’t afford a fabulous 6kg wonder bike, so I had to make do with my 9kg Audax beast. I bought a discounted Selle Italia SLR and a pair of Pirelli TT tyres with matching Continental supersonic inner tubes. By September, with bottle holder and bolts removed, some sprockets replaced by alloy spacers, I had a 7.9 kg machine. It’s not a competitive weight, but it’s only 3kg away from the lightest thing you can legally ride within the rules. I can live with giving away a handful of seconds, and keeping a few thousand pounds in the bank.

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THE POWER I’d bought a Stages left crank power meter in February, and now it made total sense to use it. Being able to get reliable feedback for any given effort is invaluable. During lockdown, I kept to a daily routine of riding one to two hours a day, while keeping the power up. Within a month, I could do training sessions with average output in excess of 200 Watts. However, increasing average power is the starting point, but it doesn’t really help in a hill climb. Most races are around the three minute mark, which means they have a fairly high anaerobic component: you are going to produce a lot more watts than you would on a training ride. My first attempts at my local climb, Edge Hill in Warwickshire, yielded around 320 Watts over the four minute duration. By the summer, the number was up to 350 and it peaked around 360 Watts in September. By slowly chipping away like a stonemason, trying harder and harder, getting into highs of asphyxia I did not think possible, I was as ready as I could have been!

THE RACING CTT did a great job of providing a regulatory framework for events to be Covid-19 safe and as a result, racing began in late July and by August there were more time-trials around than one could enter. I competed in a few myself, just to get used to the routine of a timed start and finish and how to avoid getting disqualified for trivialities, such as crossing into the wrong side of the road on a bend, or shouting abuse at passing cars, when in sight of a marshal. I never covered myself in glory, I managed a long 25 minutes over 10 miles, but got stuffed by virtually everybody, including obese competitors with pointy helmets and disc rear wheels. It wasn’t my time yet, my revenge would come! My debut in hill climbing happened on

6 September, a B-type club event organised by Banbury Star CC, up to Burton Dassett Country Park. A short, sharp burst that the fastest can do in just over one minute. I was timed at 1:28 and finished 13 out of 21 competitors. Not the best of debuts, but as climbs go, too short for me, one for “power trolls” and I could only manage 450 Watt on the day. The following week I did much better at the Beacon RCC race: 16th out of 31 in the Clent Hills, against a very strong field and my first sub four minute ascent of Winwood Heath Road. The following week I competed in the above-mentioned Open double race in the Cotswolds. I finished 26 in a field of almost 50 and fifth out of 16 in my age group. Age groups are Juniors (up to 17) Espoirs (up to 22) Seniors (up to 39) and Veterans, my category. To date, this remains my best result in a qualifying event. September and October were intense, with a race every weekend and sometimes even two. I had mixed results, some very good, like seventh in a field of 30 at the Rugby Velo B-type race in Daventry. I even “won” a race, when only three of us showed up at the event organised by the Birmingham Midland Athletic and Cycling club. On other occasions I did less well, bottom half of the field or even bottom third. You race the competitors who are there on the day, and sometimes the quality of the field is just too high. Meanwhile, the mighty Reading CC organising machine was in motion and the National Championship was definitively going to happen. The setting was going to be Streatley Hill in Berkshire, a short, steep section of the B4009, which climbs west out of Streatley and Goring, on the way to Newbury. It’s only half a mile in length, but it more than makes up in gradient, being just shy of 13 per cent average, with a section well above 20 per cent. With two results in qualifying events under my belt, I entered the National with a bit of apprehension and keeping my fingers crossed that my results would be good enough to be selected. As it happens, the organisers had planned for a grand showcase of the sport and anyone who applied got a spot, regardless of results. In some ways, this might have devalued the effort involved to get there, but on the other hand, I was quite happy to be accepted, rather than not! THE NATIONAL It was a lovely autumnal morning in west Berkshire on 25 October. It wasn't even cold when I was due to start around lunch time. The forecasted 20 mph wind didn’t materialise. I didn't have the opportunity to test the course, as the road had been

closed since early morning, to allow the Junior race an early start. All I could do was to rely on my memories from July, when I had done a recce with some friends, just in case this day would ever come – these were along the lines of “it's bloody steep and badly surfaced”. I worked out on a good day I was going to be able to climb on the 27T sprocket up the 20 per cent part of it, so tactically not much in it; start like a possessed man and keep going as best as you can till the finish line. I avoided the embarrassment of falling off at the start, while live streamed on TV, despite a sudden right end drift of the front wheel in leaving the holding frame. I accelerated and settled into an unsustainable 450 Watt pace... the climb started gently, but soon got steeper. I was still riding the 21T sprocket. Without thinking I shifted to the 24T and ground my way up as the rear wheel began to slip on the wet and rough tarmac. One minute gone and still over 400 Watt output, keep going! Now the gradient was fierce and the only way to manage the wheel spin was to be in the saddle, which lowers the power (and looks bad in the photos!). I glanced at the Garmin for consolation – another minute to go at least! I managed to hang on and stay on top of the gear, although I had to sit on the saddle again to avoid losing the rear. Paul Jones, calling my name from the side of the road, almost made me smile, but you can’t smile, or the photos will reveal you weren’t trying hard enough! The brow couldn't come soon enough. I could see it and now I was over it. Someone shouted: “50 metres to go.” Now completely in the death zone, I crawled my way up the false flat with not very much power or speed left and got over the line, tasting blood in my mouth. I could do no more! My time was 3:21.9, a good 18 seconds quicker than my full-on recce in July, but still only good enough for 181st place in the men standings. I can take some comfort by having beaten 31 between other geriatrics and a few slow seniors and even one Espoir, apparently! The winner crossed the line in 2:04.8, which speaks for itself, really. Driving home, I felt a rare sense of achievement. I am not one for using the word “proud”, but I felt at peace with myself, much in the same way I had felt after my first 400 Brevet. The achievement is not much for the mediocre result, but mostly for having gone through the journey and having finished it with some sort of a bang – maybe not a very loud one, but certainly one that I felt and that meant something to me.

Now completely in the ❝ death zone, I crawled my way up the false flat with not very much power or speed left and got over the line, tasting blood in my mouth. I could do no more!

PICTURE: ©MARK DAVIES

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With the pandemic scuppering plans for a super-European tour, Devonbased rider Kevin Presland teamed up with his pal Richard Etches, and looked closer to home for a summer challenge. They found one – a wildcamping tour of ten of the country’s National Parks. Here is Kevin’s report of a 14-day, 1,675km slog around Britain’s most beautiful locations…

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A WILD RIDE IN SEARCH OF NATIONAL TREASURE

Kevin Presland, aged 56, and Richard Etches, 57, are both members of South Devon CTC. Richard is a relative newcomer to longdistance cycling, completing three SRs in preparation for his PBP. He has also ridden regular tours in France and Spain. Kevin, whose European 5000km ride was featured in a recent edition of Arrivée, has ridden seven SR series, LEL and PBP. He’s led many European cycle tours over the last ten years.

HE ORIGINAL IDEA was to head for in Europe in 2020 – to ride 5,000km across the continent. With the route worked out, flights booked and preparations in place, the realisation dawned early in the year that the rising tide of illness meant there would be no European adventure this year. As the first lockdown eased, giving way to greater cycling freedom, the hope grew that there could be a home-grown tour on the cards. A new plan was born – to visit all the National Parks of England and Wales. Consulting the map, it became clear that the distance was too great for a fortnight trip, so the three newest National Parks (Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, the New Forest and the South

Downs) were dropped. We would concentrate on the original ten parks. While planning the route daily news bulletins were crammed with stories of fully-booked hotels. It was clear the only way to make the trip work was to rediscover wild camping by bike – something I’d not tackled for 25-years. After putting the word around I was delighted when local CTC colleague and PBP veteran Richard Etches accepted the challenge. NORTH YORK MOORS We headed out from Newton Abbot Station on 8 August for our five-hour train trip, arriving in York a little after lunch, with just a short 55km ride planned. In

light headwinds and warm sunshine we headed north into an agricultural landscape, pleased to be leaving the traffic behind. Then we hit the first range of hills – a real shock, especially with the weight of the camping kit. We arrived at our first national park at Kirkbymoorside – the North York Moors. The inadequacy of my route-planning was demonstrated as we descended on to a dirt track and gravelly ascent toward Hutton-le-Hole. We found the Lion Inn and set up on a small wild camping ground behind it. Sadly the pub was at capacity for dining so we had to sit outside in the chill air to eat. The beer was good though! Overnight the wind buffeted our

Daybreak over Windermere from Brant Fell, Lake District www.audax.uk

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tents, but our pegs held fast. Wild camping suits an early start. We made our way into the low cloud of the morning at 7am. Over the summit of Ledging Hill at 420 metres altitude, then some sharp undulations of up to 20 per cent gradient over Kildale Moor before finding valley roads out of the National Park and to breakfast at Stokesly after 25km. Tailwinds helped our pace around the south of Darlington, before hitting fast A-roads west to Barnard Castle. We had lunch then headed into The North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – a glorious expansive open moorland, but with many big ascents. Our first climb was over the 500m Bolihope Common a pleasant gradient and traffic-free. After a cuppa at Stanhope we stumbled upon an old stone arch. It was actually an old horizontal smelting flue. In days gone by, children would be sent down the flues to scrape the lead deposits. Makes you wonder how they survived to adulthood. We found a camping spot on Hunstantonworth Moor in among the purple heather and soft tufty grass. A great, uninhabited panorama, sheltered from the easterly wind, with grouse chattering in the distance, but after 135km the overnight avian conversation did not disturb my slumbers. The view was concealed in the morning by a dense mist. This left a heavy dew on the soft and deep undergrowth, so we began the day with wet feet. We made 30km to Hexham for

breakfast as we headed north. Our route was hampered by roadworks on the A69, then we missed a turn and faced a narrow descent followed by a rise on rough ground into Acomb. NORTHUMBERLAND Good fast roads had us back on our way past Colleford and Hadrian’s Wall and into Northumberland National Park just before Bellingham. Provisions bought we headed on to the first picnic spot on the Kielder Reservoir for lunch, and a chance to lay out our damp camping gear in the now blazing heat of day. We were lucky though – down south the temperatures had soared, to be followed by violent storms. Progress remained fast around the Kielder, up and over the top of the pass to cross the border into Scotland. It was to be no more than a short foray north of the border, but long enough to enjoy an afternoon tea with a cooling strawberry slush in Newcastleton. We took to lumpy lanes back into England, rising to gain glorious views over the Solway Firth, then a long descent into Carlisle after a 153km day. Our plan was to stay in a hotel every three days to wash and dry gear. The Crown and Sceptre in the town square accommodated us. It was quiet, with most pubs closed – the one we found had no ale! Fortunately, there was a restaurant open. After our days in remote country this was a stark reminder of the impact of Covid. Sadly, our night’s sleep was disturbed by a fire alarm, not once but twice.

Off route at Acomb

THE LAKE DISTRICT An 8am start, and our lanes westward were clean and fast, and off to our left the magnificent skyline of Skiddaw. We descended into the land of the superlatives at Bassenthwaite Lake, and our third National Park – The Lake District. Our route through the Lakes followed side roads where possible, the

Descending from Ledging Hill, North York Moors

Dentdale and soaring viaduct, Yorkshire Dales

highlights being the Castlerigg Stone Circle and the road around the west of Lake Thirlmere with lunch on the beach looking up at Helvellyn. We left busy Grasmere and enjoyed quieter roads through Skelwith Bridge for afternoon tea, then on through a bustling Hawkshead, and an unexpectedly steep country road at 25 per cent gradient to the south end of the lake – possibly the hardest hill of the trip. We made it over the final lumps then on to the ferry

Bowness-on-Windermere, Lake District

crossing to Bowness. A shorter day at 107km, so we had time in hand before hunting for a campsite. We whiled away the evening in a pub garden, and headed on our way with low light on the edge of Brant Fell to set-up camp. It had been too late to climb on to the fell in the evening, so instead we got up on to the viewpoint before sunrise where we enjoyed the layered cloud over Lake Windermere below. YORKSHIRE DALES We made the 32km to Kendall via a lumpy B-road by 8am for breakfast. Sadly we were there before the cafes opened, so filled our time with some overdue bike fettling. We were soon into our fourth National Park – the Yorkshire Dales, and for me the best part of the trip. Our route into the Dales was via Barbondale, a majestic valley, the road bounded by charming stone walls. We pressed on over the pass to drop down to Dentdale. The shaded river offered glorious respite from the heat of the day. We enjoyed the moment but when we came out from the tree canopy were surprised to see storm clouds gathering. We tried to outrun the rain, and reached Hawes, hiding under an arch for a dry lunch. The gradient of Sleddale tested our climbing prowess to the limit. This was another contender for hardest of the trip. The saving grace of this climb was the gorgeous scenery – though some tree cover would have offered relief from the intense heat. We reached the top to join Wharfe

Dale and a downhill 40km. Heavy clouds formed once more but we got to Kettlewell for cold fare, then on to Grassington for the night’s stop. We camped at a lovely site and took a swim by Linton Falls, followed by a pub meal in the charming old town. There were times on this trip when we felt like tourists. We had accrued 116km for the day. The sixth day was monstrously hilly, criss-crossing the Pennines and generally avoiding the busy valley roads. Our first crossing took us from Broughton to Colne. We were very aware that we were entering areas where Covid was at its highest, so were extra cautious with hand sanitising, masking up, and selecting places to stop. The mountain road to Hebden Bridge was fabulous, though did not lack in contour crunching. After lunch beside the canal in the town we followed the towpath east to Luddenden where we picked up Route 68, a steep, merciless road. When we reached the crossing of the M62 we found the road was closed. The unhelpful sign for cyclists stated “Please find another route”. It was a huge detour, off the moor and back up again to the next crossing, then Richard spotted a couple of cyclists on a parallel road. We checked it out, and yes, there was an underpass. It was with huge relief that we finally dropped into Holmfirth for supper and a couple of beers, then up the 300m to a camping spot on Holm Moor, right at the northern tip of the Peak District National Park. This had been our toughest day yet at 113km, but with 2,250m of climbing. 39

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Munsall head, now how do you get down to the cycle path? Peak District

PEAK DISTRICT The undulations on the western edge of the Peak District were not as wearing as those endured the previous day, but we were glad to descend to Ladybower Reservoir, and remain on valley roads through Hope to Castleton. With some 42km behind us we were ready for the giant breakfast that was served up. Another long climb awaited, it literally wound its way around the giant hole that had been quarried for the Hope cement works. Lunch at Monsall Head, then on to the trail, only how do you find it? We went the wrong way off the hill, toward Millers Dale, but no way across to the trail. If only I’d known that there was a tunnel under Monsall Head to join the trail from the opposite side. A load of pushing and carrying of bikes had us eventually joining the trail. Another route-planning glitch meant that our way south was a steep field, so we joined the unpleasantly busy A6 before ascending Cowdale and across the hilltops to Allgreave. We’d decided on having another campsite night, but found that all were closed, full, or not accepting tents. We settled down to eat at a local pub, after which we were directed to a nearby recreation ground. We left early next day and arrived in Macclesfield by 5.50am.

Daybreak at Jodrell bank

SNOWDONIA The early start meant we could use main roads with little traffic. Once over the M6 at Holmes Chapel we rode past Beeston Castle, dramatic on both approach and departure, and lunch at 100km at Hope Church. We’d arrived in Wales! Then the hills started. First past Mold, then up into the dramatic Clynwidian range. We reached the pleasant town of Ruthin where there was time for a leisurely curry and beers, then up to the Clocaenog Forest for our wild camp pitch at the end of our 136km day. The plan for day nine was to rest at a friend’s place in Snowdonia. The only flaw in the plan being the 75km distance to ride. We used the quiet of morning to navigate the normally busy A5 to Capel Curig, and breakfast at Betws-y-coed. We’d had good fortune avoiding the thunderstorms affecting the southern half of the UK, but our arrival in Wales coincided with the arrival of more challenging weather. We weren’t able to see Snowdon over the pass. Then after Beddgelert we had our first proper rain, so were grateful for the short day and access to a washing machine, allowing a rest and nice clean start in the morning. It was a bright start on the next day, through Harlech and its views of the castle and Ceredigion Bay, then the rain

swept in from the Irish Sea. It was only to get worse. Fortunately, cafes were available in Barmouth so we took our time failing to either warm up or dry out, then took to walking over a windswept and wet Barmouth Rail Bridge. The A487 is a road I have never ridden – now I know why it’s avoided by cyclists, given the heavy traffic and narrow carriageway. The darkening skies foretold showers, and we pulled into a bus shelter, thinking it would blow over quickly but it turned into an almighty, monsoon. We sat it out then headed into Machynlleth for lunch, but the rain never really stopped as we rode to Aberystwyth for afternoon tea. We finally rolled into Aberaeron at 6pm after 136km but couldn’t find any hotel with vacancies, so resorted to a wet night under canvas on the town camp site. On loading the bike in the morning, I discovered two broken spokes in the rear wheel, so made for Abaereron Cycle Works. I was fitted in first and got the rear wheel sorted. Perhaps fate was back on our side? We left town in sunshine feeling far happier, albeit rather late for us at 9.30. An alternative A487 avoidance route was devised on higher ground inland. This didn’t however avoid the torrential showers, and in one of these I missed an intended right turn. Not only did the resulting detour add distance it

added a messy descent into the deep Cerdir valley, and a taxing climb out, then a drop down into Newcastle Emlyn for a healthy lunch. PEMBROKESHIRE COAST Climbing was on the agenda for the long haul to the majestic Preseli Hills and into the Pembrokeshire National Park. From the top I had envisaged a nice fast run into Carmarthen, and it started well, but was soon interrupted by no less than nine river valleys, each with steep climbs. On arriving in the we found nearly all accommodation was fully booked, but thankfully we got into the rather well appointed Spilman Hotel and adorned the room with drying tents and sleeping bags. Another tough day completed with 119km and just shy of 2000 m of climbing. The next day a routing error took us on to a private road through Golden Grove Park. We weren’t keen to backtrack and got through without challenge, then sped into Llandeilo for a café as the rain began to fall. We were on the threshold of The Brecon Beacons National Park and took the route through Llandduesant and on to the mountain road to Sennybridge. We stopped for lunch in the shelter of a church porch, which proved unnecessary as the sun came out and remained for the afternoon.

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BRECON BEACONS The little lane north of the busy A40 proved to be quite lumpy, but we recharged our batteries at Brecon before heading on to Crickhowell via the Taffi Trail and a fast B-road concluding the mere 101km for the day. Following a hearty meal, we set our tents under a tree in the park just in time to shelter from heavy rain. The next morning we arrived in Abergavenny for breakfast. The sunlight caught the mountain peaks and set a reddening horizon before us. We were now on familiar territory but at Usk I was tempted by an alternative route to Chepstow, following route 42. It’s clear why this is not used as the Audax route. Although pleasant in places, it involves steep ascents and messy roads.

Sunny return to England

S lipping unnoticed through Golden Grove Park

EXMOOR By now the wind had swung to the south, making the crossing the Severn Bridge quite a challenge. We’d completed the 56km ride to England by 9.30am. The cycle route to Avonmouth had been messed with, and we found ourselves joining the entirely unpleasant A403 into the village for our morning coffee stop. The next challenge was to find the Avon cycle bridge. We then headed out via Clevedon and then on to the Strawberry Line for the tunnel through the ridge of the Mendip Hills AONB. It was a tough ride over the levels with an incessant headwind, but at least we were dry and now well ahead of our schedule. We carried on into Bridgwater for afternoon tea, and then over the Quantocks. From the summit we were afforded fine views of the Severn Estuary and distant views across much of the days

cycling. We descended to Bishops Lydiard where we camped at a fowl small holding on the edge of Exmoor National Park, all manner of feathered creatures – an early awakening seemed inevitable. We’d made 161km despite the headwind, so decided we’d avoid the extra Dartmoor loop, but get home that day, having been so beaten up by the weather. The night was to bring high winds, which did not abate – 20mph with 40mph gusts over the high ground, continuing for much of the day, and largely against us. For our final day we had a long B-road climb on to the Brendon Hills. Once on the ridge with the great beech hedges protecting us from the wind, we made good to Exford for coffee. The protection thereafter had gone, so a slow ride to Simonsbath, and then into the wind over the high ridge to South Molton.

DARTMOOR All was pretty straight forwards across Mid-Devon to Whiddon Down, apart from the mess of a jammed chain, and then a moment to savour as we rolled at tenth and final National Park, our very own Dartmoor and on down the Wray Valley to a triumphant arrival at home. The total distance in the 14 days had been just over 1,675km, and the total climb attained 22,480m. It had been an amazing venture to directly link all of these wonderful landscapes into a single ride, together with the additional challenge of wild camping.

Dartmoor National Park in our sights

● The concept for this ride is now being developed into a 1600km, or an Imperial 1000 Audax that could also be ridden as an SR series or a consecutive series of 200km rides, so look out for it in the Permanents Calendar.

Welsh Borders – Beeston Castle www.audax.uk

D.E. Twitchett presents an idiosyncratic account of man and machine – and how canine instincts influenced the development of the bicycle…

Barking mad how dogs changed the course of cycling history

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HERE WAS A TIME when dogs could sleep undisturbed on the turnpike. The only traffic was horse-drawn, which was slow and infrequent. Occasionally a horse might be ridden at a gallop, but it would see a dog and take avoiding action. This peaceful state of affairs underwent a radical change in 1819 when the first hobby horses began to appear on the nation’s roads. Unlike real horses, hobbies did not have minds of their own. They were entirely under the control (or lack of it) of the rider, and hounds found them a nuisance; so much so that they conspired to rid the roads of them. The hobby horse did not stay long on the scene; probably no more than six months. If one reads any of the various books on cycling history, you will find their demise attributed to the caricaturists of the time who mercilessly lampooned both machines and riders; or alternatively because the riders were prone to ruptures when striding along perched on their hobbies. The former of these reasons I think we can safely dismiss. After almost 70 years involvement in cycling, I can’t recall any individual who would abandon cycling just because some clown drew a cartoon or two. There is however some truth in the

Fig 1. The Hobby Horse of 1819 latter reason, although the various authors do not delve deeply enough, insofar as they do not tell how the hernias occurred. I will now rectify this point. I refer the reader to the maker’s riding instructions as appearing in the caption added to the illustration seen here (fig 1). These instructions were safe when strictly adhered to. However, problems arose if one’s heel happened to land on something soft and slippery. Then the rider’s leg would slip from under him, stretching the groin and resulting in an inguinal hernia. The dogs were left in peace for half a century before a bicycle was seen again on

English roads. Some Regency buck, now an old man, was wallowing in nostalgia one evening in 1869. He recalled his hobbyriding days with affection, and longing for one last ride, set to wondering how this could be accomplished. Slowly an idea came to him. He would attach pedals and cranks to the front axle and be able to drive the machine without his feet touching the ground and thus obviate the possibility of being dogged and ruptured. So was born the old velocipede or boneshaker as it soon was dubbed (fig 2). The boneshaker’s life too was shortlived. The dogs resented the renewed

Fig 2. The boneshaker or velocipede of 1869

Fig 3. Transitional boneshaker with larger front wheel.

Fig 4. Legs up on the rests gave a brief respite.

disturbance and drove the machines from the roads again. The sight of those cyclists’ legs going vigorously round and round triggered a reflex. The dogs just had to give chase and attempt a bite at the riders’ calves. The dogs just could not help themselves. A modification was called for and so later models were made with larger front wheels (fig 3) but that made the wooden and iron machines too cumbersome and heavy. Some of the later boneshakers were fitted with leg rests which enabled riders to raise their legs clear of the pedals and out of the reach of the dogs (fig 4). Dogs with a short attention span would then give up but the persistent ones would force the riders to regain the pedals so as not to lose motion The problem was now once more with the cyclists, but the solution was relatively simple. They would move the pedals higher, out of the reach of snapping curs. This involved the use of a larger two-wheel and some radical alterations in frame design, but the feat was achieved and so the old Victorian high bicycle came into being (fig 5). It would be with us for some 20 years or more and for some 15 would be the fastest vehicle on English roads. It was true that a few of the larger breeds could still reach but these were rarer and not often seen out loose. When they were encountered, they were dangerous and forced the cyclists into extreme methods of keeping their legs clear of the snapping jaws. Most riders just forsook the pedals and lifted their legs over and onto the handlebars, but some riders went further, to extreme and ridiculous methods as seen in the illustration (fig 6).

Fig 5. A high wheeler attack by a larger breed. At this point in the narrative, I will break from the mainstream of this study to explain that this hostility between dogs and cyclists was restricted to the roads. In other walks of life, they were the best of friends, some say “man’s best friend”, for some time in the dim and distant past the dogs had realised that simply by vigorously oscillating their caudal appendages they could persuade mankind to give them shelter and a free meal-ticket for life. This sponging off the human race was a more preferable way of life than living outdoors and hunting in packs for snacks. So it came about that the cyclists with their elevated position on the old high bicycles were able to ride in peace for a period. The dogs were certainly bemused for a while and restricted their antics to using the backbones of the machines, when parked, as a substitute tree. During

Fig 6. E xtreme methods of removing legs clear of dogs 45

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Fig 7. A high wheeler suffers the two dog attack.

Fig 8. The beginning of the pack dogs and cycling clubs.

that time the dogs had to be wary again and gave a lot of thought as to how, once more, they could rid the roads of wheelmen. Slowly and gradually a solution occurred to a few of the more intellectual breeds. As it was no longer possible for a single dog to bring down a cyclist it would be necessary to hunt in pairs (fig 7). One dog would make the cyclist swerve into the path of the other dog, causing the rider to brake hard and thus make a painful and involuntary dismount. The method of hunting in pairs was only marginally successful, but it was good fun for the canines. Such good fun in fact that others gradually joined in, and so, in a short time, the dogs had reverted to their basic instincts and were once more hunting in packs. That was a very serious problem for the wheelers. However, those educated middle class young men were not short of ideas themselves. To counteract the packs of streetwise mongrels the riders adopted the same tactics and themselves started to ride in packs (fig 8). They called themselves clubs and some of those early clubs still exist today. The Cyclists’ Touring Club in the UK and the League of American Wheelmen across the pond are notable examples. There is safety in numbers and so the dogs were restricted to picking off one laggard or outside rider. To stop that practice the clubmen thought up another wheeze. Every club employed a bugler within their ranks (fig 9). These buglers made such a noise with their instruments that the dogs all fled droop-tailed to the nearest hiding place. Thus did the riders enjoy a dog-free spell for a few years until one sad day a pack of hounds mistook the bugles for a

hunting horn and a complete club was decimated. That tragedy took the cyclists back to the drawing board and the rear-driven safety bicycle was devised. The saddle was low down within easy reach of the dogs, it is true, but by a judicious arrangement of chain and cog wheels the rear driving wheel could be geared-up and made to go much faster than the old high wheelers. It was thought that the clubmen would then be able to outsprint the dogs. They christened this machine “Rover” (fig 10). That was akin to giving the dogs the two-fingered salute, for prior to that time the name had been exclusively appended to favoured pet dogs. Sometime later it was attached to football and cricket clubs

Fig 9. Every club employed a bugler.

without a pitch, necessitating all their matches to be played on opponent’s grounds. But I digress. The dogs could now attack at leisure with the riders’ legs again within reach (fig 11). The bugle remained the only defence for a few years until a genius called Macarthy improved the rear-driven safety by re-designing the frame and adding suspension. This machine, faster than the Rover, was christened Whippet (fig 12) in an attempt to convince the canine population that it was faster than all other dogs. It was thought that the extra speed would enable the dogs to be left behind but unfortunately, once more, it was not so. The Whippet’s speed was legendary, but it retained the one historic fault to be found in all previous bicycles and all subsequent machines too. Bicycle designers, frame builders and large-scale manufacturers have all failed to eliminate this fault. I refer of course to the fact that the machines work well enough in the morning but inexplicably slow down after lunch, and around teatime can hardly be made to go above the proverbial snail’s pace. Teatime was when the cyclists were easy prey. The term “dog tired” entered the language at this point to describe the condition. So many riders were attacked near the end of a long day in the saddle that for a time cycling became not only a seasonal sport but also a morning-only exercise like mushroom gathering. It will perhaps have been noted that throughout this protracted battle between the human and canine populations it was the dogs who were the aggressors, while the riders used avoidance tactics and guile for survival. That was to change. From the advent of the pneumatic tyre in 1888 to its

Fig 10. The Rover bicycle.

over the hedges from them and were proud of their superior skill when compared with the safety bicycle riders. They seized their opportunity and applied the air tyre to the high wheel concept. The pneumatic front driver (fig13) was the result and of course it needed more air in the tyre than the smaller wheels. That resulted in a much larger pump with which to clout the dogs. Eureka!! However, the pneumatic front driver did not last long, doubtless due to the added exertion when inflating and a greater area for locating punctures. Other weapons employed at that time were ammonia pistols and perhaps the best of all because it was natural, was to train one’s own dog to be a fierce combatant and take him with you. In those motorless days

it was possible for a cyclist to tour with his pooch running along behind and willing to take on any rural cur looking for a scrap. That last method became obsolete of course when the motors proliferated. While the dogs could win against the cyclists they always came second when chasing motors. The problem was finally solved when tricycle design eventually settled down to the familiar design with two rear wheels and one front (fig 14). The back wheel gets the dog before the dog gets the rider. Although motors and legislation forbidding loose dogs almost solved the problem, for it barely exists today, tricycles are still ridden by a minority of riders. They are all nervous of dogs.

Fig 11. A dog chases a Safety bicycle. regular use on the roads from about 1892, the cyclists carried weapons. John Boyd Dunlop was a vet, so he knew all about dogs and the best way to handle them. The big advantage of his new sausage tyres was not the oft-quoted speed and comfort but the secondary use to which the inflator could be put. Any hound foolish enough to go for a rider’s legs would receive a sharp rap across the nose from the heavy brass pump of those days. The advent of the pneumatic tyre also gave thought in other directions. There were many cyclists with 15 to 20 years of riding experience who were reluctant to give up the high wheelers. They could see

Fig 12. The spring-framed Whippet.

Fig 13. Pneumatic high wheeler with longer inflator.

Fig 14. A tricycle. www.audax.uk

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For many folk, a summer holiday is the time to jet off to foreign parts and laze in the sun for a fortnight. But in summer 2020, veterinary surgeon and Audaxer Laura Pugh and her husband Stevie instead took to a tandem – for a midge-plagued slog from Land’s End to John O’Groats in the unseasonable damp and cold. Laura describes how they tried their hardest to get into the holiday mood…

Laura began riding Audaxes in 2016. She completed an SR on tandem in that year, and an SR solo the following year. She’s also ridden the Mille Pennine on tandem and completed PBP in 2019, though finishing a couple of hours out of time. Derbybased Laura and Stevie have ridden an SR every year since 2016. Stevie has ridden Audaxes since the age of 13 when he rode a 200km organised by the legendary Jim Hopper. His record includes one LEL and two PBPs. Laura says: “He was notoriously fast in his day – once getting an organiser out of bed after finishing a 600km in 24 hours. He now enjoys a slower pace of riding with me on tandem and on solo bikes, and has lost count of the number of SR series he’s done.”

It,s a long way down the holiday road< on a tandem WE WERE EXTREMELY LUCKY to be able to take a cycling "holiday" while restrictions allowed over the summer months – but when you’re a seasoned Audaxer, what does rest and relaxation actually mean? We had two weeks and the length of the country to find out. It’s a dream many of us harbour – riding Land’s End to John O’Groats. Even before the first mutters of Coivd-19 my husband Stevie and I had pencilled in that this would be the year we undertook this epic journey. When it became apparent Covid restrictions would lift enough to allow us to travel the distance, and I had two weeks off work, the opportunity was too good to

Ready to roll… setting off in rainy Cornwall

pass up. The only way to travel for us was on tandem as it helped match our paces and made for a more sociable journey – joined at the frame. This did, however, create the first logistical issue: How on earth you get a bicycle made for two to from one end of the country and back to the other? Despite some useful suggestions we did not have the time to ride both ways! The easiest way was to rent vans to and from the start and finish – convenient for Land’s End, but less so for John O’Groats where the nearest van hire was Inverness. This rounded up the distance to closer to 1,150miles to be covered in 14 days,

Loading up the van…

… and loadfing up the tandem

At last the beginning…

including travel time in the van; not what a lot of people would consider a holiday. Setting off didn’t quite have that holiday vibe either as I finished my night shift at 8am, leapt on to a bus, jumped on my commuting bike in Derby, rode five miles home to help Stevie load the tandem and gear into the rental van he’d collected earlier that morning. We were soon loaded up, on the road and heading south. The hire van was new and pristine and I desperately tried not to shed crumbs on the seats. We arrived and uploaded the tandem with our gear to ride 11 miles to Land’s End and pitch up for an early morning start. We planned to camp as much as possible along the way so had all the necessary accoutrements stowed in out four panniers and bar bag making for a

heavy bike. Many people would be horrified at the idea of having to pitch a tent, cook dinner and not sleep in a bed after a long day on the bike, but we considered our spacious two-man tent and gas burner relative luxuries compared to the floor of a sports hall full of snoring cyclists. We had a splendid evening to begin with, celebrating the beginning of our adventure with a couple of pints in the First and Last pub in England (depending which way you approach it) and a fish and chip picnic outside the tent. A rather surreal start saw us up and packed promptly after breakfast and riding the final few miles to begin our ride. Taking the necessary photos in front of the sign the rest of the Land’s End complex was

eerily quiet and it seemed unbelievable the next time I’d look out to sea would be at the other end of the country. The first few days were some of the longest and as usual with such a long trip I knew it would take a bit of time to find our patter – getting things packed, what was in what bag, how much food to keep on hand, how frequently to stop. One of the benefits of riding an Audax is the set controls mean you know the distance to the next stop, whereas we just had the daily distance in front of us and no set plan. This backfired pretty quickly as we passed the first Cornish pasty shop, temptingly letting the aroma of its produce waft out on the road. The tandem promptly squealed to a halt and second breakfast was had sheltering from the drizzle underneath some trees with golden, steaming, flaky pastry filled with rich and deeply satisfying veg and mince filling. We wheeled off into the mist and

Some old bridge… crossing the Severn

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Stile-ish negotiations near Warrington

gloom, undulating through the high-banked country lanes before the road started to climb. We were probably lucky we’d stopped when we did as the weather was unforgiving and there wasn’t so much as an empty bus stop for respite as we reached the top of Bodmin Moor. It hardly seemed like a late July summer’s day. We battled through the elements to Bude where a friend had offered us a bed in her self-catering accommodation. What she failed to mention was the final few short, sharp up-and-downs on the approach and we arrived sodden, tired and feeling like we’d seen very little other than hedgerows and grey skies all day. In contrast to the other cottages where holidaymakers were already tucked up warm and dry, we were setting about showering, drying kit and packing provisions for an early start the next day. We were treated to a wonderful homecooked dinner and couple of local ales however, so decided this was still in the spirit of the holiday after all. Although well-rested and fed, it was a wrench to leave the comfort of such cosy surrounding and ride out again at 7am into yet more depressing drizzle. But today was another long one and we needed all the time we could to have any hope of getting to the next campsite to relax. Not five miles down the road our dreams of lounging around the campsite or strolling to the village pub were destroyed when Stevie

Half-way… celebrating in Carlisle

noticed a bulge in the front tyre. Hoping it would last until the next bike shop, we set off tentatively, with me doing "admin" on the back trying to find the best option to get a new one and not divert. The problem was soon taken out of our hands when descending round a corner towards a low-walled bridge there was a loud bang and I closed my eyes and debated making a swift departure from the stoker seat on the back, and the bike ground to sudden halt. A testament to Stevie’s skill as captain, he managed to keep the bike upright, both of us in our seats, avoiding a damp landing in the stream below. We were not going anywhere with a blown-out tyre. Two

Ice cream at Loch Lomond

hours of panicked googling and calls saw us rescued by a fantastic local bike repair man who not only came out to find us, equipped with a new tyre, but then followed us for the next five miles to make sure we were OK. Seriously behind schedule we pushed on as fast as we could through the endlessly rolling Cornish countryside. A brief stop for provisions saw us accosted by the village busybody who was determined to try to sponsor us for our efforts despite our protestations that this is what we do for fun and our holiday. The hedgerows had finally lowered enough to give us a glimpse of the countryside and the hills finally evened out enough to give us a break when our route put us on a rather scenic, but gravelly canal path from Taunton. As much I was having a great time admiring the scenery and wildlife, Stevie was not. The tandem is not built for gravel riding and with four heavy

Gorgeous… the beauty of Scotland

panniers if made it a physical and mental struggle to hold the bike straight. It had been two long days in the saddle so far, and as much as we had kept up our riding through lockdown the mileage was soon ramping up with today being almost 200km. As the sun set and the day drew to a close we stopped at a Co-op to grab provisions, resigned to the fact there would be no evening strolls to the local pub by the time we arrived and pitched up. Another deluge of rain and a final rutted track was enough for Stevie and he retreated to the tent when we finally pitched up at 9pm. If Audax has taught me anything it’s that you don’t get far without fuel, and with Stevie’s tremendous effort on the front of the bike after such a long day I set about cooking by head torch in the downpour and we managed to get a full meal down us before collapsing exhausted into our sleeping bags. “This doesn’t feel like a holiday at all," Stevie grumbled before we drifted off. The following day started brightly – both in terms of weather and in spirit, and cups of tea and a warm breakfast sustained us for the ride ahead. The better weather and a pleasant ride along the "Strawberry Line" track seemed almost leisurely, as did the fact that today was a ride of two halves as we were meeting a friend in Tintern for lunch. We still had to up the pace to meet the "control cut off time" of our pre-arranged booking, but this gave us the motivation to keep going. A very pleasant catch up in the shadows of the ancient abbey and a cheeky lunch time half pint made for a relaxed meander through the Wye Valley. The time spent stopping cost us, though, and it was another late arrival to camp. A beautiful sunrise the following morning helped raise our spirits, and the

and a camp spot in the back garden as well as a chance to wash and dry clothes was a great boost, as was some more delicious home-cooking. The riding itself was challenging enough, but the "admin" that goes with it – tent up and down, breakfast, lunch and dinner provided for and cooked, clothing kept clean, weather checked, route planned, blog written – all these things add hours to the day, and the foolish addition of a book to read (which went unread) to my luggage. The weatherchecking that evening caused some consternation as it was due to be torrential – the last thing we needed for the Lakes. We quickly drafted a reroute over Shap Fell. The wet weather saw us push on hard and we made our first control at Penrith, arriving sodden, cold and hungry in the local tearooms. Luckily, they sunlight revealed were very tolerant of the beautiful views over puddles forming around On the menu… midge attack the Welsh borders. our feet. Soup, hot drinks Today we had another and scones soon had us stop with friends so were sustained enough to continue. against the clock again and Somehow the sun broke elected to make a route through the clouds and the final few miles diversion to the main road to Shrewsbury. seemed to fly by as we arrived in Carlisle Our route had focused on the more with time to spare. We also had the luxury scenic roads so far, which is one of the things we most enjoy about Audax rides, but today we just wanted to make progress. I was becoming adept at rerouting with a combination of the track on my GPS and Google Maps, and diverted us a number of times. We made an error many an Audaxer will dread – a slow service café. By this I don’t mean a simple down-to-earth caff doing its best to feed dozens of ravenous riders – more like a place with superfluous staff and menu options and yet which cannot possibly make you a bacon butty in less than half an hour because the organic sourdough is still baking and the maple-cured bacon has to be crisped to perfection. Sadly this was such a café and 45 minutes later we wolfed down our butties in a tenth of the time it took to make them. The next battle was a string of “gates” alongside the canal between Warrington and Wigan which would have been an inconvenience to the normal cyclist but to our “long vehicle” were impassable. Unloading the bags and some complex manoeuvres from Stevie, we edged our way through. A further National Cycle Network track that was a foot deep in mud was the last straw and we opted for the less scenic main road again – the balance between holiday and progress as tricky as ever to achieve. Cocktails on arrival at our friends in Preston put us back in the holiday spirit

Lochside camping

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of an Airbnb, and after exploding our panniers around the room to dry everything we ventured into town to celebrate the halfway point of our journey. Enjoying a few pints, we finally felt like we had enough time to relax and put our feet up, and the benefits of a kitchen made for an easy junk food tea of oven pizza and fish finger sandwiches for breakfast! The quiet back roads of Dumfries and Galloway emphasised the difference in landscape we’d passed through, from rolling hedges, canal paths, undulating hills, suburbs and city paths. Turning northwards our pleasant ride was soon yet another battle as we headed straight into a stiff headwind. We had no choice but to get our heads down and batter on. In common with every Audax I’ve ridden, every day of this trip had its different challenges: wind, rain, mechanicals and road surfaces. Tonight was another bonus Airbnb however as no campsite was convenient and we yet again arrived in time to get to the pub, but this time were forced to purchase a rather wonderful dinner as our usual fare of packed rice or noodles was not an option due to the lack of village shop. As much as we were determined to stick to budget, we felt a bit of a treat was in the holiday spirit. The following day we were into the Highlands and due to spend three nights wild camping and fending for ourselves. Feeling intrepid we wended our way on bike paths through Glasgow city centre before a brief ice cream stop (who knew Scottish tablet is the best flavour of ice cream?) and picking up the busy A-road up past Loch Lomond. Thankfully the road was relatively quiet and it was just a case of heads down and pedal. The Green Welly stop was our last chance for provisions and I did a rather random supermarket sweep of the sparse selection of cans and packets on the shelves, as well as a bicycle-themed bottle of wine to help warm our cockles out in the wilds. Our destination was due to be somewhere beyond the Bridge of Orchy, but when we reached the hotel on the bridge we decided to quench our thirst with a swift pint. A gentleman on the neighbouring table singled us out as not being quite the same type as the "outdoorsy" holidaymakers who were congratulating themselves after a few hours’ brisk stroll before settling down to a three-course gastropub meal. He was intrigued by our tale and kept us talking for another couple

Lochside camping

of drinks, before making the extremely kind gesture of paying our bar tab. This had negated us riding any further that evening, but he had helpfully pointed out that there was a camp spot down by the River Orchy. We arrived to pitch up to find another few tents there already, as it’s a popular spot for West Highland Way walkers. Unfortunately, these were not the only company near the river and as soon as we stopped the dreaded midges started to descend. Our human friends were more than hospitable though and after rolling us cans of the National drink of Scotland, Tennents, we soon forgot that the less friendly insects were feasting too. Rustling up an innovative supper of "Scottish surprise fried rice" with the can of haggis I‘d picked up earlier, we washed it down with a pleasant drop of red wine and sat chatting around the campfire with our new friends. The next morning was a less joyous affair as I awoke early with a sore, fuzzy head, suggesting that I’d over-imbibed slightly the night before, and every inch of my exposed skin covered in small red welts. The holiday spirit was long gone and only by switching into "Audax mode" did I managed to get packed up and on the bike. The beauty of the Glen Etive and Rannoch Moor revived me somewhat, but a solid fried breakfast in Glen Coe definitely saved the day. Normally I wouldn’t dare consume such a large meal before getting back on the bike, but that day it certainly hit the spot. Routine bike checks by Stevie revealed

the next issue to be dealt with as he spotted a split developing in the rim of the wheel. It was another disaster waiting to happen and we just desperately hoped we could find a replacement before it gave up on us entirely. This certainly put a downer on the mood, and a wet, tedious ride along the shore of Loch Ness with its impatient drivers did nothing to raise our spirits. The miles started to drag in the way that only seems to occur after too long in the saddle and we were both suffering from the doozies, having to implement caffeine chewing gum and Rowntree’s fruit sours to keep up alert. Activities which involve forcing yourself to stay awake do not constitute a holiday, and our endurance was put to the test again. We finally reached Drumnadrochit, our last supply stop for the day but the thought of stocking up, rolling into the hills, pitching up soaked through to the skin, cooking dinner and then trying to get enough internet to find the nearest bike shop felt like a monumental task after a tough day. We’ve come through tougher situations but we decided to put a sensible spin on things and find a bed and breakfast – this is what most normal people would be doing all the time on their holidays, right? A few hours later and another pannier bag explosion to get everything dry we were warm, showered and stealthily heating up dinner in a quirky hotel room. The Wi-Fi internet allowed us to spot bike shops on the following day’s route and the wonders of modern technology allowed me to get in touch to see if they had a wheel in stock and ready to go. Feeling much better about ourselves we snuggled down into a night in a real bed and slept very soundly. The following day we had no doubt we

had made the right decision and being able to pack up dry kit despite the showers outside felt like a massive bonus. The only downside for me was that my carelessness at Bridge of Orchy had left me exposed to the hungry midges and it appeared not only was I very tasty, but also very reactive. My legs were and the itching was horrendous. Another emergency stop to pick up pills and potions was required. Mission: New front wheel went extremely smoothly however and Stevie was soon fitting the new one in place after yet again another local bike shop saving the day. We were over the moon to be able to roll on without fear of splitting rims, especially as the roads were getting more and more remote. A last stop at Lairg to pick up provisions for the night and we found ourselves on a tremendous road to Altnaharra which conveniently had a hotel and bar where we enjoyed a pint and met some fellow LeJoggers who were slightly taken aback by the speed we’d made up the country as they were taking closer to a month to complete the ride and staying in accommodation every night. I think it is easy to take for granted the skills and perspective long distance and Audax riding gives you but we certainly didn’t envy their bar bill for a couple of pints and burgers so dread to think the cost of a room. Feeling ever so slightly smug we rolled further on to pitch up our five star accommodation in the most midge-free place we could find next to the loch. As a special treat we had some local burgers (on a disposable BBQ), washed down with a can of Tennents for a fraction of the cost. The small issue of a thick black cloud of midges descending every time the wind dropped left us with head nets at the ready however, and I had never quite believed the descriptions of not being able to see through the swarm until that night. We were treated to a glorious sunset across the loch but retreated quickly once night fell to hear what at first sounded like rain, but turned out to be midges battering the fly sheet trying to get in. What I had considered a mild irritation was now becoming a major problem and one of our biggest mistakes was underestimating the scale of the problems caused by these wee beasties! A thankfully breezy morning saw us packing up with fewer issues and a fantastic 73 miles to go – our shortest day yet. Doped up to the eyeballs on antihistamines I had a rather surreal ride as finally the coast came into view. Our arrival at John O’Groats was not met with a fanfare, banners and medals. We joined a queue of people (who had

That’s all for now... at the official finish

mostly driven there) to have our photo taken with the famous sign before wandering around trying to find our caravan accommodation for the night (the local campsite was shut all season). Stevie quickly spotted the newly-opened John O’Groats brewery however and they were much more welcoming, and having heard of our travels, rewarded us with a free pint. Finally feeling accomplished we dined at the rather eccentric Seaview Hotel trying to ignore the fact that even though our LEJOG was over, we still had to get back on the bike tomorrow. The psychology of having finished our challenge but still having to get to Inverness in two days, to pick up the hire van did not make for a great start the next day. The caravan was our least comfortable night’s sleep – give me a bus shelter any day. We had a comparatively late start, and lazily rolled on to the A9, which was more pleasurable than I’d expected, but just as undulating. With 200km over two days we could afford to take our time now and we were definitely on holiday. We stopped at another hotel that night, treated ourselves to scallops on the seafront then sit-down fish and chips before a few pints in the bar with the locals. A full Scottish breakfast saw us most of

the way to Inverness the next day and we were delighted to pick up the van ahead of schedule. We used the time to get a head start on the drive south and got as far as Perth before reverting back to Audax mode and eating kebabs in the van before bedding down in the back with the bike. We’d been through a lot together and it somehow seemed appropriate... The following day we completed the rest of the drive back, dropped the van off, unpacked, washed, dried, ate and slept all in time for me to start another week of night shifts the day after. It may have been a crazy idea to cram it all into two weeks but we were delighted to have completed the challenge, and had many amazing messages of support from friends following us along the way. We were proud of our achievement. ● And the trip has inspired us. What we’ve learned from this and other long distance rides has made us wonder how far we could go. This has now spiralled out of control and we plan to do a record-breaking attempt at World Circumnavigation on tandem in 2022. If any readers are interested in following our preparations, we are on various social media platforms under Stela Tandem and have a website – www. stelatandemaroundtheworld.wordpress.com www.audax.uk

Joy ridıng on yon bonnie braes

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Not every cycle ride needs to be a bruising, against-the-clock test of strength, with rider and machine taking on the toughest challenges in the worst weather – sometimes it can be just a pleasurable jaunt in the sunshine. Sixty-two year old Audaxer Ian Barber, describes a leisurely tour of Scotland’s historic south-western corner, and the simple joy of cycling…

IF YOU’RE LOOKING for an account of an extreme cycle ride, of overcoming adversity, whether enjoyable or not, with a climax of relief or achievement – this isn’t it. This is just a report about the joy of cycling. Hats off to those who complete strenuous epics, recording huge efforts, pushing the boundaries of what is humanly possible on a bike. This report of a ride around a less fashionable corner of Scotland is perhaps modest by comparison. My 37 year old son Andrew and I took a tour of the south-west of Scotland based on the SW Coast 300 route devised as an alternative to the established and busy North Coast 500. The SW Coast 300 route is intended to promote the area for visitors using cars or motorbikes and includes some very busy roads. We devised a route to avoid such roads wherever possible. Travelling from our homes in the Oldham area, my son and I, carrying our own luggage, took a clockwise circular route of 360 miles (580km) and 19,000ft (5,790m) climbing spread over six days. Each day started around 9.30am allowing time for breakfast at various venues. Take-away lunches were taken en-route and each day’s ride ended at around 4pm, allowing ample time for refreshments and exploration of the towns and villages passed through and the overnight stop-overs. We were very fortunate with the weather during the six days which was bright and even sunny (no rain, not a drop, yes really) with an easterly breeze and to cap it all no punctures. Day One We started in Girvan with views across the Firth of Clyde to Ailsa Craig, a volcanic plug famous for its dense granite used in the

WORDS & PICTURES IAN BARBER

The deserted island of Ailsa Craig from Girvan

making of the best curling stones, and the Isle of Arran (said to be Scotland in miniature) with Goat Fell standing proud. Girvan has accommodation if needed and plenty of free parking or access via train from Glasgow/Ayr. We headed north and inland through farmland to avoid the busy A77 and returned to the coast at

Turnberry. We passed Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course, a well-regarded employer in that area but alas currently losing money. Mr Trump has apparently invested millions in the golf course, including rebuilding the lighthouse next to the Turnberry Castle ruins (thought to be Robert the Bruce’s birthplace).

Ian Barber has been an Audax member for 10 years, while son Andrew is a recent convert to the organisation, joining a year ago. Their Scottish ride was undertaken in September 2020 during a rare window in covid restrictions and lockdowns. Ian has completed numerous tours, including a Pyrennees traverse (Hendaye to Cerbere) and Route des Grand Alpes (Lake Geneva to Menton). While not members of an official cycling club both father and son are members of a Strava grouping – Phoenix CC. Andrew shoots the breeze with a Man On The Beach in Port William by the artist Andrew Brown

We passed Donald Trump’s ❝ Turnberry golf course, a wellregarded employer in that area but alas currently losing money

❞

We passed the Culzean Castle entrance and then onward towards Dunure and the curious-sounding “Electric Brae”. The slope of this section of the road is subject to an optical illusion, making it appear opposite to reality. It was once believed to be an electric field which caused unexpected rolling. Well, you’ll just have to try it yourself one day. There were magnificent coastal views

of Arran, Ailsa Craig and Kintyre beyond – a reward for taking the undulating high road towards Dunure. Further on at Alloway, the birthplace of Scottish bard Robbie Burns, we headed east and inland into a stiff headwind. At Drongan village we enjoyed take-away pie and soup, and coffee before we headed further inland through the villages of Sinclairston, Skares and New Cumnock on surprisingly good roads. Our preconception was that these quieter roads would be rough. However most of this countryside is used for agriculture and forestry, and the roads are all wellmaintained. Our first stop-over was at Sanquhar, a town with a prominent tollbooth building

which now houses the local museum and its proud history of unique wool patterns. These were reflected throughout our accommodation. Sanquhar was also home of the former Crawick Wheelers cycling club whose former members had regularly been renowned national time trial champions. Day Two We were soon climbing the wonderful valley road up to Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland. This gently climbing valley was an absolute delight on a quiet, sunny morning with buzzards soaring overhead. We then headed for Elvanfoot and picked up NCN 74 southwards before turning off through some stunning scenic cycling to reach Moffat. 55

We had our take-away lunch in the lovely, if busy, town square. We then headed further south on the old Carlisle road which again had very little traffic and good smooth tarmac. Our second stop-over was in Lockerbie, the history of which still saddens me. We visited the memorial gardens of the 1988 air disaster in which 272 people died. A lady working in our accommodation had lived in Lockerbie all her life and was eight years old at the time of the disaster and had in-depth knowledge. Apparently some of the victims’ relatives still mark anniversaries with a visit to the town and a stay at the hotel.

Arrivée151Spring2021

Day Three We headed through Kettleholm, Hoddom and Annan to the Solway Firth – an area of outstanding natural beauty. It was cycling utopia on nice road surfaces with little traffic and lovely seascapes across the Firth. We passed through Cummertrees, Bankend and Glencaple on the NCN 7. We lunched al-fresco in Dumfries before cycling onwards around the next headland via New Abbey, Sandyhills, Colvend and Dalbeattie. We enjoyed more stunning views and lovely, quiet roads. We arrived at our next stop-over in Castle Douglas (our original B&B in Dalbeattie had sadly ceased trading just before we had started) in plenty of time to sample refreshments at the Sulwarth Brewery tap, and then later we enjoyed mezze at a recommended local Greek eatery.

Day Four We headed back towards the coast and followed the NCN 7 to Kirkcudbright where a leg of the Tour of Britain had finished in 2019. Then it was on to Borgue before detouring through Knockbrex, passing the unusual looking Coo Palace – a former dairy farm converted to accommodation, and Girthon. We covered a short stretch on the A75 to Gatehouse of Fleet where we snacked and then headed on a quiet and lovely detour inland over the stiffest climb of the tour but relatively short taking us to Creetown. This was followed by an unavoidable short stretch on the A75 to Newton Stewart. Sandwiches from the Co-op were enjoyed while we sat next to the river Cree. Luckily a passing family had seen me drop my prized photochromic cycling specs while walking my bike to the river, and returned them. My sincere thanks were expressed. After lunch we headed south following some national and local cycle routes through Wigtown, Bladnoch and then a

High point… Wanlockhead village

slight detour to Garlieston where we rested. A large memorial stone there is a reminder that it was famous for developing the Mulberry harbours used successfully in the Normandy landings of WW2. We later arrived at Whithorn where we had booked a B&B. Whithorn is a very quiet town and is thought to be the real birthplace of Christianity in Scotland, according to the “Whithorn Story. It contains priory ruins and is the end of the “Whithorn Way” a long distance pilgrimage walk from Glasgow. However Whithorn itself has very limited options for food and refreshments. Thankfully our hosts offered to cook an evening meal at a very reasonable rate and we acquired some tinned beverages from the only local shop. Day Five We continued around the Machars peninsula stopping at Port William for a photoshoot at its unique viewing post. The views, across a sea that looked azure, to the Mull of Galloway peninsular and the Isle of Man were beautiful. On the quiet road to Glenluce my son was stung by a bee that managed to get trapped between his helmet and head. A little redness and sore but no other reaction so onwards towards the Mull of Galloway. The most southerly point in Scotland. We had both previously been to the lighthouse there which is only reached by an out-and-back road of four miles each way, so instead we dined al-fresco in Drummore and opted to explore more of the southern Rhins of Galloway. We were

so glad that we did as these were another area of cycling utopia. We meandered leisurely on very quiet roads across pleasantly undulating, cultivated hills of vivid green. There seemed to be an isolated farmhouse on each area of high ground but no hamlets or villages as such. All too soon we arrived at our overnight stop-over at Portpatrick. This was a very busy picturesque harbour village with a lifeboat station. We checked in and joined the Sunday hordes which were thankfully beginning to thin out by late afternoon. Day Six We had decided to extend the route to explore the northern Rhins which turned out to be just as pleasant and quiet as the Well kept secret… Barrhill

southern ones. We arrived at Stranraer having observed the ferries across Loch Ryan awaiting departure for Belfast and Larne. We’d been to Stranraer several times and really liked the genuine feel of the town and its people. We had a photoshoot outside our adopted Scottish football club, Stranraer FC – the third oldest football club in Scotland – before heading onwards. In order to avoid the very busy A77 we headed inland on NCN 73 towards Castle Kennedy before climbing north-east through New Luce and Glenwhilly to Barrhill. We passed signposts for the Southern Uplands Way and the Whithorn Way long distance walks on a stretch of moorland that was perhaps the closest to a wilderness of the whole trip and was truly magical cycling territory. Please keep this area secret! The moorland views were stunning and the roads were a dream. The climbing was much gentler than we had imagined as we hadn’t realised that the train line from Stranraer to Girvan also passed through these hills. What a feat of

engineering to get a train line to this exposed wilderness. We stopped for some take-away Scotch pies and coffee at Barrhill before our undulating final stretch back through Pinwherry and Pinmore to Girvan and our Arrivée. This was a lovely cycling tour, packed

with scenic views – a tour which took in some of the quieter and less frequented areas and peninsulas of south-west Scotland and offered fantastic coastal cycling as well as exposed moorland areas and with many interesting places to explore.

El-fresco… Drummore

IN PASSING

Corseyard Farm, known locally as the Coo Palace and now marketed under that name, is a startling and unusual dairy farm near Kirkandrews, built in 1911 it is now used as holiday accommodation.

www.audax.uk

AUK CALENDAR

KEY

1826m Total elevation AAA Audax Altitude Award points A(1) Free/cheap accommodation (1 night) B Very basic – no halls/beds, et c BD Bag drop R Refreshments at start and/or finish S Showers Z Sleeping facilities on route YH Youth hostel at/near start C Camping at or near the start F Some free food and/or drink on ride L Left luggage facilities at start P Free or cheap motor parking at start T Toilets at start M/NM Mudguards required/not required X Some very basic controls (eg service stations) G GPS files provided by the organiser 175 Entries close at 175 riders 14/4 Entries close 14th April 15-30kph Minimum-maximum speeds

NOTE: AUK is able to re-commence the validation of events of up to 300km that take place solely within England from the 29th of March. This applies to calendar and permanent events. Permanent events will initially be limited to 6 participants per event route each day until the 17 May or, if later, the start of Step 3, when it will increase to 30. Permanent events of up to 600km will also be validated from the start of Step 3.

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02 Apr Anywhere, to York Easter Fleches to York Fri BRM £15.00 X 15-30kph Audax UK andrewuttley155@outlook.com Andy Uttley, Suil Na Mara, Wester, Cullicudden, Balblair, Dingwall IV7 8LL 200 02 Apr Anywhere, to York Easter Trail Fri BRM 201km £12.00 X 15-30kph Audax UK andrewuttley155@outlook.com Andy Uttley, Suil Na Mara, Wester, Cullicudden, Balblair, Dingwall IV7 8LL 300 02 Apr Ponteland Longtown Way Round 07:00 Fri BR 315km 2900m £8.50 X G P T (60) 15-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online 200 03 Apr Huntingdon Nederlandse Dubbele 08:00 Sat BR 218km £3.50 X 15-30kph West Sussex CTC malinseastg@tiscali.co.uk Martin Malins, Room 2L22 Lab Block, Charing Cross Hospital, Fulham Palace Road, London W12 8RF 160 03 Apr Ponteland Up on the Roof 08:00 Sat BP 161km 2369m AAA2.25 [1800m] £8.50 X G P T (70) 13.5-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online 100 10 Apr Cranbrook, Exeter Breakfast in Bampton 09:00 Sat BP 1200m £5.00 NM 12-30kph Change of Date Exeter Whs shbritton@outlook.com Sarah Britton, 17 Copse Close Lane, Cranbrook, Devon EX5 7AP 200 10 Apr Edinburgh, Currie Moscow Express 08:00 Sat BR 204km 1865m £4.00 X P G (27/3) 15-30kph Scottish Borders Randonneur Ross Connell, Flat 7, 36 Torwood Crescent, Edinburgh EH12 9GJ

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10 Apr Edinburgh, Currie Pentland Populaire 09:00 Sat BP 984m £4.00 X P G (27/3) 15-30kph Scottish Borders Randonneur Ross Connell, Flat 7, 36 Torwood Crescent, Edinburgh EH12 9GJ 200 11 Apr Greenwich The Shark 07:00 Sun BR 205km 3110m AAA3 £8.00 F G R (17/04) 14.3-28kph Change of Date Audax Club Hackney ivan.cornell@gmail.com Ivan Cornell, 13 Maidenstone Hill, London SE10 8SY 200 11 Apr Nairn, Nr Inverness Eilean Dubh 07:30 Sun BRM 208km 1730m £5.00 X C G NM P 15-30kph CTC Highland andrewuttley155@outlook.com Andy Uttley, Suil Na Mara, Wester, Cullicudden, Balblair, Dingwall IV7 8LL 110 11 Apr Nairn, Nr Inverness The Wolf 09:30 Sun BP 1010m £5.00 X C G NM P 12-30kph CTC Highland andrewuttley155@outlook.com Andy Uttley, Suil Na Mara, Wester, Cullicudden, Balblair, Dingwall IV7 8LL 200 17 Apr Brampton Eden Valley 200 08:00 Sat BR 204km 2086m [1943m] £8.00 X G P T (60) 15-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online 120 17 Apr Brampton Eden Valley 120 09:00 Sat BP 905m £8.00 X G P T (60) 12.5-25kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online 100 17 Apr Churchend, Dunmow, Essex The Woodman 10:00 Sat BP 850m £5.00 X C G M P T (50) 12.5-25kph Audax Club Mid-Essex tom.deakins@btinternet.com Thomas Deakins, 31 The Causeway, Dunmow CM6 2AA 50 17 Apr Churchend, Dunmow, Essex The Woodman’s Daughter 09:00 Sat BP 300m £5.00 X C G M P T (50) 8.3-20kph Audax Club Mid-Essex tom.deakins@btinternet.com Thomas Deakins, 31 The Causeway, Dunmow CM6 2AA 200 17 Apr Peterculter, Nr Aberdeen Dee Lechtable 08:00 Sat BRM 208km 2550m AAA2.25 [2310m] £7.50 G F P T 15-30kph Audax Ecosse rfargo@gmail.com Robert Fargo, 20 Gordon St, Flat H Aberdeen AB11 6EW 300 17 Apr Raynes Park Amesbury Amble 06:00 Sat BR 312km 2200m £10.00 A(2) G L P R T S 15-30kph Kingston Wheelers Sarah Perkins, 1 Summer Gardens, East Molesey KT8 9LT 200 17 Apr Stourport, Begwyns Books and Stones 07:45 Sat BR 202km 3360m £4.00 X,T,P 14.3-30kph Beacon RCC 01562 731606 p.whiteman@bham.ac.uk Dr Philip Whiteman, 2 Drayton Terrace, Drayton, Belbroughton, Stourbridge DY9 0BW

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18 Apr Brampton Eden Valley 160 08:00 Sun BP 162km 1226m [1492m] £8.00 X G P T (60) 13.5-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online 160 18 Apr Honiton Combwich Century 08:30 Sun BP 169km 2550m AAA2.5 £9.00 G L P R T (30) 14-30kph Exeter Whs ian@ukcyclist.co.uk ROA 25000 Ian Hennessey, 10 High Street, Honiton EX14 1PU 200 24 Apr Honiton Valley of the Rocks 200 08:00 Sat BRM 205km 3800m AAA3.75 £9.00 G L P R T 40 15-30kph Exeter Whs ian@ukcyclist.co.uk ROA 25000 Ian Hennessey, 10 High Street, Honiton EX14 1PU 200 24 Apr Reading, Berks A Tribute to Alan Turing 07:30 Sat BR 209km 2000m [650m] £10.00 G NM P R T 15-30kph Cycling UK Reading Edwin Raj, 312 Henley Road, Caversham, Reading RG4 6LS 100 24 Apr Reading, Berks A Tribute to Robert Boyle 09:00 Sat BP 108km 700m £10.00 G NM P R T 15-30kph Cycling UK Reading Edwin Raj, 312 Henley Road, Caversham, Reading RG4 6LS 55 24 Apr Reading, Berks A Tribute to Johnson & Matthey 09:45 Sat BP 540m £10.00 F G NM P R T 10-30kph Cycling UK Reading Edwin Raj, 312 Henley Road, Caversham, Reading RG4 6LS 200 24 Apr Selkirk Scottish Borders Randonnee 08:00 Sat BR 204km 2168m £7.50 X 15-30kph Scottish Borders Randonneur 01750 20838 russellacarson@gmail.com Russell Carson, 21 Ladylands Terrace, Selkirk TD7 4BB 140 24 Apr Selkirk Scottish Borders Populaire 08:00 Sat BP 145km £7.50 X 12-30kph Scottish Borders Randonneur 01750 20838 russellacarson@gmail.com Russell Carson, 21 Ladylands Terrace, Selkirk TD7 4BB 110 28 Apr Alnwick Harry’s Wednesday Potter 09:00 Wed BP 113km 1680m AAA1.75 [1670m] £4.00 X G P T (50) 13.3-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online 1000 30 Apr Harrowgate Hill, Darlington Highland Fling 13:00 Fri BRM 10610m AAA7.25 [7180m] £60.00 F G L R T Z (103) 13.3-25kph VC 167 dean.clementson@yahoo.com Dean Clementson, 10 Redmire Close, Darlington DL1 2ER 200 01 May Bolsover Clumber to Humber (John Kerr Memorial Ride) 08:00 Sat BR 214km 1450m £6.00 L P R T G (100) 15-30kph Bolsover & District CC 01246 825 351 matt.connley@talktalk.net ROA 5000 Matt Connley, 7 Eskdale Close, Bolsover, Chesterfield S44 6RL 110 01 May Bolsover An NCN Audax 09:00 Sat BP 117km 1036m £6.00 G L P R T (50) 10-20kph Audax Club Bolsover 01246 825 351 matt.connley@talktalk.net ROA 5000 Matt Connley, 7 Eskdale Close, Bolsover, Chesterfield S44 6RL

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01 May Cranbrook Old Roads 300 06:00 Sat BR 3900m AAA3 [2900m] £5.00 G P R T 15-30kph Exeter Whs shbritton@outlook.com Sarah Britton, 17 Copse Close Lane, Cranbrook EX5 7AP 300 01 May Manningtree Green & Yellow Fields 00:01 Sat BRM 301km 1800m £5.50 X P G 15-30kph Audax Club Mid-Essex grant@huggys.co.uk Grant Huggins, 76 Bryony Close, Witham CM8 2XF 300 01 May Nairn, Nr Inverness The Turra Coo 06:00 Sat BRM 310km 2890m £5.00 C X G P T 15-30kph CTC Highland andrewuttley155@outlook.com Andy Uttley, Suil Na Mara, Wester Cullicudden, Balblair, Dingwall IV7 8LL 200 01 May Walbottle, Newcastle Chevy Chase 08:00 Sat BRM 201km 2800m AAA2.75 [2750m] £8.00 F G R T (80)(24-4) 15-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds Aidan Hedley, 16 The Close, Lanchester, Durham DH7 0PX 400 08 May Alfreton Moors and Wolds 400 10:30 Sat BR 406km 2996m [2425m] £5.00 P R T X G 14.3-30kph Alfreton CTC oggy.dude@gmail.com Stephen Ogden, 12 Primula Grove, Kirkby In Ashfield NG17 8SD 200 08 May Dore, Sheffield Beyond the Roaches 08:00 Sat BR 205km 3100m AAA3 £6.00 L P R T (30) 14.3-30kph Sheffield District CTC 0114 258 8932 cripps@uwclub.net John Cripps, 8 Brincliffe Crescent, Sheffield S11 9AW 100 08 May Dore, Sheffield To the Roaches 09:00 Sat BP 103km 2050m AAA2 £6.00 F L P T (30) 12-30kph Sheffield District CTC 0114 258 8932 cripps@uwclub.net John Cripps, 8 Brincliffe Crescent, Sheffield S11 9AW 62 08 May Dore, Sheffield Not as far as the Roaches 09:30 Sat BP 1150m AAA1.25 £6.00 F L P T (30) 10-22kph Sheffield District CTC 0114 258 8932 cripps@uwclub.net John Cripps, 8 Brincliffe Crescent, Sheffield S11 9AW 200 08 May Galashiels The Snow Hare 08:00 Sat BR £10.00 P G X (60) 15-30kph Change of Date Scottish Borders Randonneur 01896 758 181 pedaller1@sky.com ROA 25000 Lucy McTaggart, 30 Victoria St. Galashiels, Scottish Borders TD1 1HL 110 08 May Galashiels Springtime Ride of the Valkyries 09:00 Sat BP 114km 1670m AAA1.5 [1530m] £10.00 P G X 12-30kph Change of Date Audax Ecosse pedaller1@sky.com ROA 25000 Lucy Mctaggart, 30 Victoria Street, Galashiels TD1 1HL 72 08 May St Johns Chapel The Chapel Chase 09:30 Sat BP 1263m AAA1.25 £9.50 X G P T (60) 12-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online

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08 May Wigginton, YORK WWW 100 10:00 Sat BP £3.00 G L P R T 13.1-25kph York Wednesday Wheelers 01904 769 378 keith@dkbenton.uk Keith Benton, 127 Greenshaw Drive Wigginton York YO32 2DB 200 09 May Galashiels The Snow Hare – 2 08:00 Sun BR £10.00 PGX(60) 15-30kph Change of Date Scottish Borders Randonneur 01896 758 181 pedaller1@sky.com ROA 25000 Lucy McTaggart, 30 Victoria St., Galashiels, Scottish Borders TD1 1HL 110 09 May Galashiels Springtime Ride of the Valkyries – 2 09:00 Sun BP 114km 1670m AAA1.5 [1530m] £10.00 P G X (60) 12-30kph Change of Date Audax Ecosse pedaller1@sky.com ROA 25000 Lucy McTaggart, 30 Victoria St., Galashiels, Scottish Borders TD1 1HL 200 09 May Meopham, nr Gravesend Hop Garden 200km 08:00 Sun BR 1850m £8.00 F L P R T NM 6/5 15-30kph Gravesend CTC pmcmaster@blueyonder. co.uk Patrick Mcmaster, 207 Colyer Road, Northfleet, Kent DA11 8AT 160 09 May St Johns Chapel The Chapel Century 08:00 Sun BP 161km 2551m AAA2.5 £9.50 X G P T (80) 14.3-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online 200 14 May Bewdley, Worcestershire Gospel Pass Skivers 08:00 Fri BR 208km 3140m AAA3.25 £4.00 X,T,P 14.4-30kph Beacon RCC 01562 731606 p.whiteman@bham.ac.uk Dr Philip Whiteman, 2 Drayton Terrace, Drayton, Belbroughton, Stourbridge DY9 0BW 400 15 May Raynes Park, London SW20 Dauntsey Dawdle 06:00 Sat BR 3550m £12.00 A(2) G L P R T S (120) 15-30kph Kingston Wheelers campbell.x.chris@gmail.com Chris Campbell, 27 Park View, New Malden KT3 4AY 300 15 May Selkirk Reiver Fever 06:00 Sat BR £7.50 X 15-30kph Scottish Borders Randonneur 01750 20838 russellacarson@gmail.com Russell Carson, 21 Ladylands Terrac. Selkirk TD7 4BB 200 15 May Werrington, Stoke-on-Trent Dambusters 08:00 Sat BR 212km 3370m AAA3.25 £10.00 G L P R T 14.3-30kph Four Corners Audax shaun87356@gmail.com Shaun Hargreaves, 6 Langton Court, Werrington, Stoke-On-Trent ST9 0NF 100 15 May Werrington, Stoke-on-Trent Dales and Abbots 09:00 Sat BP 105km £6.00 G L P R T 12-25kph Four Corners Audax shaun87356@gmail.com Shaun Hargreaves, 6 Langton Court, Werrington, Stoke-On-Trent ST9 0NF 100 16 May Lound village hall, nr Lowestoft, Suffolk The Broadsman 10:00 Sun BP £6.00 G,L,NM,P,R,T (30) 15-30kph VC Baracchi johntommo6@btinternet.com John Thompson, 136 Dell Road, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft NR33 9NT

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16 May Lound, nr Lowestoft The Norfolk Special 08:00 Sun BR 1250m £6.00 FRTP (30) 15-30kph VC Baracchi johntommo6@btinternet.com John Thompson, 136 Dell Road, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft NR33 9NT 160 16 May Lound, nr Lowestoft The Norfolk Special 09:00 Sun BP 1250m £6.00 FRTP (30) 12.5-25kph VC Baracchi johntommo6@btinternet.com John Thompson, 136 Dell Road, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft NR33 9NT 400 22 May Ponteland Annan Other Borders 07:00 Sat BR 407km 3147m [3090m] £16.00 X G P T (60) 15-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online 200 29 May Evesham Neville Chanin Memorial – Over The Severn 08:00 Sat BR 203km 2850m AAA2.75 [2750m] £4.00 X (30) 15-30kph Evesham & Dist Whs neilrob3@gmail.com Neil Robinson, Flat 7, Swans Reach, 45 Swan Lane, Evesham, Worcestershire WR11 4PD 200 05 Jun Balsall Common, West Midlands BRUM 200 another loop of Birmingham 08:00 Sat BR 204km 2000m [1530m] £9.00 R P L G (80) 14.3-30kph West Midland Randonneurs pcoppo@gmail.com Paolo Coppo For postal entries contact me via e-mail 600 05 Jun Carlisle Tour of the Borders and Galloway 07:00 Sat BR 606km 5238m [5730m] £18.00 X G P T (80) 15-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online 400 05 Jun Exeter Exeter-London (Back to the Smoke 400) 12:00 Sat BRM 3850m £7.00 G X 15-30kph Exeter Whs 01404 46993 ian@ukcyclist.co.uk ROA 25000 Ian Hennessey, 10 High Street, Honiton EX14 1PU 300 05 Jun Hailsham, Freedom Leisure Centre The Hailsham Venta 300 – well nearly! 06:00 Sat BR 308km 3100m £10.00 F G P (20) X 15-30kph Anton Brown abaudax@btconnect.com Anton Brown, 19 Northlands Avenue, Haywards Heath RH16 3RT 200 05 Jun Hailsham, Freedom Leisure Centre The Hailsham Liss 200 08:00 Sat BR 212km 1999m [2275m] £10.00 F G P (30) X 15-30kph Anton Brown abaudax@btconnect.com Anton Brown, 19 Northlands Avenue, Haywards Heath RH16 3RT 400 05 Jun Manningtree Asparagus & Strawberries 09:00 Sat BRM 414km 2700m £5.50 X P G 15-30kph Audax Club Mid-Essex grant@huggys.co.uk Grant Huggins, 76 Bryony Close, Witham CM8 2XF 200 05 Jun Selkirk Lantern Rouge 08:00 Sat BR £7.50 X 15-30kph Scottish Borders Randonneur 01750 20838 russellacarson@gmail.com Russell Carson, 21 Ladylands Terrace, Selkirk TD7 4BB

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09 Jun Witney Rugby Club, Hailey Midweek Tour of the Cotswolds Wed BP 106km 1300m [1700m] £7.00 P T R G NM 13-25kph Oxfordshire CTC andy.ellis_ate@btinternet.com Andy Ellis, 8 Burgess Close, Abingdon OX14 3JT 12 Jun Alfreton 9 Counties 600k Sat BR £5.00 X P 14.3-30kph Alfreton CTC oggy.dude@gmail.com Stephen Ogden, 12 Primula Grove, Kirkby In Ashfield NG17 8SD 12 Jun Cresswell Solway Coast C2C2C (JUNE) Sat BR 304km 2741m [2912m] £8.50 X G P T (100) 15-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds andy@dixonberne.plus.com Andy Berne, 5 Oakham Avenue, Whickham, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne And Wear NE16 5YU 12 Jun Raynes Park Wander Wye Sat BRM 611km 5700m [6000m] £19.00 A(1) C F G L P R T SZ 150 15-30kph Kingston Wheelers sdrpkwac@gmail.com Daniel Smith, 95 Regents Court, Sopwith Way, Kingston Upon Thames KT2 5AQ 13 Jun Padiham, Lancashire Tan Hill 200 Sun BR 201km 4000m AAA4 £7.50 L P R T X 15-30kph Burnley CC burnleysportiv@yahoo.com Andy Corless, 31 Castlerigg Drive, Ightenhill, Burnley BB12 8AT 19 Jun Darlington Peewhits and Curlews Sat BRM 8420m AAA8.5 £20.00 F G L R T Z 15-30kph VC 167 dean.clementson@yahoo.com Dean Clementson, 10 Redmire Close, Darlington DL1 2ER 19 Jun Darlington Steele Roads and Woolly Hills Sat BR 7020m AAA7 £15.00 G L R T Z 14.3-25kph VC 167 dean.clementson@yahoo.com Dean Clementson, 10 Redmire Close, Darlington DL1 2ER 20 Jun 2 Teviot Crescent, Hawick Debatable Lands Sun BR 2870m AAA2.75 [2750m] £8.50 X G NM P R (30) 15-30kph Hawick CC david.killean@btinternet.com David Killean, 4 Wester Braid Road, Hawick TD9 9NA 20 Jun Chelmer CC Club hut, Meteor Way, Chelmsford Windmill Ride (200) Sun BR 201km 1600m £9.00 F G L P R T 15-30kph Essex CTC s.eichenseher@googlemail.com Stefan Eichenseher, 42A Whitegate Road, Southend-On-Sea SS1 2LQ 20 Jun Chelmer CC Club hut, Meteor Way, Chelmsford Windmill Ride (110) Sun BP 800m £9.00 F G L P R T 12-25kph Essex CTC s.eichenseher@googlemail.com Stefan Eichenseher, 42A Whitegate Road, Southend-On-Sea SS1 2LQ 20 Jun Cocking Village Hall, near Midhurst, Sussex Sussex Midsummer Corker Sun BP 116km 2080m AAA2 £12.00 F G L P R T (30) 12.5-30kph Anton Brown abaudax@btconnect.com Anton Brown, 19 Northlands Avenue, Haywards Heath RH16 3RT

200

20 Jun Grange Road Car Park, Midhurst, Sussex, GU29 9H Sussex Midsummer 200 07:30 Sun BR 206km 2587m £8.00 F G L P R 15-30kph Anton Brown abaudax@btconnect.com Anton Brown, 19 Northlands Avenue, Haywards Heath RH16 3RT 100 20 Jun Hawick Riccarton Line 09:00 Sun BP 1600m AAA1.5 [1570m] £8.50 X G MN P R (30) 15-30kph Hawick Cycling Club david.killean@btinternet.com David Killean, 4 Wester Braid Road, Hawick TD9 9NA 200 26 Jun Aldbrough St John, Nr Richmond Hartside 200 08:00 Sat BR 203km 2752m AAA3 [3000m] £6.50 F L P R T 14.4-30kph VC 167 david.atkinson577@talktalk.net David Atkinson, 4 Borrowby Avenue, Northallerton DL6 1AL 100 26 Jun Aldbrough St John, Nr Richmond Northern Dales Summer Outing 09:00 Sat BP 1550m AAA1.5 £5.50 F L P R T 10-27kph VC 167 david.atkinson577@talktalk.net David Atkinson, 4 Borrowby Avenue, Northallerton DL6 1AL 200 27 Jun Richmond Park, Pembroke Lodge The White Hart 8::00 Sun BR £10.00 F T NM G P 14.3-30kph Change of Date Audax Club Hackney tsaudax@gmail.com Tim Sollesse, 59 Lynwood Road, Ealing W5 1JG 200 03 Jul Bolsover Rutland and Back 08:00 Sat BRM 212km 1532m £8.50 G L P R T (30) (28/06) 15-30kph Audax Club Bolsover 07936099268 audaxbolsover@castlecycles.co.uk Malcolm Smith, 14 Highfield Road, Bolsover, Chesterfield S44 6TY 200 03 Jul Cutty Sark Gardens, London The Way to the Sea 08:00 Sat BR 2000m [650m] £8.00 F P G T (50) 15-30kph Updated Audax Club Hackney 07811976853 Adam Young, 5 Walnut Tree Road, Greenwich, London SE10 9EU 1000 07 Jul Raynes Park London – Lands End – London 22:00 Wed BRM 1026km 12770m AAA12.75 £15.00 X G L R T S (150)(24/6) 13.3-25kph Kingston Wheelers laidbackaroundtheworld@gmail.com Richard Evans, 29 Somerset Avenue, Raynes Park, London SW20 0BJ 600 10 Jul Exeter The Exe-Buzzard 06:00 Sat BRM 6200m AAA1.5 [1550m] £6.00 G X 15-30kph Exeter Whs 01404 46993 ian@ukcyclist.co.uk ROA 25000 Ian Hennessey, 10 High Street, Honiton EX14 1PU 300 10 Jul Galashiels The Twilight Zone 06:00 Sat BR 305km 2700m £8.00 G P X 15-30kph Scottish Borders Randonneur 01896 758 181 pedaller1@sky.com ROA 25000 Lucy McTaggart, 30 Victoria St., Galashiels, Scottish Borders TD1 1HL

www.audax.uk

AUK CALENDAR 200

10 Jul Ponteland The Four Tops 08:00 Sat BR 201km 2800m AAA2.75 [2790m] £8.50 X G P T (80) 15-30kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online 110 11 Jul Ponteland The Three Valleys 09:00 Sun BP 118km 1312m [1500m] £8.50 X G P T (40) 12.5-25kph Tyneside Vagabonds 07875224229 andy@dixonberne.plus.com Please enter online

200

11 Jul The Steyning Centre, Steyning, W Sussex The Devils Punchbowl 200 08:00 Sun BR 206km 2248m £8.00 F G P T R 15-30kph Anton Brown abaudax@btconnect.com Anton Brown, 19 Northlands Avenue, Haywards Heath RH16 3RT 110 11 Jul The Steyning Centre, Steyning, W Sussex The Devils Punchbowl 100 09:00 Sun BP 112km 1106m [1200m] £8.00 F G P T R 15-30kph Anton Brown abaudax@btconnect.com Anton Brown, 19 Northlands Avenue, Haywards Heath RH16 3RT

160

17 Jul Bildeston, Suffolk 100 miles of Suffolk Lanes 08:45 Sat BP 168km 1062m £6.00 L P R T S G (30) 15-30kph CC Sudbury pamandrobinw@gmail.com Robin Weaver, 14 Chapel Street, Bildeston, Ipswich IP7 7EP 100 17 Jul Bildeston, Suffolk Bildeston Lanes 09:30 Sat BP 104km 672m £6.00 L P R T S G (30) 15-30kph CC Sudbury pamandrobinw@gmail.com Robin Weaver, 14 Chapel Street, Bildeston, Ipswich IP7 7EP

17 Jul Bildeston Jane’s Lanes 10:00 Sat BP 460m [450m] £5.00 G L P R T (30) 12-24kph CC Sudbury pamandrobinw@gmail.com Robin Weaver, 14 Chapel Street, Bildeston, Ipswich IP7 7EP 200 17 Jul Bildeston, Suffolk Suffolk Lanes Extravaganza 08:00 Sat BR 209km 1304m £6.00 L P R T G (30) 15-30kph CC Sudbury 01449 741048 pamandrobinw@gmail.com Robin Weaver, 14 Chapel Street, Bildeston, Ipswich IP7 7EP

Report from OCD for 2020, from Rod Dalitz, the OCD Man

OCD cyclo climbing 2020

Arrivée151Spring2021

2020 HAS BEEN A DIFFICULT YEAR for Audax members, not that it has been easy for anyone. Even the rules about cycling are not clear, how far are we allowed to go “for exercise?” An AUK rider is likely to consider distances as “normal” which ordinary humans might goggle at. At least cycling is a permissible form of exercise, and we are used to cycling long distances and being self-reliant, so we can go off on our own, though it is SO nice to have a warm café to look forward to. Club rides and calendar events have mostly been off, but the advantage of OCD is that you can go out on your own, at your own speed, and claim a few cols, as long as there are cols within reach of your home. Some quotes from members… noting that OCD allows you to ride at your own pace, as relaxed as you like:

● I will be riding next year at age 80, God willing. ● I am very grateful to OCD for the incentive that it gave me to find unfamiliar roads in the search for more cols. As a result I have had many wonderful rides over the past few years ... ● … this was solo cycling and therefore not affected in the way that all other Audax was. ● … I only managed one trip to the mountains in 2020… ● I’ve only recently found the bug for hill-climbing and have been quietly checking my diaries to see if there were ascents that I could fairly notify you about. ● Creating this spreadsheet has been a great way of reliving each and every one of them, without the pain and suffering!

OCD CLAIMS SUMMARY FOR 2020 Name AUK No RANK, date Lifetime 2020 total 2019 2019 total 2018 ABBATT Fred 6086 Honourable 19 549271 15687 533784 8590 524994 ACLAND Ken 5752 Officer 14 169158 2105 167053 2472 164581 BAKER Peter 6594 Commander 19 132153 13644 118509 118509 BATE Ben 11108 Honourable 19 577578 5369 572209 27030 545179 CARSON Russell 5296 Commander 20 221340 22473 198867 40161 158706 DALE Peter 6186 Commander 20 223087 3816 219271 20292 198979 DAMPER Bob 14064 Commander 15 295443 2178 293265 13251 292014 DEEGAN Ian 2341 Officer 20 102708 1476 101232 5747 95485 GRACE Steve 13959 Officer 19 158523 11027 147496 20327 127169 GRIMWOOD Andrew 20531 Member 20 54522 1315 53207 13793 39414 HAGGER Mark 6765 Officer 2015 138242 8252 129990 10000 119990 HARRISON Paul 11181 Venerable 09 162021 52376 1567645 61499 1506146 HIBBARD Gary 1341 Member 18 87832 87832 15289 72543 HICKS Nigel 15978 Member 20 27441 9098 18343 9305 9038 JONES Mike 16504 6567 3256 3311 2625 686 JOYNSON Dave 11203 Venerable 03 1296265 379 1295886 6513 1289373 LAVERICK Martin 2411 Honourable 20 694388 97011 597377 121801 475576 PRESLAND Kevin 740 Commander 13 621762 48378 573384 55489 517895 PRINGLE Laura 2451 41938 388 41550 16082 25468 ROWELL Jeff 16975 Officer 19 177260 27082 150178 57848 92430 SMITH Andy 6190 Honourable 19 640984 46569 594415 69350 525065 TAYLOR Marcus 25935 Commander 20 320459 63767 256692 32029 224663 VENES Richard 1118 Commander 19 217928 16847 201081 28395 172805 WATERTON Robert 11283 Honorable 07 794839 3616 791223 3524 787699 WATERTON Helen 11282 Honorable 08 854952 4560 809382 5705 803687 WATTS Bob 1870 Honorable 16 688142 18082 670060 18159 651901 YOUNG Anne 6749 Honourable 20 808373 7516 800857 22921 777936 Some riders managed a trip to Europe before lockdown, one has a home in Corsica (making it perhaps too easy!), quite a few took the opportunity to review their old diaries and compile claims from many years ago – you are entitled to claim cols

since 1960, when OCD was formed. As a result, I have more than usual certificates to send out. Best wishes for the next season, I am sure 2021 will be a big improvement on 2020.

CONTACTS

Arrivée is the magazine of Audax United Kingdom, the long distance cyclists’ association which represents Les Randonneurs Mondiaux in the UK. AUK membership is open to any person, regardless of club or other affiliation, who is imbued with the spirit of long-distance cycling. MEMBERSHIP Enquiries: Caroline Fenton (AUK Membership Secretary), 56 Lockesfield Place, London E14 3AJ membership@audax.uk One and five year membership available – for full details and fees see https://audax.uk/join-us/ ARRIVÉE Extra or back copies of Arrivée

subject to availability – please contact Caroline Fenton

ISSUE 152 – SUMMER 2021 EDITION

TO ADVERTISE Rates per issue: ¼ page £75, pro rata to £300 per page. Payment in advance. We rely on good faith and Arrivée cannot be held responsible for advertisers’ misrepresentations or failure to supply goods or services. Members’ Private Sales, Wants, Event Adverts: free. Views expressed in Arrivée are not necessarily those of the Club. Designed and produced for AUK by: gedesign, Bagpath, Gloucestershire. Printed by: Taylor Brothers, Bristol Distribution data from: Caroline Fenton and the AUK Membership Team.

Send your stories to gedlennox@me.com There is no copy deadline for stories as most will be published, but not necessarily immediately unless they are time-relevant. COPY DEADLINE FOR ADVERTISERS: 26 April 2021 ● Send your text in any word-processor format and your pictures as separate files (i.e. not embedded in the document). ● Images must be as big as possible, anything below 1Mb jpeg is not useable ● It is essential that your photographs are captioned, preferably in a separate document, cross referenced to your pictures. ● Include your full contact details – including your AUK number – we cannot publish your story otherwise ● Package the content into a single compressed zip archive. ● If it is too large (i.e. more than 10Mb) please use WeTransfer, MailBigFile or a cloud-based platform like Dropbox etc. ● Please do not use the old Mediafire gateway as it is no longer functional.

Board and delegates Individual email addresses are listed for Board members and delegates, where relevant. For general enquiries or if you are not sure who to contact, please use secretary@ audax.uk. Please bear in mind that all Board members and delegates are volunteers and so may not always be able to respond immediately. Chair and LRM/ACP representative Chris Crossland 14 Stanley Street West, Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX6 1EF chair@audax.uk 01422 832 853 Systems managers www.aukweb.net Website Delegate: Francis Cooke Systems administrator: Terry Kay www.audax.uk Web content manager Dave Allison webcontent@audax.uk IT refresh manager Kevin Lake it@audax.uk IT refresh project board co-opted members Dan Campbell Neil Goldsmith Otto Reinders Dan Smith Mileater secretary Ian Prince FWC (Fixed Wheel Challenge) and Super Fixed Wheel Richard Phipps, 77 West Farm Avenue, Ashtead, Surrey KT21 2JZ. richard@richardphipps.co.uk

General secretary Graeme Provan Whitelands, Terling Road, Hatfield Peverel, Essex CM3 2AG secretary@audax.uk Registrar Les Hereward, 20 Webster Close, Oxshott, Surrey, KT22 0SF Annual reunion organiser Paul Rainbow, 49 Quarrington Road, Horfield, Bristol, Avon BS7 9PJ paul@audaxclubbristol.co.uk Annual awards secretary Russell Kelsey russellkesley@hotmail.co.uk Finance director Nigel Armstrong 13 Upper Bank End Road, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, HD9 1ES 01484 687587 fd@audax.uk Directors without portfolio John Sabine 107 Victoria Way, London SE7 7NU john@sabine.org.uk Martin Stefan mdstefan@me.com Director and membership secretary Caroline Fenton 56 Lockesfield Place, London E14 3AJ membership@audax.uk Membership admininistration Mike Wigley (Admin) Enrolments Peter Davis Howard Knight

Communications director Rob McIvor communications@audax.uk

South East England: Pat Hurt South West England & Wales: Andy Cox

Arrivée managing editor Ged Lennox gedlennox@me.com

ECE delegate Martin Malins Malinseastg@tiscali.co.uk

Badge and medal shop secretary Allan Taylor www.audaxmedals.southportcc. co.uk

OCD delegate Rod Dalitz 136 Muir Wood Road, Edinburgh EH14 5HF rod.dalitz@me.com

Director and calendar events secretary Ian Hennessey 10 High Street, Honiton, EX14 1PU events@audax.uk

Event services director & recorder Dan Smith 95 Regents Court Kingston upon Thames KT2 5AQ services@audax.uk 07596 248528

Regional events delegates Scotland & Northern England: Andy Uttley Midlands & Eastern England: Lucy McTaggart South East England: Pat Hurt South West England & Wales: Vacant, temporarily covered by Ian Hennessey pending appointment AUK forum administrator Kevin Lake Moderators: Peter Lewis and Les Hereward UAF delegate Dave Minter Director and permanents secretary John Ward 34 Avenue Road, Lymington SO41 9GJ permanents@audax.uk 01590 671205 DIY regional representatives Scotland & Northern England: Andy Uttley Midlands & Eastern England: Grant Huggins

Validation secretary Cathy Brown 76 Victoria St, Kirkwall KW15 1DQ validations@audax.uk RRTY award secretary Grant Huggins 76 Bryony Close, Witham, Essex CM8 2XF rrty@audax.uk AAA secretary Ivan Cornell aaa@audax.uk Brevet card production secretary Oliver Iles 49 Upper Belmont Rd, Bishopston, Bristol BS7 9DG brevetcards@audax.uk Production of permanent cards is handled by: John Ward 34 Avenue Road, Lymington SO41 9GJ permanents@audax.uk

www.audax.uk

PRIZE CROSSWORD No.4 by Sprocket

WIN

£5r 0 of your

e e vouch h c oicl be drawn r wil the winne the correct from all eived by c entries re 2021 26 April

Send your completed grid to: The editor Arrivée magazine crossword Walnut Farm, Bagpath, Kingscote Gloucestershire GL8 8YQ or email a picture/copy to: gedlennox@me.com YOUR NAME: MEMBERSHIP NUMBER: EMAIL ADDRESS:

ACROSS 5 Anglia’s plain country, if one sets out favouring East! 7 They’re left behind by singlespeed dashes on the flanks 10 Rabbit chasing runners at Jack’s local climb 11 Some hilarious cow likes to pull a face 13 Saw bolted Sprocket through the middle 14 It’s tastefully inflation-prone? 16 Present after coin-flip – given half-chance to finish, it becomes a good ramble 19 Some kind of pressure gets chair duly reappointed 20 Moment to attach winkle, perhaps 22, 15 Tripe soup’s spilled all over couch 23 Fast laps of Earth (rare), accepting a morsel of nutrition 25 Rulebreaker to wildly cheer it 26 A more grown-up way to meddle?

7 7 9 5 5 9 11 9 5 5-5 9 7 7

DOWN 1 Voucher for trip invalidated with extra leg in the middle 2 Flies most angrily partway up 3, 24 Flannel’s in vogue – spread the word 4 Confess after wobbling guts gone pop 6 Last one home to crash, elongate and rerun 8 Classified post for stamp collectors? 9 “In your own time”: an unusually liberal rule! 12 Dissolved herby blend evenly 15 See 22a 17 Beg nosy doctor – they belong in the past 18 Stiff pitch joining lanes together? 21 Bosses shirt dipped in soap 24 See 3d

Arrivée151Spring2021

Solution for No.3

Congratulations to the winner of our diabolical crossword No.3: Brian Hodgkinson AUK members 21487

7 5 3,3 5,2 8,5 6,7 6,5 5 7 7 5

EVENTS ENTRY FORM

Entry Form for events held under Audax UK regulations Date

From: Fee: £

Dist

Name of event:

Time

–

for Audax UK or Cycling UK (CTC) members – otherwise add £3 for Audax UK temporary membership.

AUK Membership no:

Cycling UK (CTC) Membership No:

Date of birth if under 18 years:

(see PARENTAL CONSENT below)

Forename:

Surname:

Address:

Phone: Mobile: Email:

Club/Cycling UK (CTC) group:

INSURANCE: Audax UK provides its members (inc.temporary) "normally resident in the UK" with 3rd party insurance cover throughout the event for claims in excess of £500. 3rd party insurance cover is limited to events taking place in Great Britain, the Channel Islands or Isle of Man. Membership of a Cycling UK (CTC) affiliated club or group does not provide insurance cover you must have an individual or family Cycling UK (CTC) membership Overseas residents must arrange their own 3rd party insurance. By signing this entry form you declare that you are insured as required. The event is run under Audax UK regulations. You should familiarise yourself with Audax UK regulations, guidance, and advice (available in AUK publications, at www.audax.uk or on request from the organiser). The event is not a race or trial of speed. You are expected to follow the rules of the road and show consideration to other road users. The route is on open public roads. The route is not waymarked /marshalled. Some routes/conditions may be arduous.

You should prepare by studying the route. You are responsible for your safety/conduct. The organiser provides no rescue service.

PARENTAL CONSENT (required for entrants under 18 years of age) Parents should note the information on this form and be aware that this is an individual ride without leaders. I am the Parent/Guardian of the Entrant and give my consent to this Entry: Signed (Parent/Guardian):

Date:

Name (Parent/Guardian, please print):

I understand that during the event I am on a private excursion on the public highway and that I am responsible for my own conduct. I agree to abide by Audax UK Regulations for this ride. Entry fees are not refundable or transferable. I have relevant insurance cover as above. Signed(Entrant):

Date:

Emergency contact person (Name & Tel.):

Send: 1. completed form.

To: organiser

2. cheque payable to organiser. 3. two C5 stamped addressed envelopes.

Revised Feb 2021

www.audax.uk

Arrivée151Spring2021

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Arrivée 151 Spring 2021

Articles inside

Prize crossword

Contacts

OCD cyclo climbing 2020

Barking mad – how dogs changed the course of history

AUK Calendar events

Joy riding on yon bonnie braes

It’s a long way down the holiday road – on a tandem

A wild ride in search of national treasure

A very British madness

Clarion call to the hills

Bear with me for a grizzly adventure

There ain’t no mountain high enough

We’re on the road to nowhere

The white road less travelled

Letters

Cycling shorts

Notice of AGM

Just a Sec

Membership matters