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.
Arrivée151Spring2021
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.
6
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
CS
