AUDAX TIME

The time has come to see what all the fuss was about. A friend of mine registered for a March 200K event in Essex so I decided to tag along. The weather forecast kept changing considerably throughout the week before, but finally it settled on what promised to be a glorious spring day full of warmth and sunshine!

I arrived in Great Dunmow just 5 minutes before the 8am start time (unfortunately missing the organized breakfast) quickly grabbed the brevet card at the church (!) and found my crew for the day. And away we pedalled to return 10 hours and 200K later.

Here are the highlights of and thoughts on the day:

• We stopped to rest three times at control points
• The first 50K control was man-powered and we got our cards stamped. For some reason everyone went into the same butcher's shop to buy the same sausage roll, so they quickly run out of fresh ones.
• At the next 100K control we were supposed to get a printed receipt to prove passage. Easy, right? We stopped at a service station and went in to get food and refreshments. The cashier (who already served like a hundred people in lycra asking for receipts) said to me - "you will need you recipt, right?" And I was like "why would I need a receipt, I'm good thanks" and she was like "are you sure?" and I kept insisting and then 20 seconds later walking out of the station thinking "oooooh..."
• The last 150K control was also self-served and we used an ATM to get our receipts
• We ended up going at 25kph which translates to about 2 hours resting and 8 hours moving time.
• The croud was lovely. 87 people did the full distance and quite a few did a shorter one. Everyone was really nice and supportive.
• Spotted a few good places to bivvy
• The finishing dinner at the church was awesome!!!
• This format of cycling definitely has its place, looking forward to trying longer distances and sleeping under the bush:)
• Mixed feelings about the use of hard copy brevet cards in this day and age