by Gardner Duvall
Sept. 17, 2023
This Saturday we again run the Double Ox Audax, under the unique UAF rules. The gist is that riders have to ride audax – together – in order to get credit for the ride. The prescribed pace is 14 mph/22.5 kph. I designed a route out of Frederick to help achieve these goals.
The route fills the bill by providing fine roads and good services with the modest climbing that can allow us to keep a group together for a whole brevet. Breaking the route into 25-mile chunks, the hardest one comes first, which is important to know, because the hardest climbing is done first, and you don’t have to be discouraged that the whole ride will be as hard. Even at that, RWGPS counts less than 56 feet of climbing per mile in that first leg.
The first control and services are at Deja Brew in New Oxford, PA at mile 44. One basis for its choice is the availability of a bathroom. Their trade is brisk on Saturday morning, and we’ll have a lengthy stop to get everyone served and otherwise cared for there. The baked goods are tasty, and when I was there last I spied the addition of some savory choices to the panoply of great sweets.
The next services are at the Wild Hog BBQ in East Berlin, at mile 58. Outdoor seating is ample and the menu is suitable for hungry randonneurs. Vegetarians seem to make out acceptably there, too. A barbeque sandwich is one of my rando favorites.
We’ll stopped in Gettysburg at their inimitable 7-11 for water. We ride down Confederate Avenue at the Gettysburg Battlefield, and then cross over the battlefield above the closed Little Roundtop, before heading back into Maryland.
Gorgeous views of South Mountain and Catoctin Mountain carry us into and away from Thurmont, where some ice cream and a coke will launch me for the final leg. Roads nearly worn smooth by the wheels of DC Randonneurs carry us back to Frederick, after crossing the Utica covered bridge.
Is an audax brevet for you? If you are committed to riding with the group for 200k, the anticipated 14 mph average is a lesser concern. If you need to ride faster, or you need to ride self-paced, this is not your brevet. Some of us may not be able to make this pace, but the group psychology can help you ride a little faster. When you know the group is there for you and is trying not to ride away, you can pull a little extra speed when needed.
From last year’s ride report: Mostly we just enjoyed the rural roads on a fine fall day, chatting and looking out for each other and smoothly maintaining our expected pace. The prospect of the specified pace of 22.5 kph (14 mph) seemed to jar DCRand members more than any other aspect of the audax brevet. Some of us could have ridden faster Saturday, and some felt they were stretching to go that fast.
But we experienced the magic of riding for each other, and those concerns never surfaced for nine riders each covering 200 kilometers. The group pulled you along not with aerodynamics but with psychology. If you pushed a bit in places to keep up, the group was accommodating rather than discouraging, and at the end of the ride no one seemed tapped out by the effort.
See you Saturday, G
DC Randonneurs sponsors long-distance cycling events in the Mid-Atlantic region ranging from 100 kilometers to 1,200 kilometers (60 - 750 miles) in length. Rides start from the Baltimore-Washington region but travel as far afield as State College PA, Buchanan VA, and Warm Springs WV.
The terrain we ride ranges from the flatlands of the Eastern Shore to the rolling hills and valleys of the Piedmont and the sometimes steep flanks of the Appalachian mountain ridges to our west. Our routes, many of which we've ridden for years, take quiet back roads through gorgeous and varied scenery, with regular stops for supplies and rest.
Our rides are unsupported. There is no sag wagon, and help of any sort can be miles away on some of the more remote stretches of road we ride. But we ride together, creating bonds of friendship and camaraderie along the way. Our ride organizers and volunteers work hard to make sure that every rider is accounted for, from start to finish.
Our rides are timed, with riders required to reach intermediate control points, as well as the finish, within a set window of time. But our results are listed alphabetically. Our style of riding is know as allure libre, meaning riders ride at their own pace within the limits set by control opening and closing times rather than riding as a group at a steady pace set by its leaders, which is the audax style of randonneuring.
Randonneuring is non-competitive, but we challenge ourselves and each other -- to ride farther, to ride faster, to ride longer than we might have though possible. We aspire to relentless forward progress but take time to help each other when in need, whether that need is for emotional support, an energy bar to cure a bonk, or a cleverly improvised fix to broken equipment.
DC Randonneurs is affiliated with Randonneurs USA and operates according to the rules promulgated by that organization by adoption from the Audax Club Parisien.