Date: 12 January 2019
Start Time: 0700
Starting Location: The Bikery, 2222 1st Ave S, St. Petersburg
Cue Sheet: coming
Route Track: coming
Route Information: This is similar to the RUSA 20th Anniversary route and is a new route for audax. The route starts in St. Pete at a fantastic bike shop/coffee bar, goes through downtown, out to Fort Desoto, and then up the barrier islands to Clearwater, where we get on the Pinellas Trail to Tarpon Springs. We’ll have our sit-down communal lunch at the sponge docks at mile 80 and then turn around and ride the trail back to St. Pete, where we will take a quick lap through Lakewood before finishing up at The Bikery. This route is flat — the only climbing is the causeways on and off the barrier islands — but it can be windy.
Cost: $45. This includes your lunch & drinks in Tarpon Springs (venue TBD), event insurance, and finishers’ medal, but it does not include your snacks/beverages during the ride (other than at Tarpon/lunch). Register below. Advance registration and payment is required.
Registered Riders: 1, as of 2 October 2018: Rozelle
Audax Rules: Please review our club’s Rules for Riders first. In addition to those rules, there are two critical rules for audax rides. First, we must ride as a group. Passing the route captain is forbidden and may result in disqualification. Similarly, voluntarily riding behind the peloton without leave of the route captain is not permitted. Second, the group rides together at a predetermined pace of 22.5km/hr, and stops together for predetermined times. These are indicated on the cue sheet. There are other rules and traditions, which will be explained and detailed later, but those are the two big ones. Please make sure that you are interested in and will support this style of riding, and at this pace, before registering. Additional information on audax is given below the registration.
How do I make sense of the cue sheet? Study it with a map beforehand. Of course, if you follow the rider in front of you, you will be on route at all times. The most useful information on the cue sheet for riders is the designation of when, where, and for how long the stops will be taken. This permits riders to plan their activities — bathroom, filling bottles, getting snacks — and to move efficiently through the controls.
What if I get a flat or other mechanical? The peloton will not stop. At the route captain’s direction, a few riders will be dispatched from the peloton to help you and to pull you back to the group.
Is there support or SAG? No. Like all randonnees, you and your bike must be well equipped and in good shape. Please ensure that you have the proper tools and talent for handling all repairs and the proper food, hydration, and apparel for the ride. If you or your bike cannot be restored to functionality, you will need to arrange for your own transportation back to the start.
Are there brevet cards? Yes, and they look different than those you are used to. The organizer or his designee will carry all riders’ brevet cards and have them validated at the controls.
Interested in volunteering? If you are, or you have a spouse, partner, friend, or sworn enemy who might be, please contact me. The more help; the more awesome it is!
Important! This is a brevet, but it is NOT a RUSA-sanctioned event. If you’re looking for RUSA credit, you will not get it. This event will not count for qualifying you for PBP or for an R-12, a K-Hound, or any other RUSA award, credit, or program. That said, audax is an awesome and different style of randonneuring.

Registration

There is no day-of-event registration. You must register and pay in advance of the ride, by no later than Thursday, September 6.

There are two steps to completing your registration.

Step 1. Please fill in the information here.

Step 2. Send in your payment. Please make your $45 check payable to Paul Rozelle, and mail it to:

Paul Rozelle, Central Florida Randonneurs 1300 Friendly Way S, St. Petersburg, FL 33705

What is Audax? Audax is the oldest form of randonneuring. It is still practiced in parts of Europe, but is largely unknown in the United States, although the word is common (Audax Atlanta, Audax U.K., etc.). What you are familiar with is allure libre randonneuring, or free-paced randonneuring. There are time cut-offs for the controls and the event overall but, within those very liberal constraints, a rider can proceed along the route at his or her own pace.

Audax cycling, by contrast, is a group ride. The audax cycling motto is, “Start together, ride together, finish together.” An audax ride is conducted under the auspices of a Ride Captain, who is charged with maintaining the common group pace between each control, which is 22.5km/hr (that’s 14mph). Passing the Route Captain is forbidden and the riders must stay together. Everything possible is done to ensure that riders do not fall off the back or are not dropped for mechanicals, but voluntarily riding a pace slower than 22.5kph without leave from the Route Captain is forbidden.

Audax cycling is social and accessible. It is an especially good way to introduce people to randonneuring who might not otherwise be familiar with it or who might be concerned about riding alone (never!) or worrying about navigation (just follow the guy in front of you; impossible to get lost).The pace is very moderate, especially in our flat terrain. Audax rewards keeping everyone together and working together to achieve a common goal … together. The finest route captains are those who accomplish this goal. The best achievement is to finish 100% of the riders who start.

Like the riding, stops are conducted together, at and for a predetermned time. There is a sit-down meal, which is an integral part of the audax tradition. There are other audax customs and traditions, which you will discover on the ride.

You can read more about audax here, which is the website for the Union des Audax Français.

Last updated: 5 May 2018