This year, my friend Graeme and I have started cycling a type of event called an audax. Audax is a series of organized cycling events where you race against the clock to complete a ride in a certain amount of time. You have to average a minimum of 16 kilometres an hour throughout the entire event, so if you’re doing a 50 kilometre event, you’ve got just over three hours to complete it. Audax events can be any length – 100, 150, and 200 kilometre events are fairly common – but there are events that go three, four, eight hundred, even 1000 kilometres. There are some people riding crazy distances – you can go from London to Edinburgh and back again on an audax, and the gold standard is Paris-Brest-Paris, which you have to have done certain previous events to even qualify for. Having said all that, audax is an amateur sport and you’re not racing against other people, only the clock. If you manage to complete the distance in that 16 kilometres an hour, then you’ve won. 16 kilometres an hour isn’t that fast, but if you’re doing 200 kilometres you might be looking at taking 12 or 13 hours to complete the event and that’s quite a long time to be in the saddle. Imagine riding Lands End to John O’Groats maintaining an average speed os 16km/h throughout!

So anyway, Graeme and I met up in Wareham on Sunday morning. I had stayed overnight in Swanage, which is a little town I’d never been to before, and had quite a nice evening there. I stayed at the youth hostel, which is a beautiful old building really close to the town centre, with a couple of interesting pubs nearby as well. I met some mountain bikers over an uncharacteristic red wine outside the theatre, and had a tempting offer to make a night of it. I had to refuse, as I was up before dawn the next day. I drove down to the sea front, pulled the van over and I watched the sunrise, which was quite a beautiful moment. I scoffed a couple of flapjacks and then drove to meet Graeme at Wareham train station for 7am and we cycled down to the scout hut together. There we met the people in the event, so there was about 30 or 40 people in the scout hut people milling about, chatting and eating breakfast. There was a fantastic team of volunteers there: there was tea, the ubiquitous flapjack, toast and marmite and jam and I was even told with a metaphorical wink that hot croissants were about to come out if I slyly loitered around the counter for a moment longer. Everything you could fancy that didn’t involve bacon or eggs. And the people, I have to say, were super welcoming. We registered for the event, got a brief explanation about what to expect and all that kind of stuff, had a bit of breakfast and a cup of tea and and just had a mingle and a chat. I’ve done a couple of audaxes before and they’re always friendly social events, but here a lot of people seemed to know each other well. So it was it was a really nice atmosphere from the start and I think credit for that goes to the organizers. They obviously run really good events. They’ve got a solid core of people that that like going and and doing the Dorset events that only comes with enthusiasm and good organization. At 7:45, we had a had a brief briefing and then we set off.

I rather enjoyed that the first bit was called the ‘prologue’ and the early kilometres had a processional air to them. We cycled on the flat all the way from Wareham, right round Poole Harbour to Poole itself, and then round to Sandbanks where we took the Studland ferry. We went off quite quickly. I think we averaged about 28 kilometres an hour, which for us was a fairly decent lick. It was all flat, smooth roads, a really easy start. We chatted to a few of the people that we were cycling with and a whole gang of us arrived at the at the Sandbanks ferry together. We all piled on to the chain ferry, which completes about 300m of the circle of Poole Harbour, and then the ride really began. Prologue finished, we set off from Studland up the hill and we were into Isle of Purbeck territory. It’s not an area that I know particularly well. I think I’ve driven down to where the ferry sets off a couple of times so I’ve seen the area, but it’s that corner of Dorset that you have to be really trying to get there. I certainly haven’t been through it to get to anywhere else because it’s it’s just not on the way to anywhere in particular. But the cycling there was wonderful, quiet roads, people seemed to give us plenty of space. First a nice little run across to Corfe Castle, which is spectacular. I love Corfe Castle – when I drove there the night before it was illuminated by blue lights, it looked really amazing. We continued on from there and we did quite a nice climb up through a village called Steeple (I think) and then past Tyneham, which has got an interesting history. Tyneham was a small village very close to the Dorset coast and in World War II it was taken over by the military for training and the residents never went back, so it’s been abandoned ever since. It’s still used for army training, but you can go and walk there at weekends when the military isn’t using it. We did a nice climb at the top and it was a good one to get the legs going. We descended down the other side through East Lulworth and past Lulworth Castle and it was just spectacular. That whole part of the Dorset coast is just amazing. It’s an area that Graeme and I have cycled before, but in the other direction We were reminiscing about over ten years or so ago, when we must have been in our thirties actually – that long ago – with a couple of friends we did a bike ride starting and finishing at Dorchester. We spent two days cycling and I think we did 70 kilometres or so each day, and we were absolutely exhausted. We got to Portland Youth Hostel and we all fell asleep before dinner. It was crazy. And now here we are doing 200km in a day, so it showed how far we’ve come. We went through Lulworth and through this spectacular countryside and across at Winfrith Newburgh and across the other side – beautiful rolling countryside, and none of the hills were too challenging. Conversation was flowing between us and the other riders. and it was a lovely, social ride.

Almost too soon, we came to Weymouth. Every so often on an audax, there’s a control where you get a stamp in your book and grab a bite to eat. Everybody gets together and you have some flapjacks or something to eat and a cup of tea and all that kind of stuff and just get yourself going again. We rode along the front at Weymouth and there’s a skate park there called The Front, which was our first feed stop at 77km in. Again, we had some wonderful people there. These food stops are staffed by volunteers and what a commitment it is to come out on a Sunday morning and get a load of food ready for some cyclists to speed them on their journey. I think it’s absolutely brilliant. We had the friendliest welcome, we had bacon sandwiches, we had tea, we had biscuits. It was just really really nice, and then we had to leave that welcoming abode, because our cycling after that started to get a bit more serious. We had another 20 or 30 rolling kilometres which took us almost to 100, so almost halfway there and then we hit the the Dorset coast proper. The route took us along the main road from Abbotsbury to Bridport via Burton Bradstock – a sensational stretch of road that soars high above the sea via some proper climbs. You come out of Abbotsbury and there’s a climb up to the top of Abbotsbury Hill – you’re cycling in your lowest gear almost at walking pace and you’ve just got to keep yourself going to get to the top. I don’t know what grade it is – I think somebody mentioned it might be an average of 10 or 11% and I’m assured it’s a category three climb. Whatever the stats, it’s pretty difficult and you just have to almost inch your way up, but behind you this vista is opening out, it’s steep, steep, steep all the way and you get this little lay-by and it just flattens off a little bit, and from there you can look behind you. You can see right down Chesil Beach and Portland and we had blue skies, fluffy clouds scudding about at this point and it was just amazing. To the highest point now is – oof – just wonderful. It’s hard to describe, when your legs are going really well, and you’re not exactly floating, but you’re just doing it, man. It’s a really, really cool feeling. We had a chat to to another cyclist who we caught at the lay-by so the three of us kept each other company on the way down. After a few more kilometers, you come into a place called Burton Bradstock, which is a really nice village near the coast. There’s a National Trust beach called the Hive Beach with a cracking fish and chip shop and café there for less energetic days. We often go camping nearby and when we do we go to a pub called the Three Horseshoes. Run by Palmer’s Brewery based down in Bridport, it’s one of my favourite pubs and they do some absolutely phenomenal ales and so it was hard to resist stopping to have a pint. Audax is fun, it’s social, it’s non-competitive, and we thought after having tackled the hellish steepness of Abbotsbury Hill a pint of Palmer’s Gold was very much in order. So we we sat outside the pub and we waved our pint glasses at audax cyclists that were coming past us, had a few smiles and waves back, and a couple of chats with the people at the pub that were interested in what we were doing.

The section that we just started from about 100 kilometres to about 140 is proper hard cycling. We hit hill after hill, and the hills in Dorset are not for shrinking violets. You’re looking at 7-10% average, sometimes ramps of 15 to 20%, but climbing for sometimes 150+ meters. There were several of these – I think at Chideock, Dottery, Morecambelake, Wooten Fitzpaine… Morecambelake was almost the end of my knees. That was just a crazy steep climb. But, you know, although it was pretty brutal, I have to say the organizers kept us off that main road with masterful skill. The A35 is a really fast, it’s a dangerous road. You don’t want to be on a bike on the A35 at all. And so by putting this through all these heinous tortuous climbs, the organizers kept us safe from all dangers other than heart failure. Wonderful countryside as well, some of these villages that you’re cycling through, they’re absolutely stunning. Little tiny pubs (I’m a big one for pubs) all over the place and hillsides and landscapes that just roll out before you. Every so often a glimpse of the coast behind you when you climb up out of the next valley over, just absolutely stunning. It took us four hours to do 40km – we did the first 30 kilometres in just over an hour. We went from going quite well to actually being in danger of perhaps not making the time limit, which would have been a bit of a disappointment – because it’s not just about you completing the challenge, it’s about friendship and it’s about supporting each other and all these other good things, but you want to do it in the time limit. You want to have completed the event officially, if you like. And so we stopped at Axminster where there was another stop and by this point I certainly needed to recharge.

Now we went into somebody’s garden, there was a marquee up there, if you needed the toilet, you kind of went through the garage and there was a little toilet just in there. They had made homemade cakes and when I say homemade cakes they had made about eight different varieties. There were a similar number of types of sandwich available. There was vegetable soup, there was tea and coffee, there was squash, you could even upgrade and you could have Pringles and Coke and goodness knows what. Honestly, the condition my legs were in, it was the most wonderful sight and to have a friendly welcome and smiling people and being given cakes and tea and coffee that these people had spent their own time making and preparing for us and getting ready. It made me feel quite emotional to be honest with you, that people would put themselves out so much for you. And so, I went from feeling that my legs were were pretty knackered to getting a second wind. It was probably the rock cake and it was certainly something to do with the soup, but it was very, very much a result of that kind of friendly welcome that we had. It really puts the spring in your step. And if any of those people on that station are reading this, unlikely as that may be, my thanks to you for what you do supporting these events. I just think it’s incredible.

So anyway, after Axminster, we climbed back up out of the town and it started to level off a little bit. We needed to come out of there and to get 20 quick kilometres done. We fairly raced along and it was wonderful. There were a couple of showers in the air, but it didn’t seem to matter at that point, we were still going really strong. There was one final hill, Eggardon Hill, the highest point on the route at about 250 meters. We started off at Askerswell, a lovely little climb past the Spyway Inn, which unfortunately was closed (not that we would have availed of ourselves again clearly!) but the road goes up and up and up. On some of these climbs in Dorset you look up and all you can see in front of you is sky, right? And so you look down at your bike computer and you go well we we’ve still got 100 meters of climbing to go, but all I can see is sky and the rest of the climb is completely hidden from view. So psychologically, you start to hope. Thinking I must be nearly there because where is this hill? It doesn’t seem to exist. And then you get up around the corner ah, there it is, okay there’s a bit more round here. It’s quite deceptive and without having it on the bike computer, I’m sure I’d have blown myself out a couple of times on these hills, but with the Garmin there, you know you’ve got so much climbing still to do and you’re a bit more prepared for it. But it’s a great climb, I absolutely recommend it. And again, the view from the top is spectacular. There’s a hill fort there and I think it’s one of the highest places in Dorset. It’s a good and really spectacular climb and and thoroughly enjoyed getting to the top. It was fantastic.

This was about the 165 kilometre mark and was now the longest ride that Graeme and I had ever done. We go cycling in Brittany once a year and our longest day, I think was going from the north coast to the south coast and we’d done 165/166 kilometres that day, so now we were into territory that we hadn’t been before. This was our personal best already, and even if we didn’t make it now it was still an incredible personal achievement. But we still had 40 kilometers to go. The big climbs were done by now, so it was rolling terrain. There were shorter hills, but then you get a downhill and you get a bit of a roll, work your quads, before we knew it we were in Dorchester and then on and back into Wareham and almost no mechanicals as well. Apart from Graeme’s chain was playing up a little bit, he checked his bike and he only had two chainring bolts left, the others having randomly popped out en route, so that could have been disastrous. Then I nearly got taken out on the A35 going round a roundabout by some guy that couldn’t wait behind me and he just decided to cut across in front of me, and about 30 seconds after cursing his name I cycled over a large nail and I got a puncture. So with an hour to go I had that to fix and all that getting dark kind of stuff, but it was it was fine.

After leaving at 7:45 in the morning we arrived back at Wareham at about 19:55 in the evening, so we did 12 hours and 10 minutes in the saddle. You have to have something called a brevet card when you do an audax and you have to get stamps in different places to prove you’ve done the route. Once our ride was verified, we were chuffed to have officially completed our first ever 200 kilometre ride. Again there was food there, the same people that were there in the morning were there waiting for us in the evening. There was beans on toast, tea, there were sandwiches again, just like everything you could possibly imagine a cyclist would need at the end of an exhausting day. Except beer, so after a quick snack we were recommended to a pub called the Duke of Wellington which had Isle of Purbeck ale on on cask, and then it was time to head home. I had a two hour drive back down to Devon so drove home starving hungry and Burger King at the services on the way just had to be done!

That was my first experience of a 200 kilometres ride. My legs the next day were not as bad as I was expecting them to be, but I had to get back on the bike because my my van had to go in the garage for a little bit of electrical work. I got home at half an hour before midnight, then had to be at the garage at 8:30am and then from there to cycle home, which was only about like three or four kilometres but oh my God, like my arse did not need to be on a saddle at that point. I don’t think I sat in the saddle all the way back. I think I just I was stood up on the pedals all the way….

What a great day, what a great ride. Thank you to the organizers of the of the Dorset Coast Audax, the CTC Wessex Cycling. I don’t I’m afraid I don’t know the names of the people that that organised it, but thank you individually and personally, you all did a wonderful job. Everybody that like gave us tea and soup and those amazing cakes at Axminster, you’re very, very wonderful people. I hope to see you all again sometime soon. If you’ve read about this far, thanks for reading, if you have enjoyed this blog, leave me a comment, give me thumbs up on social media, subscribe if you like. See you next time!