Audax is the bedrock of cycle sport as we know it, but what exactly is it? And what’s the appeal? Cyclist gate-crashes a Sea Scout hut at 3am to find out
Words James Spender Photography Fergus Coyle
There’s luggage but this isn’t touring; there’s sleeping on the floor but this isn’t bikepacking. There’s a time limit but this isn’t a sportive; there are awards but this isn’t a race. This is audax, a discipline as old as the hills, one on which early editions of the Tour de France were based, where riders traversed huge distances on two wheels with little more than a checkpoint map and their wits.
The event photographed here by Fergus Coyle was the 2022 Moonrakers and Sunseekers audax run in November. The ride is 300km, starting out from Bristol at 10pm, turning round at Poole and then heading back to Bristol, with riders needing to get their brevet cards stamped at checkpoints to prove their long-distance mettle. As per the official rules, each rider has 20 hours to complete the event, requiring a minimum speed of 15kmh (for distances over 600km that figure drops to a kinder 13.3kmh). If you see a pattern emerging here, you’re right. Distance is the name of the game, with completion being the aim.
These audaxers were captured halfway around Moonrakers and Sunseekers, in a Sea Scout hut in Poole. While today there are entry level audaxes under 200km, which are aimed at increasing the sport’s appeal, the traditional distances are 200km, 300km, 400km, 600km and 1,000km, so rides tend to take place overnight. They can be even longer. The marquee audaxes in the calendar are London-Edinburgh-London (1,500km), which will run in 2025, and Paris-Brest-Paris (1,200km), once upon a time a professional race too. For these, audax riders will have to qualify, making certain time cuts and completing certain combinations of rides. But we’ve already said too much. Let’s hand you over to the audaxers themselves…
Corinna O’Connor, 19,200km per year
I did my first audaxes when I was training for Land’s End to John O’Groats, and I ended up meeting what I call the wrong type of people – a bad crowd that can convince you that riding London-Edinburgh-London is perfectly normal.
I rode LEL in 2022. It’s 1,500km and it took me five days and 30 minutes. My strategy was very basic: just do 300km every 24 hours and sleep whenever I wanted. Sleep mostly
