Re: Audaxes

Blonde wrote:

> Because we were late finishing at Cambridge Youth Hostel we went
> straight to bed without eating.

Big error.

> This was a mistake as next day we were tired and had to stop every
> hour for food/rest - I think we had about three breakfasts! We
> ended up getting the train back from Peterborough because lack of
> fuel the day before had taken it's toll. I was exhausted. Planning
> your own stops for food/water and rest is more difficult on longer
> rides or on certain routes where you may not find anywhere to stop,
> or where you are cycling through the night.

Yes, 200km permanents are not too bad, but long distance ones are tough
and require a bit of planning.

The biggest mistake I made with Twickenham - Cambridge - Wisbech -
Boston - Lincoln - Beverley - Selby - York was starting at 10pm. I was
feeling sleepy before I'd even got to Cambridge. I got through that but
had to go through a second sleep crisis the following night in the
Yorkshire moors. Not only did it slow me down but I kept losing track
of the route *** and where I was.

On all three permanents my biggest navigational mistake was relying on
Microsoft Autoroute to find the shortest way. I exported the directions
to a spread*** then went through them line by line against the
Autoroute map to refine them and get rid of the idiocies where it says
"turn left, bear right, bear left" when it means "just keep going". I
then formatted the spread*** into a beautiful route *** and off I
went.

These instructions work like a charm for mile after mile often finding
superb short routes on deserted lanes. Then suddenly you are completely
lost. The turning that's supposed to be there isn't or the next
instruction just doesn't make sense.

On the 3rd 400km attempt - Twickenham - Crediton - Salcombe I plotted
the Autoroute co-ordinates into a GPS. Again it worked like a charm
except for three places where the GPS was telling there should be a
turning, but there wasn't. I lost large amounts of time trying to
re-establish the planned route when I would have been better off just
picking up road signs.

It wasn't until I was going over the route of the Kidderminster Killer
in detail that I realised what was wrong. Comparing the Autoroute maps
in detail with the Ordinance Survey ones, they are quite simply wrong
in several places. Sometimes they have a junction displaced by a few
hundred metres, sometimes they have a footpath marked as a road, and
sometimes they show a road forming a cul-de-sac where it actually makes
a T junction with another road. I'm sure it was a map error like this
that got me hopelessly lost in the roads north of Wisbech on the York
attempt. A turning simply was not where it was meant to be and I
couldn't pick the route up again.

It also explains why Autoroute had me turning off the main road, and
after a very slow and puzzling quarter of a mile re-emerging about 100
yards further up. On the Autoroute map that ludicrous detour is shorter
than following the very slight bend on the main road.

A quirk of all this is that it's theoretically possible to declare
underlength routes and get them approved. I believe the AUK route
police use Autoroute to determine the shortest route between two
points. By making use of the false cul-de-sacs and Autoroute's refusal
to connect two roads by a footpath or bridleway you could conceivalby
find routes that are significantly shorter than the Autoroute minimum
distances.

--
Dave...

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