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Ride Do any audax/brevets happen in November and December?

lmm

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Oct 18, 2019
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I'll be moving to Japan in November and was hoping to keep up a "Randonneur round the Year" (200km or longer brevet every month). But looking at the list on https://www.audax-japan.org/brm/brm-2018年月別開催予定/#10月 and also on a couple of individual club sites, it seems like there are no events listed after the end of October even in past years (and even though there are events in January).

Does the audax season shut down for November/December in Japan? Or is there something I'm missing? Any advice greatly appreciated.
 
I'll be moving to Japan in November and was hoping to keep up a "Randonneur round the Year" (200km or longer brevet every month). But looking at the list on https://www.audax-japan.org/brm/brm-2018年月別開催予定/#10月 and also on a couple of individual club sites, it seems like there are no events listed after the end of October even in past years (and even though there are events in January).

Does the audax season shut down for November/December in Japan? Or is there something I'm missing? Any advice greatly appreciated.
If @joewein doesn't know the answer to your question, I'll eat my hat.
 
Does the audax season shut down for November/December in Japan?

Yes, it does. The Radonneuring year worldwide runs from November to October, but Japanese clubs do not organise any events before January. They take a break.

If you must ride homologated events during those months to complete your challenge, you would have to head out to Thailand or a similar location where they do have events already in the old calendar year (a friend of mine completed his SR series for 2018/19 there in December 2018 to qualify for PBP early).

Unfortunately the list of the 2019/2020 events for Japan is not online at the Audax Club Parisien website yet.
 
Thanks for the answer. Audax UK do validate "DIY" rides where you submit your own list of controls and ride it on a specified date so I'll plan on doing one of those in that case.
 
Thanks for the answer. Audax UK do validate "DIY" rides where you submit your own list of controls and ride it on a specified date so I'll plan on doing one of those in that case.
The DIY ride is a nice idea. I had a look on the Audax UK website and I was surprised you could do one using GPS as proof. I've never done a brevet and I always assumed you had to go through official checkpoints or get receipts from businesses at designated areas to qualify for a ride. Maybe a TCC DIY ride one day?
 
Outside of organised events on the calendar, I was really only familiar with permanents. I don't think Audax Japan offers permanents other than Super Randonées, or DIY rides. But since Audax UK offers them even outside the UK as long as you're an Audax UK member, that will be a viable alternative.
 
The DIY ride is a nice idea. I had a look on the Audax UK website and I was surprised you could do one using GPS as proof. I've never done a brevet and I always assumed you had to go through official checkpoints or get receipts from businesses at designated areas to qualify for a ride. Maybe a TCC DIY ride one day?

Yeah, most Audax organisations don't do this and even in AUK the GPS-only DIYs are a bit controversial (I suspect a lot of permanents are mostly ridden with GPS validation these days, but officially the traditional way with receipts is the primary way to validate and GPS is just an option if the organiser accepts that). But if there are no organised events or permanents then needs must.

I've put in for a simple, flat, boring route on December 1st (Nogi Shrine - Miura (Kabujimajido Park) - Kozu Station - Nogi Shrine) - company would be welcome if you like, but December is probably the worst time to do something like this for the first time, and I doubt Nogi Shrine is a convenient start point for anyone other than me (which is the joy of DIYs). Hopefully will be able to start meeting people once calendar events start - will definitely be looking to do ones in January and February.
 
Arguably the worst time to ride 200 km with a time limit is July ;) If it's cold you can always add layers to keep yourself warm, but if you are melting what can you do?

December won't be as cold as January and January will have less chance of snow than February.

Any place in Central Tokyo would not be my first choice to start and finish a brevet because almost any route is better than one with lots of traffic lights. When I ride down to Miura, such as in AJ NishiTokyo's January Miura 200 km brevet, the number of traffic lights between the Tamagawa and Yokosuka is a major challenge. The rest of Miura is great, but I'm always glad when I've passed Yokosuka on the way down.
 
@lmm
Thanks very much for the offer. As you say, December might be a bit tough and the drag out from Tokyo wouldn't be much fun. I am interested in doing one of these kind of things in the future. Either something official or my own brevet length ride. The furthest I've ridden so far is about 180km so I'd definitely like to get over 200 next season. I'm actually going to buy a dedicated cycling computer this winter, which should make it easier to do monster rides!

All the best on your DIY in December🙂
 
December won't be as cold as January and January will have less chance of snow than February.

Indeed - that's why I was surprised to see no events in December but events in January/February. But starting in December means experiencing all three (at least it did for me this year :)).

Any place in Central Tokyo would not be my first choice to start and finish a brevet because almost any route is better than one with lots of traffic lights. When I ride down to Miura, such as in AJ NishiTokyo's January Miura 200 km brevet, the number of traffic lights between the Tamagawa and Yokosuka is a major challenge. The rest of Miura is great, but I'm always glad when I've passed Yokosuka on the way down.

My thinking is that I'd have to ride to the start point either way (I won't have a car and Japanese trains tend to not allow bikes, and mine is a bit oversize anyway), so might as well start near where I'm living. Living in London it's been the same story - organised events (rightly) tend to start from a bit further out, but if I'm doing a DIY I'll put the first control at the nearest landmark to home. Particularly for this first one in December, laziness wins out.
 
Indeed - that's why I was surprised to see no events in December but events in January/February.

December is Bōnenkai season. For many people there'll be a different drinking party almost every weekend, including the randonneur club's own bōnenkai.
 
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