Suddenly excited

I’m excited again as I have just entered my first Audax ride in two weeks’ time. It’s one of the events organised by the Kingston Wheelers and at 300km, it’s long, but doable. I hope it’s the complete antithesis of the ride I was on today. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lovely time with five of my club mates on a Sunday club run and after doing 20 miles on my own we covered another forty odd miles. The roads were chokka with other riders and while this is great for the sport and all that, there’s an awful lot of  willy waving going on with herds of young MAMILS gunning it around. Part of it is pure jealously on my part as they’ve all got 15 years on me and are probably faster. The faster they go, the slower I want to go and I do sometimes long for the days pre- 2012, when I could ride for 4 hours and barely see another rider on the road.

 Hence, the Audax. It’s going to be a long way and my longest ride on my road bike. I guess I’m looking at somewhere between 10 and 12 hours in the saddle depending on stops and I’ve started to research what kit I might need to carry and how I can carry it. My main concern is navigation, or rather, how to navigate. A map is best and fairly foolproof, but where to put it? Do I need a bar bag in with a map pocket so I can read on the hoof? Frame bag and saddle bag? Probably overkill for a 300km ride. Lights; will I need better lights if I get caught in the dark? Do I need a method of charging lights, Garmin, phone etc? If so, how? I think the first thing to do is make a list of what I will actually need to take and work back from there. Any excuse to buy some new kit.