This Audax was the 50km ride in Liz Creese's Autumn Assortment; I'd
gone for the 50 because I'd hoped to have a fresh new fixie to test
run, but the parts only came on the Friday. However, since I'd left my
normal tourer in Cambridge, this meant the only bike I had was the
Brompton, so being on the 50 was no bad thing.

Ruislip's a little way from Hampton - I cut the journey up a little
short (and eliminated some really huge roads) by riding up to
Greenford and taking the Tube to Ruislip Gardens (I'll bet not many
people have managed to take the Tube to the start of an Audax), but
I'd still clocked about 11 miles up to the start, which meant the
usual early start to assemble two piles of food and eat one.

There were only seven of us on the 50, including a worried-looking
auk-girlfriend-on-first-Audax (whose worries were not justified, she
had no real trouble keeping up), a small boy, and the chap running the
first control (who I gather would have zoomed ahead if anyone else had
felt like a big hero). One of the other riders was on a shiny new race
bike with a kickstand fitted, which struck me as slightly subversive -
unfortunately he also had two big chainrings and a tight back block,
which meant he ended up walking a bit.

The ride was generally north-easterly out towards Chipperfield. It's
not a desperately lumpy route but there are some steep sections - my B
has standard 3-speed gearing, which means below about 8mph I was
standing on the pedals and honking, but none of the hills were too
long to just bull up, and I'm glad to say I never had to walk. The
converse of that is that I've never been at 36mph on a Brompton before
- with worries about heating the tiny tyres up, I was sitting bolt
upright being an airbrake more than once.

First control was in a garden centre; stopped for tea and cakes which
took about half an hour. Not really necessary, but we had plenty of
time in the bag.

Second control was an info at the top of a hill near Chalfont St
Giles.  We stopped to wait for the walkers, a short rest, and a newton
of figgs - irritatingly, it was at the end of the five-minute rest
when I noticed that two-big-chainrings' front tyre didn't have the
bead seated and was on the verge of herniating out and bursting. He
and the controller set to to fix it - in the course of that they
noticed a loose brake block - and by the end of all that, we'd bled
half an hour. However, the controller said he'd explain to the
organiser and we need not fret about the cutoff time.

After that we pressed on, getting a bit more strung out - about 2
miles from the finish, I figured I could just squeeze in before the
1405 cutoff, and I'd prefer not to chance it. Off I went - pant gasp -
and just made it, only to find the cutoff was 1415 and everyone else
would just make it anyway.

More tea and cakes and then home - feeling lazy, so Tube to North
Acton, cycle to Acton Town, Tube to Hounslow West, cycle home.

My hands were quite sore by the end - I wouldn't care to do twice the
distance on flat bars - and my knees were quite sore when I got home
(again), but that passed very quickly.