Why audax riders need a training plan (and not just vibes)

Randonneuring rewards consistency more than raw horsepower. A rider who builds volume steadily across sixteen weeks will comfortably out-finish someone who “trained” by watching Grand Tour highlights and eating an extra croissant out of solidarity. Our training plan generator takes your current weekly distance and your target brevet — 200km, 300km, 400km, 600km, or the full 1200km fever dream — and lays out a week-by-week build with a taper before event day, so you arrive rested rather than arriving broken.

Unlike a generic cycling app built for criterium racers, this tool understands that audax training is about time in the saddle, back-to-back long rides, and night-riding practice, not five-second sprint power. It will not ask for your FTP. It will ask how you feel about riding through a second sunrise.

Bike fit: because your knees have opinions

A poor bike fit is invisible for the first two hours of a ride and then becomes the only thing you can think about for the next fourteen. The bike fit calculator converts your body measurements into saddle height, saddle setback and reach figures suited to long, upright, all-day endurance positions rather than aggressive time-trial angles. Get it right and your hands, neck and knees will thank you somewhere around checkpoint three. Get it wrong and they will remind you at every checkpoint, loudly, in a language only cyclists understand.

Print the results, take them to your local fitter, or just adjust your seatpost in the car park before the ride — we won’t tell anyone.

Nutrition and hydration: the actual engine room

More audax finishes are lost in the stomach than in the legs. The nutrition and hydration calculator gives you hourly carbohydrate, fluid and sodium targets based on your weight, your pace, and how hot the organisers have decided to make the day. Feed it your numbers before you leave the house and it will hand you a plan for your drop bags and control stops, so you’re not improvising nutrition strategy at a petrol station at 2am, staring at a shelf of energy drinks like they hold the answers to the universe.

Bonk once, learn the lesson forever. Or just use the calculator and skip the character-building exercise entirely.

Frequently asked questions

What is audax or randonneuring, exactly?

Audax, also known as randonneuring, is long-distance unsupported or semi-supported cycling over set routes and distances — commonly 200km, 300km, 400km, 600km and 1200km — ridden within time limits and checked off at controle points along the way. It is endurance cycling for people who look at a “century ride” and think: cute, but what else have you got.

How long does it take to train for a 200km brevet?

Most riders with a reasonable base can prepare for a 200km event in six to eight weeks of structured riding, building long weekend rides progressively. For 600km and beyond, plan for a longer build with back-to-back long days to teach your body — and your patience — what multi-day fatigue actually feels like.

Do I need a special bike for audax riding?

No. Randonneuring is famously bike-agnostic — steel tourers, gravel bikes, and endurance road bikes all show up at the start line. What matters far more than frame material is a fit that keeps you comfortable for ten, fifteen, or twenty-plus hours in the saddle, which is exactly what the bike fit calculator above is for.

What should I eat during a long brevet?

A mix of easily digestible carbohydrates, adequate fluids, and enough sodium to replace what you sweat out — timed hourly rather than dumped in all at once. The exact numbers depend on your body weight, pace and the weather, which is precisely what the nutrition and hydration calculator works out for you, so you’re not doing arithmetic on a bike at hour nine.