Bringing the Audax Home with Carmela Pearson

The next morning after the Bohol Audax, I meet with Carmela Pearson again but this time for a short coffee ride.

Prior to long-distance cycling, she was doing triathlons and road races across the globe. Because of her former corporate job, she was regularly sent to Singapore and would bring her bike with her on these work trips. There she grew to love the Audax’s charm. We ride out towards Alona Beach as Carmela continues her story. Compared to the energy of racing, she explained how she enjoyed the simplicity of the Audax format: All you had to do was ride the distance and reach the cutoff—you had more control and freedom versus racing.

Audax has been a common ground for people from different walks of life—from the fast racing types to the recreational ones. Most cyclists are like me, people who try to juggle work with family and their passion for adventures.

Some French cyclists she had met asked her why she kept flying to Singapore from the Philippines to do these rides. Why not bring the Audax home? Enter, Audax Philippines. Admittedly, Carmela had initially organized Audaxes in the country to qualify for the Paris-Brest-Paris herself but as their community continues to grow, she has seen the value Audax Philippines can hold.

Carmela has done the PBP four times, cycling out from Paris to the coast of the Brittany province, then back. Cycling is so loved a sport that locals open their homes to cyclists, offering them food and a place to rest. The PBP is festive all across its route, from midnight to early morning, towns will take in cyclists under their care. It is an experience so fulfilling that Carmela hopes for more Filipinos to experience the Audax for themselves. Last year, Audax Philippines sent the biggest contingent from Southeast Asia, over 80 cyclists including those based abroad who achieved a finishing rate of 47%.

Rain starts to fall and we settle for Bassa, a villa we passed earlier. We get coffee and continue the interview.

GRID: What is it about the Audax format that made you shift from racing to long-distance cycling?

Carmela Pearson: I got into cycling really late so I never really [had] a very competitive mindset. I’ve always loved adventures, having climbed mountains like Kilimanjaro, Kozsciusko, and many more. So when I experienced my first Audax in Singapore in 2009, I loved it, the simple format. It’s cycling in its most raw form without the fanfare and commercialism that goes with it. It strips you down to your core. I love how one can learn and discover so many things about one’s self through these rides. I’ve also met the most wonderful people in this sport who I treasure as good friends. Plus, I was really getting busy with work and family life. Training for long distances is easier over the very technical training of racing.

GRID: Locally, how has the attitude towards long-distance cycling developed over the years?

Carmela: I’ve seen the attitude towards long-distance cycling change significantly over the years. When I started the Audax, a lot of cycling coaches and athletes were telling me that I would be a broken athlete, that it wouldn’t be beneficial to me if I wanted to perform in races. But I didn’t really care about race performance, I just wanted to have fun on the bike and the Audax was fun for me. Type 2 kind of fun.

I think as we do more rides locally, we create a track record. As we produce more randonneurs who can ride international brevets, we create credibility that this unconventional sport of long-distance cycling is something to reckon with. In the first five or so years, Audax Philippines was small and people weren’t really interested. But as people share their positive experiences about these rides, locally or internationally, the awareness grows organically and so the attitude towards the sport has changed from not being taken seriously back then, now, it’s more respected.

Since Audax is not a race, it attracts a range of cyclists using different cycling machines, like road, time trial, mountain, folding, tandem, hybrid, gravel, recumbent, and many more bikes. I believe Audax has been a common ground for people from different walks of life and cycling backgrounds—from the fast racing types to the recreational ones. Most of the cyclists who join are common folks like me, people who try to juggle work with family and their passion for cycling adventures.

GRID: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when establishing Audax in the country, especially considering the prevailing misconceptions about long-distance cycling?

Carmela: It was very hard. As a female cyclist back in 2009, where there were so few of us, I felt I wasn’t taken seriously. The people who supported me from the very beginning were expats—like David Charlton of David’s Salon, Cyril Rocke of DataOne, and Michael Spence of Spence Capital. Audax was unheard of in Southeast Asia back then but Audax was big in Europe, so they understood the event.

Our first Audax ride was in December 2010 with just 22 participants, [most of which] were women. Social media wasn’t big yet so it was hard to educate people about these rides. So while it wasn’t very popular, we pushed on because we believed in these rides. […] Next thing we know, there are a lot of like-minded cyclists out there who understand what these rides are about. It’s humbling to see how we’ve grown in the country and how we can see so many Filipino randonneurs do the bigger rides outside the Philippines.

GRID: Women are usually the minority when it comes to these types of events, even cycling in general. What do you think can be done to encourage more women to participate in long-distance cycling?

Carmela: Women encouraging women. That’s it. I want women cyclists to share their beautiful experiences in this sport—pretty much what you are doing writing your journey about these rides. I always say that a female cyclist has a higher tolerance for pain than our male counterparts and we can truly thrive in this sport.

And for us women, there are challenges that we encounter [that guys wouldn’t], like our reproductive system is different. So I’d like to open up the topic that it’s not taboo, [girls can come up and] talk to me about how you take care of your ass, [your body as a female cyclist.]

GRID: You’ve done Audaxes and LRMs in and outside the country, what is unique to the Philippines?

Carmela: Scenic views, tropical climate, challenging mountain routes, and delicious delicacies along the way make it a memorable and rewarding experience for cyclists. Everywhere, the Audax is different.

In Cebu, it’s happier, there’s liempo and bibingka at the checkpoints. You ate the post-ride meal in Siargao? Sobrang happy ni JT’s Manukan [for the sales]. Ganun yung impact na gusto ko. Even along the road, the sari-sari stores, the 7-11’s, even the vulcanizing shops—they earn from the event. And lahat sila [nagsasabi ng], “Ano ba yang Audax event?” So we asked the Department of Tourism to give us an estimate of how much the Audax can contribute to the local economy, let’s say Subic, the biggest [in terms of cyclists registered], in one weekend, at least five million [pesos].

So when I run an event, in principle, I want it to be a win-win situation for everyone. The cyclists get the discount, they're happy with the event, the hotels are happy because they get booked and people eat at their restaurants. At the same time, the local community, na feel nila yung presence ng Audax, the local economic contribution nararamdaman nila.

The Audax is cycling in its most raw form without the fanfare and commercialism that goes with it. It strips you down to your core.

I don’t ask anything from the local government, I mean, it's up to them if they want to provide ambulances. The number one industry in Bohol is tourism and they've seen the value of Audax, so ganun din yung support nila. I never requested for the police—sabi ko sanay ang mga cyclists ko, they know that you’re supposed to be self-sufficient in between checkpoints—and yet ganyan yung support nila. In the Visayas, [they’re] very sincere.

GRID: What’s next for Audax Philippines?

Carmela: I hope we can groom the next generation of Audax riders in the Philippines. I’m getting old. On a more serious note, growing the number of participants for the Philippines is never the goal. My hope is to grow the number of quality randonneurs. The randonneurs are some of the most patient and mature people I’ve met. The value of perseverance and integrity shows not only in the way they ride the Audax when it’s so easy to cheat, it’s a reflection of how they deal with family, work, and other aspects of life.

So we’re organizing the first 1300 in the Philippines in October 2024 [in] La Union. Leyte, Bacolod, Rizal, Ilocos, La Union, Surigao del Norte are all in the pipeline as well—ganda ng Pilipinas eh!