"audax" (1981)

[Hugo]

"Audax" (n. a long-distance road cycling event) has been added to Oxford
Dictionaries in the latest quarterly update:
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2014/05/new-words-may-2014/

Here's a pair of 1981 datings.


The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) Sunday 6 September 1981:

[Begin]
The race is no longer organised
as an event (the last was in 1951),
but every five years the "Audax"
Association organise up to 3,000
cyclists of all ages and both sexes
from all over the world, who tour
over the famous course in nostalgic
commemoration of the bygone
classic.
[End]

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/126844523?searchTerm=audax%20cycling&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc

---

The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) Wednesday 21 October 1981:

[Begin]
Audax Australia anyone?
...
It owes its rather grandiose
sounding title not to an
over-patriotic Aussie, but
to a handful of Frenchmen
who first formed the
Audax concept in the early
1900s.
...
The idea soon spread to
other countries, and the
Audax movement was
born. The word is Latin for
"bold, courageous or reso-
lute" and that is what you
need to be if you ever think
of riding a few hundred
kilometres in a fixed time.
Actually, there is more to
the idea of Audax than just
riding a bike, for, as the
president of the Australian
branch, Russell Moore, of
Sydney, said in a letter to
me recently, "Our aim in
forming Audax Australia
is to encourage as many
people as possible to ex-
tend themselves to greater
physical and mental goals
through long-distance cycl-
ing".
[End]

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/126852947?searchTerm=audax%20cycling&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc

The club formed at Easter 1981:
https://www.audax.org.au/public/index.php/about/audax-history-sp-29985
They may have earlier evidence.

---

There's a possible 1975 snippet in Google Books but I couldn't verify it.

Cycling, J. B. Wadley, Crowell, 1975, page 27:

[Begin]
As well as Randonneur trials in which participants are free to make their
own pace and ride alone or with any group they latch on to, there are also
a number of 'Audax' promotions in which riders are asked to keep together
in groups about 30 strong. No 'breakaway' road race tactics are allowed,
and all members of a group remain with the leader, who maintains the pace
 laid down for that particular trial. A ride under these conditions is held
over the Paris-Brest-Paris course, with the same qualifying time of 90
hours for the 750 miles, but with compulsory stops for quick communal meals
and rest periods.
[End]

https://encrypted.google.com/books?ei=byZ6U9nyKNCM4gS6wgE&id=qrUAqlV-XIkC&dq=%22audax+promotions%22&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22audax%22

---

Hugo

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