It is sad to report that Peter Hansen died last week. Peter was a leading light in Cornish Audax events both as a rider and organiser, and was instrumental in setting up Audax Kernow and its organisers’ group. A native of Newquay he cycled all his life. As a member of Kernow CC he time trialled. He became one of the early members of Audax UK in the late 1970s, and went on to serve as AUK general secretary for two years before becoming an AUK Vice President.
Peter completed three Paris-Brest-Paris audax randonnées including one with his wife Mareve. They became AUK tandem champions three times in the 1980s. In the 1990s he and his wife with others rode Dover – Durness and continued on to Cape Wrath. In 1998 he rode the international diagonale Calais-Brindisi with two other AUK riders.
Peter was always aware of how important it was to bring on new riders to Audax riding and he set up a number of events of between 60km and 100km to provide transition to the longer Audax distances. One of these is the Mines & Mineral Railways On-road event, now in its 24th year. He had already set up the first AUK off-road event a few years earlier. From the success of that event he saw the need for a similar short road event introducing new riders to Audax with its control points, info controls and relaxed cameraderie. He loved all aspects of cycling and enthused many others. He was a fan of the grand Tours and his highlight of the summer in recent years was inviting cycling friends round for the “Armchair Tours” in front of the TV with a good supply of vino and food. He was a kind and generous person with a quiet but quick and witty sense of humour. He was a very strong rider who made hills look easy, riding with ease before waiting at the top without a backward glance at his struggling companions. We have many great memories of him.
This year saw new organiser Jonathan Butt take over from Simon Jones to run the Mines and Minerals on-road and off-road audaxes. The old hands were on hand to help, the format and food basically unchanged, but we saw a number of riders new to the event and Jonathan’s introduction of on-the-line card payments helped keep things running smoothly at base – and allowed for some last minute pasty and cream tea sales.
