When ash/awl-pikers hold their attack, you have no option but to hold your down-block. If you let go of your block to attack, they will release their held thrust, and even though you start your attack first, they hit you first because of the instastab animation. This is something needs looking into cause it gives them a huge advantage in battle servers (not duel server, stop seeing this as a 1v1 duel point of view).
When I'm fighting 2 or even sometimes 3 guys simultaneously, i can often stand my ground, but if one of them is an average skilled player at best using an ash/awl-pike, there is very small chance of getting out of that situation alive or with any gain.