I liked Teethgrinders point that AUK only does long distance brevet card based events though. I can't quite imagine how an organised event of this sort would work however without control distances and times. Unless the "stop off points" just remained open 24/7 for several days....
My point is, that why does it have to be a ride of this sort?
I've had ideas about different types of rides. One is that there is a set route and it's ridden as a kind of relay. We start somewhere with at least one rider and start off on the set route as far as you like. But on the way as people drop off, other people join on. It could be that the original rider/s do not finish the whole route, that's not the idea. The idea is to keep the ride going around the country, non stop with different riders joining and leaving the ride whenever they like, but keeping the ride going as long as possible.
That's just one idea. Any long distance cycling will do and any idea.
Make it fun and not stuck in the same old same old. Use your imagination.
I don't think it's in the remit of AUK to organise anything other than brevet style events. It's what it's for.
I reckon you're right. I still think it's a shame though, given that AUK calls itself, "The Long Distance Cyclist's Association."
I could easily blame myself for not putting any ideas forward though, so I'm certainly partly to blame for not trying, at least.
However, while I'm sure I don't know the full story in either case, I do believe my comments reflect the views of a reasonable number of other local audaxers. Right or wrong, fair or unfair, it's the way it appears to be from where we sit.
I think that there's a lot of truth in what you say, in that people think that there is a lot of red tape in Audax.
I agree with Danial, that if AUK are going to have the rules and that AUK are doing the right thing by making sure that these rides are what they say they are and that they are checked etc.
But I think that a lot of riders just want to do the ride and not fuss with red tape. All AUK does is to record rides ridden on cycle events that are run under AUK rules. If those records are worth having then it's AUKs purpose to ensure that their records are valid and legitimate.
For most fit cyclists, a midsummer 200 is just a bike ride and I doubt that they'd be bothered about brevet crads, points and other goals. They just want to do the ride, then move on to the next sportive, TT or whatever. I expect that there are a number of seasoned AUKs who aren't really bothered about brevet cards etc and are only doing the rides for the ride itself.