I can go to distant parts and ride a route devised by someone who knows the area, and it is pretty much guaranteed to be better than anything Strava's algorithms can come up with.
Is it though?
I always review the route as I rarely trust organisers, unless I know them well. I have been sent on some dreadful A roads, because that's Audax innit! And the alternative quiet lane is not compliant with the 19th century rules of the game...
With limited knowledge of the area, I can often improve on the original route by adding a few km, just by using basic platforms like Streetview.
The technology is there for anybody who has never been to said area to plot the best possible route... that said, majority of people are lazy or lack that confidence
Depends on the organizer, I guess you get to know their idea of good cycling roads.
In more densley populated areas the red line on the Strava heat map becomes meaningless.
There's some cracking roads in Scotland that could only be added into a route with Info controls, and some people piss and moan about them, it also completely excludes them from DIYs because of what I consider to be backwards requirements for identifying you've been somewhere, the rules for SR600 make using them possible again, but not for points scoring.
Lets just talk about 2 and 3 hundreds they are all rehashes of old routes or parts of old 400 and 600s. I liked Audax but when you run out of new stuff to ride i can leave it for others.[/b] 😁
That could be something to do with the number of roads?
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Roads? Depends where you are doens't it?
But on other point
Aye most of the Border rides are long standing events, things drop of calendars if they're unpopular or people lose interest, and they're still going and people keep going for them, I've not got bored of them because they're bloody good days out.
As for all the events being rehashes?
Are the North Coast 600, Hellfire Corner and Eileanan Dubh remakes old rides?
What about Talla Ho, Braco Way, Turra Coo, Argyll Alps, Tour of the Ochils, Moulin Muirs, Moscow Express, Lantern Rouge and the Hogmanay 100 to name a few?
All as far as I can tell "new" within the last few years.