The problem with the £25 isn't the affordibility per se, it's who it puts off. IIRC there've been studies of job applicants where the more hoops you make people jump through, the more likely you are to end up with nothing but overconfident upper/middle class white men, independent of actual ability to do the job.
one hundred thousand times this.
+1
(that's just ONE, not 100,000
)
I haven't checked all the small-print yet, but it feels like they've got this wrong for TCR8. If it was a fiver to get your place, fair enough; that's close to the amount it "costs" them to process your application. But £25? Just to enter a lottery?? I suspect this would have put me off TPR.
I think a time-consuming entry process is far better for deterring tyre-kickers; if you look at LEL2013, there was a frenzy to CLICK THAT BUTTON at some crazy time, months in advance. Then on start day, dozens of riders DNSed without even bothering to claim the refund (£50? £100? dunno, do your own research!)
That sounds like a time-poor cash-rich thing to me, plain as day ...