Excellent, that means I'm better placed to give an opinion on what it means to do your first audax more recently. Comparing the experience of getting into Audax in the last 2-3 years, vs doing so 10, 20, or 30+ years ago, it's different, as are peoples memories of it. Twenty years ago, having a cheque book was the norm, and a GPS device was not a common consumer item. So a route sheet and all that it entails was really the only way to play this game. This is why my statement about it being 2019 is relevant. Times change. What was once considered accessible isn't anymore. Sometimes you need someone to look at things from a slightly different perspective to be able to point this out.
Yes and no. I suppose I was an "early adopter" of GPS devices, my first GPS enabled ride was probably the Hopey New Year in 2009. Back then, no rides had an accompanying GPX file, and I accepted that it was my job to transpose the routesheet to a track/route for my device. It became part of the ride prep routine.
Here we are, ten years later, and most organisers now provide GPS options of some description, but they are not obliged to. Unless AUK rules have changed, the routesheet is still king and trumps all.
Being a sanguine kind of chap, if an organiser doesn't offer a GPS file, or does and it's not compatible with my device, I'll just deal with it accordingly; I'll either ride with a routesheet (unlikely), do the donkey-work to make my own GPX (much more likely), or not do the ride.
Like I say - unless the rules have changed, the printed routesheet is still the "road book", and anything else you get from the organiser is up to that organiser and there is no obligation on them to provide anything more than that.
I for one am totally comfortable with that; organisers have enough to worry about without us whining about file-formats or track-point densities.
