It was the main roads that killed WCW, as Frankie says.
WCW was handy for newcomers too beause it wasn't a super tough ride and was easy to navigate, but now Audax has entered the GPS and good lights age, so we know which way to go much easier and can even see where we are going at night, which would have been beyond our wildest dreams when I began Audaxing.
I think that the LEL has shown the way to do it. The LEL team were very nervous that LEL wouldn't attract enough entries in December. hahahaha!
It is a big financial risk and too much for an individual. I personally think that AUK should go the way of sportives and have some professionally run events. LEL has basically done just that, but by unpaid volunteers, so is unrealistically cheap. LEL is run by amateurs, but it looks like it will be what I'd call a professionally run event. I was going to volunteer to help, but the event looked so good that I just had to ride it instead!
As a by-product, it could well mean that the powerfull marketing of a professional organisation with a vested interest in the event would work in AUKs favour as marketing for AUK. Which I think may be happening with LEL?
AUK could still have the X rated events too, it'd just be another aspect of audaxing.
So I suggest that you take your idea to a professional company and see if they would run the event under AUK rules.
You have the idea for the ride, but they can do all the business side of things and take care of the financial risk. The worst thing that will happen is that they say it's not feasable. Maybe another company would dissagree.
I think it would sell.
