I agree. I think that most AUK events have lost a sense of occasion. I remember my forst 600 in 1992, the Windsor Chester with it's 3 starting points.
There were commercial controls, but I still remember the atmosphere at the Raven Cafe (south of Whitchurch) as well as at the turn. Dave Poutney's Kidderminster control was great. These were controls run by expereinced long distance cyclists who knew how to get newcomers like me back on the road again and ready for the next slog.
There's a lot to be said for the night before an event in a village hall. Waiting for riders to turn up for the sleepover before the early morning start and the social side of Audax.
That's one of the reasons I like the idea of people cycling to and from events instead of driving. People who drive to events tend to remove the need of the overnight stay before the ride. Nowadays, people drive to the start, ride the event then drive home ASAP. The social side is dying. It's not just in AUK, but in all cycling. In the old days everyone socialised at the finish then cycled home together socially.
The Bryan Chapman stands out as a good old style event. PBP is king of all, the route is nothing worth bothering with, the only reason I ride is for the atmosphere and sense of occasion that is becoming ever more rare in cycling.
I agree with your point about trying to ride to an event instead of driving to it.
I try and get the train to as many events as possible, just because I find it more "wholesome", but it makes the end of the event hanging around in the hall drinking tea much more like something to be savoured if the temptation to dive into your nice comfy car isn't there.
I don't like driving more than an hour or two before cycling, simply because driving makes me feel tired, and I really don't like driving to an audax, riding it, and then driving back all in the same day. even the alfreton ones i did last year that are only an hour away knackered me.
But, imho, there's a simple reason why people don't tend to cycle together socially, and that's not necessarily that they're unsociable buggers but just the fundamental fact that people cycle at different speeds, and unless they've explicitly decided to cycle together, then they are likely to drift apart purely based on different speeds. There are exceptions, of course, and obviously sometimes people do tend to explicitly decide to cycle together, e.g. if they've met beforehand/know each other outside of the event.
The only time I've conciously 'buddied-up' with someone on an audax was when we noticed that we did actually appear to be cycling at the same speed anyway, so might as well wait for each other in the short stoppage times.
On audaxes, even though I'm normally
riding on my own, I'm normally meeting and chatting to other people doing the audax in the controls, and that's the social side of audax that I like about it. Rather than sportives, where people are all barging each other out of the way to bollock as many flapjaks and severed-bananas down their gullet in as short a space of time as possible in order to hare off again.
