I can only speak with certainty on my "skill" area - financially it has been interesting - I have learnt some things ( please dont talk to me about Paypal until late August ) and I am very prepared to pass what I have learnt on to anyone thinking of running a largish event -- foolishly I have even told DW that if he thinks of doing LEL again in 2017 and would like me to perform the same role - then I am up for it again.
So LEL is in a company -- BUT this is not a company where anybody is going to make money either from their own efforts or those of some 400/500 volunteers
Speaking as someone who has watched LEL grow, and has scanned newspapers for money-off vouchers, assiduously collected receipts, delivered supplies, ridden it three times and made DVDs and Youtube films about it, I'm very interested in how it will turn out.
A lot of my work involves deadline-driven project management. One of my reasons for riding Audaxes is to subject myself to regular doses of that, coupled with maintaining fitness. It's a touch of the 'Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step', Audax helps maintain the boldness muscle required to launch into a protracted project.
Both Heather and I have looked behind the scenes at PBP and the Semaine Federale, and seen how the volunteer ethos of those two events is interlinked. Semaine Federale is annual, so PBP plugs into a lot more experience. There is a lot of experience in LEL in the control organisation, but the main question is the change of scale. The methods used in previous years aren't 'scalable', so new solutions have to be found.
What is interesting is that there aren't any 'economies of scale'. It's possible to ride 'The Three Coasts 600', for an entry fee of £10, and pay a small extra sum for overnight accommodation at the hall in Mytholmroyd. But LEL is more of an international gathering, so the entry fee is only a small proportion of the total cost for foreign visitors. Those foreign visitors are placing themselves in an uncertain environment beyond just a 1400km bike ride, so the website and the nature of the provision along the route gives a more solid framework to their expectations. Those elements perform a similar function for newer participants.
For those of us who have done PBP and LEL multiple times, the interesting part is how different it will be as an experience from previous rides, and we won't know that until the start of August.
There's probably an intermediate market between the £10 '600' and the likes of the charity and commercial long-distance sportives. One possibility is an extension of the LEL company idea to stage a similar event every year. Another would be an organisation such as the CTC, organising tours with a validation element, as happens with the 'Manche to Med' ride.
The relevance of all this to the AUK website lies in the prominence given to specific rides in the calendar. How much should the website 'advertise' individual events, or project a single interpretation of what 'Audax' is about? The current arrangements make most sense to the Time Trialling community, where National Championships appear in the handbook next to local events, and the transition to online working was slow to happen.
