Bike Events struggling?

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Just looking at the Bike Events website and it looks like the London-Cambridge is cancelled this year.

Rightly or wrongly I tended to view this as their flagship - I first did this one more than 25 years ago (although then I think it was organised directly by WWF-UK) and since then have done it many times.
I did notice that last year’s event seemed a bit low key. The ride was a bit shorter, start was in a different place and nothing much was happening in some of the villages that normally set up cake stalls etc. along the route, but I thought they were probably just working their way back into it following covid.

Later in the year they cancelled the Suffolk Coast 100 at fairly short notice. We did it anyway on the same day, following the same route.

Is this organisation having some problems? It would be a shame if this is the case. These sort of easy going supported events must introduce a lot of people to ‘long’ cycle rides, and the money raised for charitable causes must be significant.

Any observations or insights anyone?

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yellowjack said:

This is, I think, where I'm at with event participation. The only sportive/organised event I've ever done on the road was the last RideLondon/Surrey. Perhaps because of it's perceived prestige? Other stuff I've looked at and it usually just doesn't appeal to pay for a ride I'm quite capable of doing by myself. Money for signage and route maps? I've an OS map(s) that'll do that job. Money for feed stations? I have pockets, and there are shops out there. If I think I'll need more food and fluids than I can carry I'll work a route around a garage/bakery/village shop/takeaway. So yes, for the most part the organised sportives are too expensive (for me anyway), and either too easy (local charity rides, etc) because they're trying to be inclusive (nowt wrong with that noble aim btw) or they're tough and logistically challenging to get to the start of (Dragon/Fred/etc).

MTBing for me is different. Getting spat out the back of a laps XC race means you still feel like you're "in a race" even at the end (albeit a few laps down on the leaders), whereas I imagine dropping out the back of a road race leaves a person demoralised and grimacing just to hang on to the end. So I do pay to enter MTB races, but mostly ones that are local or have some "fun" element to them that ensures a wider spread of abilities on the race and a bit of a party atmosphere.

The Eroica Britannia is cancelled though? That's a shame. It's one of only a few events that I harboured an ambition of taking part in at some point in the future...

I see it slightly differently. The organised non-competitive road events provided a bit of extra interest and more of a day out and, I think, introduced a lot of people to long rides.
The now cancelled London-Cambridge was a huge event in the past, with buses and lorries laid on to transport bikes and riders either to the start or from the finish, village halls and pubs along the route selling bacon rolls and home made cakes etc. and bands and food tents at the finish.
The same applied on a slightly smaller scale to a number of other rides operated in recent years under the ‘Bike-Events’ banner. The first couple of 100 mile rides I did were the Herts 100 and the Suffolk Coast 100.
I am not a particularly single minded cyclist; this time of year I will maybe do 50 miles on a Sunday morning, and average about 1500 miles a year, but I question whether I would now be cycling at all if someone hadn’t persuaded me to do the London-Cambridge over a quarter of a century ago.
Just as the numerous village 5Ks and 10Ks give people inspiration to start running, I think these organised rides have done the same for cycling - so I think it is sad to see them seemingly disappearing.