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@The_Seldom_Killer
Last year I picked up two people, one with a fucked bike and one with a fucked knee. Definitely a no one gets left behind scenario. Also the support vehicle offered an important food stop service. The feed station aims to feed around 500 to 600 people, which last year was around a third of the 1500 who started ride. The main reason I did the support vehicle was to offer this, having experienced the horrors of having to stand in a queue for half an hour in the pissing rain getting very cold to get into the hall to stand a in a queue for a bit more before getting served.
Yes, you could carry your own food all the way, but as well as the ride being unsupported, the feed station has, for many years, been a big part of the ride. It's been a goal and a bit of a mental carrot to get you though the first half of the ride. The massive popularity and the ever earlier starters for the ride mean that surety of sustenance is diminished. If you carry your own food it's a carrot only as long as you can resist eating it.
In essence the experience is already sanitised from it's humble beginnings. On this small island with wide reaching mobile phone coverage and 24hour service for almost anything, a mechanical failure on a bike at 3am just about anywhere is a pretty easy challenge to surmount. The lfgss support vehicle is mostly a shield to your friends and family who prefer to be abed when things go awry rather than the rudely woken for a mission to rescue you from your own stupidity that they can hardly refuse.
Besides, if you ride slow enough or late enough, the support vehicle can't offer much support anyway.
Shoosh and jaitch, if neither of you are too axe murdery, you could run the support vehicle as a pair. I certainly would have appreciated some company, navigational assistance and help along the way.