Not sure if the WNBR glory days are in the past. I think a lot is down to weather. 2012 saw only about 300 ride in Brighton under grey skies that later unleashed steady heavy rainfall. Temperature hit a dizzying high of 12C that year, one of the worst on record in the UK. Only a handful completed the full ride. 2014 saw over 800 take part and that figure was surprisingly bettered the following year. 2016 saw another day of cool, damp and windy conditions for Brighton and turnout fell accordingly, though still topped 500. Think there were about 700 last year. So clearly it's an up and down trend mostly related to the weather.
London seems to hold steady at about 1000 or so riders. Problem with this one is that, with seven starting points, some riders only do a short bit and many seem not to be snapped at all, or barely. The fact that it usually feels pretty warm in June in the middle of the capital, even under grey skies, and the fact that people particularly enjoy this one because of all the landmarks, helps to keep turnout to a good level. The laid back nature of the marshaling also helps to make this one worthwhile and the past two years it was definitely more fun than Brighton.
What you do see is a lot of new faces each year, which can only be a good thing. Old faces drop out but fresh blood tends to replace them.
Forecast for Brighton has changed since this morning. Now saying 19C and sunny intervals. The trend this year has been for warm weekends and we can live in hope that Brighton gets lucky and at least has no worse than last year - grey start, then increasingly sunny at the ride progressed. And this is the last time I'm looking at a forecast till Friday evening, because you can easily drive yourself insane
