Same organiser as Tuscany Trail / Road events, a good business if you can keep a few of these going. When an event gets popular perhaps the entry thing is a way to keep numbers limited. 500 for the Tuscany Trail, 300 for TCR, there's certainly demand for them.

(I got an 'Its not the Great Divide Race spirit is it' grumble off my chest before posting )

It's the age of the T shirt collector ... it was inevitable that bikepacking would succumb sooner or later.