Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - See you at the PBP!!

I am glad the forum participants will remember the good things of this '2007 PBP and forget about the ugly, miserable and possibly evil as well. I also hope Machka will share this thought. :)

This PBP session was the most grueling ever recalled (out of 10 participants, we were 5 to finish in my club -Abeille de Rueil Malmaison-, three of the five being women), I was riding under 2395. Such conditions,usually, do not favor frienship and good camaraderie. I could notice from time to time ugly behavior from exhausted participants (or car / truck drivers as well, but with no excuses). this is to be expected and forgiven. :p

I believe french riders will assist isolated foreign riders when the language barrier is not too strong. Talking to so many different nationals is really part of the fun at PBP. But surviving though these conditions requires, from time to time, a little gentle help from the locals (like this little bar open in Corlay wednesday evening on the way back to St Martin des Prés under pouring rain). There I believe the language barrier can be tricky, but people will always, as I saw it, do their best to help. :beer:

All people from Mayenne (Villennes) all the way down to the end of Brittany (Brest) love *their Paris-Brest-Paris and the riders wo dare it. Cheers to everyone and thank-you for coming all the way to France. :D

Not by me!:eek:
Me neither. I've been to France a few times. I only speak pidgin French -- which is supposed to be one of those things that will make life hard for you. People were consistently very patient, kind, and generous with me. I am no Francophile, but I have no idea why people dump on the French.

Come to think about it, I've traveled a lot and people are nice wherever I go. I have always wondered if the people who report consistent bad experiences may be doing something.

Come to think about it, I've traveled a lot and people are nice wherever I go. I have always wondered if the people who report consistent bad experiences may be doing something.

When the wife and I were in Florence and Rome last fall we tried to avoid any place that was packed with English speaking tourists. (the food was much better in local, hole in the wall places anyway!) But we did notice that many of the Americans we encountered were fairly rude, and often critical of the cities, layout, transportation, how much they had to walk, service... etc, etc.

The Canadians we ran into and had lunch with were wonderful... and were a bit surprised that we were from the States.

So, yes - in general I think that folks bring it upon themselves... :eek:

What a shame for Machka and Rowan! I met them before the start and they gave me lots of good advice and encouragement.
Well for a first PBP that was something to remember... I'm very glad I did it and I went all the way back to Paris! It went allright for me, just some usual small pains like everybody else but most of the time I was feeling great! I really appreciated the warm welcome in the villages and the instant friendship between riders. I want to to it again, in the sun!!

Congrats to all participants, I think even qualifying for the PBP is much better than I will ever achieve.

Why do the Americans hate the French?

Congrats to all participants, I think even qualifying for the PBP is much better than I will ever achieve.

Why do the Americans hate the French?

Most of us don't! It's just a very vocal few,like any other group.

Why do the Americans hate the French?

I'm not sure if you'll get the reference, but it's kind of a Jerry vs. Newman thing.

Why do the Americans hate the French?

?? We don't, at least the more intelligent of us over here.

Congrats to all participants, I think even qualifying for the PBP is much better than I will ever achieve.

Why do the Americans hate the French?

You wouldn't believe how many local stores in redneck county where I live had signs up like:
"We don't sell french wine here" or "Freedom fries served" etc etc after 9/11.

It was actually hilarious and I would have laughed about it if it wasn't so sad at the same time.

Thomas

Holy smokes, I didn't mean to derail the conversation with the comment about French people! :eek: As much as I hate to talk politics, the "Americans hating the French" comes, IMO, from our insecure politicians attacking those who disagree with them. :mad: It is not shared by hardly anybody I know. Then again, I live on one of the coasts.

Hey, how about that ride! Did I mention it rained? :) Since then the weather has been wonderful. Right now I am sitting in the little park just behind Notre Dame, at about 4:20 pm. Sunny with nice temps. Yesterday it was a little humid, but still sunny.

Let's talk about that ride. :D

Yeah I know the weather has been so nice since we came back... Grrrr...
Oh well, I didn't finished in too bad shape. Except my guts are REALLY upset since I finished on friday and I haven't been able to eat anything decent without having to run to the bathroom in the next hour or so! Too much overstims I guess... I was looking forward to eating really nice and good food, which would be a nice change from pasta, but I'm stuck with eating vegetable soup...

claire, veggy soup is not necessarily a bad thing :) With some french baguette to soak up the juices.. yum yum

Allright, I guess soup is OK, and right now it's pretty much the only thing at the thought of which I don't feel like throwing up... I'm soooo glad I'm only feeling like sh*t now and not during the ride!

Congrats to all participants, I think even qualifying for the PBP is much better than I will ever achieve.

Why do the Americans hate the French?Many Americans assume that the consistently anti-American policies of a succession of democratically elected French governments reflect the attitudes of the French people. Silly us.

Everyone knows that the policies of democratic governments bear no relationship to the wishes of their respective electorates, because all politicians are corrupt b@$t@rds who only pay attention to campaign contributors, and the elections are all rigged, anyways. :rolleyes:

It was a really rough ride. Hardest ever. I made it back, safely and while having fun for most of the time, in 79:20. I've heard that the abandon rate was as high as 30%, and given the conditions that the 80-hour and 90-hour folks had to deal with (we had less rain in the 5am 84-hour start, and we didn't stand around for hours waiting to depart, either), I'm very impressed by the fortitude of everyone out there, no matter how far they made it.

Despite the rough conditions, I'll definitely be back. This ride truly is more of a pilgrimage than a bike ride; it really has to be experienced to be believed.

As for Machka and Rowan, I saw them on the ride at one of the controles, but I cannot recall which one -- it must have been Tintiniac on the way out, but I just can't recall (battling wind and rain all day tends to do that to my memory). They looked and sounded good, so I'm really bummed to hear that they packed it in.

It was a really rough ride. Hardest ever. I made it back, safely and while having fun for most of the time, in 79:20. I've heard that the abandon rate was as high as 30% A fellow rider who hung out during the ending ceremonies said that the announcers stated that the official 'body count' was 1500 riders. So, yeah, almost one-third of the starting field of 5100.

I don't post here much, but I finished PBP in 83.5 hours. it was my first. I'm documenting it on my blog (http://lee.rockingtiger.com/) in a series of posts over this week.

I am also chronicling my PBP experience on my livejournal (http://cris.livejournal.com/tag/brevets) but might post a condensed version to the forum that'll get reposted to Randon and various other mailing lists, but the epic scale of the event sort of defies easy condensation.

Too many grand stories, not enough text space.

I am glad the forum participants will remember the good things of this '2007 PBP and forget about the ugly, miserable and possibly evil as well. I also hope Machka will share this thought. :)



I'll go into a whole lot more detail later, but I will just say this ...

This PBP was better organized all around than 2003. The controls were GREAT!! They were clean, well run, and the volunteers were wonderful. The volunteers were wonderful last time as well, but some of the controls were a little less well run, and quite a bit less clean, in 2003. And the French people are so incredibly friendly, both during the PBP and otherwise as well. :) :) :) Of the 4 countries I've cycled in over the past month, I'd have to give the friendliness award to the French. I loved it there!! Beautiful country-side, courteous drivers, lovely people ..... and delicious baked goods at all the patisseries ... what more could a cyclist want?? :D

Great to hear you had a good holiday over there!

..... and delicious baked goods at all the patisseries ... what more could a cyclist want?? :D
I'll side with that thought. More? yes there is always more, but riding a bicycle must be a great experience, always. Next time, try to add Süd Tyrol (around Bolzano) to your list of places. Guess you will enjoy this as much as you will enjoy the steep climbs you will find there between pastry shops and hand-painted hotels

Many Americans assume that the consistently anti-American policies of a succession of democratically elected French governments reflect the attitudes of the French people. Silly us.


Most people assume that the government of another country is interested in policies that benefit their own citizens, not another country's citizens. Perhaps the USA is different.

Getting back on-topic, the French drivers I came across were great, just like the spectators, but the checkpoint staff were even better. Some of the riders seemed a little tired/emotional though ;)