I did PBP for the second time this year but, unlike 2011, I finished outside the time, or Hors Delai as the French say. I caught a bad chest cold a couple of weeks before the start which slowed me down, made it difficult to sleep, and caused a kind of mental shutdown during the ride.
I have given a lot of advice over the years about how to finish brevets and I have finished some tough ones, including 5 previous 1200's and several 1000's. I forgot most of the good advice before and during PBP 2015. Some highlights: “Make a checklist and use it to prepare for the ride”, “Keep it simple”, “Stay on the bike”, “Don’t think too far ahead during the ride, just get to the next control”, “Get outside your head and enjoy the world around you”. I don’t know if all that advice would have got me to the finish on time but it would have made the experience more pleasant either way.
When the day came I had this chest cold and things that I would have ordinarily brushed off started to bother me. I worried about small delays and wasted time at controls. I thought about and started to dread the whole distance to go instead of just thinking about the next step. In 2011 I had this big grin plaster to my face but now I was fretting. I did well on the way to Loudeac and built up a 7 hour time buffer but I was starting to dread what was ahead of me on the ride. That is not a good place to be 450k into a 1200. I actually did pretty well up to 1000k but I had such a sleep deficit that I had to take 2 hours worth of ditch naps in the last 250k and could not make it up. I had spent too much time off the bike at controls doing things other than sleeping.
Finishing outside the time limit is pretty rare. In the 6 PBPs between 1991 and 2011, 18 % of riders did not finish while less than 2% finished outside the time limit. I know people find many reasons to finish. My motivation to finish was in part due to what I wrote in my ride report after 2011:
“After Levaré I decided that I could not in good conscience abandon the ride unless there was an insurmountable problem. The French people had welcomed me, a total stranger, into their lives and had taken time to do what they could to help me along the way. My part of the deal was to have "good courage" and not give up until I reached the finish. It really struck me in my slightly addled state, 13 hours and 286 km into the ride. I know it's not a unique sentiment but I certainly found it to be a strong motivation over the next 3 days. I felt like I personally owed it to those people to finish.”
This gave me two reasons to finish. First was that I still feel that way. The second was that I had posted it on the internet in front the whole world and I felt obliged to live up to my words. Another reason was that by the time I realized I had no chance of making the time I was over 1000k, the bike was still in good shape, and it seemed harder to figure out how to get there by other means.
I would not call it a failure but it was a disappointment. During the months leading up to PBP I had built it up in my head to be the greatest experience ever, even better than 2011 because I knew what to expect and could enjoy it more. I figured I knew the drill and didn’t have to do a lot of planning or preparation, I could just sort of do roughly what I did last time and everything would work out. I guess I got complacent and forgot how much I have obsessed about preparation for previous 1200k’s. For example, in 2011 I had a little cheat sheet taped to my top tube with distance and closing time for each control. In 2015 I didn’t bother.
The required pace between controls is highly variable on PBP and actually goes up significantly after Villaines. Because I was not paying attention to the actual closing times I thought I was late when I wasn't and gave up sleep unnecessarily early in the ride.
All that said, it's a great experience. The people are wonderful and it is great to be part of the tradition. Just be sure to take it seriously and prepare thoroughly. I may see you there in 2019. :-)