unterhausen

congratulations. What did you think of the ride?

downtube42

What a great ride. After Vilaines I abandoned sub 60 hour thoughts and switched to plan b: sleep and enjoy the ride. I stopped at a half dozen roadside coffee tables, three cafes, and a pizza place in Carhaix. Slept in all manner of places including three beside the road, several control floors, and two cots. Probably 10 hours of sleep. BTW, a foil emergency blanket is inadequate coverage for a 6'2" 200# guy. That was 50k before Brest, and I darned near froze. At a roadside coffee table before Dreux I ran across two French bent riders - Nicholas and Christoph, riding a Metabike and bacchetta, respectively. A great couple of guys, we stayed together to the finish. A velo with failing headlight joined us for the last 10k. When I saw the rain Thursday morning, I was glad we didn't sleep in Dreux as I planned.

Compared to 2011 when I was a sleep deprived zombie, I felt pretty human and cognizant the entire way.

I don't know if chip time or book time is official... about a seven minute difference for me.

unterhausen

they count chip time. My card was signed with 7 minutes left, but they credited me with my chip time, which was 30 minutes before that.

RR3

Beyond the first night wool is your friend. I was dripping wet from condensation as was my handlebar bag and even my leather saddle was saggy a bit from moisture plus your body is weaker. I went to wool on the return at loudeac.

The garmin definately helps. It did not crash on either 615 segment although the heart monitor crapped out.

thebulls

Just saw this thread ... a little late :-)

My PBP looked to be going seriously south by the time I got back to Loudeac from Brest. I was falling further behind. So I abandoned my strategy of getting a "real meal" every other control--the lines were just too long. I planned to sleep at Loudeac but the line was huge. So I rolled on and 20 miles later found a picnic ground where I spent my second night sleeping in a space-blanket cocoon on the ground in 45 degree weather. Moisture was condensing in the cocoon and I could hear it dripping on me but since I was wearing a raincoat it didn't really matter! Slept ~110 minutes there. I'll post a more complete report later.

2d2f

Wonderfull 83 hours 45 minutes for me!

Chris Pringle

I made it back to the finish line in the nick of time. I felt strong until the 1,000th Km at Villainess-La-Juhel. The last night, however, was plagued for me with deep fatigue (sleepiness) and a developing case of Shermer's neck. I also had to sleep by the side of the road but the quality of sleep was bad. I would get on the bike and about half-hour later off the bike again since I was falling asleep. I lost several hours locked in this pattern. I passed a few minor accidents. Finally with daylight I was able to make it to the finish line in time.

I organized the first Randonneur Club in Mexico to make this happen. The first Mexican delegation had six people. Three of us made it to the finish line. The only true Mexican national finished in ~78 hours, another one (French citizen who resides in Mexico City) in 88:11 and I (USA/Panamanian) in 89:17. The three other participants had to abandon before Brest but learned a lot from their first attempt.

It was an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience for me with five years in the making. The French people who greeted us, encouraged us and fed us along the route were truly amazing.

LWaB

Another good PBP with mild weather. Not too hot or too cold and only a little rain near the finish. My hope of riding at reasonable speed, wasting/ enjoying sufficient time at controls and getting a decent amount of sleep for a slow but comfortable time worked out pretty well.

My Aussie mate George flew in to London on Tuesday and we started riding to St Quentin on Thursday. That was almost enough preparation for tandeming round PBP. We were getting pretty good at it by the finish. Overall, we were slower uphill than hoped but speedy on flatlands and rollers and blazingly fast downhill. We only had to watch for velomobiles coming past on descents.

It wasn't all positive. With an event of this size and difficulty, some medical incidents and crashes are inevitable, as people push themselves to their limits. Afterwards, we raised our glasses to those who didn't make it to the finish line.

On a less grave note, weren't there a lot of marked and unmarked support cars on the route this year?

Rowan

First of all, congratulations to everyone who finished, and even those who didn't. It is a major task just getting the Paris, let alone finishing the event itself. Our four lads from Tasmania all finished.

Reading this has been inspiring for me, and I said to Machka today that we must start planning now for a third attempt at PBP in four years' time (we met on the event in 2003 and both finished within the time limit, but in 2007 we pulled out for various reasons quite early on).

RR3, I've highlighted the bit in your post because it represents kudos to you from me. It represents an understanding from a fast rider (which I will never be) for the challenges that slower riders do face on long randonnees. I always look at it from the point of view of getting full value for our entry fee.

But I also adhere to the apparently outdated notion that randonneuring is really just fast touring.

My favourite memory is the wonderful reception that a woman rider received as the last person to finish BMB... she had struggled through the event, and was dumped on with a huge downpour about an hour before she finished. But the crowd stayed around and the cheering was rousing and enough to bring tears to eyes.

Was the cowbell at the top of the hill five or 10 miles from the finish this year?

RR3

I found the attached spreadsheet interesting with all results from control to control by rider.

I was waiting for a particular tandem's wheel and never saw it and wondered why....they passed me during my long meal stop in Brest. I wondered but the spreadsheet gave me the answer. Controls can take a long time as we all know and I now wonder to myself how many if any sub-50 hour PBPs were done unsupported in 2015. My time at controls on the way back exceeded my outward control stoppages by 2.5 hours and more time was expended on the way out than planned. I could have arranged support but it did not seem according to how I wished to do the ride. Maybe in 2019 at the ripe age of 60, I will have bottles, food and warm clothing handed to me as I ride on as 14 pound stripped down racing bike allowing me to stay with a group instead of constantly getting dropped and then riding solo or chasing like a dog. 2035 will be my Adrian Hands society attempt or maybe 2019....not sure. Assuming I go in 2019, it is either 89:55 with plenty of beer stops or a sub 50 hour attempt.


Anyway....hope someone finds the spreadsheet data interesting

Rowan...thanks

PBP 2015

9606

Thanks for the list.
A real treasure of data.

ThermionicScott 

I'm just now catching up with Internet stuff, as my fiancee, sister, and I spent a few days sight-seeing in Paris after the ride.

Thanks for watching, first of all. My rando-friend Michele says that you never feel like more of a rock star than when you do PBP and you have the upper half of the country cheering you on, as well as your friends and family. It was so cool to shoot through these dinky little farming villages at any time of night and having whole families sitting out and shouting "bon courage" or "bonne route".

This being my first PBP, I didn't have much of a plan for the ride (no thoughts of Charly Miller or Adrian Hands), but I found myself with about two hours in the bank by the first or second control, and found that to be pretty sustainable to the end. I never slept more than an hour at a time, and probably didn't get more than 4-5 hours total. I took 15 minute ditch naps whenever I felt myself getting droopy, only twice sleeping at one of the control dorm things. One thing I did that really helped was to front-load the ride with as much sleep as possible: I popped a melatonin at about 9 or 10 the night before, slept soundly until about 7:30, ate the hotel breakfast, and then went back to bed for another 2-3 hours.

Still, I was a little concerned about hallucinations from being awake and active so long. I joked at times that I should be taking mushrooms as part of my training, but never quite found the right audience for that line, I guess. In practice, the night riding was the weirdest for me on the second night, and then got better as I adapted. I can't report much for hallucinations, except that I occasionally felt like I was riding through tunnels (from headlights shining on the overhanging trees), and had trouble reading words at times (letters would change). I didn't get chased by dinosaurs or bears, or need to dodge inexplicable furniture in the road.

Michele had warned me that the lines for food at controls could be a huge time-suck, and I'm glad she did. There was so much food available on the roadsides, sometimes free!, that I only got food at one or two controls. Generally when I was planning to have a sleep stop anyway. That really helped keep me from getting behind on time.

I feel like I rode strong for most of it, but still found myself wondering why I was going so slow at a couple of points, due to being low on calories. I should have brought more dried fruit with me.

I did have some minor fit issues along the way: the new shoes didn't quite have their cleats in the right spots for long distances, so I had to move my left cleat backward slightly, and the right cleat forward. And I've found that my saddle generally needs to be lowered slightly after the first 300k, my best guess due to minor butt swelling that raises my position slightly. So I had a little knee and Achilles tendon pain at times. A couple of my fingers are still a little numb and tingly, which has make this post take longer to type than I'd prefer -- I think my handlebar height is good, but I wore my gloves too much and spent too much time in the drops rather than other positions. I'm still really glad that I switched from the 1970's rando bars to Nitto B115's.

I'm fortunate that I have an excellent tolerance to the cold, because I really didn't plan fully for that. I was just in my jersey and bike shorts for the first two nights, and shivered a little, but was able to keep warm enough by riding. A person at one control, referring to my RUSA vest, asked if my state was Alaska. I didn't get the joke in time. I acquired arm and leg warmers, and they really helped during the rain between Dreux and the end. I had to take what I could find. Check out how ridiculous I look with a mix of white jersey, black arm warmers, black shorts, and white leg warmers:

9606

Everything went surprisingly close to plan. I underestimated the climbing impact on my avg speed, but overestimated time at controls. The 84 hr start is sweet. Got three relatively solid sleep periods. Bike was dialed in. No major body problems. Was delighted at the citizen support in the villages. Got a warm fuzzy feeling when I handed trinkets to kids. Entire spectacle was pretty well organized. Course was a little boring. Thrilled I had a chance to do it, and do it well. But I don't think I will be back. On to the next bike adventure.
Thanks for all you tips & tricks.

RR3

I think the 84H start is boring. The afternoon and dinner time patch from Fougeres to Loudeac is weak but the 80H group sees this at night and the stunning stretch back and forth to Brest during the day. I can't wait to go back.

If there is a better 1200k in the world, I'm in. There is a 1200km in Japan in April of 2016.....might be fun to do....nice and slow. I have always wanted to visit Japan.

ThermionicScott 

I've heard great things about London-Edinburgh-London: a little longer at 1400 km, but plenty of time, better scenery, and fewer people to jockey with. And much less of a language barrier for us English-speakers.

And my friend Michele hipped me to Herentals-Cosne/Loire-Herentals, which I don't know much about, but apparently is run every year (or two) and takes a different route through France with less climbing. It seems that with randonneuring becoming more popular, there are more and more offerings, each with their own character. This soon after PBP, I'm not sure if or when I'll want to do another 600k+ ride, but if I do, choosing which one will be the hard part.

Machka 

I don't know if any of you know Mark Thomas, from SIR, but he rides several 1200Ks each year. He could give you an assessment of any of the 1200s coming up.


And the registration for this one has just opened:
https://www.bikeforums.net/long-dista...nie-1200k.html

It's hilly, but scenic.

rex615

Congratulations on a great ride and thanks for sharing. I particularly enjoyed this bit.

Machka 

Fascinating "view" of the PBP's progress ...

https://vimeo.com/137970979

ThermionicScott 

That is super-cool! I assume they used average speed to know how fast to move the little markers between the controls.

BTW, it was kind of eerie to see the DNFs marked as such out of the gate...

RR3

It is cool. I saw it on another forum. I could see my "group" arrive at the first control and then the blob departed before me....that one inconseqential little dot in the dark. In the beginning, my little dot would catch (up to Tintineac). Watching the pack(s) get away from me at the Controls was fascinating. Once I hit Loudeac, I was on my own. On the return in Loudeac, there were supposedly 1230 riders there which does not surprise me at all. I found it very confusing. I spent 45 minutes there just to control, fill bottles, put woolens on, and pee. If every control was like that for full value riders.....wow!

9606

What do the numbers at the top of the controls represent -
# of riders at the control at that time?

Machka 

Yes, I think so.

downtube42

That's what it looks like, but I'm not sure how they would do that. As far as I can tell only our arrival at controls is detected. I wonder if they assume some average stop time, or do they have some other way of tracking riders at controls?

9606

So at one time there were 800+ riders at Villanes, then 1000+ at Loudeac, then 1000+ at Carhaix?
Even is these are 50% high, that is still a lot of riders at controls.
Why do not some of the 90 hour riders do 84? Surely 6 hours must be dribbled away at crowded controls.

ThermionicScott 

That does seem like far more people than I saw at any particular control. I wonder if the "bulges" count up riders who have checked into one control, but have not yet made it to the next one. I'll see if I can contact the person who did the chart...

As for your other question, perhaps some 90 hour riders who made it with 6+ hours to spare will consider a faster group next time, but it's definitely not a sure thing and putting yourself in a faster group means less can go wrong without putting you at risk of a DNF.

At least from my vantage point (midway through the 90 hr group), the lines to get cards stamped and signed moved very quickly and efficiently. It's the lines for food at controls that were often long and slow, but eating at controls was almost completely optional with so much food available elsewhere along the route!