atwl77

I think hidden motors would be of less use in a multi-day endurance race compared to your typical grand tour race or crit, since the battery for these things aren't build to last. At most you get a bit of a boost for... 30-60 mins, then run out of juice? And after that you're just carrying dead weight with you for the remainder of the long and hilly ride. I guess cheaters will be able to find a way to recharge their batteries, but I'd hope in such cases the audax community is self-policing enough to spot them and report to the organisers. Would be the same way we deal with cheaters who bring unauthorized support vehicles along, we take a picture or a video and send them over to the club to be dealt with.

joewein

They sure have some unusual road signs in France!





or in Italy:





(Yes, the altered signs are all practical jokes!)

joewein

Robert Coquen arrived at the finish line first (at 13:04:19), about a minute before Hajo Eckstein (13:05:15) but Eckstein had actually started about an hour after Coquen (17:15:28 vs. 16:16:44) because of the category his vehicle was in. That may explain why Coquen was originally listed as the fastest finisher.

I agree that it doesn't make sense to list fastest finishers on Wikipedia regardless of the category they started in. Regular bikes, tandems and velomobiles are all different beasts and should be treated as such.

alois

The fact remains that the fastest rider over all was mr. Eckstein. Of course it's interesting to know what was the fastest folding bike, the fastest tandem, the fastest Elliptigo, the fastest diamond frame, and so on, but over all Hajo Eckstein was the fastest rider.

downtube42

Ian Hands (C006) finished in 56:07, CM time, riding unsupported on fixed gear. Suffered Shermers neck.

kingston 

While the TABR wikipedia page initially just listed Graber as the winner for 2018, it now breaks out velo vs. DF finishers. People are interested in that sort of thing, and there's no reason not to put it in the article. I suspect at some point the PBP article will get updated with the DF & Velo fastest times. Everyone already knows that velomobiles are faster than uprights, but most people still ride DFs.

ThermionicScott 

You make some good points, @atwl77. They're probably why I don't read about this being a concern from others yet.

clasher

I read on another forum they did find a velomobile with an electric motor and battery in it...

atwl77

Hmm, I did not consider velomobiles... but with their fairings and fancy enclosures it would be a lot easier to hide motor and much bigger battery in there compared to a standard road bike.

So what did they do with that cheat?

unterhausen

I caught up with a velomobile a couple of times on the way out of Brest. The last time I saw it, the rider was lying on the road sleeping with his legs on the front cowl. The one with the advertising on the side was there when I woke up in Villaines, so dnf. I was a little surprised that the organizers allowed that one to ride.

clasher

This thread on YACF is where I heard about and it's tantamount to hearsay, really, since there's nothing concrete posted about it. I think there is a frame number posted in that thread but I didn't look it up so I don't know if it corresponds to the same person they are talking about. I wish they'd post cheaters name and bar them from future PBPs. I was on an Indian Randonneur club site and they had a page that named all the cheaters they'd caught.

unterhausen

I think I saw someone that wanted to cheat leaving Villaines. Guy rides up to me with a couple of riders in tow and asks, "française?" Then he goes over to the guys standing at the barriers and says he's going to ride past them, off route. I didn't look back to see what happened. The route was different and longer this time, and I definitely liked what I remember of the old route better. I have heard that there is a long tradition of cheating on PBP, but no concrete examples. Although the support vehicles at the top of le Roc are obviously pushing things.

atwl77

Results
PBPResults.com | Paris-Brest-Paris Bike Ride Results

joewein

That unofficial site needs some serious work on it still since it doesn't check if participants passed all PCs. If anyone turned around after PC1 and headed straight back to the start, they will be listed with whatever time they'd spent on the course, even if they never made it to Brest. For example, take a look at the supposedly second fastest finisher.

atwl77

They mark the name as having incomplete control data... though there should probably be a setting to filter those results out.

I've also noticed some with only one missing control, perhaps they missed the cutoff time of that particular control (or the sensor simply didn't read their chip) but still finished in time, but regardless they are also marked with the '!'.

unterhausen

i heard of someone who didn't get a stamp at the secret control at St. Nick because of a misunderstanding. That probably wouldn't show in the data though.

joewein

Especially if they rank people by time, as in "#1", "#2", "#3", etc. That numeric ranking is meaningless if it includes non-finishers.