Myself and a few other Irish/German riders (Eoghan, Andy, Andreas and John) chose the latest 90 hour “libre” start, which meant that we headed off at 9.25pm on Sunday 22nd August after a short wait. This was a good choice, as many people who chose the earlier 6pm Start had to queue up in blazing sunshine for a few hours before they finally got going, as the main bunch was sent off in waves of 500 riders every 20 minutes. There were 14 official checkpoints on the route, three additional optional stops for food and rest, and 2 extra “secret controls” which no-one knew in advance where they would be. Each checkpoint had a Control desk where we had to get our Brevet cards stamped, and they also offered varying degrees of sleeping facilities, showers, and food.
We rode through the first 4 official checks, stopping to get stamped, fill water bottles, and eat at each of them. After leaving Loudeac around 9pm on Monday night (approximately 24 hours after starting), we rode through an amazing thunderstorm with constant sheet lightning for 2 hours before getting to the optional sleep stop at St. Nicholas du Pulem after about 450kms, where we decided to try and get some rest. We had some food, took off most of our wet clothes, and headed for the “army style” camp beds, packed several hundred in a large hall, and tried to get some sleep. Unfortunately the accommodation had a basic corrugated roof, and the continuing storm was bouncing off the roof for several more hours, which together with the assorted snoring, and the fact that the bed was too short so my ankles were resting on the metal frame made it impossible to sleep. After about 3 hours of this we got up and headed for breakfast at 4am on Tuesday. We put on dry clothes, and restored to life we headed off to the next checkpoint of Carhaix-Plouguer around 5am, and arrived at 7.30am. As I arrived in the bike park I tried to unclip from my pedal, but too much mud from the floor of the tent/restaurant at St. Nicholas du Pulem had got stuck in my cleats, and I fell off the bike. Luckily the only damage was a scraped elbow which wasn’t too bad. We checked in, had yet another breakfast, and then headed off on the last leg to Brest. Unfortunately 20kms later I realised that I had left my handlebar bag in the previous check, and my Brevet card was in it. The card is the official record of the event, and without it I could not continue, so I had no choice but to turn back, and “time-trial” the extra 40kms to the checkpoint and back again. I said Goodbye to Eoghan and Andreas, and as I pedalled back down the road I passed Andy and John who must have been wondering what I was doing. I got back to Carhaix and looked around where we had been sitting, but there was no sign of the bag. Starting to panic I headed over to the cash registers, and thankfully there it was sitting on the desk waiting for me. I gave a quick “Merci” to the man at the desk, filled my water bottle, and headed out again. My brain wasn’t working too well by this time and each time I tried to work out the times, I thought I was going to be outside the limit for arriving in Brest. I finally remembered that my normal cycling speed of around 22kph would be gaining me time as I went, against the “minimum” speed of 15kph, and that as the leg to Brest was quite long I would be OK for time as long as I didn’t hang around. This leg included the longest and highest climb on the event “Le Roc Trevezel” which went on for around 20km, but I finally reached the top and descended the last 30km or so to the big suspension bridge which marks the town of Brest. As I reached the seafront of Brest I “bonked” quite badly with shivering and dizziness from pushing too hard, and not eating and drinking enough. I stopped and had a 5 minute rest by the side of the road and ate a couple of energy bars and a gel to give myself a boost. Then it was back on the bike, and onwards for the last 10kms through the city to the control, arriving with a couple of hours to spare in the end. Jim Redmond was there, trying to get his head down for a few minutes rest on the table and we had a short chat. I didn’t hang around and after getting stamped in the Control and some quick food I headed off again on the return leg.
We took a different route out of Brest and the climb of “Le Roc” wasn’t nearly so bad from this side. I got back as far as Loudeac around midnight on Tuesday, where I met up again with Eoghan, Andreas and John who I had been with before I had to turn back. They had arrived an hour or two before me, and had already relaxed with a couple of beers ! After a quick “midnight feast” I headed off to try again for some sleep, but this time the hall was very noisy, the blankets were a bit damp and cold, and I probably slept for a couple of hours at most. We were up again at 4.30am to resume the journey and after breakfast we rode on through the next 2 checkpoints to Villaines la Juhel where the local people had made a really big thing of the whole event. They had closed off the main street, announcing each rider as they came into sight, and with a huge crowd of spectators all over the place to watch the action. After the usual water/check/food routines we headed on to Mortagne au Perche spending part of the time with an Aussie rider we met on the way. For some reason I was feeling strong on this part, or the others not so good, but I found myself ahead by myself for a while. Then my knee and my foot started getting sore, and not wanting to give myself any problems, I slowed down and just spun in an easy gear for a while. I was sleepy too in the afternoon sunshine, and stopped for a couple of minutes, packed away my sunglasses and had a little to eat to wake myself up. Eoghan passed me, and I headed off after him. When we got to Mortagne at about 10pm more food followed as usual, and we finally got about 4 hours decent sleep in a warm dry hall.
Our alarms went off for the last time at 3.30am on Thursday, and we had our breakfast before heading off out the road again towards Dreux. It was quite cold at this stage, as the sun hadn’t risen and the sky was clear. I was feeling chilly in shorts and jersey as my arm and leg warmers had got soaked the first day and I hadn’t been able to face putting them on since. Together with my first day shorts they had been a soaking wet dead weight in my saddlebag for the next 3 days. The day started off with a long tough series of climbs for about 20kms and then it finally levelled off into a nice pleateau of open farmland, and the weather warmed up nicely. We were tired and hungry, and soon spotted an early Patisserie where we stopped and got stuck in to an assortment of Croissants, Pain-au-Chocolat and other goodies ! That helped a lot, and we got into Dreux with time in hand, and took our time getting sorted there, chatting to fellow Irishmen Mark and Aidan. Before leaving we spent a few minutes looking for Andy who had gone missing, but finally we headed out on the final 65km leg back to the start at St. Quentin en Yvelines, taking it fairly easy as we knew we were OK for time. My derriere was seriously painful with saddle sores by this time and I couldn’t decide if it was better to sit down or stand up. Standing was better than sitting, but each time I stood up the blood rushing into the painful areas made the pains even worse for a few seconds. We caught up with Andy again on the way, when he left Dreux he thought we had already gone before him. We got back to the Start at 12.37pm on Thursday afternoon, 87 hours and 10 minutes after starting, and a comfortable 3 hours inside the overall 90 hour Time Limit, to be met by my family, the faster Irish riders who had finished before us (a few of them in a fantastic time of 56 hours), and a large crowd of riders, spectators, relations and friends. Dave Mc handed out celebratory beers in the bike park, we checked in for the last time, collected our official beer vouchers, and headed to the “Restauration” for some food and a drink or two to celebrate. The other Irish riders sat around chatting, but I had a neglected family to look after, so after lunch we packed up the bike on the car, and headed back to our chalet in the Huttopia Campsite in Versailles for some relaxation.
The following evening I drove to Igny to meet up with some of the other Irish guys for dinner. This took more navigation that all of PBP together, but after several laps of Igny, and several texts to and from Paul I finally found my way to the restaurant, and we had a nice dinner and shared our PBP stories.
Just for punishment, on Saturday we took the kids to EuroDisney which they enjoyed, in spite of many heavy rain showers during the day. I was glad when we got back to the campsite after that for a good long sleep, before leaving Paris on Sunday morning for the drive to Cherbourg and the Ferry home.
My first PBP was a fantastic experience, with 5200 other riders from all over the world taking part, and the 2 years of work that went into it was well worth the effort. 3980 riders managed to complete the event, with over 1000 pulling out for various reasons. The support from all the local people at the roadside was “superbe” and the constant encouragement and shouts of “bonne route” and “bon courage” kept us all going. All along the route people had come out to their gates, or the local town centre and set up tables with free water, coffee, cake etc, and we must have “high fived” thousands of kids along the route.
The body held up well in spite of the saddle sores for the last couple of hundred kms, with no other problems from the usual trouble spots of hands/wrists, feet, back or neck. I did suffer from acid reflux from the second day, probably from the odd diet, but thankfully I got some Maalox in a Pharmacy on Wednesday, which I munched for the rest of the trip which did the trick.
Will I be going back for the next one in 2015 ? Probably ! (But there’s always London-Edinburgh-London in 2013 if I can’t wait that long !)
See also
- Aidan and Mieke go to France
- Bernards Great Lakes Mac & Cheese 1200
- Event Check List
- Fear and Loathing in Zwolle
- From Around Down to London-Edinburgh-London
- London Edinburgh London 2017, Mark Moroney
- London-Edinburgh-London 2017
- London-Edinburgh-London 2022
- Mile Failte 1200-2018 by Mark Moroney
- Mille Alba 1000-2012
- Night Riding
- Paris-Brest-Paris 2011
- Paris-Brest-Paris 2015
- Paris-Brest-Paris 2019
- PBP 2011 – the View from the Front
- PBP Planning
- Preparing for an event
- Stepping up to 300k