Paris-Brest-Paris 2015

Now that the dust has settled, I finally got around to a bit of a write-up for PBP.  I’m afraid it’s not nearly as poetic as some of the (mostly US) ones I’ve been reading so far !

We enjoyed a family holiday in Rambouillet for the week before PBP, but in hindsight splitting a bottle of vino every night for a week probably wasn’t the best preparation for the event !

I headed into the Bike Check around 10.30am on Saturday, and bumped into Eddie who warned me how long it was taking, and he was right.  I eventually got through without any problems around 11.45am.  Lesson for next time, go to bike check early !

We all waited around for a while for the group photos, and then I headed in for registration, and was surprised at the big queues, and long delay.  I eventually got my paperwork, Jersey and High Viz, had a brief chat with a few others, and headed back to Rambouillet to top up the vino levels.

I was due to start at 18:15, so headed up to the velodrome around 5pm with the family.  Met up with the rest of the gang, tracked Eamon down in the start pen to give him his AI cap, and had a short chat with some of the others.  Before we knew it, it was time to get in the queue and down to the start area, which was well organised in 3 big pens.

We started off bang on time, and as usual headed off at a fairly quick pace, keeping the pace car in view for the first section.  The regularly recurring aches in my quads gave me a lot of trouble between 60 and 100kms, and I was getting worried, but it cleared up quite suddenly after 100kms, and thankfully didn’t make a reappearance after that.

I stopped briefly in Mortagne au Perche, and then went on to Villaines la Juhel which I reached at 05.30 on Monday.  It was a foggy and quite chilly morning, but it warmed up quite quickly once the sun got up properly, and it was a lovely day.  I rolled on at my own pace, and passed through Fougeres (10:50), Tinteniac (14:34) and Quedilliac.  At some stage I got a bout of hiccups and severe indigestion which was to stay with me until the finish.  I had Rennies with me, and invested in another box on Wednesday to get me to the end.  It was a case of think about food, eat 2 Rennies, Eat food, eat 2 more Rennies.  In addition, I wasn’t sure whether I actually had a sore throat, or I just wasn’t used to the dry air, but as I rode along I had difficulty swallowing, and felt like my tonsils were the size of golfballs, but when I got off the bike it seemed to stop !  Even drinking water was difficult, and at one stage I thought the tap water might not be agreeing with me, and switched to bottled, but it didn’t make any difference.

I rode over a small bump somewhere, and heard a sharp “crack” from the saddle area.  I cursed, as I thought a saddle rail had broken, but nothing dramatic happened, and I continued on.  I was almost afraid to look at it, but when I finally did, a good while later, it turned out that a part of the tensioning mechanism of my Selle Anatomica saddle had snapped in two.  Thankfully it held together to the finish, although it was a bit droopy by then !

I was finding the going tough, and didn’t remember so many hills from last time.  I got into Loudeac (448kms) at 8pm feeling pretty wrecked, and took one look at the restaurant, and couldn’t face it at all.  The heat, smells and queues made me feel absolutely awful, and I just got on the road again immediately.  Thankfully a few k’s down the road I came into the small town of Treve and the first thing I saw was a Pizza Restaurant with a few bikes outside.  I still didn’t really feel like eating, but as it turned out, the Pizza was just what the doctor ordered, and I wolfed it all down, along with most of a large bottle of water.  Then it was time to hit the road again to Carhaix Plouger.  On the way I passed the sad sight of the injured local French rider receiving cardiac compressions while waiting for an Ambulance.  I kept asking myself for a while afterwards if I should have stopped, but there were quite a few people there already including riders and locals, and in the end I concluded that I couldn’t have done anything useful.  I arrived into Carhaix before 2am, and went straight to try and get some sleep.  I got a bed no problem, and when I went into the hall I thought “it’s nice and warm”.  However when I had been lying down in most of my clothes and a single sheet for an hour or so I got quite cold, and got very little sleep, if any.  I stayed for about 3 hours which was really a waste of time, and then got on the road to Brest around 5am.  It was a clear cold morning as we rolled up and over the Roc Trevezel which was long, but not too steep, and down the other side.  I had forgotten how far the Roc is from Brest, and the 45kms or so from the summit down to the Brest Control seemed to take a long time to pass, even though it was mostly downhill.  The new Control in Brest was quite spread out, but it was an improvement on the last one.  The queue for hot food wasn’t too long, but it was slow, but I persevered as the selection on offer looked more inviting than the previous ones had been.  Then it was time to head for home, in company with Rory.

I got back through Carhaix at 17:15 and Loudeac at 22:54, after stopping again in Treve for a repeat pizza as I passed through.  This time I was the only bike there, maybe because it was the last place on the East edge of town, and people who felt like stopping there had already stopped before they got that far.  After leaving Loudeac I was hallucinating a bit, and very tired.  I stopped on a bench for a short snooze, and then continued on.  I was so wobbly that each time a bunch came up from behind I stopped to let them go past, in case I would cause an accident. I eventually got into Quedilliac around 3am, and tried to get some sleep, but the concrete floor wasn’t up to much, and again I didn’t manage to sleep.  Rory did better snoozing outside in a chair beside the brazier by the all night BBQ.

I got back to Tinteniac at 8am, followed by Fougeres at 11.25am.  I had a snack in Fougeres, but was delighted to spot a McD’s just after the control, and headed in for some additional calories, and very nice they were too !

Then at 5pm I was back at Villaines la Juhel, without doubt the best control on the event.  Lots of clean Portaloos, lots of outside water taps, enough people to take food orders, a good choice of food, about 6 different cash desks to pay, and helpful kids to carry your tray of food to the dining area.  That’s not to mention the huge crowds of spectators who turned out to enjoy the spectacle, and cheer on every rider.  After a 30 minute nap on the grass in the sun it was time to head off again, but we had cracked 1000kms by this stage, and it was starting to feel like the home stretch.  Wednesday night was lovely and warm and I stayed in shorts and short sleeves until I got to Mortagne au Perche at 10pm.  It was time to try for more sleep, and I finally got a comfortable bed with a warm blanket, and got about 90mins of lovely warm sleep followed by a refreshing hot shower, before rolling out again into the night around 1am.  I followed the long string of red lights up and down the rolling hills on the way to Dreux, and felt for a long time as if I was riding in circles on top of the Wicklow gap, as we seemed to be on a high plateau, but it could have been my imagination !  At one stage I was sleepy and took my usual dive towards the ditch, before stopping myself just in time.  I decided to look for somewhere to have a snooze, and almost immediately I passed a big stone cross on the side of the road, which had a comfy looking long narrow hollow just beside it.  I lay down out of the breeze, on what felt like a mattress of hay, but was probably just flattened grass, and had a lovely snooze for 30 mins or so, until a bit of rain on my legs woke me up again, and I headed onwards.  This leg felt like it went on forever, but I finally made Dreux at 5:30am.  After getting some food, thankfully without much queuing, I put my head down on the table for about 45 minutes.  When I woke it was raining quite heavily, but we’re used to that, and we really were on the last leg now.  The last 64kms took 3½ hours, but I finally made it back to the finish at 10:27am, for an 88 hour ride.  There was some more queuing to get to the Control desk, and then it was all over.  I caught up with Eoghan, Paddy, Helen, Stuart and a few others, and then headed off again with the family to put my feet up and fall asleep for the rest of the day.

I had decided to do without phone charging, and just left it switched off until I forgot to switch it off after calling the family on Tuesday night.  Thanks to Stuart, Eoghan and Paddy for the phone loans to text and track down the family at the finish !  Next time I will bring a way to charge it, possibly something like the Luxos U Light with USB port.  If I had thought of it I should have used the phone to keep track of times entering and leaving controls, as it would be nice to know how much time I spent off the bike.  I did have my Garmin, but not recording, just for navigation, as it refuses to upload data to the computer at the moment.

Throughout the event I spent a fair bit of time on my own, but also rode with Eddy, Aidan, Ollie, Stuart, Ray, Conor, Rory, Brian and Helen at various times, thanks to all for the company.  It’s all a bit of a blur, so I’m not sure when I rode with who, and, and it’s quite possible some of my chronology above is a bit assways !

I also had some enjoyable rides with UK, Canadian and US riders at various stages, and enjoyed practising my schoolboy French again, and surprised myself how much I could remember.

As usual the main memories of the event will be the huge roadside support of the local families and villages, the help of thousands of volunteers, the many Randonneurs sleeping “where they fell” by the roadside, and the thousands of Randonneurs from all over the world who make the event what it is.

I was a bit disappointed with my time, but I had very little riding done in 2014, and only 1 event per month so far this year with smaller spins in between.  I thought I was keeping moving fairly well, but I must have spent more time in Controls and intermediate stops than I thought, as I felt I was chasing the clock throughout the event, which I don’t remember from 2011.  I know my speed has dropped over the last year, and I found it quite difficult to get into groups that I could stay with comfortably.  I think this is partly due to the fact that most of my training rides are solo, and without any pressure to keep the pace up I have got into the habit of dawdling along too slowly, so when I have the chance to get in a faster group I don’t have the legs for it.  Food for thought for next time, if there is a next time !

On the positive side I was relatively injury free, with no neck, back, knee or feet problems.  I had some tenderness in the saddle area which was fine after a day or two, and I still have some minor numbness in the side and 2 fingers of my left hand, which I expect will get back to normal over the next few weeks.


Long-distance cycling in Ireland