Paris-Brest-Paris 2019

We enjoyed a family holiday in a chalet in Ile-de-Re on the west coast of France, and drove up to the Paris suburb of Rambouillet on the Saturday morning, bike check day. As it was the end of the French holiday fortnight, the traffic was mental, and I thought I might have trouble as I was dead late for my allotted bike check time.  I abandoned the car and family at one of the gates of the Rambouillet “National Sheepfold” which was the event HQ, and eventually found my way to the right place.

The starts were in waves of about 300 riders, the first off at 5pm on Sunday.  I was due to start at 8:15pm, so I headed up to the start at 7pm with the family.  We wandered up along the grass to where riders were being marshalled into groups, and when my group T was called I moved into line, said goodbye to the family, and worked my way through the start procedure, getting my first Brevet stamp, and then waiting a few minutes until our allotted time, when we were off.

As usual we headed off at a fairly quick pace, keeping the pace bikes in view, and the first 120k went by in a fast-moving blur, riding in a big bunch, we averaged 27kph, a fairly rare occurrence for me.  It was fun, but a bit hairy, and there were a few close calls, but thankfully no accidents that I saw.

I stopped briefly in Mortagne au Perche for some food after 1am, and headed on to Villaines la Juhel.  After riding through the night I got a dose of the “noddies” around 5am, and fought it off for a while, thinking “I’ll be ok, it’s only an hour to the control” when I suddenly went down with a bang on my right side.  I bashed my elbow and knee, with smaller scrapes on my ankle and foot.  I could feel the elbow bleeding a good bit, but there wasn’t much I could do about it so I left my long sleeve jersey over it, and hoped it would stop.  I finally got to Villaines at 6.30am 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.  After a 1 hour break I rolled on at my own pace, and passed through Fougeres (10:50), Tinteniac (14:46) and Quedillac.  As had happened me in 2015, I was having trouble eating, and couldn’t face any of the staple foods, like Ham Baguettes, or even my usual favourite of Pasta Bolognaise.  I survived for most of the ride on coffee, croissants, fruit, soft drinks, creamed rice and various other desserts.

I got into Loudeac (448kms) at 8pm feeling pretty wrecked, had a quick snack, got my card stamped and got on the road again immediately.  A few km’s down the road I came into the small town of Treve and thought I would go to the same Pizza Restaurant that I had done in 2015.  Everyone else must have had the same idea, as they were pulling down the shutters – they had no food left !  I was hungry by now, and was wondering what I could do, but thankfully I soon came into the lovely town of St. Martin du Pres where the locals were having their usual street party, and the nice people there sorted me out an omelette and coffee which fixed me up again for another while. 

Then it was time to hit the road again to Carhaix Plouger.  On the way I came to the “secret” control of St. Nicholas du Pulem, and as it was quite late, I decided to try for 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 2 hours, and then got on the road again to Carhaix, which I reached around 5:30am.  After an hour spent eating and resting it was time to head for Brest.  It was a clear cold morning as we rolled up and over the big climb of Roc Trevezel which was long, but not too steep.  On the way up I met the Orwell Wheelers gang who invited me to tag along, which helped me up the climb, the conversations helping the time to pass.  This is the only big hill on the route, and it was nice to get over the top.  The 45kms or so from the summit to the Brest Control seemed to take a long time to pass, even though it was mostly downhill.  After stopping for a photo at the iconic Brest bridge, I went on the last section to the control.

I finally reached the halfway point at 11:15, had a quick food stop, and headed off on the return journey just before noon (Tuesday).  Unfortunately the headwind which we had all the way to Brest chose this time to switch direction, and instead of the anticipated tailwind we continued to have more headwind most of the way back to Paris. 

I got back through Carhaix at 4:30pm and Loudeac at 10:57pm.  After leaving Loudeac I was very tired.  I eventually got into Quedillac around 2am (Wednesday), and tried to get 3 hours sleep, but it was quite cold in the hall, with just a single sheet for bedclothes, and not much sleep was had.

I left Quedillac at 6am and got back to Tinteniac at 9am, followed by Fougeres at 11.50am.  I had a snack in the control in Fougeres, but knew about a McD’s just after the control, so I headed in for some additional calories, and very welcome they were too !

Then at 5pm I was back at Villaines la Juhel, which is without doubt the best control on the event. 

Lots of clean Portaloos, lots of specially installed 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 crowd of spectators who turn out to enjoy the spectacle, and cheer on every rider as they arrive.  After some snacks and a short rest 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 as I headed off at 6:45pm.  The next leg to Mortagne au Perche went well, with one of the higher average speeds of the ride, and I got there just after 11pm.  Then it was decision time, whether to try for some sleep, then get up in time to head on again around 5am with 125k to go, or alternatively head on now to the next-to-last control of Dreux, sleep there, and then just have a final easy 45k to the finish.  I chose the latter option, but the night ride to Dreux was hard as I was extremely tired, average moving speed of 18.5kph was the lowest of the event, and I was having quite a few hallucinations along the way.  My mind kept deciding I had something that I had to do straight away, like to give something to someone, and each time this involved pulling over to the left side of the road and stopping to do whatever it was.  Then as I was almost stopped, I would realise it was all in my imagination, and try to pick up speed again and continue.  Thankfully there were a couple of all-night coffee stops which were good morale boosters, but I still managed to have my second sleep-crash of the event, on my left side this time, but slower than before, and resulting in only slight grazing/bruising on my elbow and knee.  I finally got into Dreux at 5:31am, got some food, and found a bed for 3 hours sleep.  Then it was up again, and a bit more grub for the last short 45k leg to the Finish.

I left at 9am, and enjoyed a relaxed spin on a beautiful morning across the open farmlands on the way to Rambouillet, and got to the Finish at 11:19 on Thursday morning, for a total ride of 86 hours 48 minutes, 3h 12m inside the 90 hour time limit. 

The family were there to meet me, and after checking in to the Control and a few quick hellos to other Irish riders, we headed off back to the Huttopia campsite for a too short rest, as we were booked on the ferry from Cherbourg at 5pm on Saturday.

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 who travel from all over the world to make the event what it is.

The bad points were the inability to eat and sleep properly, leading to the 2 crashes. They both happened at my usual “low point” of around 5am, and I may have to work out a ride plan that involves being stopped at this time.  On the positive side I was relatively injury free, with no neck, back, knee or feet problems.  I had broken the cardinal rule of “don’t try anything new for the first time on a big event” by changing to an Infinity Saddle, which is dramatically different from all “normal” saddles, as it supports your weight on the muscles of your seat area, rather than your pelvic “sit bones” where all other saddles concentrate the load.

I only had it 2 weeks, and the longest I had ridden on it pre-PBP was 130k, which had been fine.  However the longer rides of the first 2 days brought up a problem, as I was having a lot of pain when I went to have a wee !  I didn’t feel pressure while riding, but it must have been building up gradually.  Thankfully dropping the nose of the saddle a tiny bit sorted it out, although then it wasn’t quite as comfortable while riding.  I expect to be able to tweak the position a bit more when I have time at home to experiment a bit.

The only after-effects were some tenderness in the saddle area (but much less than last time) which was fine after a day or two, and I had some minor numbness in the heels of both hands, which is just getting back to normal now after 2 weeks.

Onwards and Upwards, next biggie is London-Edinburgh-London in 2021 !


Long-distance cycling in Ireland