{"id":1069,"date":"2019-09-18T09:42:29","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T13:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/?p=1069"},"modified":"2019-09-18T09:42:29","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T13:42:29","slug":"paris-brest-paris-2019-a-ride-report-by-john-cumming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/?p=1069","title":{"rendered":"Paris-Brest-Paris 2019, a Ride Report by John Cumming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
John Cumming<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My Paris Brest Paris 2019 Adventure \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few random thoughts and recollections from my\nPBP.  While there were over 6,000\nparticipants from across the globe in this event, the experience is unique for\neach rider (because of different start times, ride approaches, and\nequipment).  I should also point out that\nmy recollections are strongly affected by randonnesia<\/em>,\na condition that affects randonneurs doing long brevets with very little\nsleep.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before\nthe ride \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  I\nflew to Paris with fellow randonneur Carey, arriving on the Wednesday morning\n(My start time for PBP was 17:30 Sunday evening).  This gave me several days to get adjusted to\nthe time zone change, get my bike assembled and gear organized, and to \u201ctest\u201d\nmy bike in the surrounding countryside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  I was\nprivileged to share a VRBO rental with a fine group of Ontario\nRandonneurs,   in the small town of Les Essarts-le-Roi (about\n13 km from the PBP Start location in Rambouillet).  The VRBO had been arranged by Dick Felton, a PBP ancien<\/em>.   Dick\u2019s PBP knowledge, enthusiasm, and\nencouragement were key to the success of several randonneurs over the coming\ndays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PBP HQ in Les-Essarts-le-Roi: Carey, Darcy, me, Matt and his wife Erin, Tim and Brenda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bicycle assembly<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

     From Wednesday\nevening through Saturday, I bicycled over 150 km to explore Rambouillet, meet\nup with other Randonneurs arriving for PBP, and to try out local restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Getting Excited \u2013 Checking out the Start Location for PBP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Meeting up with Fellow Randonneurs (Dick F is on the left)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Saturday (the day\nbefore the ride start) was taken up with the official bike inspections and\npick-up of ride documents.  This was the\nonly day of foul weather during my entire trip. \nCarey and I pedalled into Rambouillet in pouring rain, and stood in long\nqueues of drenched cyclists. \n(Unfortunately we missed the scheduled Team Canada<\/em> photo, because we were chasing down a possible bike\nrental for Matt, whose bicycle had been \u201clost\u201d by Iceland Air!!).  While cycling back to Les-Essarts-le-Roi,\nCarey\u2019s bike \u201cslid out from under him\u201d on a very \u201cgreasy\u201d downhill, and he\nlanded hard on his side.  Of course, he\nwas more concerned with the state of his bicycle than his own health, and after\na roadside repair in the pouring rain he was satisfied that he and his bike were\nfit for the PBP ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ride Itself \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     At 3:30 pm on\nride day, I rode to PBP start location with Dick.  It was absolute chaos, with thousands of\ncyclists trying to figure out how the ride start was to occur.  I was in the \u201cG\u201d group, starting at\n17:30.  The \u201cF\u201d group, starting 15\nminutes ahead of us, was composed of all the \u201cspecialty\u201d bicycles \u2013 tandems,\nrecumbents, fat bikes, folding bikes, and velomobiles.  It was quite a spectacle as they paraded in\nfront of us towards the starting arch. \n(You can watch the departure of this group here<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Group \u201cG\u201d about to Start<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                  I was\npleased to run into Ben Schipper (from the Netherlands) and Matt Levy (from the\nUS) who I had ridden with on last year\u2019s Mac\n& Cheese 1200<\/em>.  They were also starting\nin G group.  (I would cross paths with\nBen several times during the ride)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a few announcements\n(unintelligible even to French riders I expect), we departed the cobblestone\nentrance to Rambouillet castle and were on our way.  With pleasant evening temperatures and\nexcellent roads, it was exciting to be finally riding in PBP.  I quickly caught up to many of the \u201coddball\u201d\ncycles ahead of me, and was soon met by the waves of \u201cfast\u201d riders in groups H,\nI, J, etc.  As night fell, the long\nstring of red lights in front of me (and white lights in my rear view mirror)\nwas quite impressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  My\nfellow Ontario riders (Carey, Dick, Matt, Darcy, Tim, and Brenda) were starting\nin groups 1 to 1.5 hours after mine. \nWhile I had signed on with Carey, Darcy, and Tim & Brenda for a\nSupport Camper Van (driven by Brenda\u2019s daughter Hanna and her boyfriend\nMathias), my earlier start limited my ability to make use of their great\nsupport (and the van bed and shower) at the controls.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  I\u2019m\ntold there were significant cross-winds on the first day of the ride, which\nimpacted the ability of the fast riders to maintain peletons and apparently led\nto many early \u201cDNF\u2019s\u201d.  I have absolutely\nno recollection of being bothered by the wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few comments about my bike and gear\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early in the ride, I realized my\nbike\u2019s derailleur was not shifting down to the three lowest gears.  I could have taken a few minutes to diagnose\nthe problem, or queued up to see a bike mechanic at one of the controls, but\nbeing constrained to the upper gears didn\u2019t seem to bother me.  Although there are 12,000 metres of climbing\nin PBP, it is all very gradual (I don\u2019t think I ever saw more than a 7% incline\non my Garmin).  Climbing without the low\ngears felt good, and I think made me ride stronger throughout the whole\ncourse.  Aside from the derailleur\nproblem, I had some very minor issues with brakes (squeaking brake pads) and\nheadset (loosening and creaking).  But\noverall I was thrilled with how my y2k Litespeed held together, and delighted\nto have no flats.  I was amazed to see so\nmany riders stopped along the route, repairing flats or other mechanical\nissues, especially in the first 200 km of the ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  As is\nusual for me, my bike was heavily loaded (probably 5 kg or more above the\naverage bike weight).  A base layer, rain\ngear, change of jersey & shorts, went completely unused.  Similarly an assortment of Clif Bars, Gels,\nand M&M\u2019s just came along for the ride. \nTwo USB Power Packs went largely unused, with my dynamo charging hub\nhandling lighting and Garmin-charging just fine.  My ride would have been easier (and faster)\nwithout so much baggage, but I\u2019ll probably never learn to pack light!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the ride \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  I\nrode steadily through Sunday night and following day (stopping only at\ndesignated Controls and the occasional coffee stands set up by the locals). I arrived\nat the Loudeac control (445 km) about 9 pm Monday evening.  After a warm meal by the Camper Van, Tim\n& Brenda, Carey, and Darcy decided they would sleep until about 1 am.  I realized that if I joined them, I would be\nin jeopardy of not making the Carhaix control (76 km away) before the 5:15 am (for\nme) Closing time.  So I pushed on into\nthe now-very-cold dark night.  On this\nstretch I was delighted to link up with Matt \u2013 he helped keep me awake, and my\nlighting helped him navigate some descents (The lighting he had purchased for\nthe \u201cloaner\u201d bike he was riding was not great!).  Matt and I pulled into Carhaix at 2:30 am,\nand he wisely encouraged me to grab a few hours sleep.  With all of the \u201cbeds\u201d at the control already\nfilled, I pulled out my space blanket and \u201crando pillow\u201d (i.e. inflatable plastic\nbag from 4L Box Wine) and lay down on the grass beside a few snoring\nrandonneurs.  (My buddy Terry Payne will\nbe delighted to know that I was able to fully experience the \u201ctrue\u201d nature of\nPBP!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  I\nawoke two hours later, drenched from condensation on the inside of my space\nblanket and with the definite feeling that I was getting a cold.  I was soon back on the bike, and heading for\nBrest 90 km away.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  I\nonly took a few minutes to enjoy the beautiful bridge and seascape in Brest,\nbefore fuelling up at the Control and turning around to head back toward\nParis.  The climb out of Brest was not as\nbad as I feared when descending into Brest, and it was interesting to observe\nthe waves of cyclists now riding towards me (still on their way to Brest).  I was delighted to see Dick, riding his\nsteady consistent pace, who gave his usual shout of encouragement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Much\nof the rest of Tuesday was a \u201cblur\u201d \u2013 steady riding with occasional stops for\ncoffee, cake, plums, and other goodies offered by the friendly villagers along\nthe route.  (I found it hard to \u201cfly by\u201d\npeople who were so enthusiastic and supportive \u2013 especially young kids looking\nfor a \u201chigh five\u201d).  I arrived back in\nLoudeac Control (783 km)  at 9 pm.  After getting my Card stamped, I located the\nSupport van, had a warm plate of Chicken Shawarma served up by Hanna &\nMathias, and crawled into the back for a couple of hours sleep (My van buddies\nwere a couple of hours behind me, so I knew I\u2019d be getting up and on the road\nwhen they rolled in for their shower & sleep).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Support Camper Van — a welcome sight at a couple of controls<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

                  Back on the road after 2 hours\nsleep on a real mattress.  I think it was\nTinteniac control where I again met up with Ben from the Netherlands.  He reported that his seat post had broken,\nand he was forced to ride standing up for 30 km to the next control!  He confessed that he was worried about our\nbeing able to finish in time, noting that there seemed to be very few \u201cG\u201d\nriders in our midst.  (I would learn\nlater that a Florida randonneur acquaintance was forced to abandon because of a\nbroken seat post.  The bicycle mechanic\nat the Control didn\u2019t have a right-size replacement!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the sun coming up as I rode\nfrom Tinteniac towards Fougeres, I was amazed how good I felt physically.  My legs were not complaining, and my butt was\nperfectly comfortable in my Brooks leather saddle.  Although I didn\u2019t \u201cfeel\u201d tired, I knew my\nlack of sleep was messing with my consciousness.  I kept having the strangest feeling of \u201cd\u00e9j\u00e0\nvu\u201d, wondering how it could be that everything was so familiar.  (Had I been fully rested, I would have\nrealized that I was cycling the same roads I\u2019d been on just 48 hours earlier,\nand of course they should look familiar!).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The ride back into Villaines-la-Juhel<\/em><\/strong>\n(1012 km) was one of my most amazing experiences in PBP: after hours of steady\nclimbs and descents under a hot August sun, I turned the corner to be greeted\nby hundreds of cheering villagers as I rode through the Control welcome arch.  The entire town was swept up in a festival\ncelebrating PBP \u2013 musicians, displays, beer tents, and constant cheering as riders\nentered or departed the control (This video<\/a> will give you\na sense of the celebration, and how \u201cspecial\u201d you feel as a cyclist being\ninvolved in this).   I truly regretted\nthat I could only enjoy this for a few minutes, before pushing on to finish the\nfinal 200 km.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riding into the darkness after\nleaving Mortagne-au-Perche (1097 km), I was no longer trusting my navigating\nskills (even worrying that somehow I had missed a Secret Control).  I was only wearing one layer (plus my\nreflective vest) and the temperature was down into single digits \u2013 I didn\u2019t\ndare stop and put on more clothing, for fear of losing sight of red lights\nahead.  There seemed to be no discernable\nfeatures or landmarks, and I felt like we were riding around in circles.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 11 pm, I finally pulled over\nat a poorly lit intersection and got off the bike.  A randonneur from Bellingham Washington\nstopped and said that I looked a bit wobbly. \nHe gave me one of his Espresso energy Gels (which thankfully \u201ckicked in\u201d\nquickly), and reassured me that we were indeed on the right course for the\nfinal Control (even opening my Control Card, to show that only one stamp was\nmissing before the finish).  Keeping his\nred rear light in my sights, I followed him through the pitch black into Dreux,\narriving just after midnight.  Wolfing\ndown the fine Control food fare (sausage or pasta \u2013 I can\u2019t remember which) and\na cold beer, I realized (for the first time really) that I now had plenty of\ntime \u201cin the bank\u201d to successfully complete the ride.  I pulled out my space blanket and rando\npillow, and fell asleep beside some rolled-up carpet in a corner of the noisy\ncontrol building.  Strangely, my son Dave\nhanded me a cup of hot coffee as I crawled under the space blanket (not my only\nencounter with people and objects not really there, during the ride!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I woke up (with the help of my smart phone\nalarm) shortly before dawn, and set off to ride the final 45 km back to\nRambouillet.  (There had, by the way,\nbeen a last-minute change to the official route due to some road\nconstruction.  Although I had the revised\nroute loaded on my Garmin, I wasn\u2019t trusting it.  I would also find out later that friends back\nhome, following my progress on my Spotwalla\nPage<\/a>, were wondering if I was lost!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Riding towards the Finish in Rambouillet<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With a beautiful sunrise ahead of\nme, I rode the final kilometres into Rambouillet.  The end of the ride was rather\nanti-climactic.  Unlike\nVillaines-la-Juhel, there weren\u2019t a lot of people around when I crossed the\nfinish line at 7:41 am. But the \u201cpings\u201d of congratulatory texts from family\nmembers, thousands of kilometres away, who were staying up late to know that I\nhad finished, was wonderfully rewarding. \nSomewhat less rewarding was the morning meal offered to the returning\ncycling gods \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I bicycled 1200km for this??!!?<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Knowing my Ontario buddies were a couple of hours from\nfinishing, and craving a shower, I got back on my bike and rode the 15 km back\nto Les-Essarts-le-Roi.  Although I\ncouldn\u2019t recall a single bone in my body complaining during the PBP ride, my\nshoulder muscles tightened up severely during the short ride back to the\nVRBO.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looking like I need to sleep<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
My PBP Control Card<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After the Ride \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Refreshed\nafter a shower and a nap, I joined other Ontario Randonneurs for a celebratory\ndinner in St. Quentin en Yvelines (a much better meal than at the start of the\nday!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Randonneurs Ontario, Post PBP Dinner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                  After\none more relaxing night in Les-Essarts-le-Roi to celebrate fellow randonneur\nTim\u2019s birthday, Carey and I packed up our bikes, and relocated to a hotel in\nCachan, just south of Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Post-Script (and a few stats)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  The\nday after flying back to Ontario, Carey texted to tell me that he\u2019d gone to the\nhospital for an x-ray, and had in fact broken a rib on the day of the bike\ncheck!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Several\nmembers of our Ontario Group did not finish PBP.  Dick Felton, who has successfully completed\nseveral previous PBP\u2019s (including 2015, where he finished the ride with several\nbroken ribs and fingers after falling asleep on his bicycle in the last few\nhundred km\u2019s!) realized his pace was too slow, and abandoned after the return\nto Carhaix (close to 700 km).  Tim\nencountered derailleur\/shifter problems, and abandoned his second PBP attempt\nafter Fougeres (923 km).  In spite of\ntheir disappointment, both Dick and Tim remained positive and supportive of\ntheir fellow riders, and immediately began talking about PBP 2023!  Darcy, Brenda, Matt & I were of course\necstatic (and I think somewhat humbled) to have been successful in our first\nPBP attempt, and Carey, completing his fifth PBP, declared it was \u201cthe best\never\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  From\nunofficial results: of 107 Canadian riders, 25 DNF\u2019d ( \u201cDid Not Finish\u201d), and 6\nfinished over time limit.  Although\nactual time is meaningless (i.e. doesn’t matter how much faster you finish as\nlong as you finish in time) my time was 53rd out of the 76 successful\nCanadians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  I did\ntake my GoPro on the ride, and have some \u201chand held\u201d video that I will try to\nedit.  I will also receive the official\nDVD, that I will pass on to anyone who would like to watch.  On YouTube<\/em>,\nyou will find a number of videos posted by both successful and unsuccessful\nparticipants.  One of my favourites is\nfrom Adam Watkins, a rider from Bristol England, who rode PBP on a\n\u201cFixie\u201d!  Adam started 45 minutes after\nme, and finished in 87.5 hours ( ~ 2.4 hours after me), so his ride (and the\ndroll observations he makes in his YouTube video<\/a>) were\nsomewhat similar to my own.  An even more\nprofessional short video that really captures the event is this one by\nRyan Hamilton<\/a>.  And the Jan\nHeine blog article<\/a> gives a great summary by several seasoned PBP anciens.   Another great ride report<\/a> was\nposted by fellow Ontario Randonneur Martin Cooper<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  In\nconclusion, I\u2019d like to thank everyone (especially my long-sufferring \u201cbetter\nhalf\u201d Jane), for all the support and encouragement along the way.  This truly was a once-in-a-lifetime \u201cbucket\nlist\u201d item for me, and I\u2019m sincerely grateful to have been able to experience\nit.  It really is not possible to\ndescribe the warm reception you receive as a PBP cyclist, nor to fully explain\nthe unique personal challenge that is Paris-Brest-Paris!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheers, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

John<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Paris Brest Paris 2019 Adventure \u2026 Here are a few random thoughts and recollections from my PBP.  While there were over 6,000 participants from across the globe in this event, the experience is unique for each rider (because of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paris-brest-paris","category-ride-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1087,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions\/1087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}