NewsArticleBody
Bike inspection the day before the ride...the inspectors ogled over the bike but none really checked our safety features ..
More: Best of 'What Do You Do On A Friday?' Holiday Reading 2004
"PBP is a huge ride with thousands of cyclists from all over the world. First held in 1891, PBP is billed not as a race but as a test, a 1200 kilometer ride to be completed in 90 hours or less. Riders are basically self supported, carrying all they'll need for the journey on their bikes. The clock doesn't stop for sleep, for food breaks, for anything. For most of us, the goal is not to win, but to finish." - Kent Peterson, PBP veteran who did it on a classic diamond frame New World Tourist in 1999
Every 4 years a handful of hardy BF owners attempt the PBP, and regardless of how they do, we know that they certainly fly there and back a lot more easily with a travel bicycle! Here is a moment-by-moment story by Susan Cooper and Scott English who completed the race on their Bike Friday Twin Air tandem - the world's coolest tandem bicycle that packs into a single suitcase. More PBP on a Friday stories.
France, August 2003 Paris-Brest-Paris 1200 K
FINALLY, it is Friday, August 15th. I have spent more hours than I want to count the last week or more packing and going over and over our lists of everything we need. Our list has bike parts, spare everything possible, tools, water bottles as well as camel-backs and clothes for hot, cold and (God forbid) wet weather; clothes for normal wear and our nutritional needs for somewhere between 65 and 70 hours of constant riding.
Spending a whole day in the air is not fun. I read and try to sleep but am too restless. As we finally begin our descent, I catch my first real live, in-person glimpse of Paris and the Eiffel Tower.
We arrive at our hotel and the place is swarming with people riding bikes, people putting bikes together and people hauling bike boxes. We soon find a place in the shade and start unpacking. As we pull out the pieces, people are amazed that our little suitcase actually holds a tandem. This is just the beginning of the admirers. Throughout our entire stay in France we had so many people just stare at the bike as if they had never seen one before.
All the crazy long distance people from all over the world have congregated here for an event equal to the Olympics for long distance cycling. P-B-P only takes place every 4 years (it used to be every 10!). Let me share some statistics: there are 2,018 French people riding this event and 2,076 non-French. This is the first year since its beginnings in 1891 that the non-French outnumbered the French. What is also interesting is that the United States has the second most registered riders with only 460. It takes all the other nations combined to even approach the number of French doing this event. Cycling is huge here.
We get back to the hotel at 2 o'clock, just in time to grab the bike and some of our safety gear and head over to the registration check-in and bike inspection site. We are mobbed at the bike inspection with 10 'officials' looking at the bike. No one bothers to actually 'inspect' it, they are all so fascinated with the design that we are not asked for our spare lights or bulbs or any of the other 'required' safety features.
The activity around the hotel has been increasingly slowing down. Many of the riders will start their event this evening and there are a number of people sleeping in the chairs in the lobby. There are 3 different start times for this event (well, actually 5). There is an 80 hour group that starts at 8 p.m. this evening. There are just over 1,000 riders in that group. Then the 90 hr group starts at 10 p.m. with over. 2,600 riders. We are in the 84 hr group, which will start at 5 a.m.
People starting with the 80 hr group must finish within the next 80 hrs to be an official finisher as with the 84 hour group. Those starting with the 90 hr group have the entire 90 hours. We chose the 84 hr group since both of us are 'morning people.' There is a special start for 'special' bikes. These include tandems, triples, recumbents and trikes.
I set both of the alarms, one for 3:15, and my watch for 3:13 and then drift off to sleep wondering what the heck I have gotten myself into...
Part Two: The Ride
THE ALARM goes off and I jump out of my skin. Scott is up now and we dress and try to force food into our bodies. We trudge downstairs and the lobby is full of lycra-clad bodies in electric yellow wind breakers and reflective vests. 'It's not that cold, is it?' My CamelBak is full of water, and I have two water bottles full of calories: a mixture of E-Caps' Sustained Energy and Perpetuem, as well as Emergen-C powder. The plan is to take them every hour to keep us from going into a deficit.
We are the first tandem there but another one is right behind us.
We receive instructions in French. Someone yells, 'In English!' A lady steps up and says, 'Don't run any lights, be safe, have a good ride.' I like that; short and to the point.
We have a car and 2 motorcycles to lead us through the town and the first part of the ride with sirens and lights and honking horns as we run all the red lights. So much for following directions! There are people standing all along the route waving at us and saying 'Bon route, bon courage!' I count 15 tandems before we leave and about as many recumbents.
The first thinning of the group comes at a Y in the road. The motorcycle goes to the left but someone behind us yells, 'A dwa, A dwa!'(spelled 'à droit' which means right.) Scott listens and we end up jumping off the bike and doing a Lance Armstrong short cut run across the 'grassy knoll.' All this and we haven't even been on the road much more than 30 minutes.
Then we hit the first thing we could call a climb and the motor escort ends. What now? Some yell that if there is no arrow you go straight, another one takes off to the right and eventually in the reflection of that bike's light I catch a glimpse of an arrow. I tell Scott and even as we head off to the right other bikes are still going straight or doing laps around the roundabout.
There were 2 all-male tandems with us off and on. One was a German team and the other an American team consisting of Bob Breedlove (a long time long distance guru, ex-RAAM rider etc.) and his stoker Stuart Stevens, who we know nothing about; but boy was he big!
A good portion was relatively peaceful riding on some great new asphalt in a national park area - before the pack of singles caught us. I saw them coming a ways back and we were ready to hammer when they joined us. We stuck with the front group for a while before we got dropped on a climb but we went flying by them on the following downhill.
The riding pace is picking up with all the single bikes around us and conversation ends for the time being. I look back occasionally and see Alexis and Joel on our wheel with a growing number of others behind them. We travel like this for a few hours before an English speaking man from the U.K. rides up beside us and thanks us immensely for the wonderful pull. His name is Simon and he asks if we are stopping at the control or just checking in and out.
Scott says we will stop for a bit to refuel. Simon asks if he can buy us a beer at the control to thank us for our effort. I say 'No, no beer but a big bottle of water would be nice.' Then we pull into the control at 223 K or 138 miles. This is Villaines La Juhel. Alexis and Joel follow us into the control. Scott takes our cards and checks us in. I start refilling water bottles with powder, put on some sunscreen and stretch my legs. My left Achilles is already hurting me a bit. Not good. I can't believe how tired I am already and we have really only just begun.
The conversation with Simon was uplifting and there were a few others as we rolled into the control that looked at us, nodded and smiled a thanks. But still, I am beat. It is about noon, we have maintained an 18.5 mph avg. and there has been a lot of relentless climbing. When we return to our bike there is another big bottle of water sitting beside it. Obviously Simon was true to his word.
On one up-hill, I look back and there is a gap between us and Joel. That is not good when we are climbing. It can happen easily on a downhill but usually climbing, single bikes can go faster than us. I hope he is ok. The others we have picked up are content with our pace. In fact, one rider we pick up along the way announces his arrival and pleasure in seeing us by stating that he was happy for the 'small village' surrounding this tandem to join him.
Eventually though, the climbs take their toll on us and many of the singles move on ahead as we continue on at our own pace. Already we have been seeing riders with different colored numbers that started in the 90 hour group. We have already made up 7 hours on them. A lot more hills and few more hours down the road and we are at Fougeres, mile 193 or 311 K.
Somewhere after Fougeres, we have been riding for over 12 hours, when we come across a bike with a big 'Route 66' sign hanging off the back. As we approach I say, 'I've ridden that road!' Then I realize that the owner of that bike is none other than Lon Haldeman on his SINGLE GEAR. He hangs with us all the way to Tinteniac. When we arrive, he too thanks us for the pull and mentions what a good spin workout it was for his legs. It doesn't seem like we are long at this control, but as we leave, we look for Lon's bike and it is already gone. We head out alone. We make decent time passing various single bikes most of the way to Loudeac. It is dark now and we catch up with Lon again. While we are riding with him a pack of 6-10 riders is heading the other direction! Those must be the leaders! Wow, what an awesome pace they are keeping! Lon hangs with us until we reach a decent sized pack of singles before he bids us farewell. He is going a pace closer to that of the other single bikes. It is easier for him to hang with them than to keep the spin necessary to stay at our pace, remember, he only has one gear!
We travel on alone. I gaze up at the stars and remember that Mars is the closest it has been in some 60,000 years. We arrive at the Loudeac control at 11:30 p.m. There are bikers coming and going and lots trying to find bags and food. It is a pretty spread out control place and everyone is tired and a bit grumpy.
Scott says 3 hrs of sleep, I leave my watch set for 3:13 a.m. I wake a few times before the alarm goes off. I'm thirsty. When the alarm does go off, my brain wakes pretty easily but my body just won't get going. I add water to my bottles of powder and down the morning ritual of pills with juice and protein powder. I drink a lot of water trying to get rid of the cotton mouth. Not a good sign - I must be dehydrated.
I make a feeble attempt at stretching, but it is better than nothing I suppose. My Achilles feels ok so far, that is a good thing, but my seat does not. Clean clothes, arm warmers and my vest do a little to make me feel better as we hit the morning air. We finally get on the road about 4 a.m. It is still dark and we are a bit disoriented but finally we are heading onward to Brest. Again I find the big dipper, it is lower on the horizon and yup! Mars is still there, just a bit lower too. Despite everything that is different being in a different country in another part of the world, it is nice to realize that we still have the same stars and planets to enjoy where ever we go - at least while we are traveling here on Earth.
The Ride -- Day 2
We have accomplished 452 K (280 miles) in well under 24 hours with no support team and some pretty long lines to deal with. We have one more stop at Carhaix before we reach our destination at Brest on the coast and start our return trip. We have almost 50 miles to our first control stop. Most of it is in the dark and we travel alone through groups of single bikes. Even at this hour we frequently see families along the road with children calling out 'water'. We smile and wave but continue on.
Then out of the darkness looms some really bright lights and people all along the road pointing and giving us directions in French. It is between 5 & 6 in the morning. What is going on? Oh, a secret control! We sign in and out quickly and are once again alone in the slowly lessening darkness. There is one really nice section of new pavement where they haven't even painted the lines on the road yet on a nice long gradual downhill. This is a fun part; my legs enjoy the rest and even my butt can enjoy the break of the generally rough pavement.
There have been bikes headed home ever since we were riding with Lon yesterday evening but the number is increasing noticeably on our way to Brest. It seems that there are as many bikes heading 'home' as there are going with us. I remember that we were the last group to start and many of these riders started either 7 or 9 hours before we did.
The climbing is taking its toll and I can't decide whether it hurts less to stand and pedal in a bigger gear or to sit and spin (if you can call it spinning after over 300 miles and not even 3 hrs of sleep). It seems that we keep going up and up and around the hills. I feel like we are going in circles around a mountain but we never reach the top. It never occurs to me that Brest is on the coast so why in the world does it seem that we are doing so much climbing . . . isn't it supposed to be getting flat or at least less hilly near the coast?
I guess that is one of the prices you pay for going on a ride like this for the first time. It's never what you think it 'should' be. Of course, I never had any of those thoughts while I was riding. Mine is not to question but just to pedal away. We cross a beautiful bridge over the bay or marina and have one last way too steep hill to conquer. There is a LOT of traffic both cars and bikes. I need to go faster up this hill but there are bikes in front of us and too many cars to pass safely. Now, it feels like my right Achilles is going to explode.
We arrive at the Brest check-in point at 12:30. We see Kevin Main, the head honcho for the SLO brevets. He asks me how I feel and I respond, 'I feel like I've ridden 600 K.' He says, 'Well, youe done 615 K so you'e doing good!'
Along the way we meet up with another tandem, a red Cannondale with a French couple from the 90 hour group riding. The captain, Remy is anxious to hear about our Bike Friday. (He pronounces it 'Bike free day') He wants to buy one but mentions the very high import tax (like 30%). We suggest that he purchase one and we can bring it with us when we come to visit him to save the import tax. [Susan, you had your Bike Friday referral cards in your saddlebag, right? - Ed]
We check in to the control @ 4:30. I eat hungrily but there is very little energy to do anything else. It has been pretty hot and I am wasted tired. I see people lying down on big thick pieces of cardboard along the wall and think that looks like a really good idea, Scott agrees. I set my watch for 20 min. and we are both instantly asleep. I love power naps!
We have a few singles who attach themselves to our wheel as we progress though the night. Then we turn a corner and are assaulted by bright lights and people in the middle of the road. Ah! A secret control, complete with entertainment. There is a gentleman playing a 'squeeze box' in the parking lot. These French sure know how to put on an event! Like the last secret control it is a very short stop, we use the bathroom, lube our parts and hit the road again. This time we have only one French man on our wheel as we leave.
Both Scott and I feel good. I'm not sure if it was the night air or knowing we were getting close to home or what but it seemed that we were flying. Of course I really don't know how fast we were going as it was pitch black out. The presence of the one French man was great and it seemed no matter how fast we went he was still there. We passed a number of other groups of single bikes along the way and I assumed that we would have a big line on our wheel but when we got to the next area with some street lights I look back and there is just the one French guy. I look puzzled and he gestures that he is the only one.
Then he does some great sign language/charades and I get the message that he was focused on our wheel and sees other bikes and they just fall back while he stays focused on our wheel. We roll into Tinteniac at 1:30 in the morning. He is very happy that we are continuing on. He has a hotel in Fougeres as well. We see the signs so we follow them and the French guy follows us. At 4:30 in the morning we reach Fougeres. We have been on the bike for another 24 hours with only the one 20 minute power nap. Of course we have been off the bike for bathroom stops and the controls but no sleep. We check into the control and bid farewell to the French man. Now to find our hotel. This is where we drove to a few days ago to drop off another bag and spent time wandering around the castle. But finding it again in the dark after over 48 hrs on the bike is a bit trickier than it was in the car. We leave the bike in the lobby as our room is upstairs and if it is any thing like the other hotel room, there will be no space for a tandem in there with us. We do have the luxury of our own shower in the room and the warm water feels wonderful except for the parts I sit on. Those tender areas scream with pain as the water runs over them.
We both crawl into bed thoroughly exhausted a bit after 5 a.m. I change the setting on my watch to wake us at 7:13. It'll be nice to start in daylight in the morning.
The Ride - Day 3
When the alarm goes off, the first thing Scott does is go downstairs to make sure the bike is ok. The first thing I do is drink more water. The dry mouth is worse this morning than it was yesterday. Not good. The bike is fine but Scott wants to replace the rear tire. There is a little bulge starting to develop. We haven't had any problems yet but we don't need any this last day, especially since we have a spare tire here at our hotel.
We finally leave Fougeres well after 8 a.m. It took quite awhile to get the body up and moving effectively this morning. We have less than 200 miles to go. In a sick sort of way, that sounds like a walk in the park, especially since we have already done over 555 miles; but in reality it is a very long day still ahead of us. We don't make the first checkpoint until 1 in the afternoon. I realize my goal of 65 hours is slipping away. Oh well, you can only do so much.
We finally get to our next to last checkpoint at Mortagne au Perche at almost 5:30 p.m. I am tired but feel better thinking we have less than 100 miles to go.
I have a hard time getting my shoes back on my feet. Especially the right one as my swollen Achilles makes it really hard to maneuver my ankle to get into my shoe. As usual, we have a crowd surrounding the bike before we return and then watching us as we get on the road again. I love their interest and attention to the event but sometimes I would really rather be alone.
That happens soon enough as we leave the control. Eventually we hit the stretch of beautiful brand new pavement rolling through a national forest.
We are cruising along between 17 and 20 mph. As soon as I tell him this, I feel his push and we are enjoying the rollers, the cooling temps, and the perfect pavement at between 20 and 24 mph. Whew this is fun! We have a nice long stretch of straight perfectly smooth road with trees on either side and it seems that Scott has decided to put his legs into TT gear. I am more than happy to join him.
Though it seems like hours and hundreds of miles later, we get to the point where we see the florescent orange PBP and an arrow painted on the road. Finally we see lights and hear a crowd. We roll into the gym where we checked in almost 3 days ago. Wee done! Our cards get stamped with a time of 01:24 in the morning of Friday, August 22nd, 2003.
We did it!
We stop for someone to take our picture and then we collect the bike and ride over to where there are free drinks. The guy at the stand says, 'So how's it feel? You just rode 1200 K and you get a plastic cup full of orange juice! How's that for a reward?'
Susan and Scott at the 330 K mark between Fougeres and Tinteniac.
For more information, follow this link http://www.bikefriday.com/bf/pbp.