Paris Brest Paris 2015

Paris Brest Paris 2015

Paris Brest Paris 2015 was my 6th visit to this ride.  I love this event.  It has history, culture, France, and a little bike ride during the week.  Although the event is in August the preparations are years long.  In order to even enter I have to ride a full brevet series(200K, 300K, 400K, 600K) in 2015.  To get a “good” starting spot you get preference for rides in 2014.  I had done a 1200K in Ireland(Mille Failte) so I could sign up a little earlier than riders that had not done a longer ride in 2014.  That gave me a good starting group(psychological as much as anything).

We had a ton of snow in New England this winter(9 feet in a month) and cold, cold temps.  I was off the bike for 2 months and then started biking with snow still everywhere and bitter cold in March.   Our qualifying brevets went well with typical crazy weather.The 300K was never over 50F, the 400K was over 90F for much of the ride and the 600K featured tropical rains for much of the ride.  Typical brevet series.

I tried to not over train for PBP this year keeping my mileage up but only a few 200K and 300K rides in June, July and August.  Lots of early morning wake ups to get mileage in before work.  I commute by bike so that is  a big source of miles especially with extra in the AM and PM.

I was communicating during the year with several fellow New England Randonneur riders as to their plans for the event.  This led me to hooking up with John Jurczynski, Ann Rasmussen and Henry Van den Broek for my travel companions.  John and Ann were a powerful tandem couple and had ambitious plans for PBP.  John had done PBP in 2003 and we had finished together in 54 ish hours.    We traveled together and shared taxi service and angst over travel issues.

We arrived in France and quickly got oriented to our hotel and started to get our bikes together.  I took a short ride to test the bike and see the surroundings including the new velodrome that is the PBP start.  Even 2 days before the start the place was loaded with cyclists of every description.  60 countries and 6000 cyclists converging on this small town.

The next day was bike check in which is painfully slow but it is a good chance to catch up with lots of international friends in the long lines of registration. 

Henry and I went for a short ride along the route and returned for lunch.  I tried to take it easy for the next 24 hours until I would start with the first “A” group.

Retrospectively, I did  not feel well rested for the event.  My employment requires some night call and leading up to the event I missed 2 nights  of sleep from work and the overnight flight to France.  I slept 9 hours on the 2 nights I had at the Mercure in Saint Quentin but I am not sure it was enough.

Off to the start on Sunday afternoon.  Due to some streamlining in the start process, we were all given a 200 person start time that did not involve elbowing for a start position.  We also had timing devices on our ankles so no matter when you crossed the start threshold you would be a time zero.

4PM start meant that I could get to the first controle at Mortagne-au-Perche(140km) before dark.  Mortagne outbound is not a official controle but is necessary for someone like me for water and a bathroom.  Supported riders fly by this stop with a quick trip to their support car.

A side note about unsupported riders going for fast times.  I have been the first woman twice at PBP and doing it unsupported.  It was conventional wisdom that anything under 50 hours required support and certainly the male first finishers all had support.  This year an unsupported German rider got the fastest time, completely unsupported!  It is amazing and here is the link to his story .https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=92653.msg1912980#msg1912980

5 minutes at Mortagne and I am off the Villaine La Juhel.  Just getting dark but lots of bike lights to show the way.  Villaine is easily the best controle on the route.  Super supportive people at all hours of the day out there cheering for the riders.  You feel like  a star coming in there.  I got water and with the snacks in my handlebar bag I was ready for the ride to Fougeres.

I got there in good time  but was sleepier than I expected to be on day one.  I got a coke and some breakfast item and closed my eyes for 10 min.  Ready to go! On to Titineac.

I was alone at this point(go figure with 6000 riders) and made 2 wrong turns.  Cost me  a few minutes but got to Titineac at dawn.  Hot chocolate looked good so I had that and it immediately ended up in the toilet.  What is wrong with me,  sleepy, lethargic and puking early in a ride???

Onward to Loudeac..  The dawn brought a gorgeous day to Western France.  Not a cloud in the sky and the cool morning air warmed up slowly.  The ride to Loudeac  was quite pleasant.  I leap frogged with a bunch of riders some of who I had seen the day before and some I would see again.  One was Alan Parkinson from London.  He entertained me with stories from Audax UK and it was the not the last I saw of Alan.

I got another Coke and a snack at Loudeac and rode out of there to start the endless hills of Brittany.  This is the toughest stretch of the ride.   The roads are narrow and bumpy with short, sharp ascents and descents.  It seems to take forever to get to the next controle at Carhaix.  It still looked like I could get to Brest before dark so I kept moving as I know the biggest climb in the ride is out the door of Carhaix.

I felt good on the climb of the Roc Trevezel.  It is a mammoth geological formation but the climb is never very steep.  The view from the top is wide open and about as pretty that afternoon as I have ever seen it.  There were lots of camper vans at the top cheering on riders and offering up food and drink.

Over the top and the long and annoying trip to Brest.  It seems like you endlessly circle around, up and down some hills, up and down some more.  Are we there yet?  Finally the beautiful bridge that connects us over the water to Brest.  Then a steep climb up to the controle.

The Brest controle is very friendly and well staffed but everything is so spread out.  I really wanted some food, needed a bathroom, needed to wash up a bit and needed water and my controle card signed.  I was probably there 30 minutes to get all of this done.  It was still  light when I got out of there but it would be dark by the time I re climbed the Roc.  I dreaded the fast descent off of the Roc as I was already feeling a little sleepy as night approached.  I hoped to get to Carhaix quickly and take an “extended break”  , maybe an hour.

I got to Carhaix and immediately sat against a wall and closed my eyes for maybe 10 minutes.  I felt better and got a good meal.  As I was eating  my  friend from the UK Judy Swallow joined me with her tandem partner.  They cheered me up with their funny tales of the tandem they were riding so I was feeling ready for the overnight ride to Fougeres.

It was a tough section, made harder by the increasing numbers of outbound riders headlamps burning into my tired eyes.  I don’t remember much about that section but I was glad to see the lights of Fougeres!  I was pretty hungry by then so I got a big breakfast.  I took one bite of my eggs and again got sick.  Really embarrassing in the cafeteria.  I ran to the bathroom and their was a guy in the girls room washing his bike clothes in the sink.  We had a little standoff about where he belonged but I was able to clean up the puke on my clothes and return to my breakfast.  Slowly I ate my meal and felt better, starting to think I came to the start of this ride with a virus making me throw up food and be abnormally sleepy.

Dawn always sorts out a lot of weirdness that the night demons bring on and it worked again as I made the trek back to Tintiniac.  It was another beautiful day and I got to Tintiniac feeling good.

I got a bunch of friends to ride into Fougeres but lost them just as we got into town.  A local rider saw me and tried to help with navigation.  He insisted that I should return on the road I just did as I must be heading to Brest.  I was heading to Paris but I stupidly followed his direction for 5 minutes.  I turned around and checked in at the controle.

The ride to Villains was great.  We got a great pace line going over rolling hills and we had a tailwind.  I was hopeful this would be a great push to a good time.  The weather was brilliant and the company was good.  I was riding with several strong women and an few guys.  As we got near to Villaine the crowds along the way grew and grew.  So many people came out to see the spectacle that is PBP!

At this point I realized I was probably in the lead group of women.  I was number 2 into Villaine I was told.  With a strong final 200K I could finish well.  I rode out of Villaine with a Danish woman who thought she probably came into Villaine first.  Her boyfriend was riding with her but he was having some problems and slowing her down.  They proceeded to have a few heated arguments so I dropped back and let their drama unfold.  I was fine all  alone with the setting sun.

I was then overtaken by a young Frenchman who wanted to piggy back with me through the night as his lights were dead,  I wasn’t too happy about that but told him we could ride to the controle at Mortagne together and he could buy some lights there.

We rode along as it got dark and that is when my head betrayed me.  I started to have some very vivid hallucinations and was having trouble focusing on the road and my fellow rider.  I was sure he was going the wrong way multiple times.  Somehow I got to Mortagne and should have packed it in for a few hours…..but I didn’t.   I took off out of there knowing I just needed to hang on for 85  miles.  After that it all goes black as to what happened. I was very confused, trying to find someone to ride with.  I remember sitting down on the side of the road to get my head to clear.  I had many hallucinations about being lost, seeing riders go by, lots of bike lights in my head and fragments of conversation, real or imagined, in my head.

I finally came to in a village square that was deserted.  I had lost about on hour of my memory as it was now 1AM.  I looked around for something that was open but there was nothing and nobody.  I finally just sat back down and tried to get warm.  It was probably 45F that night.  Eventually a police patrol came through and asked if I needed anything.  I said I wanted a ride back to Saint Quentin as I was done with my ride.  I did not see how I could continue to ride when I was still puzzled over where I was.  They said they could call a cab and get me the 60 or so miles back to SQY.  They were well aware of PBP and wanted to see my controle card to see where we had been.

In retrospect, I could not have been far off the course and I should have at least asked them where the course was.  With some more rest I may have been fine to continue in a few hours at daylight but I was too freaked out by this point.  I just wanted to be in my SQY hotel bed.

A cab came and we got me and my bike all inside.  I told the driver where I wanted to go and off we went.  It then became a little more surreal as I kept falling asleep and I got the impression that we were not heading straight back.  I asked him why we seemed to be circling around and he just shrugged.  I sort of panicked at this point and called my sister in New Hampshire to tell her I felt pretty unsafe at the moment.  We talked for a while then I told her that we seemed to be heading down the highway now and things were looking up.  My sister took charge of the situation and called the American Consulate in Paris.  This wonderful man listened to the situation, called me and the spoke to the driver in French.  Something clicked because finally we were heading the right way and I eventually saw a sign for SQY.  The meter was up over 300 euros for this joy ride.   I am sure he saw an exhausted person and took some detours to ring up the bill.   The guy at the consulate said to just put it on the credit card and dispute the charge with Visa which is what I did.   Finally at 5:30AM I arrived back to the Mercure in SQY, happy to be in a hot shower and safe.

I slept for a couple of hours then texted John and Ann to see if they were back.  Max Poletto got in touch(all three of them had been finished with their rides for a while, John and Ann in 52 hours, Max in 53).  We met up in the hotel lobby to discuss our rides.  John said “I assume you are going out to finish the ride?”  It never even occurred to me that I could DNF and then un DNF.  I had about 14 hours left of the 80 hours allotted to do about 60 miles.  Max plotted out on a map my last known position based on the route and my odometer.  John and Ann’s support driver was heading out for a trip in another part of France so he offered to drive me to the point that I had left off.  Incredibly by 3PM I was back on the ride.  I had to be in Dreux by 6PM but then I had 6 hours to complete the last 40 miles.  With a huge tailwind now blowing it was a pretty easy task.

I made it to Dreux at 4:45PM.   I had a yogurt and one of their nice pastries then the home stretch.  I started riding again with my UK friend from Day One, Alan Parkinson.   He was fun to ride with and gave a big wave and “Hello” to all of the people who were camped out on the side of the road to watch the riders.  In 6 PBP’s I have never seen so many people out.  Maybe the nice weather but it was so special!

The ending at the velodrome was great.  Amazingly I ran into Henry van den Broek.  He had started a couple of hours after me and in the end he finished about 5 minutes in front of me and we never saw each other out there.  We headed into the mob to get our controle cards signed and then made plans for dinner.  My final time was around 77:45, plenty of space under the 80 hour window.

We found Brad Tanner, Steve Lavoie, John and Ann at a restaurant and had a big meal to celebrate everyone’s official finish.

In trying to analyze what happened to me I don’t know.  I guess it was sleep deprivation, maybe a little viral thing and I think riding without a companion let my mind wander around by itself a lot which kept from being grounded in the event.

Another PBP in the books!