Friday Night Ride to....Paris-Brest-Paris

Some familiar faces on FNRTTC are taking part in the 1,200k Paris-Best-Paris ride starting tonight about 6pm (some start later and some start tomorrow). This is an epic challenge across northern France. Last time, in 2007, weather was terrible and about a third didn't finish. Completing this event is for many, the achievement of a lifetime. For me, even qualifying was too much!
You can track the progress of riders at this link:

http://www.paris-bre...ueil&page=edito

you need to insert the frame number of the rider you are tracking:
some frame numbers of FNRTTC people are here:

Frank9755 is 5649
Polepole is 5564
Hummers is 1889
Swarmcatcher is 5741 (She is also tweeting as Swarmcatcher so you follow her on Twitter).

If anyone knows the frame number of a familiar face, perhaps they could post it below and we could then follow them. Remember they start from 6pm onwards in batches of 500 at a time (there are 5,000 riders in all) and the first control is 140k from Paris so they might not start showing up on the electronic tracking system until early tomorrow morning. They get 90 hours to do the 1,200k. During those four days the lucky ones will get 8 hours sleep and the fastest will not sleep at all. Hummers' frame number suggests he has gone for the 80 hour slot. He will start tomorrow morning about 10am I think. He is, in the words of Stanley Unwin, a "fast rider gnarly-most".
Of course, on any future FNRTTC, the use of the phrase: "Of course, when I was doing PBP...." will result in an instant slap the the face. We mere mortals mustn't let these Gods Of The Cycling World flaunt their superhuman powers.

Els at Villaine-la-Juhel (221km) after 11 hours 33

Louise L is at Villaine-la-Juhel after 10 hours 57

Frank at Villaine-la-Juhel after 8 hours 45

Rimas (frame no. 1885) at Villaine-la-Juhel after 7 hours 45 minutes, Fougeres at 10 hours 58, Tinteniac at 13 hours 12. He seems to be moving at 27 kph.

WOW! Quite simply amazing stuff!

OMG - following people you know is utterly enthralling. Have even had to get a twitter account (something I thought I'd never do) and get Tweetdeck so I can follow how people are feeling as well just their times on the official site.
#pbpyacf seems to be the hashtag of choice.... hell - I had to learn what a hashtag was too !

Frank & Rimas do appear to have slowed quite dramatically. I wonder if this is terrain, weather or pacing. Els seems to have started slow - has she tweeted a problem or is she playing the tortoise gambit?

BTW Louise only came back to riding about 18 months ago. I remember passing her struggling up Ranmore Common. Now she leaves me standing. Won't get out of bed for less than 300km!

Amazing progress.

Are any of the CCers tweeting?

Yes Clive. Els is @swarm_catcher. Messages of encouragement go a long way I think. Add #pbp2011 if you like...

Ha ha - Rimas is three hours off the first day riding and he's only done about 550+kms - 350 miles... 'lightweight'!

the tracking site is clearly overloaded - I'm not getting a result

Hummers is next with about 450kms under his belt, and the others are cycling normally.

Bit worried about Els ... she has not yet shown up at FOUGERES.

Don't worry - she is making a beeline for it!

Actually, Stuart, she has missed that one out it seems! Tinteniac or whatever it is has shown on her 'count' (which is after Fougeres...)

Hopefully the tracking thing is for us 'spectators' and Fougeres is 'signed off' with the official stamp of control.

Meanwhile, Rimas and Hummers are somewhere near...
http://www.openrunne...x.php?id=751311

May be it clashed with 'lunch': http://twitter.com/#!/swarm_catcher

Looks like they've got some proper weather to contend with at the moment...

Won't they now be to the west of that? Tweets suggest they got it earlier and it is better now.

Indeed, some will be.