Paris Brest Paris 2015
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arallsopp
Post of The Year 2009 winner
- Location
- Bromley, Kent
Well done for pulling that together, and to the riders a huge chapeau. And I mean properly huge. Royal wedding / Ascot levels of silliness. Astounding.
martint235
Dog on a bike
- Location
- Welling
Absolute nutters the lot of you!!!! Incredible achievement and chapeau to all who finished and a huge well done to all those who managed to qualify and make it to the start in the first place!!
zigzag
Veteran
many thanks for the kind words of support and encouragement. this time i decided to race it and had a totally different experience than four years ago. it was super tough at times, but managed to get myself together and push right through to the finish without sleep. massive well done to all who took part, achieved (or attempted to) their goals - everyone's ride is a unique story. i'll write more when i get to it - there were some interesting moments at the sharp end! 
zigzag
Veteran
[QUOTE 3865240, member: 9609"]Amazing achievement - I'm seriously impressed!
did you take any rest periods ?[/QUOTE]
thank you! we took a longer break (almost an hour) at brest, where i had a sit down meal, brushed my teeth, had a leg massage, bike tyres pumped up..
all other stops were very brief. it's amazing how far the body can go when the mind tells it to.
did you take any rest periods ?[/QUOTE]
thank you! we took a longer break (almost an hour) at brest, where i had a sit down meal, brushed my teeth, had a leg massage, bike tyres pumped up..
all other stops were very brief. it's amazing how far the body can go when the mind tells it to.
w00hoo_kent
One of the 64K
- Location
- Maidstone or Greenwich
Really interested to hear about the mental side and effects of sleep deprivation. A minor reason for me stopping the motorbike version of this stuff was the temptation to push yourself dangerously into too fatigued, I guess you don't need to 'wake up' doing 70mph 6ft from a car bumper too many times for that though.
Amazing feats, all of you.
goody
Veteran
- Location
- Carshalton
Marcusjb deserves a mention in this thread not sure how he got on but he was riding fixed I think.
It was my first time, really enjoyed it just planned to finish then about half way round someone mentioned a 72 hour finish was possible so had to really push towards the end. I think that helped keep me focused. Strava says 53hrs moving and 18.5 faffing! Really want to have a go on a recumbent or one of those soap box wacky racers they look so fast downhill! Thought I might have taken too much clothing but ended up wearing all of it at the same time on the bit in and out of Brest didn't expect it to be that cold!
It was my first time, really enjoyed it just planned to finish then about half way round someone mentioned a 72 hour finish was possible so had to really push towards the end. I think that helped keep me focused. Strava says 53hrs moving and 18.5 faffing! Really want to have a go on a recumbent or one of those soap box wacky racers they look so fast downhill! Thought I might have taken too much clothing but ended up wearing all of it at the same time on the bit in and out of Brest didn't expect it to be that cold!
frank9755
Cyclist
- Location
- West London
Thanks everyone for the interest in our adventure!
I'll write something about my ride when I've got my thoughts together.
^ I met Marcusjb a couple of times on the way back and he was having a great time. He ended up helping a rider on a Brompton to get back in time.
^^ The mental side is the most part of it. People react in very different ways. The effort of cycling keeps you awake so you can push on much more than with a motor vehicle (and the risk is to yourself, not to others).
I cope quite well and can keep going for long periods without sleeping. However, I do get voices in my head, and hallucinations. Often they are quite amusing. My favourite ones this time were:
- on the climb through the Huelgoat forest after Carhaix, I 'saw' a rider in a white jersey standing having a pee at the side of the road. I thought 'that's a funny jersey, with the number 50 in the middle of his back, with a red circle round it'. Then I realised it was a speed limit sign!
- an aural hallucination (not had one of these before) - just before Dreux I was going up a small hill and heard a car in the distance behind me. There was a crow in the trees to my right and I heard it cawing, saying 'Car-up, Car-up!'
I'll write something about my ride when I've got my thoughts together.
^ I met Marcusjb a couple of times on the way back and he was having a great time. He ended up helping a rider on a Brompton to get back in time.
^^ The mental side is the most part of it. People react in very different ways. The effort of cycling keeps you awake so you can push on much more than with a motor vehicle (and the risk is to yourself, not to others).
I cope quite well and can keep going for long periods without sleeping. However, I do get voices in my head, and hallucinations. Often they are quite amusing. My favourite ones this time were:
- on the climb through the Huelgoat forest after Carhaix, I 'saw' a rider in a white jersey standing having a pee at the side of the road. I thought 'that's a funny jersey, with the number 50 in the middle of his back, with a red circle round it'. Then I realised it was a speed limit sign!
- an aural hallucination (not had one of these before) - just before Dreux I was going up a small hill and heard a car in the distance behind me. There was a crow in the trees to my right and I heard it cawing, saying 'Car-up, Car-up!'
Hill Wimp
Fair weathered,fair minded but easily persuaded.
Congratulations to you all. I have enjoyed checking into the thread to see how ìt was all going for you on this awesome challenge and look forward to your write ups.
DCLane
Found in the Yorkshire hills ...
- Location
- Dewsbury, West Yorkshire
My brief write up from Paris-Brest-Paris audax which I've realised was on YACF and Facebook but not here:; 1230km / 765 miles of French hills: https://www.strava.com/activities/373638879
The locals were great; riding through a dark, deserted village at 3am you'd hear "bon courage" called out.
Excellent registration. The mechanics looked at my bike and decided the creaking it had was due to the rear wheel. Their comment "not a problem, just annoying". I could do annoying.
The Sunday had crowds along the streets out of the velodrome. It was odd that they wouldn't let anyone into the compound with a bike after lunch, although bikes including mine were already there. Looking around there were a few British riders with kit and lots of others without any. I'd guess that about 75% of the Vedettes (fast riders under 80 hours time limit) had support teams.
Day 1 - mad start with the group D vedettes at 16:45; crazy Italians and French. First 300k done sub 12 hours after I decided to go slower at 120k.
Day 2 - a good day despite lots of hills and a 53:39 front ring. I made it into Brest for a short sleep just in the daylight.
Day 3 - woke after 6 hours realising the control never woke me! After that it was a day of keeping going after a series of early morning fast descents into the mist out of Brest. The controls were cleared quickly as I tried to spend only 5-15 minutes in each. As I'd already slept too much I rode through the night with a Croatian rider who had no lights. He'd been going downhill at 60km/h guided by starlight.
Between 250 and 1050k I kept being passed by a mad group of Swedish riders who were riding on beer power; weaving in and out whilst drunk. After a day and a half I pointed out that I was always ahead of them; they had a short discussion and decided the solution was more beer. I didn't see them after this so either it worked and they passed me whilst I was asleep in the field or they ended up in a ditch somewhere.
Day 4 - a short sleep in a field before Dreux after I started seeing things (blue flying chickens) and I picked up another D group rider I'd started with then time-trialled the last 15 miles.
I finished in 68 hours and 54 minutes, 3 hours earlier than my 'hoped for' time so I'm pleased as a first-timer. And my home-built Ridgeback Platinum worked perfectly for the entire ride.
The next one of these is in 2019 or the 1400km London-Edinburgh-London in 2017. Registration opens for that in September.
The locals were great; riding through a dark, deserted village at 3am you'd hear "bon courage" called out.
Excellent registration. The mechanics looked at my bike and decided the creaking it had was due to the rear wheel. Their comment "not a problem, just annoying". I could do annoying.
The Sunday had crowds along the streets out of the velodrome. It was odd that they wouldn't let anyone into the compound with a bike after lunch, although bikes including mine were already there. Looking around there were a few British riders with kit and lots of others without any. I'd guess that about 75% of the Vedettes (fast riders under 80 hours time limit) had support teams.
Day 1 - mad start with the group D vedettes at 16:45; crazy Italians and French. First 300k done sub 12 hours after I decided to go slower at 120k.
Day 2 - a good day despite lots of hills and a 53:39 front ring. I made it into Brest for a short sleep just in the daylight.
Day 3 - woke after 6 hours realising the control never woke me! After that it was a day of keeping going after a series of early morning fast descents into the mist out of Brest. The controls were cleared quickly as I tried to spend only 5-15 minutes in each. As I'd already slept too much I rode through the night with a Croatian rider who had no lights. He'd been going downhill at 60km/h guided by starlight.
Between 250 and 1050k I kept being passed by a mad group of Swedish riders who were riding on beer power; weaving in and out whilst drunk. After a day and a half I pointed out that I was always ahead of them; they had a short discussion and decided the solution was more beer. I didn't see them after this so either it worked and they passed me whilst I was asleep in the field or they ended up in a ditch somewhere.
Day 4 - a short sleep in a field before Dreux after I started seeing things (blue flying chickens) and I picked up another D group rider I'd started with then time-trialled the last 15 miles.
I finished in 68 hours and 54 minutes, 3 hours earlier than my 'hoped for' time so I'm pleased as a first-timer. And my home-built Ridgeback Platinum worked perfectly for the entire ride.
The next one of these is in 2019 or the 1400km London-Edinburgh-London in 2017. Registration opens for that in September.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
@mmmmartin, treat yourself to one of these.
@all you other nutters, have a couple, but flip the second one round. And if any of you are going to be on Sunday night's ferry back to Newhaven, see you there.
@all you other nutters, have a couple, but flip the second one round. And if any of you are going to be on Sunday night's ferry back to Newhaven, see you there.
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
Velomobiles do not look fast downhill. They are very fast downhill.
Quite a few of them finished in under 60 hours.