by DJ<\/p>\n
\tSad as it may be, here is my tale of PBP. <\/p>\n
\tVery soon after I started riding brevets I was advised that randoneur\tis an individual sport and that you need to ride it that way. If you\tand a friend each lose an hour to \u201cincidents\u201d you will be 2 hours\tbehind, however if you each ride individually you will each only be\tone hour behind. <\/p>\n
\tMy plan was to ride the 600 km to Brest in 30 hours, take 10 hours off\tat a hotel and then spend another 30 hours riding back to Paris. This\tleft a 10-hour cushion for the unexpected. <\/p>\n
\tI started out riding with a friend. She was going slowly and trying\tto get her to draught me didn\u2019t seem to help and riding on her rear\twheel seemed to annoy her so when the group we were in split I stayed\twith the lead portion, but kept watching her group in my mirror. <\/p>\n
\tWhen \u201cher\u201d group caught up to me she wasn\u2019t in it so I dropped back\tand just kept pedaling slowly. <\/p>\n
\tI finally came to a store that was open (uncommon in France on a\tSunday). I left the bike in an obvious spot so that she could see it\tand went in to by water, fruit, etc. When I came out I saw that a\tlarge truck had parked in front of my bike so she would not have been\table to see it or, quite possibly, the store. Now I didn\u2019t know if\tshe was ahead of me or behind me. <\/p>\n
\tI decided to carry on and came upon a French family that was offering\twater to the riders. I described my friend and they thought that she\thad already gone by so I carried on to the first check point. <\/p>\n
\tI didn\u2019t see her there so I grabbed a sandwich and a Coke and found a\tspot where I could see all of the arriving riders. I calculated that\tI had to be gone by midnight to be sure that I had sufficient time to\tget to the next check point in time. Midnight came and went without\tany sight of her so I pushed on to the second checkpoint. <\/p>\n
\tMy wife was at the second checkpoint and I learned that my friend was\thaving difficulty and that her husband had gone back to assist her.\tMy wife had been dropped at a local hotel earlier and she had walked\tto the checkpoint about when she thought that I would be there. We\tvisited a bit, she left and I went to leave. I realized that I didn\u2019t\thave my Control Book. My wife had been looking at it and kept it. <\/p>\n
\tI didn\u2019t know what hotel she was in or how to make contact and without\tthe Control Book I couldn\u2019t pass the next control point. <\/p>\n
\tI again waited until the last minute, texted my friend\u2019s husband that\tthey would have to get the book to the next control point and headed\tout again. <\/p>\n
\tI made good time, but nobody was there to meet me. With about 10\tminutes to spare my wife showed up with the book so I was back in the\trace. However, I had now been delayed so much that, in addition to no\tsleep, I was going to have to ride into another night before the turn\taround at Brest and the batteries for my lights weren\u2019t going to make\tit. My charger works in a vehicle so I gave them to my wife with\tinstructions to get them to me by the next check point. Given the\t\u201cgrief\u201d to that point I had second thoughts and took back the two that\tstill had some remaining charge, just in case. <\/p>\n
\tAt the next check point I received a text that they had had car\ttrouble and that I would not be getting my batteries until the next\tcheck point, which would put me well after dark. Thank goodness I had\theld back two of them. I put the weakest battery on the tail light in\tflash mode, which is against the rules in PBP but which uses less\tpower. I didn\u2019t use my bike lamp and only turned on my helmet lamp\twhen I was meeting someone, until it became so dark that I had to\tleave it on just to be able to see the road. <\/p>\n
\tGiven the dying battery situation I \u201crode like hell\u201d and made very\tgood time, getting in nearly an hour sooner than I had expected, only\tto receive a text that the car had quit all together, they had hired a\ttaxi and expected to be there in another 45 minutes. By now their\tcell phone batteries had died so they did not know that I was already\tat the control.\tI waited again until the time situation was desperate and decided to\tcheck at the actual Control Desk and yes there was a package for me,\tbatteries and a bunch of other possibly useful stuff, but not the\tclothes that I needed for riding on a cool rainy night. <\/p>\n
\tAbout 5 minutes out of town in didn\u2019t just rain it bloody poured. I\twas going downhill under 20 kph because I couldn\u2019t see to go any\tfaster. Somehow the rain was getting almost directly into my eyes,\tdespite the glasses. Without my proper gear I was absolutely soaked\tand the saddle really began to chafe my butt and any other body parts\tthat it was coming into contact with. <\/p>\n
\tI pulled into a closed gas station, took shelter under an overhang and\tdid some calculations. I still had 80 km to go to Brest and I was 4\thours away from cut-off. I couldn\u2019t imagine making any better than 20\tkph in the dark and the rain, but the possibility was there. However,\tthat would have put me at the half-way point, completely exhausted,\tsoaking wet, no time to sleep, trying to make up enough time to sleep,\twithout any real hope of dry clothes and it being unlikely that I had\tenough battery life to get through the next night. <\/p>\n
\tMaybe I\u2019m a wuss, maybe I will regret the decision, but I turned\taround, rode back to the last aid station, turned in my Control Book\tand caught the train to Paris. This just did not seem to be my year\tto do PBP. If there is a next time, it will be alone and unsupported. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by DJ Sad as it may be, here is my tale of PBP. Very soon after I started riding brevets I was advised that randoneur is an individual sport and that you need to ride it that way. If you …<\/p>\n