Paris - Brest - Paris 2019

NamelessPhil

Four years have passed, I've built up enough brownie points to be allowed go to this one.

There will be a good Irish contingent at this one. There are at least 64 from the island and a few more registered as Irish from other countries. There are at least 3 Boardsies taking part.

It starts on Sunday 18th with the 80 and 90 hour groups. The 84 hour groups start from 5am on the Monday.

It's the oldest long distance event in the world based on the 1891 race. Amateur participation started in the 1970s and this year there will be more than 7000 people from around the world taking part.

I'm in the last group Z leaving at 05:30 on the Monday. You can track my progress on the website here. https://www.paris-brest-paris.org/index2.php?lang=en&cat=randonnee&page=suivi_participants

Alternatively the organisers have linked to a tracking site here:
https://track.rtrt.me/e/PBP-2019#/tracker/RMR6FK3C

Tracking won't be live until Sunday. I'm rider Z219.

cdaly_

Rider T080 here.

NamelessPhil

https://dotwatcher.cc will be following some of us en route. I might have an actual tracker for the event.

There's lads who want to try and break the record, it'll be some people's first time riding 1200km. Some of us will just be happy to get round.

paul a newman

Starts today, 70 IRISH going in this, the largest audax event in the world, 6000 plus entrants have to cycle 1200k in less than 90 hrs. We generally have a high success rate in these events, and this event is seen as the blue ribbon of Audax or Randonneur cycling, Boardsies are represented by a couple of members, and I look forward to hearing about their exploits next week. Good luck to Conor, Helen and all.

NamelessPhil

Most of the Irish are off tonight. There are 12 of us in the early morning groups.

You can follow me here,just click on the map.

https://dotwatcher.cc/race/paris-brest-paris-2019

ED E

Its worth noting that the trackers aren't GPS enabled, they only register when they pass a beacon which are few and far between. Won't hit the first for a good while yet.

Best of luck to all talking part. Stay safe.

I'm highly surprised to see NamelessPhil is taking part.... said no one ever

smacl

ED E wrote: »

Its worth noting that the trackers aren't GPS enabled, they only register when they pass a beacon which are few and far between. Won't hit the first for a good while yet.

NP's tracker is enabled on dotwatcher updating every 60 seconds, from what I can see she's currently about 205km in not for from Villianes-la-Juhel.

smacl

Some of the commentary on dotwatcher is classic! NP at about 800k on dotwatcher, last update for _cdaly was Brest at midnight on official site.

magicbastarder

thanks for keeping us abrest of matters.
(sorry not sorry)

paul a newman

NP is going well and will finish in time, C Daly is going like an old mule, but will finish, hopefully inside time, Lewotsil is flying and will get in with 10 hrs to spare

Wishbone Ash

paul a newman wrote: »

NP is going well and will finish in time, C Daly is going like an old mule, but will finish, hopefully inside time, Lewotsil is flying and will get in with 10 hrs to spare

Paul - is Paul O'D doing it?

CramCycle

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Paul - is Paul O'D doing it?

He is, and appears to have got to the finish: https://track.rtrt.me/e/PBP-2019#/tracker/RMR6FK3C,R43KVFML

Mefistofelino

Looks like the wind is making it particularly tough going this year, with reports of a headwind out and particularly on the way back. Fastest rider this year was couple of hours slower than 2015 and I think the course is about 25-30km shorter than last time. I suspect there will be a larger percentage of riders "hors délai" than usual.

Its unusual to see the likes of Bjorn Lenhard - who did a 42 hour ride in 2015 - putting in a ~70 hour ride this time. Similarly Fiona Kolbinger, is taking it handy, relatively speaking. (Though then again in the past 4 weeks, she raced 4000km from the Black Sea to Brest, winning the TCR, then rode from Brest to Paris and started PBP).

CramCycle

Anyone here from cdaly, his tracker says still in Brest. i do remember the trackers are notorious for malfunctioning in previous editions so may mean nothing.

paul a newman

Wind has played havoc this year, there will be a significant rise in the level of DNFs, hopefully most of the Irish will finish, its looking like a 90% success rate at present, the Van Ronde de Cork crew are literally flying, as are the Orwell bunch with Lewotsil at the front, fingers crossed for them. Wishbone, its about time that you entered one ! London Edinburgh London 2021 is made for you, 1500k in 120 hrs, you'll fly it.

Wishbone Ash

CramCycle wrote: »

He is, and appears to have got to the finish: https://track.rtrt.me/e/PBP-2019#/tracker/RMR6FK3C,R43KVFML

He's something else!

(The wind certainly appears to be slowing things down. As far as I can recall, he was several hours quicker last time).

Mefistofelino

paul a newman wrote: »

Wishbone, its about time that you entered one ! London Edinburgh London 2021 is made for you, 1500k in 120 hrs, you'll fly it.

You're going to be in trouble for not plugging next years WAWA!

paul a newman

he got the noddies on the first night, and is finding it hard to make up the time, so he will finish , but out of time sadly.

Roadtoad

Orwell bunch at the penultimate clock after 75ish hours, with 110 km to go.
A dark finish or rest up and cruise in tomorrow?

ED E

Current rest described as "napping" so looks like they'll be mobile again soon Im sure.

06:53
Thursday 22 August 2019 (GMT+2)
Sunrise in Paris, France

They'll be sub 20kph so that might line up nicely.

GabbaTheHutt

Roadtoad wrote: »

Orwell bunch at the penultimate clock after 75ish hours, with 110 km to go.
A dark finish or rest up and cruise in tomorrow?

Current plan is to sleep at the Dreux and "cruise" in to the finish in daylight. Hopeful of an 11.30am (ish) finish all going well

NamelessPhil

I quit at 5am this morning at Villanes. I'd had feck all sleep in the last 72 hours, about 4 hours total and none of it in one block. My mouth is full of mouth ulcers so eating is difficult.

My legs and bike are grand but I was dozing on descents and I didn't want to end up under a truck or in a ditch.

I'm currently getting a lift back to the start with a Canadian and an American who I'd met in a restaurant at the start. Irish charm wins again.

Mefistofelino

Hard luck, NP but definitely the safer option.

It's not like you have anything to prove at this audax malarkey.

NamelessPhil

It just brings another dimension to my narrative. I don't set out to prove anything to anyone. These rides are for my own enjoyment and that had gone.

buffalo

NamelessPhil wrote: »

I quit at 5am this morning at Villanes. I'd had feck all sleep in the last 72 hours, about 4 hours total and none of it in one block. My mouth is full of mouth ulcers so eating is difficult.

My legs and bike are grand but I was dozing on descents and I didn't want to end up under a truck or in a ditch.

I'm currently getting a lift back to the start with a Canadian and an American who I'd met in a restaurant at the start. Irish charm wins again.

As you say - you've nothing to prove, so if you're not getting any satisfaction from it and potentially putting your health at risk, you made the right decision. Well done to you for doing all that you did, quality ride!

Roadtoad

NamelessPhil wrote: »

I quit at 5am this morning at Villanes. .............

My legs and bike are grand ...........

............Irish charm wins again.

Since when does cycling the equivalent of five Wicklow 200's non stop count as a 'quit'?

Glad the bike is OK, and your charm hasn't been left behind!

cdaly_

My ride finished at 900km. I had started out well enough but was really slow climbing. That, combined with a pretty steady headwind throughout, meant that I reached Brest 11 hours outside of my time limit. With the choice of hanging around Brest to try to get the bike on a train (along with a couple of hundred other cyclists) or pedalling back, I opted to pedal. By this time my average rolling speed was around 14.7kph but my on the ground speed was more like 10kph!

I carried on the return trip as far as Tinteniac where, according to my calculations, I would require another 32 hours to complete the ride and would at that point have missed my train/boat home. So I chose to quit the ride with almost 900k done. There was a railway station 10k away at Dingé with two trains per day so I headed down there and took 5 trains back to my hotel near Trappes. Approximately 9 hours on the train!

Was a super ride, gorgeous scenery, hills galore. The hammock and bivvy bag proved their value with about 1.5hr rests each night (swinging in a bus shelter, dangling from the railing of a church's wheelchair ramp etc). I guess I'll just have to ride 1500k in 2023...