Notes on a great ride...

It took a few days to adjust to the French road signs, streets, and traffic signals. We were staying about 3 miles out of town so had to bike to town to eat, visit with the rest of the Davis Bike Club, and bike to and from the PBP staging area. Cars were for the most part very patient with bike traffic on the road. In fact, many French riders just took the slow lane altogether rather than what I'm used to which is stay to the far right of the slow lane. My Barcroft made the flight ok and I was finishing the adjustments by riding with groups of people out into the countryside and returning via the somewhat complicated return to the finish line. We did this a few times so as not to get confused returning after 745 miles.

The heat wave had broken by this time so temps were moderate. In fact, it was raining Monday morning, the day of the tour start. Having done a few ultra rides in the rain, I decided to forgo bringing rain gear as it just forestalls the inevitable soaking that you get after several hrs of riding. I have a poly longsleeve and a windbreaker and that seems to do the job. I packed a mylar emergency blanket in case there were significant problems.

Toward evening (after getting a 5hr mid-day nap) rain was gone and I finished loading my bike. My customized, 25lb Barcroft Virginia was now a 42lb truck with all the extra gear and food (including 10 BPJ sandwiches). I flipped on the lights and headed out toward the 9:45PM start. It was a madhouse there with at least two thousand bikes milling around trying to get ready for the 10PM road bike start. We recumbents were lucky to get a 15 min headstart as we were fast-tracked to our positions at the head of the mass. There were many great rigs in our group of maybe 150 participants. Several Barrons, a couple of Greenspeed trikes, a trike tandem, several old English SWB's, several streamliners, a rowing-bike, and a push scooter from Finland (see pics in photos Villaines de Juhel).

At the 9:45 start, we were off with an escort for the first 14Km. The music coming out of the escort van was some type of Bagpipe March and was very appropriate. Two motorcycles were also ahead tripping the signals. Spectators by the side of the road and on overpasses were waving and shouting encouragement to our group. Something I've never experienced before as a biker and something I will never forget. We made it out of town and into the countryside when the escort peeled off and left us to set out own pace. I stayed toward the front of the group but watched a gang of 10 or so break and set a rather brisk pace. I could see the red lights for an hour or so before they were completely gone into the night. I kept my 16+mph pace knowing it was a long ride and not being sure what it would take to finish. As it stood, I was planning on keeping a strong pace for the first half then taking my time coming back to the start (catch some beers & cheese).

Having done 400 mi at a sitting, I felt confident I'd make it to the coast OK. Just wasn't sure about the return! Finding your pace and riding can by hypnotic, and having to pee, I finally pulled over at 100Km or 4hrs. I'd been drinking ok and had been eating sandwiches every 1 1/2 hrs. After about 8 of them, though, I couldn't think of touching another one and so moved to eating chocolate cookies.

First Controle (rest stop) was at 141Km where I refilled the Camelback. It was just after 3AM, and my pace felt good. There were other bikes there but not the madding crowds that I heard so much of. In fact, only one group of about 12 DF's from the 10PM start rolled past us - the rest were at our heals. After 5 min, back on the road and into the night. The Cateye EL-300 LED light worked well enough for speeds below 20MPH. I had a 10W nightowl for anything faster and, though battery life for it was 4hr, it made it to the finish w/o new batteries.

Villanes le Juhel was the next controle at 223 Km. Rolled in after sunrise and stopped to get my Brevet card stamped (mandatory) and for some food. 10 min later back to the bike where a bunch of people were standing looking at the bike. None spoke English, but tried their best to communicate their interest in the mesh seat, High BB, BeBops, and the adjustable carbon cranks (Murray 'tour De Force' cranks set at 168mm). This was to be repeated for the remainder of the rest stops. I had a couple of people sit on the bike to test the riding position, gave a couple of interviews, and, in general, got a lot of attention.

Riding toward Brest, through all these villages, was magical. Villagers were waving from the street, Cafe's, out of windows of their stone houses. There were small reflective arrows posted here and there which helped get us through the roundabouts and narrow streets of each village. Even though I was riding with other people, it was hard to visit with them given the 'bent's propensity of going slower on the climb (esp at 42 lbs) and faster on the descents. Occasionally, I'd hear English being spoken and hang with that group for awhile. Usually it was Aussies or Englanderrs and we'd have a good chat. Getting to the Coast by 2-3AM Wed was my original goal, but it started looking as if it could be Tues PM if I stayed strong. This 1200K event was a whole lot of fun and I was looking forward to a shower, a good night's sleep, and a casual ride back. It started getting dark after Carhaix, and I finally started feeling tired. Rolled into the City of Brest just after 11PM but it took til 11:45 to get to the Controle where I parked, got the card stamped, and had a beer and baguette. Paid 1.5 Euro for a shower, 3 Euro for a blanket and a cot with a wake up slated for 6AM then went to sleep. The attendant woke me at 6 but, as I was now on lazy-mode, I slept an extra hr. Got out of the sleeping room, where another 100-150 people were still sawing logs, and got ready to go when I ran into John from the Hotel Voisson where we all were staying. He had just finished a 2 hr sleep and was ready for breakfast as well. As the breakfast line was pretty long at that point, we chose to start back and catch a cafe along the way. During this time John expressed his interest in heading back at a brisk pace and have beers after the finish. After thinking about this for maybe 3 seconds, I decided to change plans and ride back brisk and just see how it goes. After all, I was feeling pretty good after a solid night's sleep. We took off together though he left me on the big climb out of Brest and once again I was on my own. Amazing thing, though, during the climb both Tim W and Reid went by on the descent and yelled. I didn't see Reid, but Yelled "Timmy" as I saw him rip the descent toward the coast. I was feeling pretty fresh and kept my pace up for a good part of the day. Late in the day entering Tinteniac and the 860Km point I was fading a little but what really caught me by surprise was that my knees were starting to hurt. It was a patelo-femoral syndrom that I had not experienced before. My kneecaps were hurting more during the night and I was not able to keep my pace up nor my body heat up and was getting really cold. I finally stopped at Villanes le Juhel Controle at 3AM to get some sleep, but after 3 hrs there decided to move on albeit more slowly. It was a misty, cool Thursday morning and after the sun came up, I started having moments w/o knee pain and was getting hopeful that it would pass. By 10AM the pain was mostly gone and I was s close to my original pace though the climbs were still tender! It was difficult to find markets and my food stash would not quite get me to the next controle so I lagged in to both Mortagne au Perche and Nogent le Roi. The tailwind that came up was greatly appreciated and upped everyone's pace at this point as well as their spirits knowing that we were all going to come in before dark. The last 50 Km was familiar as this was the part of the route we pre-rode several times and it was exciting to know exactly how many humps and towns there were before the finish! The humps, however, were taller and steeper that my legs remembered! Came in at a good clip with 4 others one who was in the 84 hr group and was going to come in under 59 hrs. He was pretty excited about that. I was jazzed about the possibility of coming in under 66 hrs. It turns out that red lights can really slow you down and I ended up getting in 66:12 which I was still very happy with.

The French did a great job hosting this event and I would recommend it to anyone interested in 1200K rides.