Been fun following this “race”. Local rider from where I’m at went there and just set the course record!
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Dude is seriously strong. He came to the East Coast and crushed a couple of 1200Ks last year like the rollers were nothing. Incredible how little time off the bike he had given the wackiness of doing the control stops in France. https://www.strava.com/activities/9696974996
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What is super funny about his incredibly fast time is this wonderful French rule…
Article 15: Homologation, DNFs and failure to comply with the time limits
Whatever the realized time, a brevet will not be homologated in less than 43h32 (this corresponds to an average speed of 28 km/h).
Interesting! In this video he linked to on Strava they mention the previous course record — I’m curious what the difference is?
Also apparently he didn’t sleep the entire ride 
Yeah, his plan from the get go was to not sleep at all. Goal was sub 50, and then that obviously changed to breaking the record.
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The first 15 riders in 2015 were faster than the minimum and many finishers over the years have ridden faster and been homologated. PBP has wide latitude for the spirit and intent of the rules.
You’ll also notice, every year there are a surprising amount of 90:00:00 finishers…
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Good to hear. I dislike when these events, done 100% for fun, are policed by anti-fun, wanna be lawyers. Have seen the full gamut of strictness in riding under different RBAs. 
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I’d love to hear ride reports from anyone on here who rode, too.
Here is a big collection of 2019 ride reports put together by a local friend who is still on the route. Mostly English language even though the majority of riders are not English speaking.
(I show up for a cameo in the af report by Cycling Intelligence.)
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I’m dot watching my husband and following a handful of other local randonneurs who I’ve met on brevets. It sounds like the heat got a lot of people. I’m hearing stories of Brest decathlon running out of any and all bike bags because so many people are DNF-ing and people using garbage bags and duct tape to “pack” the bikes so they can be transported back.
It’s the first PBP I’ve been close to and the staging area for the start waves on Sunday night was absolutely insane. Very cool to see. I still have no desire to ride this though!
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For some, it’s about performance goals, a time to beat, a race to be had with or against others and self; for others, it’s the pageantry and history of the oldest cycling event in existence, just getting to the start line an incredible feat alone; for some yet, it’s a wonderful once-in-four-years chance to meet up with 7,000 like-minded cyclists from around the world, sharing the roads of Western France for 90 hours through intense joy and shared mutual suffering. For me, it’s always been about the people.
The little towns setting up their stalls for riders to grab a coffee or a baguette, the farmers and townsfolk on the side of the road clapping and cheering through day and night, the little stall at La Tannière where Paul makes you delicious crepes at all hours all for the promise of a postcard mailed when you get back to whichever part of the world you’ll return to after the ride. For such a big event, emotions can run high, and sometimes catches you at unexpected moments. Like the clapping wheelchair-bound boy in his blue glasses, perhaps no more than six or seven who screamed when I cycled up to him to give him a souvenir pin (“Maman, maman!”) and his mother who raced back from the house to his side, her panic replaced with joy equal to his as I waved and cycled off, afraid to turn around lest they see the tears streaming down my face. Or the quartet of children chanting “Allez! Allez!” louder and louder as I approached to investigate their offerings. The mischievous little boy who became suddenly shy as I approached and asked for a photo, his laughing mother trying to coax him out from behind his older sibling. The little girl with the yellow sunflower dress who brought me to unexpected and sudden tears as I thought of my own little Maggie at home thousands of miles away. The little kid with hand extended, waiting for me to cycle by for what I imagine must be his town’s most satisfying high-five smack, and his brother right after with the bottle of water for me to grab.
It’s always interesting to me when the emotions hit at PBP, but they invariably do—perhaps it’s the intensity of the event, the sleep deprivation, the long four-year lead up, but it resets things for me, puts things into perspective, a catharsis of sorts. And so, while for some, the focus is on the physical and mental fortitude to suffer so that remains the focus of the event, for me it’s always about the the people.
It’ll always be about the people.
Thank you, Bretagne. You have been beautiful. Paris-Brest-Paris: Don’t let a 755-mile ride be the first time you test out a new saddle.
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What’s the story behind the new saddle?
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Looks like my friend @patch-tt fell for all the Infinity seat hype based on the pic. Folks that love 'em, really, really love 'em. And they are becoming as regularly seen as old school leather Brooks.
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Not much of a story, to be honest. I’d gotten a new saddle (as @mimod noticed, an Infinity saddle) and rode it around the block a bit to test it, then forgot to swap it out for my old saddle before I headed over to France. Whoa, that was a “fun” way to realise it’s not broken in and/or set up right yet. 
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Here is the full report from Nick DeHaan Athlete Post - Strava
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Paris-Brest-Paris Audax 2023: 1220km
The Audax that has been 2 years (and more) in the making. 2022 for simulation (SR series and London-Anglesey-London) and 2023 for an SR to qualify for the event. The time limit was 90 hours.
We started 6pm on Sunday night and the plan was to ride through and also Monday. Thanks to advice from Javier Arias Gonzalez the goal was to make Carhaix. Set off with a speedy group and then realised after an hour they were too fast for my bigger plan. I’d given myself a 1 hour stop at the Controls, which in hindsight was about right. Given I was riding in the bulge, there were queues for anything, food, toilets, stamps or sleeping. Staying awake the first night wasn’t bad at all and the day brought the first of 3 days with temps over 30C. The wind varied between Northerly and Easterly but oddly never seemed like a tailwind. I made Carhaix by Monday night 10:30pm at 515km. I think I got in 4 hours sleep with shower and food as well. Sleeping was on camper-beds and it took about 10 seconds to fall asleep.
Day 2 (Tue) I set off for Brest and arrived there at 9am. What wasn’t clear until the start, was that we had 40 hours to get there and then 50 hours to get back. Thankfully we only crossed the major climb once and came back a different route. A simple matter of now heading back to Rambouillet. Working my way now back though the controls it became testing again due to the day time temperatures. I made Quedillac for the 2nd night at 842km. I managed a supper, shower and slept for 3 hours on an inflatable mattress.
Into Day 3/4 (Wed/Thu) and the goal was further with the aim to get to Mortagne au Peche for night meaning a short distance to the finish Thursday. Fatigue due to the heat, hills and duration meant my average speed was around 20km/h. This ate into my planned sleep time. By the time I arrived there (1099km) I didn’t have much beyond my 3 hours buffer so carried on***. At about 4am I was much in need of sleep and took a 30min nap in a park in Crécy-Couvé. This gave some relief as I made the penultimate stop at Dreux. Here I met David Wong 
and we rode the last stage to finish together.
***Post ride analysis shows I “lost” an extra hour here and can only conclude I fell asleep at the table 
A truly amazing experience, too many to list but some as bars open all night for coffee, spectators on the route offering coffee or water or just cheering with “Courage” or “Bon Chance” or the hundreds of volunteers working at the controls.
My bike gave no problems and chain just needed a lube around halfway and tightened the derailleur barrel screw 2 turns to take up some cable slack**. Pleased to see all the Kingston Wheelers finished and many thanks to Javier for staying to welcome us all in.
**The rear gear cable snapped on the next ride after France! Lesson learned, replace cables before the event!
Kingston Wheelers Report
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