Paris-Brest-Paris 2011 Ride Report

Dad getting ready to head to the start Sunday afternoon

Caution, LONG, very long, but hey it is about 1200km of riding. Sorry, many photos from previous posts.

For Paris Brest Paris, after qualifying for the event the first thing you need to do is decide what start group you want to go with. The 80 hour group leaves at 5pm on Sunday, the 90 hour group starts leaving at 6pm on Sunday and the 84 hour group starts to leave at 5am on Monday morning. I choose the 84 hour group since I did not want to spend al day waiting around and then ride through the first night. The groups start in waves of about 500 riders, I missed being in the first group by 2 bikes and so had to wait an additional 15 minutes, not too bad considering that people that showed up for the 90 hour start 2 hours early only made the 4th group meaning that they waited around 3 hours to start.

My Waltworks prepped and mostly ready to go

Conveniently it started to rain about 5 minutes before the start. Many folks started to rummage around in their bags for more clothing, myself among them. Things started off mellow enough with a car and motorcycle leading out the group, they were to stay on the front for about the first 15-20 km to get us out of town. The relaxed attitude did not last long however and within 5 minutes of starting, with the car still in front and roads still wet, riders started trying to force their way forward only to have to slam on their brakes once they got to the front. I managed to keep myself out of trouble and towards the front through the start and figured that things would settle down and sort themselves out once we were out of town and left to our own devices and they sort of did.

Once clear of the car and town a pretty big group moved off the front because of the rolling nature of the course. In hind sight I probably should not have stayed with this group but I did. Rather than riding at a steady effort level there were a  few guys that really wanted to keep a certain pace, this meant riding extremely hard on the hills, soft peddling over the tops and coasting on the down hills. This of course leads to the group stringing out on the hills and collapsing on itself over the tops. I had read somewhere that if you qualify, make it to Paris and through the first 50km you are half way done with PBP. One rider in our group had a pretty bad crash in the opening 50km, I really only heard it to start with as it was behind me, but turned in time to see a riders skidding across the yellow line eventually getting his bar turned 90 degrees and flipping, it looked PAINFUL. 

One side effect of the crash was a reduction in size of the front group that continued to work poorly together. Eventually I played the roll of “little sister” and needed to pull over, amazingly after 2 hours out nobody else did so even though I rode to the front of the group and asked along the way I pulled over alone to water some grass. Eventually the second group on the road caught up to me and I joined in to pull the group along with 3 or 4 others and a bunch of hangers on. I had added a 3rd water bottle cage to my bike so I could avoid using a camelback and I was glad to have it as the first food and water stop was 140km in and I just made it, I now think that for a brevet bike 3 cages is mandatory if they fit on the frame. Though with the location of the bottle and the spacing to the front wheel I have to stop and pour the water into one of the other bottles, which again lead to the group riding away from me, c’est la vie.

After the start things are mostly a blur until the Loudeac sleep stop, lots of rolling hills, agricultural land, sunflower and corn fields, some nice forested areas as well. I also made one of my worst mistakes during this stretch, I had stopped to get out my “rain kit” (a garbage bag with 3 holes to make a vest, latex gloves, newspaper bags for the legs and a shower cap all stuffed into a small sandwich bag) after putting on the shower cap and putting the rest in the handle bar bag so as to have quicker access to it I rode off without zipping up my seat bag. I lost all my chamois cream for the day, tums, several packets of gel and the dark lenses for my glasses before my spare tail light fell out exploding on the road alerting me to the open bag. I also came very close to wrecking in a wet round about, coming into it far too fast and having to bunny hop onto the side walk then again over some rocks back onto the street going the right direction, definitely got my heart racing. At the Loudeac stop I ate a hot meal and tried to find my dad, he had started in the 5th wave of 90 hour riders and was due to leave about an hour or so after I’d arrived. It had taken me just over 19 hours to complete the first 450km which I was pretty happy with. I checked for him again after eating and noticed that his drop bag was gone which would mean that he had it somewhere. After changing into a clean kit and restocking food, cream etc, I did not take a shower since it had been raining off and on all day and was continuing to do so into the night, I headed back out.

I did not make it far, I have been trying to break in a new saddle for a few weeks and have not gotten completely used to it. I actually did not even make it back out to the road before turning around and rolling back to change my saddle, yes I brought a second. While doing this I noticed my dad’s bike and his drop bag still missing so after changing my saddle I looked around again and finally asked to check the sleep area for him since I had seen people that he rode in with leaving. The guy at the sleep area found him pretty quickly and a check of his sleep request showed that he wanted to be awoken at 1am to get back on the road, at this point it was 2:30am, OUCH, lost time is a killer. I finally headed back out into the rain to see how far I could make it without sleep as my dad got ready.

Sleeping on the tables

I was pretty groggy at this point and besides the rain and this being probably that hardest part of the course, two things of note happened during the next 40km to a food and sleep stop (but not a checkpoint). First is, I pulled onto a side road to take a leak and did not notice how much lower the side road was than the main road. When I tried to get back on and ride I did not push hard enough to make it back up onto the road and teetered into the tall wet grass on the side of the road, definitely time to get some sleep. The second was much more serious, though I did not think much of it at the time. There was a gas truck in the ditch on the side of the road and a couple of emergency vehicles at the bottom of a roller. It turns out that an american named Thai from the DC Rando group was killed during the night, probably not long before I went by, though I don’t know the exact circumstances. Really sad.

Dad crossing the bridge in Brest

Dad and I together at the Brest control

When I made it to the next stop I tried to just put my head down on the table without success and eventually went and got a bed in the gym. I had made it 490km in the first 24 hours. I woke about 30 minutes before I’d asked to be so just got dressed and on the road. The only thing I really remember from the morning is being hungry on the first bit headed out to Carhaix. After some food I perked up and started on the last leg out to Brest. Up until this point, besides the rain we had been really lucky with the weather. It was cool, foggy and the generally west wind had been from the northeast, meaning a cross tailwind, along with the rain. On this last stretch the prevailing west wind picked back up which made for a long grind, it did not help that there is something like a 25km gradual climb as well. Of course the start of the climb really did not seem like it was uphill until you noticed the riders going the opposite direction coasting and not slowing down. This is followed by an equally long downhill into Brest, a few rollers and it is across the bridge. Next you have to fight a never ending series of roundabouts along the coast and back up into town and the control. Thought there were several bands out play at intersections that helped get your mind off the repeated slowing and accelerating through the roundabouts. I arrived at about 3pm, it had taken just under 34 hours to make the outward bound journey.

I quickly made my way in and checked in and as I was headed to fill my bottles I ran into my dad again. He had passed me while I was “sleeping”. We decided to try and stay together for a bit and planned on stopping at a Creperie in a small town not too far out of Brest. In the town where the Creperie is we ran into Irene T. from Boulder and Deb who she was riding with and is planning on moving to Boulder. They had actually been riding with my dad off and on a bit and after convincing them that they had a bit more time than they thought to make the next check point they joined us for a nice light meal. After eating the long climb was a breeze, not to mention the west wind pushing us along. We made it into Carhaix in pretty good time and pressed onto Loudeac and another short night of rest. 

Waiting for our crepes

Rider sleeping on the side of the road, very common by the 3rd day

I again woke on my own before I had asked to be and just got ready to go. The whole 3rd and into the 4th day were kind of surreal. All sorts of things that you would never see in the US. Whole towns would be out with tents set up to feed and fuel the riders. Families, baby to grandma/pa, would be out on the street to cheer ALL the riders as they passed. There was a row of high school aged kids on a bridge making a ton of noise as you approached and did the wave as you passed (in the US you would be more likely to get stones thrown at you by such a group). Families would have tables out with water, soda, juice, beer and wine for the passing riders, they would even just leave the stuff out at night for passing riders. On top of that you have riders that can barely control their bikes weaving all over the place. Silver burritos laying on the side of the road next to bikes (you have to take an emergency blanket, not a rule but everyone does) and sleeping riders on park benches and in phone booths. Many of these riders had literally ridden until they fell over and just wrapped themselves up where they lay.

One thing that I had missed on the way out was the food at Tinteniac. I had not stopped to eat there since the hot food was upstairs and who wants to have to walk up stairs in the middle of a 1230km bike ride? However, in the morning I had not eaten at Loudeac before leaving and was starved by the time I made it to Tinteniac and so forced myself to walk up the stairs to the food which turned out to be the best hot food I had at a control. They had well marbled prime rib that was very tender with a mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes, which the sauce improved. Most of the hot food options at the controls were relatively bland which is good for the stomach but eventually you need something with more flavor. Rice, pasta and mashed potatoes where supplemented by boiled chicken, fish or pork and a mild sauce. Another thing was the drink choices, of course there was water, regular and carbonated, then there were the sodas and juices last there was the beer and wine, an unbelievable amount of which was consumed by riders during the event.

While it seemed as though everyone was suffering, I had gone through that on the first day, fighting cramps for well over 200km. I felt great on the 3rd day, not that I could get up and sprint up a hill, but I could grind out high steady speed and never seemed to get tired. Anyone who has ridden a truly long event with me knows that this is never the case and I usually fade big time so I wanted to milk the good feelings as long as I could. I actually had people telling me that if I slowed down and let them draft the whole way they would keep me company??? I on the other hand could already smell the finish which was still over 300km away. I was still getting passed on the hills by people that would sprint up them but then they were so tired that they could not get on when I would go by on the flats or downhill. Riding out of Villaines de Juhel I spent some time riding with a 17 year old local kid who was out for a quick training ride and was probably going to head back to the control to help out afterwards.

Just follow the signs

The next control is Montagne au Perche which was just a food stop on the way out. This was a pretty well stocked control and I was able to check on dad’s status with their internet connection which was nice. Again the whole town is out checking out the different bikes and helping to support the riders. It was at this point that I really started to beef up my caffein intake. I switched from 2 vitamin I’s to 1 and an Excedrine, from Orangina to Coke and from solids on the bike to caffeinated gel packs. On the bike I never felt tired but when I sat down to eat at the controls I would fade quickly. There were several big climbs out of Montague that slowed me down and by this time it was dark again so you just had to follow the bobbing lights. Of course the further I got from the control, there would be fewer and fewer lights on the road in front of me and more lights sleeping on the side of the road. This bit has several very long sections where you stay on the same road so there are not many route markers and I started to get nervous that maybe I had gotten off route. Every once in awhile I would catch another rider but there were no groups. Eventually 2 support motor bikes went by and that was a huge relief since it meant that I was indeed on the right road. Shortly after lots more riders started popping up in front of me. Apparently I had ridden through kind of a “dead” zone where people that would have been there had all stopped because of the time that they were at the previous control, or were already sleeping on the side of the road.

Pre-ride with the David's Salon girls

I pulled into the final control at Dreux at about 3:30am. They had some amazing chocolate croissants from a local bakery which I naturally had a few of along with coffee mixed with hot chocolate. The last bit started off flat and fast through farm land before entering some rollers and finally a hill of two in a wooded area. Eventually I popped out into the small local villages that surround the starting town of Saint Quentin en Yvelines (SQY). This was a section that dad and I had ridden prior to the start with the Dave’s Salon team, so I knew where to go and did not have any navigational worries. Arriving back at the start I finally rode round the dirt track to get to the line, before the event I had walked when on the dirt (you don’t want to have to deal with a flat before you even start), and into the arms of a waiting volunteer who thankfully helped me get my bike down the steep ramp to the track. I final grovel up the very large steps to the gymnasium and the finishing control by which point I’d gone from completely awake while on the bike to ready to fall over of exhaustion. I had finished right at 7am on Thursday morning finishing off a 24 hour 450km push from Loudeac back to SQY.

My tired packing job

After finishing I had to wait for dad. Having passed him at Tinteniac with 360km or more to go I did not really know when to expect him. I had been able to check on his progress at times when the controls had internet but one of the magnetic chip readers was not working so I kind of lost track of him since it did not record and update his position when he arrived at that control. Anyway, I had plenty to do with getting food in me and trying to check back into the hotel and being told I had to wait till at least noon. Then I decided to take apart and pack my bike which in my drained state took only 4 hours. Eventually one of the ladies from the David’s Salon group headed to the finish to await some members of their group and keep an eye out for my dad as well. We got a call back at the hotel at 4pm that my dad had finished, 92hours 44minute. Once he was back at the hotel I walked back into town, should not have taken the bike apart, to get some food which we inhaled before crashing out for a much needed full night of sleep. 

I really had no real expectations other than finishing, experiencing the event and seeing how my body reacted. In the future I think having a clear plan of going fast or taking my time would be better. Having finished with more than 10 hours to spare on the 84 hour time I obviously could have gotten quite a bit more sleep. Though I slept twice and woke up on my own both times so I’m not even sure how much more I’d be able to sleep if I tried. It is tempting to try the ride during the day method, where you do the first 450km to Loudeac then 330km to Brest and back, 310km from Loudeac to Montagne au Perche and a final 140km to finish, each day after the first starting at first light and hopefully finishing before dark. Though I don’t know how my legs would react to the long rests at night or if I would even be able to sleep through the night to make it worth while. The other option is to convince a couple of suckers (friends) to go with me and stay committed to staying together and working finish as quickly as possible.  

Some shots from PBP

Here are some photos my dad took before and during his PBP experience. I did not carry a camera figuring that I would not want to stop and use it.

The gymnasium during his check in was busier than during mine when there was no body there,

Here are people getting queued up to start on the running track,
One of the first controls, since he started at about 7:15pm he rode through the first night,
All the controls had cafeteria style food service, some better than others. Most were pretty bland, which was good for the stomach, but the one with prime rib made me want seconds, though over eating probably would have been bad. Back on point, the further along in the ride, the more people you saw like this,
Even though there were sleep rooms with mattresses and cots fro sleeping.

There were several spots out on course where there were photographers, but not here,
on the bridge in Brest not too far from the Brest control and right at the mid point of the ride.

Dad and I at the Brest control, Irene T from CO took the photo,

Relaxing at a creperie just outside of Brest on the return trip,
On the return, particularly the last 450 km this became an increasingly common sight,
Riders would stop where ever they could and pass out, at night most were using emergency blankets and it would have been hard to find a park bench or phone booth during the night.

Riders on their way to...
an example of the sign we were following.

More on our falls.

On the first night at about 4am so less than 24 hours in, I had passed dad at the Loudec sleep stop and had pulled over to take a leak on a little side road. The side road was a bit lower than the main road we were riding on and the last bit was pretty steep, I guess, since when I clipped back in and tried to push off back onto the main road I only made it part way there and fell over into the grass on the side of the road. It was a pretty soft landing, but made it obvious that I needed to get some sleep which I did at the next control about 15km up the road.

Dad's fall was on the last night. He was going uphill and the road was dark asphalt and the sidewalk as well, in between there was a low curb of light colored concrete that looked like a paint stripe. He caught his tires on this and fell. Later he had to replace his rear deraileur cable that broke. He had no trouble continuing to ride, but when he got to the finish he was having some trouble standing up straight and was pretty hunched over and of course walking like someone that that has just ridden 760 miles in 4 days. All that made it look pretty bad, but if you got past the jerky walking which everyone was suffering from he just looked like he needed to lay down and let his back rest which he did. I walked out and got us diner so he could relax and rest. This morning he is looking quite a bit better and is feeling it as well.

Dad

We are DONE

Both dad and I finished PBP!

Dad finished on Thursday afternoon at about 4 pm making his time about 92.5 hours.

I finished on Thursday morning as the sun was coming up, just under 74 hours after starting.

We even managed to ride together for about 160 km from Brest back to the main sleep stop.

We both took one fall, not a crash. Mine was mostly comical and a good sign it was time to take a break, dad's was a bit more serious, but he's fine and there is nothing to be concerned about.

Ride report to come later. Right now we have to get more sleep, pack bikes, dry cloths etc. for our 6am ride to the airport tomorrow morning.

PBP 2011, Dad is out on Course

So I just checked and dad has made it out onto the course. Here is a shot of him as he left the hotel to go to the start area and get in the queue,

The 90 hour group started leaving at 6pm (or possibly a bit later) in waves of 500 riders, dad got on course at 7:15pm.

PBP 2011 is about to Start

On Saturday dad headed to the ride start area to get checked in and I tagged along to see what the situation was. I did not make it very far because there were a bunch of people, bikes and you had to be checking in to get into the area, so I just headed back to the hotel to rest some more. This morning I headed back to the start area to check in and was somewhat surprised that there was no line whatsoever,

This is largely due to the fact that all the 80hr, 90hr and special bikes (5,000+)were checking in yesterday to start today and today was just the 84hr riders (less than 1,000?)

Here is my WW, for the most part PBP ready,
With a little treat on the back for after the ride,
I like porto which is usually red and when I ask about white porto people usually look at me like I'm crazy. I saw a bottle of it when dad and I were getting lunch at a small grocery store since most restaurants are closed on Sunday's and the store closed at 1pm as well, so I picked it up. I think, in general the white porto is less bitter and dry, not that the red is bitter or dry compared to most regular wine to begin with.

Anyway, time to head down to get dad off to the start. He starts tonight, Sunday sometime around 6pm here 6-9hours ahead of the US and I start tomorrow, Monday morning at 5am. PBP has rider tracking and we will be wearing ankle bands that will record our presence at each check point, you can follow at this PBP site, dad's frame number is 4459 and mine is 8224.

Friday Paris Tour and Quick Ride

On Friday, after all the walking around Versailles the previous day, we just wanted to rest. Given that we had signed up for the Paris tour that Clauss with Des Peres Travel puts on, and we had heard that it was a lot of driving around looking at things but not much time exploring, it seemed as though we would get to give our feet a rest.

After breakfast we met up with everyone from our hotel who was going on the trip and boarded the bus. Dad and I sat in the back with David Charlton of David's Salon which is a hairdressing chain in the Philippines. Now David must be one of the best bosses ever, David's Salon sponsors a race and club team. About a year ago, one of the girls on the race team brought PBP to his attention and he made the offer that anyone who qualified for PBP he would pay for their trip. In all honesty he only expected a few to make it, instead 10 members of the club qualified as well as the girl from the race team. On top of that David qualified as well despite having had heart bypass surgery a year and a half ago.

Any way, here are some shot from the tour, Arc de Triumphe

In front of the Eiffel Tower,
The worlds best or luckiest BOSS, David Chalton, and some of his girls,
City bikes, in Paris you can check out a bike and ride it for free for half an hour, then it is 1 euro per hour after,
Looking in the front of Notre Dame cathedral,
The back side of Notre Dame,
Man purse alert in front of the Louver,
After the tour we decided that we would get out and try to ride the start of the PBP route to loosen up the legs. One bad thing about going on the tour is that there was a CA rando group ride that went out in the morning and did this with leaders that knew where they were going. So we figured we were going out to get lost. The bike room at this point is getting pretty crowded here at the Holiday Inn,
The David's Salon team came out to get lost with us,
And, I made sure to get us lost, but then found again. We rode out about 15 miles and only missed one short section on the way out. On the return trip we followed the route correctly until we ran into a couple that had done the ride before and we followed them the rest of the way in, taking the roads that are the finish of PBP which is a bit different than the start.

PBP and Trip to Versailles

Today after breakfast most people headed off to see some sights. Dad and I caught the train to Versailles and walked to the Chateau. On the other hand, the Seattle Rando group apparently went for a 90 mile ride, guess they can't get enough.

In front of the entrance were these tall (22 meters) curved features on either side of the path.

The inscription said 85.5 X 16 which did not make much sense at the time. We had bought our tickets at the info center so we would not have to wait in line to buy them at the Chateau. Here is the line for people that had pre purchased tickets.
At least it moved quickly and we did not have to wait to buy the tickets and then get in this line.

Versailles is completely over the top, not unlike the Forbidden City in Beijing, but with different tastes. Here is dad taking a picture through the ornate front gate.
In China you hire a tour guide for about $15 for a specific location, here is our tour guide for Versailles,
In the opening corridor there are sculptures of loads of important figures from French history lining the walls and a couple of them are in repose.
The chapel with the over the top ceiling and organ,
The original "Hall of Mirrors", kind of like the play house ones but not quite.
Incredibly ornate carvings in the ceiling,
In China most of the interior work was done in wood and the marble was reserved for outdoor spaces, in Versailles there is tons of stone inside.

Military guarding the garden with with semi-automatic weapons,
It is striking the difference between the Asian gardens and the one at Versailles. In China it seems like they try to imitate what they like about nature for the gardens, while in Versailles they force nature into forms that suit what they want.
Here is another of the curved sculptures. This one 216.5 X 5, meaning there are 5, 216.5 degree arcs making up the sculpture.
More forcing nature into something it is not, which way do we go?
The garden is huge, if there was no one else there or you did not have a map it would be very easy to get lost. The shear size dictates special "tools" for the gardeners as well,
After we returned and rested we checked out the bike room here at the hotel. It is starting to get crowded,
There is a whole crew on matching bikes with matching bike boxes. They are from the Philippines and they are the David's Salon women's team. I guess David is a British ex-pat who runs a chain with 400 shops, in 2007 after PBP he offered to pay for the trip for any of his employees that rode and qualified.....not a bad job perk, in addition they will do a week long cycling tour of England after PBP is done.

We then checked out the bike room over at the main hotel, closer to the start than ours,
Bike boxes stacked to the ceiling and barely anywhere to walk. I have no idea how you would get your bike out if it was against the wall.

Paris Brest Paris Preparation

I had an interesting preparation for PBP this year, largely because of our trip to China from March 30th through July 13th. I had to ride the Arizona brevet series so I could finish the qualifying events before we left, only the 200km event had been run in New Mexico by the time we left. After completing the 600km event in Arizona with my dad on March 20th I stripped my bike and hung the frame since with a regional climbing competition the following weekend at Stone Age I was going to be route setting and not riding. I had managed to put in just shy of 2,000 miles in the first two and a half months of the year, stuff that I'd read says that you should aim for 5,000 plus by the time PBP rolls around.

Once in China I managed to find a couple of other guys that rode regularly, one even had an extra bike that fit reasonably well, though it was a hardtail mountain bike. I was able to get out a couple of times with him him before my parents came out to visit us in China for a couple of weeks at the beginning of June. We had a great time traveling with them and seeing a good bit of China. Once back in Dalian I just borrowed the bike for 2 weeks and rode as much as possible which at this point was pretty painful. Feeling heavy fatigue after 2 or 3 hours is not promising when looking at riding and event that will require me to peddle 50+ hours in 3 and a half days.

Once the end of June rolled around it was another 2 weeks off the bike as we left Dalian to travel with Linda's parents and do a little bit of climbing in Yangshuo. As soon as we got back to the US I picked up Chris's commuter bike and starting riding as much as possible which involve a very painful first 3 days suffering from jet lag, dehydration, extreme heat and general lack of fitness (not something you want in the middle/late part of July). I needed to get a ton of riding in in a short period of time since you want to rest for the couple of weeks before PBP.

On my second weekend back Dani was nice enough to drop me off in San Yisdro at 8am on his way to the Durango century and I rode out to Bloomfield about 125 miles away where Chris picked me up on his way out to the century. Then on Sunday I rode the century staying with the lead group until the steep hills in Farmington where I promptly exploded off the back of the group and proceeded to finish off the ride largely alone. There was a section of about 30 miles where I would have been happy to just lay down on the boiling pavement then get flipped 10 minutes later, bet I would have tasted good. Chris finished with the first group in 4:02, Dani with the second in 4:10 and I came in right at 5 hours out. All in all I thought it was a good weekend for me, even though there were times both days where I was really having trouble, but hey I'd only been back for just over a week. This weekend was also important because it marked the first 2 ride on a new frame that a friend built for me specifically for brevets and traveling. Here it is on the first day just outside of Cuba, New Mexico.

The next weekend involved getting a longer ride in than normal on Thursday of 45 miles then 60 very hilly miles on Friday in the East Mountain area. Saturday started at first light and involved a loop a had not ridden before. Heading down the Rio Grande valley past Belen and onto Hwy 60, then around to Mountainair and back into Albuquerque through the East Mountain area again for 155 miles. The best part was that I basically felt great the whole way. On Sunday I started quite early to get some riding in the dark in. I headed out to Santa Fe and back then around Tramway once I was back in town. Again I felt good for the whole ride. This weekend really made me feel good about my chances of finishing PBP, which is a good thing since I only had one more week before I needed to start riding less to let my body recover.

The last weekend was just getting an extra ride in on Friday. Starting in the dark again and heading from the house to the top of the Sandia crest and back down to Cedar Crest where Linda met up with me and we headed back up to do a 4 pitch climb in the Sandias. On Saturday, Dani and I headed out to Taos where we rode on the enchanted circle, though the circle itself is only 90 miles so we did the prettier 2/3rds of it and turned around an rode back for 120 miles over 4 mountain passes, 2 each way. Dani was still able to ride away from me pretty easily when things went up, but at the same time I felt like I could just peddle my pace for very long periods of time which is the important part.

I feel like I'm not as prepared as I'd like but I've still done enough and certainly as much as I could with the traveling that we got to do around China. All in all I think I'm at about 3,500 miles for the year so quite a bit short of where I should be, but not terrible considering there we 3 months where I rode a total of 3 times. I have no idea what to expect, how my body is going to react but am pretty confident that I can finish, though maybe not as fast as I'd like.

First Full Day In France

The Holiday Inn we are staying at is pretty nice. The rooms are small but the breakfast is great, especially the chocolate croissants. There are controllers for the air conditioning which I thought was on when we arrived yesterday, but it would not work at night, apparently the system is just being put in and will not be done till next week. The community is very welcoming and people ask if we are here for the event.

Today we spent most of our time with a few other riders from the US that are staying at the same hotel, Craig and Lori from different parts of CA who ride a tandem together on some events and Jim from Pittsburg. Craig has ridden PBP 3 times, Lori and Jim once each, last year in the rain.

After lunch we headed to the start area to make sure we knew where it was and could find it without much trouble when we needed to for bike check on Saturday and to get to the start on time. Here is the sign over the entrance taken of Lori.

In the morning we headed out to find the bike shop and while Craig and Lori had been there before we started out going the wrong way from the hotel and rode in a circle for awhile before putting the start town into Jim's GPS and heading off in the right direction. Once in the town we followed Craig and Lori to the shop. Here we are in front with Craig and one of the shop employees, Lori behind the camera.
Jim knew of an easy way to walk to the main shopping and eating area so we all followed him out later to get some diner. On the way we passed this custom t-shirt shop.
We all ate at an Italian restaurant together. Dad and I both got a fish dish that came with eggplant lasagna and BACON wrapped asparagus, YUM.
For lunch we just got the ubiquitous baguette sandwiches that you can get anywhere in France. So we managed to get a bit of riding in, more than we had planned, today and eat some pretty good food as well. Tomorrow, I think we are going to try to go to Versailles.