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