One Quarter PBP and

One Third Loire Valley Tour

by Gary Haynes

The following is my recollection from my attempt this past August to do a fourth PBP. Fellow SMW and veteran PBP riders Leonard Martin and Jim Burnett also went. The PBP, which stands for Paris-Brest-Paris, is a 1200 km (750 plus miles) organized semi-self sufficient enduro in which you can just poke along or flatout race, depending upon ones ambitions. There are time limits (90hr, 84 hr or 80hr) and intermediate checkpoints, called controlles, along the route. The rules do not allow follow vehicles, except at the controlles, and there are a few equipment rules such as front and rear lights and no areo bars allowed. There is no longer a fender rule but I and maybe 30% of the field still use them anyway. PBP happens every four years, and in the other years there are similar, though not as large, events in the US and other countries.

Aug. 21- Ella and I arrive at the Jetson-like Charles DeGaulle Airport about 7am. Nine hours later we straggle into the hotel at Villainnes La Juhel a city about 25 miles southwest of Paris. Making a long story short, it is very hard to negotiate the train system, which was partly out of order, with big luggage. I wished we had taken a ninety-dollar cab ride instead.

Aug. 22- Registration and bike inspection is routine except I wish for better French vocabulary; the better to tell off the nitpicky bike inspector. I see Leonard and a few of my cycling pals. Americans are the most numerous of the foreign contingent.

Aug. 24, 4am- Didn’t sleep much and I have a sore throat but I’m all set to go. Meet cycling acquaintance Dereck and ride two km to the start where several hundred others wait for the 5am start. And we’re off. Through deserted city streets, a long string of taillights and the talking in three or four different languages. Riders string out as we head into open country and morning light. Dereck drifts behind, then Jim looms ahead. Pass Jim and stop to eat at ninety miles. See Jim as I’m leaving, we talk a bit then I go on. The rest of day I ride with various chaps: an Australian, a couple of Danes, South Africans (one I’d met on a previous ride in the UK), a beer-drinking Frenchman on his seventh PBP, and finally in the evening behind a couple of Brits wearing curious T-shirts indicating they had raised money for Bibles during a ride across the US. My throat is worsening and now I’m feeling a bit feverish as I pulled into the Tinteniac controlle at 10:30pm.

Aug. 25, 12:01am- I decide I’m too sick to continue so I abandon the ride at Tinteniac. An Englishman who lives there advises me to take the bus to Rennes and then the train to Paris. I take a shower and sleep in a cot then in the morning ride to a bus stop, carry the bike on the bus (which is ok) and bus to Rennes train station. Immediately I notice here and there other hapless randonneurs up to the same thing. As I am sitting chatting with a bad knee-ed Swede and some similarly discomfited Frenchmen, an American approaches and asks if anyone would like to split a rental car with him. Soon, the Californian, Chris, and I load ours bikes in a Ford Focus hatchback and head off to pickup some gear he had dropped at an early controlle.

Aug. 25, 10:30pm- We finally got back to the hotel in Villaines. To make a long story short, don’t try to run the backroads without a Michelin map and the Focus is capable of cruising at 170km.

Aug. 27- It is interesting to watch the last finishers, some propping their heads up with one arm while riding, others in exuberant gangs carrying flags and banners, most with incredible joyous expressions.

Only Leonard made it round the full course, with a half-hour or so to spare. Jim had abandoned shortly after I had last seen him, from nausea at the very least, and typically rode himself back which turned out to be an ordeal but that’s another story.

Next month: Part Deux – The One Third Loire Tour