Paris-Brest-Paris is a cycling spectacle like no other. Once every 4 years, over 7,000 cyclists from across the globe head to France’s capital to take on this gruelling 1200 km.
Thousands of spectators flock to the roadsides of North-West France to support the riders; some of whom will be attempting to finish first, riding non-stop for over 48 hours, whilst others are just trying to make it back to Paris before the 90 hour cut off time.
We follow British amateur riders Jack Thurston and Amy Hudson as they tackle this monumental challenge for the first time, along with veteran French rider Dominique Lamouller, racing Paris-Brest-Paris for the 13th time, along with his son, ex-pro road racer Loïc Lamouller.
A gruelling course, intense heat, and sleep deprivation, will our riders make it back to Paris?
Paris press Paris is a 1,200 km bike ride it’s about 7,000 Riders who Converge on the chatau at ruer along the way have to pass through checkpoints you’ll have like little places and you have to go either get a stamp it’s quite old fashioned but I love that about
It older than the tour to France it’s older than par Ru I said to my husband that’s my next challenge Paris bre Paris is the challenge against yourself C literally every pedal is hurting right now but I’m trying to ignore it but it’s not working I will not not finish unless
Something really bad happens I don’t know if I can physically keep sitting on this saddle I was so drowsy I couldn’t hold the line yeah just need to sleep now Paris PR Paris is a link to the very earliest days of bicycling it’s older than the Tor of fr
It’s older than par Ru you could say it is the oldest bicycle event in the world the day before the start there’s about 7,000 Riders who Converge on the chatau at Romer to collect the things they need for the ride and to sign on officially and there’s about 60 70 nationalities represented
I’ve thought about why I want to do Paris press Paris a lot when I’ve been preparing for it Paris press Paris has kind of been on my radar for probably about 15 years and it’s something that I never thought I would be able to do or
I’d even want to do it just looked too extreme too brutal just not my kind of cycling at at all but I’m doing it Paris press Paris is a 1,200 km bike ride that about 7,000 people do every four years it goes back to 1891 when it
Was a professional bike race at the time when bike racing was something really quite new and it has continued throughout the 20th century to what it is today the basic principle is that you’ve got a certain amount of time in my case 9 hours to complete the distance of
1,200 km and along the way you have to pass through checkpoints at about every 100 or so kilom this is a steel bike kind of lightweight Road Bike Tour I know how to operate a bike like this so if I’m stuck on the side of the road 2
In the morning completely sleep deprived I can have a good shot at fixing it in here we’ve got change of shorts a little travel towel in case I get a chance for a shower that’s my sleeping mat you know the idea of just having a couple of
Hours really good quality sleep on a mat is quite appealing to me then up front I’ve got in here it’s going to be things that I need all the time like wallet sunglasses probably a bit of food up here the Wahoo which should keep me informed of my progress this cable comes
In from the Dynamo on the front hub there which Powers the lights but it will also using this little device be able to run a cable into the Wahoo and into my phone to keep that charged up if I need to Dynamo is just magic like you know like all the
Time Paris press Paris is the challenge against yourself you’re not ready racing against other people apart from a very few people at the front end who are the really fit and fast ones who are trying to be first back okay okay Che for for for fore for for for breast for
I was reading a book about the history of cycling and uh there was this thing like Paris bre Paris and I was I said to my husband I was like that’s my next challenge and here we are like two years later and I’m sat here and he’s doing it
With me now cuz he got the book too I was working as a mental health nurse um and I was really really struggling in that job and I’ve always sort of struggled with anxiety and I’ve had an eat and disorder in the past and I don’t
Know whether it was lockdown or just the stress of the job in general but I just started getting ill again but in the end my mental health got so bad that I had to leave my job without my family and without my bike I don’t know where I’d be that’s the
Honest so I’m on my canondale top Stones it’s actually a gravel bike which is a little bit different um it is carbon I found it really comfy cuz it’s got a little bit of suspension on the back it’s called Kingpin suspension it’s really weird it’s like in the back so
You just have a little bit of movement my dad took me to Scotland and we did the North Coast 500 with no cleats and no light C and nothing and that was in September 2021 so that was my first proper like bike trip and I went on that
Trip and it was like the first time in what I don’t know for how long I could remember that I had no worries I had therapy at the time but nothing compared to being out on the bike if I didn’t have the bike to like clear my mind I
Don’t I don’t know what I would have done so I’m riding with my husband for this it’s just me and him yeah so that’s my story on Sunday the 20th of August 2023 after 4 years of anticipation it’s finally the start of the 20th edition of Paris breast
Paris the first Riders start at 4:00 in the afternoon and these are the Vets the star Riders the ones who think they’re fast and want to get back within 80 hours and it progresses through the afternoon with the unusual bicycles the people on tandems and velomobiles and
Then the 90 hour Group which is the biggest group starts around about 6:00 in the evening and they start in groups of 300 right the way up until about 9:00 in the evening vol group on tereng for 2 1 the average age of riders is 51 this
Isn’t a race it’s a challenge to complete the distance in the time that’s allocated to you to do it you’re not against people you’re you’re with people and everyone’s trying to encourage each other to succeed rather than try and push ahead of other people it’s totally exciting looking
Around here seeing so many different people I’ve never seen so many people on bikes in one place you see people from the Philippines and Malaysia America Canada I mean all kinds of people I’m really looking forward to hopefully having a chance to talk with people on
The road and just I get to know people that you’d never normally meet unless you are doing something crazy like this my group group P started at 7:45 and it was a huge relief that the temperature had started to ease off a bit because it was absolutely roasting during the day
The nature of the event is that you essentially are looking at the next control checkpoint that’s where you’ve got to get to that’s your Target and in those checkpoints you get a stamp on your little brev card and you carry on to the next one you might get a food
Water have asleep if you like but the clock never stops the main thing is not to think of the entire distance of what you’ve got to go cuz that just kill you fore 15 minute stop and a sandwich and I found my friend and then we’re going to head back out
Onto the road and wh this first control point and this TVP so at the checkpoints it’s evident there are two kinds of riders there are those who get some food catch up with their friends and there are those who just want to get the stamp fill their bottles and get back on the
Road some Riders have a support crew they’re not allowed to drive along the Route but they will meet their Rider at the control checkpoints and give them food water and make sure that everything goes smoothly no the following morning at 5: in the morning the 84h hour group the people
Who want to uh hide away from the crowds and uh not have to ride through the first night start because it was like pitch black it was kind quite hard to see like what was actually around us so for me like when I Envision the start line it was just
Loads of cyclists in hi’s jackets let’s go I was so nervous but it was so dark and there was just like lights everywhere and I was just like oh my goodness this is actually real now kind of sunk in because the whole way there it was 2 years ago when I found
Out about this ride so I’ve been building it up and then it’s like oh my goodness we’re actually here like the whole way we were even traveling there it didn’t really feel real after a while like all the groups split up a little bit and we found
Ourselves in a group of about 20 and it was quite nice that we got chatting to people from America Ireland all over the place for B for keep should physique cardiac respirator for fore fore spe for we’re at the first official control it is 12:51 in the p.m and we have done 125
Maloney AKA 202 km yes I am working in Miles because is just what I like to work it I can’t get my head around it yeah let’s go and get our Brey stamps bling neck at the other control we thought we had to get a stamp but we
Didn’t need to there barbecue going on guys’s eyes are lit up your eyes are lit up like that aren’t they jamb I’m actually hungry ooh let’s go get some food right stamp first then food where’s the stamp not the first stamping that come this morning very nice St to say look
How big it is and I’ve got oh that’s yours how’s got ham and cheese and I’ve got a jambon AKA and I hambur oh yeah we don’t want to stop too long at the control points because we don’t want to be like waste not that we were racing
It but we don’t want to like waste too much time we’d rather stop at the little stores along the way with like people that have come out from France in their little Villages that was really nice so yeah we tried to be quite quick at the control points and then spend more time
Enjoying the atmosphere on the road Mery Mery getting our water TOS out thank you so much myy it’s very hot Tre show I don’t even know what degrees is it I think 27 feels feels hotter I’m on the road to lodc that’s the next control which is 42 km
Away and I just passed the 400 km Mark for the ride so far I’ve ridden through the night um I’ve been up for 36 hours without having any sleep and it’s the heat of the day so I’m actually going to look out for a spot where I can lay my head down under
A Shady Tree I found what looks like a good spot to have a lie down so I’ve just come off the road because it’s 4:00 but it’s boiling hot here and I think um my progress will be best served by having um a bit of shut ey just 40 Winks or so
I’ve had about 35 minutes shat ey and just woke up I think it’s probably time to move on and before I fell asleep just as I was lying down the most extraordinary thing happened this old gentleman walked into the field came up to me said are you all right and he
Filled up my water water bottles he seemed to know a lot about it all so I asked him if he’d ever done Paris breast Paris himself and he said yes seven times epitomizes what is great about this event it’s just that it’s embraced by ordinary people who live here and
They want to help you out as simple as that 182 millon Down control Point numo D it’s actually numo TW but it’s the second one that we need s oh car just thrown his in tube in the bin car we could have fixed that I a’t got time for
That got time for that today oh we at the control it’s time to get a little stamp once we started riding and we started like talking to the cyclist and then we remembered like this is an aax it’s not actually a race that feels good a long time in the come you have
The time limit to do it in and it doesn’t like as long as you do it in the time limit you’ve completed it and to be honest even if it takes you over the time limit there were people that still completed it and I think you know
They’re no less of a cyclist than someone that’s raced it anyone that completes it but every time you do PBP from what I’ve heard it’s like a completely different experience and I like we’re only going to have this experience in 2023 like this one time and it’s our
First time doing it and we’ve got other years when we can go and race around it if we want to but I just felt like when I started cycling I was like this is our first time doing it and I want to really embrace it and take it in and all
Expectations about how fast we’re going to do it in just went out the window as soon as we saw like how many cyclists there were and like what a celebration it is and everyone coming out of the houses to cheer us on and like little kids coming like spraying us with sun
Cream and spraying us with water guns like I didn’t just want to ride past and be focused on a time so we let that go out the window and we just stopped at the little stores and enjoyed it there’s the golden hour on the road to car the next control everything’s looking very
Beautiful right now the heat has gone out of the Sun and it’s just casting most beautiful light over the landscape as we rolled out across the flat Farm fields of France the sun was dipping to the west and we were riding into a beautiful sunset most of the controls have a place
You can put your head down get a bit of sleep have a shower and there’s even a wakeup service so you don’t oversleep but for me tonight I’m pushing on foree it’s 10 to midnight we’re about 10 miles let control we’re both quite tired and we just thought let’s just stop and
Sleep cuz no point keeping going for another 10 miles we’re both knick-knack so we’ve got a lovely spot of grass down here can’t even see it so going to get our bivy bag and sleeping bags out and get about 3 and a half hours Kip until
Go just throwing his sleeping B on the floor until um half three so let’s do this foreign fore spee spee fore fore fore I arrive at car around about midnight 500 km into the ride with no sleep so far the fatigue is really starting to
Set in and I push on for my second sleepless night the legs are still operating going to make time and uh yeah do like 90k to breast have a lie down there whenever we get there and then uh come back that’ll be halfway had just a bit nervous about a
Second night only having had half an hour sleep if I get sleepy I will just lie down by the side of the road and have a cat app but uh yeah yeah feeling good at the about 3: in the morning and start nodding off two hours later about halfast 2 in
The morning the hammer came down it was I was so drowsy I couldn’t hold the line in the road I felt like I was going off into the Verge I was hallucinating freely I could turn anything I could see into anything else ah I’m really tired and I don’t feel actually very
Safe cycling um just cuz just really tired so I’m going to lie down here on the side of the road well on a Verge and um have an hour’s sleep and hopefully that will refresh me and I’ll be able to get to breast but uh yeah just need to sleep now just
Really need to sleep I said to myself and i’ said to my family I’m not going to risk myself the most common accident on Paris press Paris is someone being sleepy and just going off the road into the Verge and crashing and I said that was not going to happen to
Me we’re 435 km in it is 4:22 in the a.m. we’re going to get our brav stamped again let see I made it to the control at breast which is the halfway point Paris breast now have to just cycle back to Paris that was a rough night for
So just as we arriving into breast car fell off his bike into a bsh lost his sunglasses which he didn’t realize until we got to the control and then we we got there and we were happy but that feeling it was just kind of like it was weird
Because we’ done 600k but I didn’t get that feeling of oh we’re halfway I think I was just really hot and tired and I was just like I just want something to eat okay so hot it didn’t really hit me that we were over halfway until we came out on the
Way out of the city there’s this beautiful bridge that you cross everyone even those who are going for a fast time had to stop take take a photograph because that is the symbol of making the turn and heading back to where you’ve come from but then you realize you’ve still
Got 90 km to go to get back to car and then 400 km on top of that so you just don’t think too much about the distance you just think about the distance to the next control the last 30 km of the day I decided I’m
Going to take an early night tonight and get up in the dark tomorrow morning to make the most of the cool air Sun’s going down feeling good just enjoying it taking it steady the jacket is on night is coming it’s business time climbing up into the night still really hot been night time
Riding well I definitely don’t feel alone we’ve C caught up with a bulge now so there’s a lot of the 90 hour riders with us so from the 600k to the 800k mark my achilles started to really start to niggle and in my head I was like oh
No this is just going to make it so much harder now it wasn’t excruciating pain but it was just I could feel it and every pedal I could feel it I’ve never had this injury before there’s nothing I can do just got to keep riding literally every pedal
Is hurting right now but there’s nothing I can do so I’m just going to keep going I’m cycling through a town called kadak and it’s qu to 5: in the morning had what counts as a decent night sleep 9 km away from the control at Tac
There’s about 300 70 km left to the Finish 6:39 in the a.m. and we’re back at tinac aka the control Point KY just getting himself some water you right Kyle he’s got a stone out out don’t forget put the bikes o I feel a bit do L
Right you want to do stamp first toilet then food yeah I’m desperate for our way and also in my head I was like what happens if I was worried in case I was like doing some like bad damage to it because I was like I don’t want to come
Out of this with a really bad injury that then means I can’t ride for ages because riding is like my passion like what I do if I’m not working I’m riding it’s quite cold this morning I’m really glad I brought my haded jacket even though I’m probably
Going to get to wear it until the sun’s really up oh 300 km I go from one moment where I think oh that’s totally doable and uh another moment I think oh you know what it’s quite a lot we have to grind that one out which which will it be well done keep
Going only three more left to go for oh crap yay my leg is actually hurting every pedal now so you’ll get I’ll get some more we’re hoping if we can try and finish by half three before half 3 in the morning then it be under 70 hours so that’s what
We’re hoping but we’ll just see how it goes cuz my leg’s hurting now France was experiencing a heat wave that week the temperatures on the road were insane I don’t know what the official temperatures were but on my head unit on my Wahoo I was recording
35° so you’ve got this heat coming down at you from the Sun then bouncing up at you from the asphalt I just drank as much water and electrolyte drinks as I could just to just to kind of keep hydrated having a little cry in so much pain and
But I’m trying to ignore it but it’s not working and in my head I was like there was like only like a 10 minute where I was like I don’t know if I can do this normally I can just power up hills but I just can’t hting so much but just trying to
Take it slow and just just get through it Hy hell it’s funny but it’s not car’s seen able to get through it doesn’t matter how long it takes we not going for under 70 hours anymore it’s just it’s not going to happen as long as we finish that’s all I care about I
Don’t know where we were but we went through this little French Village and there was like a corner shop and there was a few cyclists there and one of them randomly Kyle knew from his qualifier um and they all having ice creams and I was
In a lot of pain like the saddle sword has started then as well so and they would distracted the saddle sword are worse than the Achilles so they were distracting me so it was like oh that’s not hurting anymore but this is hurting more um and they were having ice creams
And we like about let’s stop here and we had a magnum and it was the best Magnum I’ve ever had had a bit of a pep talk from one of the other cyclists who’s done it before he said to me um all this pain you’re in now he said you’ll forget
About as soon as the event’s done you’ll forget about it you’ll only remember the happy the happy memories he was like just tell yourself like you can like the pain doesn’t last but when I look back at PBP I don’t think of that I think of all like the amazing amazing memories
Mer it’s cooled down measurably it now actually feels like a really nice Summer’s evening wonderful riding conditions if you didn’t already have over 1,100 miles in your legs and no real proper sleep the last 3 days anyway I reckon I could do this I’m going to give it a shot anyway that was
Amazing that was just amazing everything I thought it might be and a whole series of Dimensions more that I didn’t really expect I’m glad to put it aside I’m glad you know that’s it but 2027 W you know you’re going to have to keep me away I want to be back
Oh wow we’re nearly there we’re about 3 miles away I’m in so much pain literally like I’ve been crying loads my I can’t sit on my saddle it’s just excruciating so it’s just made the end of this ride horrible to be honest it was 5:00 a.m. in the morning
And we were like almost at the end and I just remember seeing that rambula sign and literally I cheered out to Kyle I was like we’ve done it Kyle we’ve done it like I was just so happy there’s all that there’s so many bad things that happen in the world and
There’s so much awful stuff that goes on but for that like 72 hours I didn’t see any any of that it was just like we’re in this amazing world and there’s like a community of cyclists doing this and yeah I just felt so grateful to be part
Of it and so grateful to be here and living it l speee to F what made the ride for me over everything else was the support and the interaction with the people who Lin the route for about two days I realized that it wasn’t about me it was about the
Event and that I was an actor a player in a spectacle that has been going on for 130 years on these roads and the people along the side of the road have got a very intimate and close connection with it it’s just beautiful it’s just beautiful