PBP Stories #44: 13 tips from Jan Heine, Eric Norris, Drew Carlson and Kevin Fitzpatrick on how to successfully complete PBP.
Paris Brest Paris: PBP Stories and Tips
Join Peter Curley (PBP ’19, ’23) as he interviews the riders who have completed (and DNF’ed!) Paris Brest Paris, the most famous (and oldest) endurance ride in the world. Learn firsthand what to expect and how to give yourself the best chance of a successful PBP.
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Paris Brest is a long-distance cycling event with a rich history. Established in 1891 as a professional race, it has evolved into the premier amateur endurance cycling event. Every four years, thousands of cyclists from around the world, attempt to finish PBP’s grueling 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) route, within the 90 hour time limit.
10 PBP Stats (2023)
Participants = 6431
Finish rate = 76%
Average age = 51
Oldest female & male = 69 & 79
Youngest female & male = 17 & 17
Female participation = 7.24%
French participation = 29.03%
Charly Miller (56:40) = 12
Adrian Hands (88:55) = 62
Club with most riders = San Francisco Randonneurs
(To share your story email petercurley@gmail.com.)
All right. So, yeah, we’re going to end with three tips uh that guarantee a finish of PBP. And as I tell everyone, they’re going to come looking for you. Oh my god. So, no pressure. Okay. Okay. Tip number one. Well, the first one you already mentioned, your time off the bike is more important than on the bike. I would say almost nobody rides more than 60 65 hours on the bike in PVP. And the difference between somebody who does it in 70 hours is that they spend five or six hours off the bike and the one who does it in 90 hours spends 25 hours off the bike. And the less stressed you are about time the more enjoyable it becomes of course you know so you should shoot for 75hour time so that you have people say time in the bank but there’s some truth to that you know where um I have had friends who finished in 89 hours and 59 minutes and 59 seconds or something like that stressful and I saw him at the finish and he doesn’t remember seeing me you know he was he was out of it because basically the last 20 hours or so were a constant just race accord against the clock. he was out of the time at some control and the volunteers said you must continue and of course he was glad about that but I think um minimizing your time off the bike because it’s so easy to think oh I have plenty of time and do you know whatever things write in your journal or something like that don’t you know basically when you get to the control you should this is advice number two that’s why I get through them quickly okay um plan your control before you get there. Yeah. You know, think about what do I want to buy? Every control has pretty much the same food. Um what do I want to buy? What do I need? Do I want to sleep? Uh when you get there, I always say don’t stand if you can sit. Don’t sit if you can lay down. You want to not Yeah. not waste time. Cool. I think three is also related. I’m sorry. They’re all the same. Um of course you want No, but let’s just say three, you know, you want to make sure your bike is in good shape. Um, like for example, if you have mechanical shifting, just replace all the cable. It’s not a lot of money, but if a cable breaks, you can continue, but it’s it will impact your experience. So, just like, you know, before you go to PvP, it’s, you know, you’re spending so much money and effort, time on getting there, you know, airplane flight, training, all that. Um, don’t skimp on your bike. Cool. Yeah. Three great tips that guarantee you finish each. I think there’s a fourth tip though. Oh, there’s a fourth tip. Okay. Let’s go for it. Okay. Have fun. Okay. You know, I mean, you’re right. Don’t feel any stress to do anything or so. It’s PBP is yours and only yours. So, do what you want to do. It’s, you know, there’s no it’s not like a race where people say, “Oh, you won or you didn’t win.” PBP. The only difference is finishing or not. Makes sense. Makes sense. We’re going to go one, two, three. Oh gosh. I I did a video on this where I I did like my top 10 tips, but okay. Um thing just some things to keep in mind. I think one is that finishing PvP is not about being the fastest rider or the strongest rider. There are plenty of fast and strong people who will never finish that ride. uh uh because so much of it is just knowing how to do it and being in that mindset of of finishing the ride. Um it’s it’s more than half mental in my opinion. It’s maybe three, four or more of it is just being mentally prepared, having the knowledge, um, which is why I did my video series and just knowing what you’re doing. Uh, far more than than training. That was tip number one. You started very strong, by the way. I like that one a lot. Um, I make a big deal in my videos about time and keeping track of time off the bike because every time you stop and you get off the bike, clock is ticking and you’re not going anywhere. So, you have to make that time pay for itself. You have to make it worth it. So, uh, if you’re going to a control, uh, figure out what you’re going to do, um, and again, that’s where it the second time once you’ve been to the controls, if you know where you park the bikes over here, you know where the restrooms are over there, you know where the food is, whatever. It’s part of the first one is just figuring all that stuff out. You waste a lot of time just like wandering around trying to find where everything is. Yeah. But staying on the bike, you know, um my friend Peter, the the guy who taught me a lot of what I know about it, uh we call the rest stop management. Yeah. And just staying on the bike, you know, constant forward motion and and just staying on the bike. Even if you’re not going very fast, just get on the bike and and keep on going. Don’t sit there and lament how tired you feel. Get back on the bike and grouse about how tired you feel. Yeah, but but keep on going. Yeah, so true. Okay, that was number two. Another strong one, Eric. This is good. At this point, they’re almost guaranteed to finish. And I would say uh in terms of equipment choice, I I think the most important thing is just finding a comfortable bike. There’s plenty of light bikes. Uh and you know, and I think more and more and more every year you see people riding PBP on bikes that to me just look ridiculous. you know, there’s something that look like they’re trying to race, you know, the stage of the tour to France on these bikes. Yeah. Um I think far more important than having a light bike or the most recent components or whatever is is having a comfortable bike that you’ve ridden on a lot that you know you can sit on for a long time. So, it’s saddle choice and position on the bike, getting your your shoes, your shorts, all that, all the things that combine, you know, the bike, the contact points, getting all that stuff nailed down so you know that you can sit on that bike for a long time and uh and still feel comfortable. Perfect. I think that’s a that’s a very big thing, Eric. Three excellent tips. Thank you so much. And you know, personally again, I really want to thank you for all the videos you’ve made. You’ve helped so many people. You’ve certainly helped me and hopefully we’ll see a lot more videos in the future. But thank you again. Okay, so um yeah, my first tip would be let experience train you up more than the physical part of of riding PBP. And what I mean by that is uh you gain a lot of wisdom from doing long rides and you gain a lot of wisdom from learning to manage how a lack of sleep affects your riding. And I I I think for people that understand that paradox between the faster riders who actually have more time to sleep if they choose to versus the kind of middle of the pack riders and slower riders that I I consider myself. U that paradox is very tough and there are a lot of people who can get by without much sleep. Uh, I really like five hours. Uh, I can get by on less, but uh, that’s that for me is a sweet spot. In order to do that, you have to ride a little faster. Well, that doesn’t necessarily mean your speed needs to be faster. You need to be very wise about how you use your control times. And so the wisdom of learning to ride say a 1000k or a 1200k before PBP, even though that’s not part of the minimum calls, I really would highly recommend that you get get that that seasonness that comes from that experience if PBP is going to be your big ride, right? So I highly recommend at least a 1000k, preferably a 1200k, just to get used to what that distance feels like. Uh, and if you’ve never done longer than a 600k, it’s not twice as hard. It’s only a little bit harder. It it actually gets easier on day three of four, in my opinion. That was my experience. You’re fatigued and you are tired, but it’s uh you learn mentally what’s going on in your brain and and how to counteract that. Um, for me, it was caffeine pills. I I hate I absolutely hate them. And the first time I took them, I got these horrible stomach aches. Well, by the time I had done my third my my 600k that I rode without sleeping through, I knew that was going to be a tough problem. So, I actually made myself take um I put I set a timer and uh and then I took in pill boxes my caffeine pill and I took an ant acid with it too, like a Tums. And I kept taking those together every four hours just to get through the wee hours of the night from like 1:00 a.m. till about 7 a.m. So, usually two would be enough. uh you know two about every four hours whatever works for you but that’s what you need to do. So then that’s that’s going to give you a higher value uh experience in my from my perspective learn to manage the sleep by doing a long ride. Okay perfect. Um, number two, and we touched on this already, but uh I think if you can get there as soon as you can afford it and stay in in Remier and and be there, I would say at least five days. Uh, don’t ride uh I’d say give yourself seven days off a bike. Uh, you know, you’ve been training hard and you’re not going to gain any more fitness from from training those last extra days. That in the scheme of it all, it means nothing. What you really want are fully rested muscles. everything’s limber and loose. Uh, and I think I think that uh that’s that’s one of the keys to having a really really great ride. You just feel so fresh. And and this is from someone who rides a lot of miles. And I I I know that difference and I think it just makes a a big difference for a lot of people. Um and then um decide where you want to stop. Don’t make don’t make any of your plans ironclad. you know, the hotel, you know, in the scheme of it all, I I kind of forgot about the the motel because it didn’t really work out. The best part about it, frankly, was the bath, the shower that I took. Um, yeah. And and that’s that’s nice, you know, uh that’s an aspect to it, too, that I I really enjoyed. Uh but before you get to a control, decide what are the things that you need to do and and kind of number them in your brain and then also decide how much time am I going to spend here. It’s hard to do any control unless you’re just getting your card stamped. you you’re going to need a minimum of about 20 minutes at most stops. Yeah, it’s hard to get out of there for anything less. So, if it’s getting a time stamp and water and hopefully some snacks, you’re probably going to be there a half hour, but try to set a goal in mind and and get the steps written down so that you check all the boxes. You hear stories of riders that leave a controller with empty water bottles all the time, you know, because they they didn’t take those steps. So, that that’s a good idea. Uh do your socializing while you’re riding if possible. Uh you’re gonna find people that you know at every control and you’re going to want to hug each other and say, “How’s it going?” blah blah blah. Yeah. You’re eat you’re eating up some time there. Yeah. And then my last tip again is the sleeping bag thing. And this is probably silly for a lot of people. It may not be useful. And uh you know, if it happens to be raining and lots of times in PvP it it does it is raining. Uh but if um uh if if you can get under something and there’s a lot of things you can get under uh in PBP and people I I’ve been told by others during rainy PBPs and stuff like that, there’s a lot more people that you know, well, they’ve got a barn nearby and they’ve got a light on in there and they’re catering to riders and serving you, you know, coffee and such like that. So, you’ll get a lot of help. But I I think that sleeping bag idea if if sleep is a problem and it’s not for everybody. Yeah. Um in retrospect, it just with this PVP, it was so warm. saw another tag I thought would have been brilliant uh if I had thought about it at the time. Um on the time I was riding ketchup, I saw during the daytime a lot of people who were sleeping under a tree in broad daylight and all they did was take off their shoes because the weather was so nice. You didn’t need to be covered up. And I thought, you know, that’s another strategy that could work, too. If you can sleep in daylight and the weather happens to be comfortable, stop near the road somewhere and just lay down and and rest. But make yourself comfortable enough. Again, set an alarm just in case you don’t so you don’t go over. And the last little tip I love from a old rando friend of mine, Ken Johnson. Point your bike in the direction that you want to ride in when you wake up. Oh, that’s that’s interesting. That’s huge. People have gone the wrong way before. That’s very funny. I have not heard that tip. That’s a really good one. It’s a good one. Yeah, Drew, it has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much. And thank you for all your insight and everything. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. It’s been a lot of fun, Curly. I look forward to that. Peter just I’m looking forward to seeing more of these and I’m going to go back back and look through some of the others from some of my friends. It’s a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed it. Perfect. See you soon then. Okay. All right. Byebye. I got you. Cool. So Kevin, we’re going to end with your three tips that guarantee a finish. We’re going to go one, two, and three. Sure. Um I actually wrote them down here. Um so tip number one, have a plan. It doesn’t have to be a spreadsheet, but know generally what what you’re going to do. Um, and then don’t let others dictate modifications to that, right? Sometimes you decide you want to ride with a bunch of people. Uh, that might be great, but they’re going to ride too fast, they’re going to ride too slow. Just ride your own ride, you know, and and follow the plan you set out because you’ve already envisioned that’s going to get you to success. If you want to succeed, do what you originally set out. Um, the other one, keep moving, right? Uh, I’m slow. Very, very slow. But I’m successful because I just keep moving. I’m always moving. I People fly past me. I see them in the control and then later they fly past me again and I see them in the control and then they fly. It’s because I’m just efficient in the control. I just keep moving. Right. I calculated once if I took a camera with me and stopped to take one picture that took one minute every hour on the PBP, that’s a hour and a half of time. Amazing. Amazing. Yes, I finished with an hour and a half, right? Yeah, that would have. So that’s why there’s no photos of your the event. Okay, that’s fine. That’s right. Uh and the other thing is especially for PBP, interact with the locals. I mean, long after the ride, you’re going to remember that much more than you’re going to remember your finishing time or I mean, I had to look up the finishing time when you ask me. I didn’t know I knew it was somewhere towards the end, right? But the those those interactions with the people are going to be something that’s going to stick with you forever. Oh, that’s cool. Well, Kevin, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Really, really insightful. That’s so good to hear from someone who DNFED and then completed PBP and then was able to successfully extricate themselves from PBP and hearing. So, nice work. Okay. Hi, Sharon. It’s been fun visiting the old memories. Thank you very much. Thank you.