PBP Story #48: This week we have Jack Nicholson who lives in Maryland and rides with Severna Park Peloton and the DC Randonneurs. He has completed 2 PBPs, the first in 2019 and the second in 2023. He has also done 3 other 1200s, and next week he’s off to ride the Colorado Front Range 1200k.
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2019 Report: https://jacknicholsonsblog.blogspot.com/2019/08/pbp-2019-as-i-saw-it.html
2023 Report: https://jacknicholsonsblog.blogspot.com/2023/09/this-is-my-fairly-detailed-recall-of.html
Olaf’s LEL V. PBP comparison – https://cycling-intelligence.com/2017/08/27/lel-and-pbp-how-does-it-compare/
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.
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
this week we have Jack Nicholson who lives in Maryland and rides with the Sivera Park Pelaton and the DC Rondors he’s completed two PBPs one his first in 2019 his second in 2023 he’s also done another three 1200ks and for his fourth he’s headed off to Colorado Front Range next week so that hopefully will be our fourth and good luck with that Jack jackie it’s a pleasure to have you thank you so much for being sharing your stories with us okay happy to be here Peter cool all right so we always start with this one what does PBP mean to you um it is the ultimate people talk in mythical terms about PBP it’s it’s the ultimate uh you know event in Randering um it’s like I if this is its own sport randonering it’s like the Super Bowl of Randoning it’s like the World Cup of Randonuring on a global scale because of all the people that you run into there when you go to PVP um you know people talked about PvP uh fellow writers for years before I finally went to one in just these mythic terms um however having said all that I wouldn’t say that it was the most difficult experience I’ve had at a 1000K or longer so it’s definitely something that’s doable um I’ve I’ve had I I never during PvP felt like I had reached a point where I’m I’m I’m out i can’t do this any further or I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to do it and Jack what did that first finish line feel like in 2019 um it was I hate to say it it was a little bit of a letown and and the reason I say that is because uh choices that I made as you know what my objectives were and how I executed and when I say it was a bit of a letdown uh it was because in um 2019 my first PDP I finished at 5 in the morning and it was that was the year that it got really cold at night other than the first night so I I roll into Rambuet 5 in the morning um I get get to get the final stamp on my card uh there’s like no line um I wanted to get a picture of myself you know the had the marshall take a picture of me holding my completed card and and he did and I and I look at the picture and I got this glum look on my face and and then and then and then it’s like “Okay uh when you finish the ride uh we got a meal for you.” And I go into the big tent there and um there’s like I I got a picture of it there’s like 20 people in this whole tent it was just it was cold it was dark it was just it was antilimactic and it was all my fault um however however the the fun part was after I got back to my room took a shower got some sleep and then then I was then I was euphoric go walking around the the town of Ramboo having completed PBP feeling a lot better it’s warmer running into people that I know uh who have also completed the ride and so uh it was a bit of a delayed reaction I guess good um so 2023 um instant happiness once you cross that line or same glumness well um I took notes after 2019 here’s what I’m going to do differently and one of the things that I wrote down was you will not finish in the dead of night you will finish you will finish when it’s a lot nicer you know there’s people there it’s daylight uh you can enjoy it so 2023 I finished midday and um it was joyful it was in some ways it was like Christmas morning when you’re a kid and your parents say we’re not going to open presents before 6:00 a.m because in 2023 I was going for Adrian Hans time nice and I was torn between I just want to cross that finish line and uh am I in Adrian’s Adrien Hands time now or will I blow this whole thing by crossing a minute or two early so I was torn as I as I’m looking down the road and I can see the finish line uh like should I just pull over for a little bit just make sure I’m well within and um and I I couldn’t do it i cross the line and I and it’s actually good that I kind of kept the brakes on because I thought well with timing errors uh inaccuracy um maybe I should not cross at 8855 maybe I should give it a few minutes so I thought I was crossing seven minutes into the Adrian Hanss window but I immediately pulled out my phone after we finished and looked at my time and it was 8857 i’d made it by 120 something seconds and and one lesson learned there is your times at PVP are not based on when your start when they open the you know open the start box and off you go your time your individual time is when you cross that timing mat and it took me four minutes to get to the timing mat at the start of 2023 PVP so I almost blew Adrian Hands even though you know I had already purchased the jersey because they had that’s stressful yeah they were on sale you You had to buy it before PBP i already own the jersey but it all worked out great it was Yeah well well we’ll talk more about Adrian Hanss because I’ve said this many times it’s far more stressful than it should be the whole point is it’s not to be stressful but it is stressful cool um Jack why don’t we then now talk go back and talk about your history in writing why do you ride earliest memory that kind of thing um earliest memory of just bicycle memory i I had this distinct recollection when I was 5 years old um walking down the sidewalk and coming in other coming around the corner is a guy on a uh on a road bike with drop handlebars and I was 5 years old and I was impressed by how fast it was going and I was impressed with what it just the look of the bike it was just something like I’d never seen it before um that was my earliest memory um learned to ride about a year later uh living in the outskirts of the Denver suburbs where where civilization sort of kind of fades into the the plains um the street was um chip seal i learned very early on what happens when you try to corner in gravel okay um learned that the hard way um lot of fun riding around that area they’re out outside of the little community was just this um area called Bicycle Hills i think nowadays you would call it BMX riding but it was just this area where just there were paths over these little bumps and and my friends and I would go out there and there was always a bunch of kids going down the paths and over the hills and down the ramps and and all that sort of stuff um so that was kind of my uh you know introduction to to bike riding uh coming up into my teen years I think I got that first inkling that um long-distance riding is something I might kind of enjoy um I got my friends together one day i think I was 13 and we decided we were going to ride 20 miles out to the next town and ride 20 miles back and um it was just it was a hoot we all had a we all had a really good time yeah I can I can only imagine what 40 miles felt like when you were that age it felt like a double century i’m sure it was Well it it was it was a it was a physical challenge it was um but it also felt like you were going to another country i mean on a on a bicycle you just you just could can I go this far on a bicycle and we could we only did it once but I used to dream at the same time i used to have this uh sort of thought that you know someday I’d like to ride this is I’m living in Maryland now someday I’d like to ride my bicycle from the ocean to the Chesapeake Bay right across the Delm Marva Peninsula it’s it’s a dream that I kind of harbored for decades until I was and then in my late 20s I was in grad school and there was a one of my classmates was a a a racing cyclist he had his racing license and he had a very nice I think it was a Mazy beautiful road bike and he sort of I I lived 16 miles away from school and he lived in town there and he kind of shamed me into uh you need to get back on the bike this is great and like I don’t know I’ve been off the bike for a while and he’s like you know what I’ll tell you what I will ride 16 miles to your house in the morning pick you up and we will ride back together and we started doing this uh late in grad school and that’s that’s what really got me back on the bike and from there it was kind of a sequence of uh kind of rediscovering um hey I like to ride long uh 20 miles 30 miles 40 miles um in my mid30s we were living in Hawaii on the south end of Aahu and I used to really enjoy the the round trip starting from there you got to go just do north across the middle of Aahu You go from sea level to about 1,000 ft uh it’s kind of a plateau there for many miles and it’s just it was just this peaceful just pineapple plantate just miles and miles of pineapple and it was just dead quiet and it was just beautiful and so um at that point I was starting to discover the the the necessity of like nutrition like you can’t just go for a ride without having something to eat and drink and then um um after that continuing I had a 12-ear period where I was a bike commuter again um I was I had a friend who got into organized riding and that kind of intimidated me a little bit because I had always just kind of ridden by myself and he was a member of a club and they did organized rides and and so when I was in my about the time I turned 40 I signed up for my first sentry ride and I did many sentry rides and didn’t complete any of them uh for the about the first year because I was going out really hard getting into a paseline and just dying and just throwing in the towel about halfway and then um and then finally how how’d I get to where I am today i moved back to Maryland here and fell in with a local bike club and they had a lot of fun activities here like I talked about riding across the Delm Marva Peninsula they used to do that twice a year for a weekend they they go from uh uh west to east on a Saturday stay overnight in Ocean City Maryland at a hotel and then ride back on Sunday cool that sounded like fun and so I signed I was on this ride and the guy who put together this bike club called thisart Pelaton he comes alongside me i’m the new kid in this he’s never met me hey do you do century rides oh yeah i do century rides well you know today we’re going to go 115 miles and you know if you think you could do like another 10 miles that’s something called a 200k and and uh we do these rides it’s called randoning and you know we can get you we can work you up to 300k 400k and this is the first time I heard of PBP he says “And eventually we’ll get you ready for PBP.” And that’s kind of where the mythology started like oh PBP yes do you do you remember what year that was maybe 2013 or something would that be right uh 200 Oh that was 2011 because the very next month I had a Russa number okay wow and and I I I was I was doing DC Ramire’s uh brev so yeah and I I I actually should mention this you provided me with two excellent detailed ride reports so I’ll I’ll post them in the the description um but it sounded like you were thinking about 2015 never happened but I I assume many of those club members came back after 2015 and told you all about it is that correct well the the leader of this club is a nice man named Clint Pvenza he had done 2007 the the wet year PVP uh and he was kind of poking me like uh hey you gota you you ought to do you know 2015 um but I was in a new job i couldn’t take the time off 2015 um I had heard about this other ride called Leel that really kind of piqued my interest a little bit more so I uh I I I took a pass on 2015 and I kind of regretted it because after 2015 I did a perm with a bunch of the locals here and I was the only guy on this perm who wasn’t sporting their brand new PBT jersey i was the one guy and um and that was 2015 i did do Leel first in 2017 but then after that Clint I’m going to keep talking about Clint because he’s okay he he’s the he’s the reason I’m I’m in this interview right now he got me into random uh he goes “Jack you know PBP is something you really ought to have on your writing resume.” And I thought about it like “Okay I’ll do it i I’ll get into PBP i’ll I’ll do PVP next time around.” And so yes I did do you know the next opportunity to ride PvP I rode PBP and Jack do you remember or maybe it was just uh Clint told you what to do but how did you kind of formulate your strategy for 2000 um like like I strategize any big ride I I I start doing my research i started reading ride reports a lot of ride reports uh um uh what’s the club up there in Canada they’ve got a website and they got like 50 or 100 British Columbia british Columbia there thank you read a bunch of those um of course there’s a lot of people here in the you know DC randers who’ve done it talking to them um I had been taking I I started pulling out notes from previous long rides I’d done like Leel like um my first thousandk was the uh lap of the lake around Lake Ontario did that in 2014 and so I started looking at well you know how much ground did I cover each day you know what can I you know what’s my capability how much I started figuring out uh okay well how far will I go where will I end the day trying to estimate where I was going to be that sort of thing um c can I ask you so you do leel London Edinburgh London yes and at that point did you not feel ah PBP it’s probably going to be easier i don’t really have to learn a lot more was that the case no it wasn’t and the reason I say that is because just out of curiosity as we’re going you know going north and then south there on Leal um I’m looking at where we are how many K we’ve covered and and I thought let’s see what time how many days how many hours it took us to get to the 1,200 K point and we were beyond 90 hours we’re like 95 hours or something like that and I thought that’s interesting okay oh this might be a challenge finishing PBP um I didn’t know much about the course um I just thought there’s something to it because uh I’m not or maybe it was just difficulties on LEAL but I didn’t find I didn’t think it was capable yeah I just briefly just about LEAL i would imagine they don’t have those kind of busy controls that you have at PBP is that the main difference um I will I would have at this point have to recommend a a post that I read a few years ago by a gentleman named Olaf Storbach and it’s a comparison of PvP and Leel okay and and the takeaway his takeaway on that was um PvP is a party Leel is an adventure okay you are out in the hinterlands on Le oh okay but to answer your question directly the controls The controls are not crowded at all there are so few so many so fewer riders in Leel um PvP it’s almost like you don’t need to navigate because you’re always you can always just kind of follow the line there’s always somebody within sight leel that’s not the case at all i get you um ju just back to PBP then because um the one thing that really struck me and you even mentioned it Jack is you really enjoy the planning process for all these rides almost to the point more than the actual ride itself i was I was really impressed just those two ride reports just the the level of detail that kind of thing it’s like you thought through every possibility well I was I’m kind of terrified of the thought of being broken down in the middle of nowhere and and you know just try to try to figure out what could go wrong and what could I do what can I carry that would be reasonable to carry to to mitigate that so um and so I mean there’s so many elements to finishing a long ride you know physically you got to be ready mentally you got to be ready uh your equipment your bicycle hopefully is reliable and it’s not going to let you down uh logistically you got to be ready are you going to have you figured out where you’re going to eat and drink and how you’re going to get there and and you know where you going to sleep and and that sort of stuff so um I just there’s something about these long rides that just just starts me right away like okay let’s let’s try to identify anything that could possibly go wrong and see if we can’t mitigate that yeah so for 2019 then just broadly um what were your what was your strategy and maybe also were you going to ride with others from that club or not originally yes originally I had a ride partner and um and we were going to do it together just like you same guy I rode with uh but then he decided that it was too much of a challenge um and um so I found myself okay I’m going to just going to ride my ride i’m I’m going to do it by myself um and then later on though uh another member of DC Rand uh was in a similar situation and so we decided to join forces and um we had both made a complete set of um accommodations and so we kind of picked the best out of each of them between the two of us and but unfortunately his his start time was I think 2 hours and 45 minutes after mine um I I guess I maybe could have waited for him a little bit but one thing I haven’t mentioned yet is um Clint i’m going to mention Clint probably a few more times here okay um he he mentioned that you know if you’re going to do PVP you ought to sign up for the 84 hours you know it’s it’s great you get started in the morning and you’re passing the slow 90 hour guys it’s really the way to go and he’d done it he and he was faster than me but I told you what you know during le I didn’t think I could finish I could cross the 1200k line in 90 hours and then um my first and then the next big ride I did after that was um the DC Randers Blue Ridge Debate 1200K and I finished that one in 88 hours and 35 minutes so not much margin so I figured I had no business signing up for the 84h hour um group so So when I rode PVP I decided okay I’m definitely going to sign up for 90 it’s the only way I have a chance but as part of that maybe I’ll do it 84 hours in the future let’s see if I’m capable of finishing PvP in 84 hours so I made it uh one of my goals um to finish in under 84 hours my other goal was just to finish in under 90 hours and become so um I ultimately ended up doing it on my own and uh personally you know I like riding with other riders but on long rides I like riding by myself just because I just like riding at my own pace i just at a comfortable pace and not trying to slow down or not trying to keep up and so I ended up doing it all by myself well and did you do you remember how you felt at the start line 2019 were you nervous um no no I was excited let’s let’s let’s do it i am finally here after all these months that that’s one of the nice things about all this preparation work is you finally get to the culmination and there we were uh in the start area it was confusing it was they had a scheme for getting each group to the start box but that was not how it was playing out and and it it was a little unnerving just okay where is my group um how do I make sure I’m in this you know I get signed in I get in the start box on time um but that was not that was not um unnerving at all um I was a little surprised right after this right at the start in the first few minutes of the ride the the number of people I saw pulling off the route for mechanicals I like way more than I thought I would see crazy um and and at the same time people that I knew from the DC area I saw them just flying past me you know the the adrenaline was pumping and I’m and I’m and I’m I’m resisting the urge yes it’s it’s this moment you’re in the moment and and you are finally doing PDP it’s like slow down it’s going to be four days you know don’t burn it don’t burn all the matches right now and Jack can you contrast the start of Leel which was your first long ride to uh PBP what’s that like what is that like oh it is so it is it because it’s such a small field it it has gotten bigger I think in more recent editions such a small field um you know my my start number was R22 you know everybody had like a two-digit start number uh I remember the start box being something like oh 15 feet wide and 30 feet long it just this little area it was tiny and um it was not it was it wasn’t a huge No it it was just a whole it was a whole another thing no comparison okay sorry anyway back to PBP so we’re off we’re being cautious people are going fast okay we’re flying along uh it’s a little warm i actually get a manage to while I’m riding get a sweatb band on my head take my helmet off put a sweatb band on put the helmet back on while I’m riding um so some really entertaining moments uh this guy from I forget what country he was from oh Brazil I think he was from um it’s probably an hour into the ride he comes up alongside me and he turns his head and he looks at me a big grin on his face and he’s got one of his hands off the handlebars it’s like “Okay he’s about to do something.” And he pushes a button on his handlebars and out comes AC/DC blasting music and it was hilarious and it was just really cool and um fortunately when we got to the every and I was with him for a while but every time we got to a village he turned the music off to to be respectful oh that’s nice okay you have boundaries that’s good yeah yep yep um and then it got uh dark um and then there’s this and then you just see this line and we’re still kind of bunched up and it’s just this coolest effect you’ve got um 100 200 tail lights in a line ahead of you 100 or 200 reflective vests with that kind of V-shaped tape on it and it was just the coolest thing just see this thing and you could see it wind around ahead of you you can see it go up for the next hill and disappear over the top of the hill um that was really cool um Um and you start to see the locals you start to see and you would see them this was early on the ride but you’d see the same thing at two in the morning you’d see out there in farm country mom and dad and the kids and grandma and they’re all along the side of the road um you’ve got uh accordion player um you’ve got uh kids standing on the side of the road with their hand out for a high five you’ve got you’ve got kids asking for autographs my autograph are you serious uh it’s just it’s just really cool and you know you got the you’ve got tables along the side of the road snacks drinks of course I was going for time i I I skipped all that well yeah most of that stuff i skipped most i was just trying to get in under 84 hours um and that’s something I would remedy the next time I went to PVP yeah and where where did you sleep first do you remember so I had heard horror stories from fellow riders and D one couple in particular uh when they got to their uh when they got to Ludiac which is a very popular place to overnight you know to you know ride to take your first rest they wasted four hours from the time they got to Ludiac until the time they had the drop bags and they were in their rooms it was four hours that’s a ton of time and I was scared by stories like that so I made sure I booked a room in Ludiac we actually booked a small house um I booked the house and then I told you I I I I buddied up with a guy named Bob and so we split the house um so I had the house and it was fantastic location uh right after you control you go like another couple blocks and it was like you take a left and you go down about 200 meters down the road and and there’s the house amazing and I had been on Google Street View before so I knew what the street looked like i knew what the house looked like which is something I do a lot on these long rides saved my bacon big time in Leel was uh if there’s particular spots where you know you gota you want to get to that spot take a look at it on Google Street View first our overnight accommodations on LEAL there was no address there was no nothing it was just a driveway coming off a road and I had been to Google Street View and I said that’s it and it was and that’s the only way we found it so anyway uh we got to our I got to the place um oh along with uh u accommodations you know I mentioned drop bags i didn’t want a drop bag i’d heard about drop bags getting left in the rain i heard about drop bags getting lost uh you know so um I have a uh my rear bag on on my bike actually has a zip out where you can deploy one or two piers and I I just I decided I wasn’t going to do a drop bag i was just going to carry one kit one spare kit on my bike and when I got to Ludiac wash it in the sink hang it up to dry you’re going to got a round trip to breast ahead of you by the time you get back it’ll be dry so that’s so that’s what I did i got there I washed it hung it up and um went to bed the plan was to sleep for two hour i’m sorry for three hours but at the two-hour point eyelids just popped open i could not get back to sleep it’s like let’s go two hours is not a lot of sleep but let’s do it anyway and so I couldn’t sleep was the two hours restful or Oh it was Yes absolutely it was That’s good okay it was deep sleep but at the end of two hours something had me want to get back on the bike perfect perfect yeah so anyway got back on the bike um leaving town I run across uh Olaf Store who I mentioned before um I knew Olaf because he had after Leel he had put up a website about Leel and I was curious so I went to it and on the top of his website is a big picture of me and Clint cresting Yad Moss which is the big climb of LEAL i’m like wow that’s us you know I’m looking at this guy’s website and there’s my picture and so I I I tracked him down and asked him for a better resolution photo and he sent him to me i remember the guy’s name and I’m so I’m heading for breast coming out of Ludiac and I come up on a rider and across the you know he’s got a little name tag on the back of his bike is Olaf Store like cool amazing so we talked for a while about that and then um um so then it’s getting dark and I’m heading for breast and we get to a a place where it’s getting kind of lumpy and I’m climbing and it’s but it’s not a really it’s just I I can tell I’m going up but it’s not strenuous at all and then finally I see the I see the tower there’s a tower like a TV tower on the top of the rock Treviselle i like “Holy cow I’ve cleared the big climb that some people have talked about and I didn’t realize I was doing it.” So that was pretty cool come off the climb that was that was the second night that I had been out on my bike that was the first night though that it was really cold and I was bundled up and I had everything on everything I was carrying with me which wasn’t much it was a rain jacket with a hood on it fingerless gloves that had knee warmers uh and a short sleeve jersey it was so cold that night i remember so cold i didn’t have enough clothing that’s for sure yeah yeah and so it was cold the descent off of the rock made it even colder it’s like okay I’m very cold and I’m starting to get sleepy um so I find a little roadside thing um and the guy ahead of me got the last coffee off of this little roadside table like dog gone it so and so I thought well I’m getting sleepy i’m going to try to sit in this guy’s lawn chair next to the table and try to doze but it didn’t work so I got back on the bike got into that that the little town Suzoon and I see a uh cafe that’s open and I go into there and it’s it’s hopping and um so I order a coffee and I put my helmet down on a table and I’m ordering the coffee and there’s this local tough looking guy there at the bar and he and he’s not speaking English and I don’t know very much French and and and I think he’s kind of I’m getting a bad vibe from this guy and he’s looking at me you know and like what’s going on here and I I I think he’s he wants to take me on about something but through some sign language I come to realize he’s actually sitting he’s he’s getting off his bar stool and he wants me to sit on his bar stool he’s giving me his bar stool oh wow like oh wow so drank my coffee went to the table took a little nap on the table put the head down 20 minutes um and then uh got going to breast got to breast um took another table nap and breast uh and then got back to uh got back on the on the road um back up on the rock it’s kind of midm morning i’m getting sleepy again so I I I I find a little place where an embankment where I can actually not have to lay flat but I can kind of lean back against this little hill and I took a 20-minute nap there got back to Ludia it from your reports it sounded like you took a number of different ditch naps or just naps and cafes had you done as many of those before had you perfected that art already never not one it just it was necessity necessity like Yeah on my way the the one I really remember it was um I think it was after Ludiac on the way back and I’m in it’s like late morning and I am so tired that I am simultaneously dreaming and riding you know consciously i’m I’m conscious and yet dreaming at the same time and I’m doing my darnest to try to separate dreamland from reality and I realized it is time to get off of this bike in fact in fact about that time somebody who was behind me goes “Whoa did you just fall asleep?” Oh jeez it’s like “Okay let’s take one of these ditch apps.” I I took I think during 2019 I probably took I don’t know five or six of these little 20-minute naps and And people say the same thing about them it’s it’s it is just amazing how clear your head is after such a short period of sleep and and amazing yeah I I the final push in 2019 to get to the finish i I was riding for over 24 hours and I got through that on just three 20-minute naps amazing okay and then so the the rest of the ride was uh uneventful um I remember taking a ditch nap midnight the morning that I finished it was freezing cold it uh I was although I was shivering I wasn’t I didn’t feel like I was cold enough to shiver but I was shivering um and I could hear people walking around me uh they were getting off their bikes and and napping too um but finally got to Drew one final table nap in Drew um got to the finish and I had the same sensation when I was on LEAL when I finally got to the finish and turn in my card it was like when you see one of these kids bouncy houses when they turn the fan off and it just kind of collapses in on itself i had this mental picture of me that’s what I was doing i was I I think what happens is you just run on adrenaline at least I do during these long rides i don’t I don’t need those eight hours of sleep that I normally need to be human i can get by on just a couple under normal circumstances I am worthless if I don’t get my seven eight hours of sleep but you’re in this different mode and you’re in that mode till the end of the ride and then when you know the ride’s over it’s over the adrenaline pump turns off and you are just boom done so Jack getting back to your detailed ride report what I liked about your first ride report 2019 at the end you kind of make note of what didn’t really work for you and what you hope to correct in the next one assuming there would be um another PBP so 2023 first of all why did you decide to do it again um I think I alluded to it earlier i felt like I missed out on a lot of the PvP experience by by trying to just go as fast as I you know get in under 84 hours so and I was I kind of questioned my motives as I was signing up for PBP 2023 like do I really want to do this or am I just doing it because I’m a random and all random are supposed to do this okay but but I really wanted to get the full experience of uh Yes yeah which which is interesting because originally you were trying to break the 84hour to see if you could do an 84h hour start the next time so you actually came back with the opposite takeaway even though you beat 84 you wanted to get the full 90 this time i I just want to know that I was capable of doing 84 in fact that’s that’s something I’m considering for my third PBP just to see PBP in a different light of day as it were but uh yes I wanted to do I wanted to have fun i wanted to go to the party the second time around okay so 2023 you want to go to the party so what is the strategy then for um enjoying it as much as possible getting the full value unlike 2019 I didn’t have a 1,200 the year before so I didn’t have as high a priority for a start time so I I had a 600 so I I ended up starting an hour later I believe so I knew I was going to be in the bulge so the strategy was to get out of the bulge so I was going to uh I was going to hammer I wasn’t going to start the party until I felt like I was out of the bulge uh which took me um until the return trip when I got to Ludiac and the town it was a ghost town it’s like okay I’m clear it’s time it’s time to enjoy enjoy the ride i I was I was afraid about being in the bulge but also you had bought the Adrien Hans jersey prior to the event so that was very much the approach you wanted to take had you heard about that society before or I had seen people wearing the jersey i thought it was a really cool looking jersey um Yeah and I just uh was like I I want to I want to earn that thing i just I just want to wear that thing and um it it it dovetailed with my my desire to uh enjoy the local flavor for my second PBP a and just so that people are aware I think most people know but you have to finish between 88 hours 55 minutes and 90 did I get that right i think so correct you got to finish in the final hour and five minutes yeah which is a small window when you think about it um well as I said before you could just kind of get close to the finish and then hold but I you’re torn you you want you want to you want to cross that that finish line it’s right there you want to you want to do it um it is a bit of a small window but uh very very doable and and it’s kind of fun to look at the list of people who have earned it and look at their finish times and some some people are just like me like just a couple minutes into the window and some people are nailbiter you know 89 hours and 55 minutes kind of people yeah like like to me the challenge is we’ll say you’re at hour 87 you’re still an hour away then you get a mechanical that’s scary to me right okay because it and also even maybe miscalculating the time all that kind of stuff it’s a lot more stressful than it should be i was like “Yes.” Yes it is yes it is mechanical unplanned mechanical with something it takes you an hour to fix yeah did you consciously then try to hang out places along the way i I So you you got ahead of the bulge and then when you got back essentially you started slowing down a bit stopping at the side of the road that kind of thing well when I got back to my house in Ludiac I I slept for seven hours that was the first chunk of time wow and then and then um I I took a nap on a nice grassy field just shy of Valaines for over a half hour and then when I got to Valaines I didn’t do the whole I guess I wasn’t hungry i don’t remember doing the you know the kids carrying your tray thing i didn’t do any of that just I laid down for like I think it was an hour and a half to I slept there and then out of the lane going into Morton um I still I was I was looking at Yeah I still got I’m like two hours i got I still got I got to I got to bleed off some more time so uh on the way to Morton I’m looking around for an opportunity a nice place to sleep and I finally find this beautiful grassy field behind a it’s got hedges around it and there’s a little gap in the hedge and you can look through the gap and like this looks pretty good and I stick my head in there i was like “Oh there’s nothing in here it’s just this beautiful grassy field.” So I laid down in there um set my alarm it was getting close to sunset um and then I wake up just with a start it’s pitch black i don’t know what time it is i can’t find my wallet i can’t find my phone like have I just blown it have you know what time is it and I I I thought I’d left all that stuff my bike’s laying on its side so I thought I’d set them both on the front wheel on the spokes there’s nothing there i finally find my helmet turn on my helmet light look around find my phone good it it I’m still with the alarm hasn’t gone off yet i’m I’m still good so I slept there and I slept in um Drew when I got to Drew that’s the first thing I did is I laid it laid it was sun the sun was up but I slept for about an hour on the grass and then I went in and got some breakfast so I I kept bleeding time kept bleeding time and then I finally Drew I had big plate of scrambled eggs when I finally got up yeah met up with uh a fellow DC randoner named Roger um killed time sitting there talking to him but I I eventually got to the point where I just I can’t I can’t stand to be in Drew another minute i I I I want to get on that bike and I want to go you know I I probably should stay here longer but I I can’t do it i’ve been here for like two and a half hours i gotta go and I did it almost seems like they should have an Adrien Hans bar you know one kilometer from the the finish right and they call your name and number when you’re ready to um cross the line yeah yep yeah that would be that would be pretty cool you know it’s funny just last thing I’ll say about Adrien Hanss it’s almost like something you shouldn’t try the first time you do PBP like you knew enough to you know when when to de delay and you already were obviously making time so it wasn’t an issue cool a lot of truth to that a lot of truth to that just know knowing knowing how to game it as it were yeah yeah anything else you want to comment on 2023 um yeah just at the the start was different um whereas my previous time there you had your bike inspection you had to get in line you had the day before it was complete the day before they put a sticker on your bike 2023 they decided they would do it as part of the start and and your instructions were to report to the chateau for your bike inspection that’s all the guidance I remember getting so you know it’s it’s time to go ride PVP and I show up in Ramboo Ramboo um in 2023 I had to stay like 10 miles outside of town i couldn’t get accommodations there so I get there and uh like what they said go to the chateau it’s just a mob it is just a mob all over like I don’t and I don’t know what’s going on here and I’m asking around and I finally find a marshall who tells me just look for the guy he’s got the big I was in group K big K sign just report to him and so then I then so the deal was you find your letter you go meet up with that guy you kind of hang out with him for a while and then when it’s your turn to get go down the sidewalk towards the chateau he will lead you down the sidewalk the inspection actually happened on the sidewalk really quick inspection do your lights work that’s all I remember um Oh you had to you had to sign you had to uh get your your first stamp on your card and and but then so that was the only that was different um but um other than that oh um I realized that you spent a lot of time in the start area so I brought a bottle of cranberry juice and a box of cookies like you know you should probably be okay if you ate this stuff while you’re waiting so when you when you roll it’s you haven’t it hasn’t been that long since you ate and I thought that worked out really well for me i thought really good smart okay so then kind of the million-dollar question which I think you already kind of answered are you hoping to do the next 2027 yes I am planning on doing it okay wow so you’re firmly on the PBP train now after being a little bit iffy okay i am i am as long as as long as I have the stamina and the muscular skeletal health to to ride like that I plan on doing it but I’m torn because there’s that 84-hour thing that I would like to see you know the things that were in the dark I’d like to see them by light and vice versa um interesting so I’d like to do that but I feel like that’s that would put me under the the the gun again for time and I would be missing out again on all that roadside stuff and and I’m and so I if if I had to choose right now I would I would go with 90 hours again okay i’m I’m I’m in agreement with that one by the way yeah i’ve never understood 84 um so you’re 65 now so you’re going to be 67 when you do the next one how long do you think a person can keep doing PBP um I was looking at the statistics a couple months or years ago about all the finishers and their ages and you know what the success rate was and I mean there were guys in their 80s I think in it was the 2019 version I was looking at who at least started it but I don’t think anybody finished it in that age group but there were people in their 70s who started it and finished it uh one of the guys from DC ran who went with me this time was in his 70s and he finished it amazing amazing so by the skin of his teeth he wasn’t going for Adrian Hans time but he got it that’s funny that’s funny he whether he liked it or not yeah i I I see people aging out you know here in the Sivera Park Pelaton i see people aging out you just at some point the stamina kind of goes away and it doesn’t sound like a lot of fun anymore so yeah but I think interesting yeah I I I will I will after 2019 I said I think I’ve got one more PvP in me and then I did 23 and now I’m saying I think I got one more PVP in me okay good um okay so Jack uh we’re going to end it with your three tips that guarantee a finish for someone who’s doing PBP no pressure okay okay um the first one I would say is start the ride rested uh that’s easy to do for 84 hours because you can get up early in the morning and you can go but 90 hours it’s not it’s not obvious how to do that um both of my PVPs I tried to get kind of stay on the clock for the US try to stay up late and get up late and and both PvPs I I stayed in bed till like three in the afternoon and and I and I’ve seen people get up that morning and they go have a good old time in Rambule all afternoon and then they fall asleep the first night so So figure out how to stay rested i got food poisoning right before the night before in 2023 and that actually helped me because I was up till 4 a.m with food poisoning and that that helped me sleep until you know the afternoon that really worked out well silver lining to that one um I would say uh training I I did 2019 while I was still working and and now in 2023 when I retired my training miles the year before PBP went from 5,000 for the year to 8,000 for the year and whereas in 2019 I didn’t feel like I was really prepared i I I had heard that it’s up and down up and down you’re either going up or down the whole time and I felt it and I was getting passed by hundreds of riders every time I was going uphill uh that I didn’t even feel the hills in 2023 and I was hanging with the the riders going uphill all the time and and why is that that’s because I I think I just had more training miles in the other thing is I try to do a bigish ride a couple weeks before PVP the one I did in 2019 was um a very flat course and the one I did in 2023 was a very hilly course so um training miles uh I think like Eddie Mks you know ride lots and I think that made the difference and then um the other thing is I’m I’m I as we said earlier I’m kind of a reliability geek i I I try to eliminate things that would cause me to not finish the ride uh I I my bike I I’ve got uh barend shifters because they are very simple they don’t break if they if you break a cable it’s very easy to replace i’ve got 36 spoke wheels because if you break a if you break a spoken just keep on going i’ve seen it happen people just keep rolling um try to figure out what could take you down and and have the fix for it on board um I’ve got duct tape and I’ve used it in the past uh of course the the flats you know stuff to handle flats um I’ve got quick links for chains and I have used them in the past i have broken chains on rides to to get them uncinkedked and then put them back together again um so I I have had I I ride SPD shoes uh cleat and there’s only two screws that hold that on and I’ve been on rides where one of the screws has disappeared and so now the the cleat is just held on with one screw so when you try to get out of the pedal the shoe rotates but the cleat stays in the pedal so I got a spare screw from from that experience so So um think about think about how long how old are your tire how old are your wheels i put a new tire on uh a new wheel on my bike before 2023 because it’s been a few years and I just just want it to be reliable um and try to try to check check out your equipment uh does your when’s the last time you use your mini pump does it still move air so I’ve had one fail and it didn’t move air when I wanted it to uh not on PVP or um here’s a story um the low point on my 2023 PVP didn’t happen during the ride it happened after the ride when I came when it came time to change the tire on that new rim that I used for PVP i could not get the tire off i It took me I needed vice grip pliers to unhook that tire and and um I learned quickly that oh this is a tubeless ready rim and these tires are not really compatible with it and oh my god what if this had happened out there in Britany i I without without a set of vice grips I could not get that tire off the rim wow so I I probably should have p just hey can I get this can I change a flat on this brand new tire on this brand new wheel so just try to try to identify what can go wrong and then and get some confidence that if it does happen I can handle it so I guess that’s my my my my third tip jack three excellent points it was a pleasure to meet you and I look forward to seeing you in 2027 okay i I will be there Peter thank you very much nice to meet you oxin
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Great interview Jack. I love this and the passion you speak with