PBP Story #49: Six riders share what PBP means to them:
Jan Heine – 7 PBPs with 4 Charly Millers
Eric Norris – 3 PBPs, 1 DNF + 1 Volunteer
Drew Carlson – 1 PBP
Kevin Fitzpatrick – 1 DNF + 1 PBP
Pascal Ledru – 3 PBPs
Corinne Warren – 1 DNF + 1 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
my first question is what does PBP mean to you it’s a big question isn’t it i think PBP there’s two kinds of things some people it’s a bucket list you cross it off you’ve done it you move on and other people get captivated by it and it takes over not quite their life but you a friend of mine once said that basically during PBP you’re processing the last four years of your life and then the next four years you’re preparing the next PBP yeah that’s interesting that’s really There’s something about those four years intervals that make it even more special exactly because it’s not every year i mean you really have time to think about it to prepare for it even build a new bike or whatever you know there’s there’s a lot of thinking about it and it’s more challenging than you realize at first you know everybody thinks oh 90 hours 1,200 kilometers i mean it’s it’s not not super easy but it’s doable but then you realize there’s so many facets for it and you can either optimize one or two and you will finish within the time limit with not much problems or you can try to optimize all and suddenly your time drops because you gain a few hours here a few hours there a few hours there a few hours there so people think that the fast guys are superhuman but they’re not often superhuman i’m not um they just work on every aspect yeah yeah and there is so much potential for improvement across this kind of event isn’t that right yeah totally i mean you know time trial I talked about before all you need is arrow bars you set them up right and then it’s horsepower you know that’s it pvp horsepower doesn’t get you anywhere so true and in many ways it’s what happens off the bike determines yeah you know we calculated that once if you stop five minutes extra at each control you have to ride half a mile hour faster between controls to catch up now half a mile hour faster that’s that’s big i mean somebody who passes you at half a mile per hour faster they’re going like this you’re not going to get on that wheel because you said “Oh that guy’s too fast.” Yeah and five minutes at the control I mean that’s nothing amazing um what does PBP mean to you so it’s a very open-ended question well PBP initially I had been doing long distance riding for a long time um my first century my h first 100 mile ride uh was about 1981 or so uh and then in 83 I did my first Davis double so I I’ve been doing long-distance riding for a long time and when you’re in that you know arena there’s always talk about PBP and I didn’t really know that much about it but started learning more about it so I certainly knew what the ride was um so it was really the next step you know it was that next challenge the next that you know the next mountain to climb whatever and what finally kind of put us over the edge was uh some friends and I had been doing a lot of long-distance riding on fixed gear bikes starting around 2005 wow in 2006 we rode cross country so I rode from California to Kansas on a fixed gear so you know several mountain ranges in between there um and we thought well gosh you know PVP is coming up next year we’re all pretty much in shape now let’s do something completely stupid okay and go take Fixed Gear Bikes over there nice it was stupid you’re right yeah it was stupid yeah uh there there was a a rider from Davis named Amy Rafferty who uh I don’t know if she does this anymore but she was uh did PBP several times i think she was a local RBA etc i’ll never forget we were sitting in the hotel in uh in Sonatan before the ride and she said “You know it’s stupid riding it on a big scare you know that don’t you?” And I was like “Oh no no it’ll be fine.” And she was right of course it was totally stupid but we did it yeah this whole thing is just degrees of stupidness isn’t that right like it’s all stupid what long yeah my wife has totally the right opinion about all of this which is you’re stupid you Why are you doing this you know yeah it’s funny my wife is similar and it seems to keep us the marriage alive i don’t know she just sees me as this idiot basically so it’s funny yeah yeah question number one what does PBP mean to you well uh that’s actually an unusual question to me i I had to think about that a little bit um I’ I’d say I mean it’s obviously a uh a huge historic cycling event uh that was originally a race a long time ago if you know a little bit about the history um that wasn’t how I came about it i I learned more about it on because of randuring and and what it does but um I I guess I failed to realize just how important PBP was to some people in certain places uh obviously it’s important in France that becomes abundantly clear when you’re there when you’re there to do the event itself um but it’s it’s kind of the granddaddy it’s like it’s like uh I don’t know i hate to use the term Mecca because I’m I’m not a Muslim and I don’t really understand it well yeah uh Islam well but it’s it’s kind of like the big gathering of people who have an interest in long-distance randuring uh throughout the world and so it’s kind of a gathering and a and a celebration and certainly an an acknowledgement of uh people who’ve done these things before us and probably had a lot more uh challenges than really modern randers I’d face I’d say in France thank you okay first question what does PBP mean to you so PBME to me was a was kind of a challenge a goal a thing to work towards um and you know it it kind of directed what I did for four five six years while I uh um learned to ride a bike essentially that’s cool and I know you have quite a story and I think it’s really interesting the fact that you DNF first and then came back and finished it which we’ll hear more about later uh what did it feel like when you actually finished PBP that second time in 2015 what did the what did the finish line feel like uh I expected this glorious feeling of of accomplishment in reality I was relieved to be done it was it was not some great uh and it was in the rain and there weren’t a lot of people there and it was um it was a bit of a mess so yeah uh I I expected to have a feeling i didn’t have that feeling i was happy to be done it was a hard a hard ride kevin maybe you’re dead inside who knows okay did did did the satisfaction come later or it really was I’ve done this now I can move on with my life you know a little of both um this I find that I ride for the challenge and not for the enjoyment of the ride um okay people ask me after my big rides you know do you have fun and I’m like well it really wasn’t about the fun you know for me it was about the challenge and my my daughter learned to ask when she was really young were you challenged and um and and that’s the answer so I had a a a sense of accomplishment afterwards as far as the challenge goes yeah yeah uh it’s an interesting one longd distance riding enjoying it while it’s happening or enjoying it when it’s passed it’s a fascinating thing and it changes I think as you get older in life perhaps i don’t know i think I’m really into type two fun you know the kind if you understand the phrase yeah yeah which one is That’s the good one is that right no that’s the bad one that’s the bad one bad at the time good later okay yeah that’s kind of weird because obviously type one I assume is the one you’re enjoying in the moment that’s what we should all strive for Kevin i think in life maybe cool um actually your name uh Kevin it’s very Irish so I assume maybe Irish Catholic which would explain maybe enjoying type two suffering is that right that’s right okay there you go all right thanks for joining Pascal uh thanks for having me Peter i’m so Yeah I’m so excited to have a real life French person on the podcast okay okay so in the US for so long I’m not sure I’m French no no you’re representing an entire nation okay so don’t mess it up okay okay okay all right all right so that’s great that’s cool great okay back to my normal questions then the first one I always ask what does PBP mean to you and again there’s a great weight to this cuz you’re a French person um I I think you know it’s really just a personal achievement you do get a medal at the end but you know compete against yourself and um I think sometime you wonder why you do that but when you when you when you are done it’s like wow it was you know incredible and I remember in in 2015 I was talking to a French guy in the middle of the night and of course he was saying well I keep saying myself you know never again but he was saying as soon as I cross the line I was planning the next one and I think it’s you know for most of us it’s you know a little bit what we do we wonder why we do it but when we are done it’s incredible and I think um the evolution of PvP is pretty neat to even between 2015 and 2023 I can see the change you have like more international and by international it’s not just European or North American you have more and more people from Asia and I think it’s kind of nice you know you have these people from literally all over the world maybe not Africa yet but maybe hopefully in the future and and they come to this event and they share their passion of cycling and I think you know I don’t know if you see that for other things but I think it’s really neat you know yeah so true so true uh what does PBP mean to you PBP is this kind of mythical larger than life holy grail of long-distance cycling and um I’ve always kind of regarded it with reverence Um yes so yeah just just just the apex of the sport cool um how did it feel at the finish line so that that third attempt how did it feel 2023 just one word relieved i was relieved to get the monkey off my back after eight years oh that’s great that’s cool