PBP Story #60
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This week we have Alex Stapleton who lives in Milton Keynes in England. He’s originally English but of Italian descent. He also lived briefly in Ireland and rode with the Dublin based Orwell Wheelers when he completed PBP in 2023 in a time of 88:27.
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 Alex Stapleton who lives in Milton Kees in England. He’s originally English but of Italian descent. He also lived briefly in Ireland and rode with the Dublin based Orwell Wheelers when he completed PBP in 2023 in a time of 88 hours and 27 minutes. Alex, it’s a pleasure to meet you. And nice to meet you, Peter. Okay, I’ll start with this first one. What does PBP mean to you? Yeah, I think it’s some it’s just an epic Well, it’s a it’s a big event and yeah, it’s probably something um I just thought, yeah, it was just a big ride. um and reading up about it before um completing it, it was it’s one of the biggest rides one can do as an amateur and has almost the same atmosphere as like a pro would completing the tour to France. So yeah, when completing it is like just amazing like the atmosphere you get at the finish line or even on the route on the route you’ve got crowds the whole route almost. Yeah, completely completely. Um, let’s go back to the start. Tell me when did you start riding? Why do you ride? That kind of stuff. Yep. Um, so I started riding a lot like as a teenager and then just a lot of like having fun. I was mainly into mountain biking really, but um it wasn’t and did like a few long rides, but always on like like average bikes. I didn’t start driving until I was like my mid20ies. So I just used it more to to get around. But then um yeah, I just um but one of the things I do like is um the sensation of speed. So like don’t know, especially going down descents. Yeah. Great. Taking them very quick. That’s cool. Yeah. Great. Um so then how did you first hear about PBP? Um, so I started road cycling in 2019 and I was having a look look around um trying to figure out like just anything to do with road cycling. I was doing a a long a two-day event. Um, I think it was 260 km. So day one was 160. It was it was London to Amsterdam. So 160 km take the ferry take uh 100 km the second day and thought oh yeah um what other events um are similar to this and um I actually came across PVP but didn’t think um too much of it and at the time the the qualification um how to qualify for it looked really complicated. Yeah. Um, so I actually applied to LEAL, London, Edinburgh, London, but um, didn’t get in the ballot. Okay, cool. So, yeah, that was kind of going to be So, I actually thought I’d complete LEAL before PBP, but it’s I’ve still not done LEAL today. Cool. So, what was your kind of strategy going into PBP and how did you figure out a strategy? Um so I didn’t so I moved to Ireland in um like 2020 and um joined the orwell wheelers as my first um road club and they have a large um like large orac faction of the club and um for in 2019 they were actually the I think the only club to have every rider complete. Wow, that’s amazing. So, I I think there were seven, but um if you look at the like publications, I think they were the only team to have 100% finish, which is which was great. Um so, I did my first ordax in 2022. I didn’t really think too much of it. I was just like, “Oh, just trying different things and thought, oh, it’s something that would interest me anyway.” But I just thought I just really saw it as a long ride because I’d done kind of sporties to that point. I get you. I think it it was Yeah. So the and also their 200 the Orwell 200 is in March, so it’s a nice in Europe it’s a nice early early season ride. So if you get that done, then you’ve kind of built fitness from there. Yeah. Yeah. Um um so yeah, going on um then 2023 comes around and I sign up for the I decide actually I can go go ahead and um try and qualify for the PVP. So kind of almost on a whim. I’d only done one orax until this point decide okay let let’s see if I can do the uh qualifications uh and uh then do PVP. So I think my strategy was um I do quite analyze a lot my rides post um afterwards. And so I was looking at um just what did I do well, what did I do wrong. Um my worst qualifier was a 300 where I barely slept and Yeah. Yeah. I think yeah, my average speed ended up about being roughly what I ended up doing PBP because I Yeah, just didn’t feel that great. But it was a very good learning experience and that was at the time only my third orac. Yeah, that’s that’s incredible. That is really incredible. You just decided to take this on on a whim. Amazing. Yeah, I well I had I did have aspir as I said I did have aspirations of doing a long a long ride beforehand, but it wasn’t quite Yeah. Yeah. The way it worked out was um yeah, I thought I can like train up to PVP as I was like quite a strong um club rider at the time. Anyway, I think it’s I think it’s interesting in the kind of RI ride brief briefing you sent me, you talked a lot about data and how you’d like to analyze data, which I think is very interesting and it’s smart. when for your very first one I think it said something like you were 34 when you did it first of all and that is that is the age that has the highest uh level of success is that correct? Yeah. So looking at the um yeah weirdly yeah between the age looking at the official book the the age bracket 30 to 40 um you’re less likely to fail a PBP attempt. That’s interesting. Yeah cuz I would imagine people in their 20s that do it probably don’t have enough mental fortitude. Right. And then it’s you get you had that combination when you’re in your 30s to 40s, mental fortitude and physical ability maybe. I don’t know. Yeah. And I I kind of I looking back on it now I I do think it was I did it also a little bit naively even though I was analyzing it as I was um progressing um through the different um qualifiers. I was learning more and more, but um there was still there was still nothing that could prepare me for the actual event. So um but yeah, my main strategy anyway was to go um fortunately the 400 qualifier had the same start time that I started at. So it was a 700 p.m. start. Um so I was a so we did the 400 qualifier and I did um I was able to like complete that easy complete that and then go to bed. Um so I thought I I’ll do that. So ended up so 400k is about ludia. It kind of nicely splits um the ride into three easy um manageable chunks. Yeah. Like I just going back to that point I think you mentioned you were quite naive going into the first one. I think yeah you know by default or everyone is naive. You don’t you can only do so much preparation and you still don’t know what that first one will be like. That’s the challenge I think you know. No. And also um yeah as um so prior to 2023 the PVP year I hadn’t done anything longer than a 200k ride. So um um Alex, another brief aside. Okay, I don’t know if you can answer this, but is there any differences in biking between Ireland and England where you now live? And maybe it’s just because where you live I suppose is kind of urban. Is that correct? Yeah, it’s urban, but I live on the edge of the city now, so it’s quite it’s quite easy. So, it was the same in Dublin. I was living in Dublin city um when and there um I lived I’d say within 20 minutes I was in in the Wicklo Mountains, which was it’s a phenomenal place to ride if anyone is in that part of the world. It’s it’s like yeah I do miss it sometimes because I don’t have the climbs where I am now are very short and there yeah it was yeah very beautiful country but um yeah it’s a lot busier here with cars in Ireland as soon as you leave Dublin it’s it’s it’s very um it gets very quiet so it was it was actually apart from because Orwell well um organized the qualifier which made all the qualifying series. It meant I it was easy for me to do the qualifiers whereas if I tried to do it from England my closest um club is either in London or there’s a huge club um in Essex called Acme. Oh okay. Okay. Um so and that’s that’s not nowhere near as close as where I am. So it was Yeah. And te tell me uh briefly about the logistics in getting to the start line. Oh yeah. So um I after completing the 600 um I moved back to England. However, I thought oh it would be easier if I we had a bus because uh I can’t remember how many of us started. I think it was nine. Yeah. We had a a team bus taking all the bikes from Ireland in a ferry to Rambuay. Um so I thought, okay, I’ll go over to Dublin. Yeah. Um and then catch a flight from Dublin to Paris and then stay so I stayed in Paris near um Mon. Yeah, not MMA. Um Mas. So you can get the train out to if they do it in um if 2027’s in Rambuay again, I’ll pro um yeah, I I’ll anticipate um if Yeah, I’m planning to do it again. If if they it is in Rambuay again, I’ll probably stay in Paris and get the train out because that was very easy. You know, that’s exactly what I did both times. It’s so easy to just be in Paris. It’s kind of more fun and also maybe you’re removed from the craziness of you know the starting line and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, cool. So then um no issues then you got your bike to the start. Were you nervous at the Were you nervous at the start line? No, but it it was quite quite funny because I booked the the meal at the start and I got really confused for some weird reason. I thought, “Oh yeah, you start and then have the meal.” So I ended up not having not having the meals. Yes. However, I had a sandwich on me, so I was fine for food. Yeah. Because my plan at the time was to do 200k um with like try and not stopping for 200k. Um Yeah. And were you what was your plan to ride with others or or not or ride by yourself? plan was to so so every every orax and I think this is probably why I like oraxing is um I always I always end up so there’s parts of every orex where I’m kind of riding by myself but then there’s other parts where I’m uh like make a like make a group with other riders and then um yeah just have chats about other things and it’s yeah It’s made Yeah, it’s made me want to like continue oraxing. Yeah. What was your confidence level when you left the the start line? Were you confident 100% I’m going to do this or Yeah. Go ahead. It’s a little bit nervous, but I was also confident. Um I’d follow um so I’ve been following so one of the I think there was some advice uh saying that a 300 gives you your rough despite my 300 being terrible. Um a 300 gives you a rough um idea of what your day pace is. Okay. Um, so I I I my 400 I forget what my pace was, but it was fairly good. So I was thinking if I can keep my 400 pace for the whole event, um, I’ll be fine. Cool. But I I actually um but I’d also heard that in the first Yeah. In the first stint of the PVP, you get into some really fast pelatons. And because I I was I was a club rider, um I had quite a well kind of lost it a little bit now, but I had better um group riding skills. So I it was just easy to just form in a group. It was quite fun um at the time. So I think I read that you you started pretty late, like 700 p.m. or something, and then you you went directly almost directly into the dark. Was that easy? Do you recommend that approach? I uh so I’m okay with riding in the dark. Um if you’re not, I would advise to go earlier. Um, however, because I qualified pre-qualified with a 200, there wasn’t really anything earlier than 700 p.m. So, okay, I would also advise anyone if they want to pre-qualify for PVP this next year to do something along the 200s to get better slots. Yeah. Um, tell me about um I’m looking at some notes here. Tell me about the sleep situation. Did you sleep well over the 89 hours? I think Yeah, I think I did. So, I slept in the big um sports hall in Ludiaak twice and then I slept on the floor in um uh what was it called? Uh one of the the Yeah, it was the penultimate it was the penultimate control on the way back. Um I kind of slept for an hour. So, how many hours total do you think you got? I would say about six or seven. Okay. Sleep. But, um, my, uh, my FAF time, as I like to call it, um, was very high. If I had Yeah. If I had FAF less, my finishing time would have been a lot Yeah. faster. But I made a decision about mid midway in to the first day um on that Monday when it was stupidly hot. Um I had a teammate who crashed and I I don’t know that got to my head and I thought I’m I’m going to slow down. So did you actually see the guy or you heard about No, I I heard so I had no idea what had happened to him. Yeah. And weirdly, he was wearing he he had the same tire as I had. So, I was like, I’m gonna I’m just going to be cautious. I did get a puncture. Yeah. At the at the worst point uh I think 100 uh 200 m from the secret control. So, I ended up in the dark. So, I changed a puncher for half an hour and then ended up in the secret control. If that punch was a bit later, it would have been so much smoother, I think. So, yeah. Did you feel kind of an urgency all the time about the clock ticking away? No. No. Okay. It was it was well I think I was a only one point did I think that but I it at the point where I felt that I was on the way back from breast with a teammate and who wasn’t who wasn’t going as quick as me. So, I just told them to like just get onto my wheel. We’re going to speed up a little bit. Um, that’s great. Yeah. Um, did you have any dark moments at all? Not not really. As I said, I just Well, the worst worst part really was the early early mornings. I think next time I’ll try not to ride like between 4:00 and 6:00 in the morning cuz when it when the temperature dips just before dawn it’s get well one it’s really cold but two I don’t know I felt really sleepy. Yeah. Yeah. So I’m going to try and avoid avoid that. And also I got to car on the way out and it was in the mid I so I was ahead of the bulge until Ludiaak. My average until Ludiac was like 15 and a half mile an hour. Um which was which was quite good. So I was like I’ve got loads of time. Um because I was a I think I was ahead of the bulge at the time but because I’d been passing loads of people overnight. Yeah. Um but actually on that first night um I thought um I’d mention that um when you’re in that Pelaton I just I don’t know everywhere you could see there was like a stream of um red bike lights and I I just thought I think that was one of my favorite memories of Yeah. Yeah. It’s an iconic site, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. Red lights wherever you see. It’s crazy. You also mentioned I think two stops in particular. One was the strawberry feed zone in breast, maybe the McDonald and Tentiniac. Yeah. Um, so I I get to breast and um I think I get there in 38 hours or something. Um, so still good good time for 600. Um, so I decide, okay, I’m going to have a shower and then take it easy. U the rest the rest of my team had started in the wave after me. So they started at 7:15. They had actually overtaken me at this stage. Okay. Um so I think I I thought I’ll just go and catch them up. So you pass the the iconic bridge that everyone takes a selfie on um out of breast and I think there’s a park. there’s a park there and um yeah, there was just people just handing out strawberries as if it was like a feed zone in the tour to France. And the funny thing was um they still had um the logos on the floor from the one of the tour to France was because I think they they I can’t remember what year it was. They had the the one of their early stages embraced to commemorate the par breast. So yeah, just thought that that whole thing was like amazing. And then you mentioned the McDonald’s. I always think it’s funny when people end up in McDonald’s in France, but go on. Um, so there’s a it’s a thing in like Ordax UK and Ireland um to stop in McDonald’s for any longer ores. I think 200’s is exempt. But yeah, every every qualifier I I did over um yeah over the 300, the 400, the 600, I always stopped stopped at McDonald’s and it was kind of like a tradition and yeah, I stopped in Centennia and was full of um yeah, Brits. There was one American um who who just said I think they were having like some issues, stomach issues and they were they were having some McDonald’s um ice cream because it was the only thing they could eat. But interesting. Um any kind of comments or thoughts about the people of Britany, the support inside the road, all that kind of stuff? It was a It was amazing. Um so the first night um I don’t know if it was like a bad strategy of my part, but I kind of ran out of water really quick. It was Yeah, I don’t know if you had the same it thing. I I just got really hot and um yeah, ran out of water in the first night. So, yeah, there was fortunately like people on the side like giving out water and I was like really really thankful for that and yeah, I mentioned that feed zone which was quite funny. Um but yeah, it’s really random having all like different um yeah, it’s all it’s just amazing how many people they just cheer you on at every point. I think Yeah. Um I think it was villain um it’s like a party atmosphere both ways when you go in the first time on Yeah. just just Yeah. Just amazing. It’s like the end of a Yeah. end of a well it was a control but it felt like the end of a stage in the tour. So So true. Yeah. So true. Um so maybe when you’re like a 100 kilometers out from the finish, do you remember how you felt? you feeling good, tired, exhausted or um I I started suffering a little bit of shber’s neck and um like I had a bit of um I don’t know if it’s like sus pulsy but my hand was um starting to um so I think I I shared a picture of you of me at the finish where my hands are like that because I um I start um I started struggling with the controls. Yeah. So cool. But um so you you finished in a time of 88 hours 27 minutes, right? Yeah. It sounds like though that was very managed. You didn’t feel rushed. Is that correct? Like you could get Yeah, I think what what was my um I think I I shared my um moving time. My moving time was like 55 hours, which Yeah. Um typically um Yeah. If I was Yeah. doing it again. Um I’m going to aim for a I think people say a good stopping average is um what is it? So 80% moving and 20% Okay, that’s stopping. So it’s like every hour you you should stop for like 10 minutes on average for the whole ride. I I think I average like stopping like I only rode 40 minutes and stopped 20. So that’s the challenge of course when you’re new your first time it’s so difficult to stay focused particularly at the controls I think. Um, Alex. Yeah, because even before I start the actual the started to slow down, I um Yeah, I was a little bit inefficient at controls. Alex, you did something that I I really like. By the way, you wrote down your intentions before you set out on PBP. So, I’m going to read your seven intentions here, okay? And maybe any comments about ones that worked, ones that didn’t. But let me just read through the seven. So complete in time, remain healthy, do not be overt tired, stay alert, have fun, eat well, but not too much. Be careful of the sun. I like that. It’s really smart because it makes you think about all of these things. Would you think about those intentions as you rode your bike? Um, yes. Like so that last one, be careful of the sun. Um, yeah, we had like a bit of a heat wave. Um, so it was um, yeah, I think I stopped a couple of times purely just to get out of the sun and like stay in the shade like Yeah, I I I’m I am half Italian, but I’ve been living in Ireland where we don’t have that intense sun. Yeah, that would wreck anyone. Yeah, exactly. Uh any of these of the seven that you thought was kind of difficult to achieve or maybe didn’t work out as well? I think it it was the food the food the the eats one. Uh yeah, I don’t know. Um I I was pretty I was pretty glad to not eat control food anymore by the end of the ride. I got you. Yeah. So true. Cool. anything else on uh 2023 that you’d like that we didn’t talk about? Otherwise, I’ll continue on with other questions. Take your time. There’s no question. Yeah, I I think um so um yeah, after breast um I caught up with a couple of um teammates and it was pretty good to like stay in the t team group. We did split at one point and um I actually waited like 1 hour in a control for for my teammate to catch up. So that was another one of Yeah. one of the reasons why like my finishing time was so um well it was within but it wasn’t it wasn’t quicker than what it was and because I waited for one of my teammates so it was really good to yeah finish with them because I mentioned previously that my 300 was really like it was probably my one of the worst rides I’ve ever done. Okay. um how I felt and that day um I was riding with the Orwell um Orax crew all day. So it was so they helped me through that. So I just thought it would be nice. Um yeah, so I finished the ride in a group. Um I didn’t plan it that way. I I thought I’d finish a lot cool sooner before then, but um no, it was really good and yeah, it was my last rate ride for for that team. So Nice way, nice way to end it, Alex. So, tell me, um, a month after PBP, were you, how did you feel, feeling of satisfaction, still elation or Yeah. Um, yeah, I still had still didn’t have full um use of my hand from PvP because it was pretty um shot from but um yeah, no, it was very very good. I it does take a while to digest. Um completely. Yeah. It’s like your brain has been overloaded with data and you have to slowly kind of unwind it all. Yeah. Yeah. So true. And I think was your daughter or your child born in October? Would that be right? Yeah. I I did put I did make a joke. So PvP is almost um ran as a sleepdeprived. You you do get into sleep deprivation really quickly, especially if you’re in the later um 90 hour wave. Um I I did think, oh yeah, this is actually prep for fatherhood. Exactly. Yes. Um but yeah um on a serious note, yeah, it was it was that’s great. So then when you were doing PBP the first time in your mind were you thinking I am definitely coming back or you had to think about it for a while? I don’t know. So on the weirdly on the way back I’ve got um so I I took a conventional way back to the UK rather than routting via Ireland again. Yeah. where like just leave Paris with the train, get a ferry across to the UK and um and then back up to um Milton Kees. But um yeah, I was speaking to some of the the British um oraxes and I was actually I got talking to a guy who was on his seventh PBP and his Yeah, it was it was amazing. And his first PBP was um when he was 34, which was my age at the time. Wow. Yeah. I didn’t really think of it at the time like, “Oh, yeah. Maybe when I get to this guy’s age, I can I can have done seven.” But I don’t know. Now, now I’m looking at it, I’m thinking, don’t know. Maybe. Maybe. We’ll see. We’ll see. I definitely want to try and do do the 2027 for sure. Cool. And is there anything dramatically different that you would do in 2027 versus 23? I think I I’ll go into like a better a better mindset and of um yeah, just um try not to fuff too much at the controls and um yeah, try and keep if I can keep my first day pace for the whole ride, I think I’ll I’ll be happy. I think it’s very much a recurring theme. someone who does it one time, they go back to try to kind of fix everything that went wrong in the first one. And you know, because you the first one you just don’t know what you’re doing basically. Cool. And and also I’m almost thinking like how fast can I do it? I think okay, 70 hours is easily achievable if I f less and able to stay at my at the pace I did the last one. But but we’ll see. We’ll see. Nothing. Nothing’s guaranteed. Is Is um Oh my god. Charlie Miller time a thing in the UK or not really? Not really. I I really heard it from the first time like watching your series. Okay. I think it’s definitely more an American thing. So, it’s 40 54 hours and 40 minutes, something like that. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a hard one, huh? Yeah. I think Yeah. One of um your pre one of the previous interviews did say if if you can maintain a 50 mph average for the whole ride and having very few stops, you can do it. That sounds crazy to me. Yeah, I can average 15 m an hour. So, but I only did that on day one. If I can do that for the whole ride and then minimize my um stop times, maybe. We We don’t know. We’ll see. I I want to see how how fast I can do it, but at the same time, I don’t want to like overdo it. Um, as one of my intentions was, yeah, like I want to be able to finish the ride just be like, I’m happy with what I’ve done. Cool. Cool. Um, great. So, let’s end it then with your three tips that guarantee a finish. Okay. Yeah. Um, I was going to say I would like as you kindly read out the intentions. Yeah, write write down your intentions. It’s um it’s actually a well-known trick to writing down your intentions like helps helps you achieve something. So, I thought, okay, I’m just going to write some some things down. Um, it doesn’t have to be too complicated as you read out mine. It’s just fairly straightforward otherwise. Yeah. You get and not even too many. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. Second tip, sorry. Um, second tip I would say, um, be as efficient as you can at controls. Um, because you can lose a lot of time that you don’t realize. I think I lost a lot of time in Kahhei both times and I don’t know I I dread going to dread doing Kahi ne next time. So hope I I don’t know. I need to think about how to deal with Kahi um in 2027. Yes. And then I think tip number three, sorry. Um yeah, tip number three. Uh, I think this half because I went into this was my first 1,200 and my previous and it was double my previous ride. Um, yeah, just break down um the ride into small manageable pieces. So what I mean by that is um they give you um rough um they give you the distances between each control and if you know roughly what your um right or pace is um you can just say okay between these controls it should be about 2 or 3 hours. So that’s how I thought about it. So when I was in Tinteniac going out to Ludiaak, okay, it’ll be like another 3 hours or something. Perfect. Cool. Um, yeah. So, yeah, it’s just it’s just easy. It’s easier to think about it that way than like Yeah. Perfect. One big whole thing. Completely. Um, Alex, it’s been a complete pleasure and hopefully I will see you in 2027. Okay. Thanks. Yeah, you too. Thank you very much.