Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) 2019— A cycling experience to treasure a lifetime
I was meeting the man for the first time. To my surprise, he asked me: “Are you a cyclist?” After a moment of bewilderment, I replied, “Yes I am a cyclist”, with a sense of pride. My recent success in Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) gave me the courage and confidence to introduce myself as a cyclist.
Paris-Brest-Paris — PBP is a 1200 km Quadrennial cycling event with the accolades of being the oldest and the biggest among long distance events. Covering the distance of 1220 km in 88:16 hours was not just a physical game; rather more of a mental and emotional marathon, which I strived and thrived during August 18–22, 2019 at France. Here, I am trying to pen down my journey right from my early days of cycling till the successful completion of PBP.
My entry to cycling was not a ‘by choice decision’, rather a ‘by chance decision’ made when some leg injuries stalled my efforts to become a marathoner. Professor Google advised to pick up cycling as the best cross-training sport for runners encountering similar issues and I ran to a friend of mine, who was a regular cyclist. My friend and colleague Arun Prasad was very happy to lend me one of his cycles to start with; and thus I started another epic journey of my life in cycling on a rented bike. Though I bought many cycles after that, I still keep Arun’s bike as the jewel among them.
How far can you cycle in a go? I was pretty happy with my ability to cycle 15–20 km non-stop. I still remember the first day of the year 2018 on which I had touched 40 km for the first time by cycle (of course, I had taken at least 4 stops and one tea in between). In that excitement, I had made a selfie video New Year message to my friends!
Even before I realized that cycling is one of the most expensive sports, the spirit of cycling had pulled me into it in every sense. Crossing newer milestones in distance came much faster than I thought and I started keeping my progress data through Strava more enthusiastically than a student keeping his marks tabulated. I had to keep a special tab in my monthly budget; certainly it left a big hole in pocket :). Cycling videos (GCN), global and domestic e-commerce websites of cycling goods and activity tracker platforms like Strava eaten away my ‘screen time’ from Facebook, Instagram etc. YouTube started customising my home page with cycling videos.
I am sure the above description will suit anyone who is a cyclist- amateur or professional!
The biggest lesson that cycling taught me is to ‘Beat Yesterday’! The pleasure of getting better than yesterday’s self in distance, elevation, speed etc. started giving me a kick and I should confess; I got addicted to it (BTW the name of my bike is Addict!!). Don’t know whether this kick is purely an emotional phenomenon or a neuro-chemical one due to the Endorphins released during the workout. Seeing my active involvement in cycling, few of my friends even asked whether I am losing focus from my career! The questions certainly helped me manage my priorities.
The quest for finding newer avenues to ‘Beat My Yesterdays’ took me to the world of Brevets: — which are long distance cycling events with a cut-off time but designed in a non-competitive and self-supported style. The Audax Club Parisien (through its Indian Arm — Audax India Randonneurs) governed Brevets were being organised by Cochin Bikers Club in our town. I registered for my first Brevet- a 200 km event named ‘Town-to-Town’. Being the first brevet, the excitement and anxiety took away all my sleep in the previous night and I landed at the starting point well in time with a big backpack stuffed with many unnecessary things. An experienced friend urged me to off-load my entire luggage in the car and ride light. To my surprise I again beat my yesterday by finishing 4–5 hours before the time allotted for the ride. My journey continued with a 300 km event in Tamil Nadu where I faced hot headwinds, an easy 400 km event and finally a 40 hour 600 km event in Kerala which also I could finish with almost 4 hours left in hand. Can’t describe the Super Ecstasy of becoming a ‘Super Randonneur (SR)’ — a life long title awarded by Audax Club Parisien for completing 200, 300, 400 and 600 km Brevets in a single year.
Casual visits to the local bike store kept me updated with what was happening in the world of endurance cycling. During one such visit, I learned that some of the senior cyclists were preparing for an event called PBP aka Paris-Brest-Paris. I left it there as I believed that it is not my cup of tea and beyond my reach until my practice partner Arun Pillai added me into a WhatsApp group of PBP aspirants from Cochin Bikers Club without my permission.
I started googling about PBP to realise that it is one of the oldest cycling events with a history dated back to 1891, older than the modern Olympics and the epic Tour De France. One needs to complete the 1200+ km distance on a human powered cycle within 90 hours to emerge successful in PBP. For professionals, there are 80 hour and 84 hour categories too. I just remained in the group for some time, confused and undecided. The serious discussions and relevant forwards in the group slowly kindled the idea of PBP in my mind. Yet, I couldn’t digest the idea of PBP with more than 1200 km spanning over 4 continuous days and nights because the 600 km ride- the longest distance I had covered until then was a very tough and challenging one. But somehow, motivation came from multiple sources day by day. Finally I re-assured my mind that DNF (Did Not Finish) is much better than DNS (Did not Start) and took that decision to go ahead with PBP.
I thought selling the idea of PBP to my family would be tough considering the risk factors and the potential dent on the family budget. To my surprise I got a go ahead from my better half on one condition; this PBP should be the first and the last of its kind. Thereafter she stood with me till the finish of my ride as a strong pillar and source of motivation.
Now that the permissions and decisions were in place, I still needed to complete another Super Randonneur Series before June 2019. Started off with a 200 km in the new season and I was over-confident about it. Result: DNF (Did Not Finish)- first time in my brevet history. I had decided to quit at 130 km, but the reason for stopping that ride in between is still unknown to me. This unanticipated failure taught me that not all days are the same in cycling and thereafter I never took any ride for granted. Within March 2019 I could complete the SR series and got qualified for PBP. A windy 400 km to Udumalpet and a scorching 600 km to Salem were really tough and tested our willpower and physical fitness levels. On the day Audax Club Parisien opened the pre-registration, all of us woke up early in the morning to secure a place in an early departure slot. I was successful in getting into the 6:45 pm slot. Pre-registration got converted to final registration by the beginning of July 2019.
Shopping for PBP was the most exciting and entertaining aspect of the PBP preparatory phase. When I prepared a list of things to buy, the items exceeded 40 in number. Compared the prices locally and internationally and finalized the sources. I had to buy goods from almost half a dozen countries through online shopping sites as well as through my friends coming home from abroad. My headlight arrived from US while its rechargeable batteries from Dubai! Many local shops also helped us in getting specific items as per our list. In hindsight, I feel that I could have avoided at least 40% of the items bought and could have cut-down my spend as well. My credit card bills touched newer heights and the banks started offering additional credit limits. Now I am in a position to offer a consultancy on what to buy for PBP; but if you listen to me you will certainly be missing the pleasure of indulging in PBP shopping. The shopping continued till the last minute- the day just before the event :)
Practice is the only insurance one can take while entering into the uncharted waters in sports! Me being an amateur cyclist sought the help of two pros to chart a training plan for PBP. Joby Paul, an Ironman and Sreenath Lakshmikanth, a pro-cyclist and our champion boy gave me many lessons and plans to follow on a regular basis. In theory Jim Collins taught me that the key ingredient to success is ‘Fanatic Discipline’ through his best seller ‘Great By Choice’. I also put some earnest efforts to be disciplined (obviously not at a fanatic level) on my practice sessions. Still, I ended up in a huge variation of 40–50% from my original training plans. All my training rides were focused on distance and climbs keeping the PBP terrain in mind. Weekend century rides to Athirappally (a famous tourist place in Kerala with a magnificent water fall) with Arun Pillai, Joby, Ratheesh and Georgy improved my climbing capabilities and greatly enhanced my endurance level. My participation in a 150 km Velo À Ootty cycling event also intensified my camaraderie with climbs. I cloaked almost 6000 km during the year 2019 before the PBP. Yet, I was not satisfied with my practice level and still believe that I had done only 50% of what was required for such an event.
Cochin Bikers Club was successful in forming a dozen membered team to Paris and all of us were doing our first international event of that sort. Travel planning for a group itself was a big challenge, which we all enjoyed. Deepak Varghese, a naval officer in our team, a maverick travel planner identified a good place to stay, right flight connections at superb rates and the Schengen Visa processing. We were happy that our entire team was granted the visa amidst many rejections across the country. As a great relief to our worries on bike breakdown issues, our friend and a renowned bike mechanic Murukan also expressed his willingness to join our team as a support crew.
I tapered down my training from the beginning of August and started focusing on the final packing list. Almost all items to carry and the bike bag were ready a week before the travel date. I took a day off to get the final check up of my bike with new components. All bells and whistles were fixed on the bike including a holder to keep my GoPro. Bike bag could accommodate the entire bike in a partially dis-assembled condition and completed the packing two days prior to the travel with the help of Murukan.
Kerala had witnessed a severe flood during the year 2018, during which the Cochin airport was closed for a period of two months. Reminding the 2018 flood days, torrential rains started pouring in from 8th August onwards while we were getting ready to travel on 10th early morning. By 9th, the runway got flooded and the airport was closed temporarily for a period of 3 days, leaving all of us in confusion. To our relief, Emirates could get a slot at Trivandrum Airport to land and take off later on the same day. Our team arranged a big van to Trivandrum Airport to board the flight with our cycle bags. Checked in and all set to fly sans any troubles at the airport except our CISF security team were bit curious on the number of Li-ion batteries we were carrying to power the headlight of the cycle. The long layover at Dubai due to the flight change was compensated with a room at airport Hotel and dinner by the airline. Delayed by a day, we landed in Paris with pumping hearts, as we are getting closer to the 750-mile ride by thousands of miles.
Saint Cyr — a beautiful small town near Versailles is located outside of Paris and our cab from airport took us to our abode in about an hour covering the 50 odd kilometre distance. Our entire team got accommodated in 2 apartments in the same building and our enthusiastic host Mr. Daniel was waiting to receive us. This Airbnb apartment was a well-appointed one with all the facilities in place and comfortable for a group like ours. Super markets, grocery shops, bakeries, restaurants etc were all within walk-able distance. Many of our co-riders emerged as excellent cooks demonstrating their culinary skills with excellent dishes. Evenings were made memorable with the discussions on the action plans for the ride, cycling memories and jokes toasted with French wine and cheese. All of the riders started the process called Carb loading as we approached towards the ride and I noted 1–2 kg weight gain due to the excessive carb intake.
The idea behind reaching Paris a week before the event was to get acclimatized as well as to have few practice rides in the French terrain to get a feel about the PBP route. After few small rides in and around Saint Cyr, we set out for a longer one to the start point of PBP at Rambouillet. The Château de Rambouillet is a castle with lot of stories to tell about Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, French Revolution and Napoleon. Until recent times this castle used to be the summer residence of French Presidents. We could capture few nice team photos with the Château as the backdrop. On the way and back from Rambouillet, we had experienced French terrain, longer climbs and cross winds across the fields. Intermittent rain along the way intensified our biggest fear about PBP. Immediate few days prior to the event are meant for complete rest to the muscles. I could manage to get some rest while doing the final packing for the ride and last minute bike check.
As per the regulations of PBP, we had to get our bike inspected by the officials of ACP one day prior to the event at the starting point. By train Rambouillet is just 25 minutes away from Saint-Cyr with 2 minutes ride. We experience full-swing monsoon in Kerala during June-August period. We could experience similar or much stronger rains in France during bike check. The event exhibition venue was filled cyclists, different types of cycles and temporary shops to sell cycling stuff. I ended up spending few more Euros like everyone else around me. The bike check was to ascertain the safety features of our bikes as well as to ensure that our bikes are not powered with a motor. We have collected the riders kit with the official PBP passport (a document on which we have to get time stamps from all control points), Official reflective vest and a PBP jersey.
Packing for the ride was much more complex than our packing to Paris. Here we need segregate items for the Saddle Bag, Top Tube Bag, jersey pocket and for the Drop Bags. The total number of items to be packed should be few dozens including bike components, dress, nutrition, safety gears, medicines, power sources etc. We were planning for a dress change in every 400 km and carried 3 pairs of jersey, shorts, socks etc. Anxiety on remote chances and fear about Murphy’s Law shifted our packing mode from essential to desirable. Took one and a half for every single requirement. Saddle bag became too heavy defeating the entire purpose of a lighter carbon bike. I tried to negotiate with my over-cautious self to reduce the weight, but futile the exercise. Finally I got ready with a 20 kg bike (Original weight of my bike is just 8 kg!!).
Finally on August 18th the D-day has arrived. Wanted to sleep longer in the morning as my ride starts only in the evening, but excitement and anxiety throw me out of the bed in the morning itself. Our PBP team was exchanging our apprehensions and excitements and plans for the day. Though it was raining in the morning, climate predictions were indicating clear skies right from 3 pm in the afternoon and for the next 4 days. Rain, Climbs, Wind and sleepless nights were the major fear elements for us. Some of us were much better off in their homework about the character of the terrain, control points and the speed required at every stage to complete within the allotted time. I was trying to catch some sleep during the daytime to prepare myself for the first sleepless night. Daytime sleep is usually not in my routine; still managed to get almost one hour sleep just before lunch time.
All set to go and as per the weather predictions rains given its way to clear skies by around 2:30 pm! Caught a train to Rambouillet from Saint Cyr with excitement and stress and reached the venue almost an hour and a half before the ride. The grounds of Rambouillet castle was filled with festive mood and high energy. Riders, their families, friends and large number of volunteers are gathered all around the area. We could see large number of Caravans as support vehicles for the riders where as we have taken a small car as the support vehicle. Riders in the 90 hour category started departing in waves in every 15 minutes. We managed to grab some food from the starting point cafeteria and rushed to join the starting point queue of riders. Almost 8 riders from our team are in the 6:45 pm departure slot with a slot number of ‘L’. My number for the ride was L 107; a friend of mine told me that 107 is a lucky number in the angel number series.
The start was not like a race start with a gun and all; rather people in the queue are just passing the start pavilion after getting the first stamp on the PBP Passport. All of us are on the saddle and we found the first timing belt by the exit gate of the Castle campus. Hundreds of local people were standing on both sides of the road cheering us. Though we started in a group of 8 by the time we got out from the Castle compound all of us got scattered. After 5 minutes I could catch up with two of my fellow riders Deepak and Rajesh. We were riding comfortably without pushing ourselves too much while many others were overtaking us in a racing speed. We knew that we have just begun a 1200 km ride and kept ourselves in the comfortable pace without demonstrating any kind of initial enthusiasm. On crossing the first 12 km distance, I started counting in my mind that 1/100 is done and we just need to go another 99/100 only. I continued this math till about 60 km. I missed Deepak and Rajesh en-route and I pushed myself alone to the first food point of Mortagne Au Perche at 117 km and stopped for the dinner. Offered myself some soup and pasta taken from the buffet service. Three of our co-riders joined at this food point and learned from them that Rajesh got a puncture in between. After spending some more time after dinner, I pushed off with Deepak towards the first control point at Villaines La Juhel at 217 km.
The roads and terrain were almost comfortable till the first stop barring few short climbs. The road from Mortagne to Villaines started giving us the real feel of the road ahead for the next 3 days with longer climbs, alternative descents while we rode through the forests and villages. It was heartening to see that even after midnight French people were waiting for cyclists at the villages and they offered us water, coffee and chocolate. During the entire course of the ride I didn’t bought a single bottle of water, rather we were filling our bottles with love and water offered by the French people.
After that midnight sleep gods and cold climate started hugging me and I was trying to defy them by singing old Malayalam songs loudly, while riding in the woods. I could see another Indian rider playing loud music from a bluetooth speaker fitted on to his bike. I could fight the sleep and cold effectively while climbing up, but started dozing off during descends. Finally by around 3:45 am I decided to take a power nap of 15 minutes in front of a small building. I was shivering as my body started losing the heat generated while riding. Woke up fresh and I realised that power nap is an excellent tool to fool your body about its sleep requirement.
Villaines La Juhel was our first official control point at 217 km; a place renowned as the stage starting point for Tour De France. Control Points (CP) were the intermediate stops during the ride where the riders needed to get official stamp on the PBP passport. These intermediate points were having specified cut-off time before which the riders had to get the passports stamped. The organisers had made arrangements for food, refreshments, toilets and dormitories at these venues. We had to park our bikes at the designated parking lots while entering into the CP. All the CPs were tracking our time with the RFID chip attached to our bike and the tracked data was available online. I reached Villaines by 7 am on the second day almost 2 hours ahead of my cut-off time and wanted to maintain the margin. So I decided not to eat from the CP as there were long queue for food. At the parking lot I got a major disappointment as my GoPro Camera’s holder got broken while trying to park my bike. I handed over the camera to our support crew. I pushed off from the CP and found a small place to eat quickly. I had a crepe in hand and was eating while riding to save time. But after an hour, I started feeling hungry again and stopped for a sandwich. There I met the senior most member of our gang Dr. Shaji George.
As we entered into the daylight, the temperature went up and we had to remove the layers one by one and finally ended just with the jersey. Then came the first issue during the ride. I was using a shoe with cleats that would get locked with the bike while riding. Such shoes with cleats will give better engagement with bike and will assist the rider in using multiple muscles while riding. One of my cleats got damaged and I was finding it difficult to engage properly with the bike. I requested our support crew for a change of shoe and they agreed to provide me my regular shoe at the next control. This stretch from Villaines to Fougeres was one of the least efficient segments for me when I looked back. I was stopping in every 15–20 km for a short break and lost lot of time in between. The climbs were tough and there was headwinds and cross winds en-route to make the ride difficult. I reached Fougeres CP by 1:15 noontime. I met our co-riders Deepak and Gangesh at this CP. After changing the shoes I joined my teammates for the lunch. I could avoid the queue as Gangesh offered to share his meal with me.
Next target was Tinteniac at 360 km and I was trying to make up the time that I had lost in the previous segment. This stretch had more descends than climbs and I could manage to reach the CP by 5 in the evening. Quickly completed the formalities of stamping and I rushed back on to the course without wasting any time at Tinteniac. There was another food point at Quedillac at 380 km, which I skipped for better time management. Later I came to know that I was simply lucky on that decision as a rain hit Quedillac area immediately after I passed that area. All my other friends who were coming behind got wet in the rain. Next target was a major control point at Loudeac, which was at 445 km. I was riding very enthusiastically towards Loudeac as I was expecting a two- hour sleep there. But once I crossed 400 I found that the bike wasn’t moving at all; kind of a hitting the wall phenomena. I was out of fuel! Pulled up the bike to a bakery in the next village square to have a sandwich and a hot soup to recharge my fuel cells.
During the entire course of ride we never touched a highway. The entire PBP route was planned through the village and forest roads with very light traffic. Except for the long forest stretch between Carhaix and Brest, mostly we would hit a village square in every 20–30-kilometre distance. Most of the villages looked alike with a beautiful square in the middle with shops, bakeries, small bars and a beautiful church. Public from all age groups were assembled in those village squares to cheer the riders and to support them with water, refreshments and food. Still the shouts of “Allez! Allez! Bravo! Bon Courage!” is echoing in my ears and heart.
I was struggling with the fatigue of almost 27 hours of non-stop ride while approaching Loudeac CP, which was at 445 kms. An American rider realised that I was struggling to pull off ahead and asked me to draft behind him. Drafting is a technique of riding just behind another rider so that we can ride with a very less air-resistance. At PBP it is legal to draft another registered participant. I rode in his slipstream for another 10 kms just 5 km away from Loudeac till he stopped due to a muscle cramp.
Our crew members Murukan and Ribin welcomed me cheerfully at Loudeac and they re-assured me that I was maintaining a good average and Ribin said that I looked so fresh and not tired; I felt happy about their comments. I was planning for 2–3 hours sleep there, but Murukan softly advised me to take a shorter break and he allowed me to sleep only for an hour. I managed to sleep on the reclined seat of our car and our support team was punctual in waking me up exactly in 60 minutes. I changed my clothes and gloves for the next phase of the ride towards the turnaround point at Brest. While heading out from Loudeac by midnight to Carhaix, I never knew that I was going to cross a mountain range during the first 30 km with many hard climbs where the gradient went above 10%. While fighting with the climbs actually I was fighting cold too. I knew that the temperature at those mountains were far below our expectation, but shocked to see a digital board displaying the temperature at 5 degree. I was almost well protected with a 4-layer dressing with a base layer, jersey, windcheater and a thick reflective vest and changed my half gloves to a full-finger glove.
We knew that there were 2 secret control points, which were in addition to the announced 14 CPs. I was well directed towards the first Secret CP at St. Nicolas at 488 km where I quickly completed the formalities to get back to the course again. On the PBP course one has to be so careless to get lost and once I managed between St. Nicolas and Carhaix! The organisers of PBP had placed signboards at each and every cross roads in the entire 1220 km stretch. You could even see ‘X’ symbol if you enter into a wrong road. While I was following a bunch of cyclsits in the route, we lost the way but luckily we realised the fact in just about 500 meters and we could get back easily to the track without much of an effort. The climbs in the stretch between St. Nicolas and Carhaix was moderate and I could take advantage of the same to maintain a good average pace in that section.
Carhaix Plougher was the next control point at 521 km. That small beautiful town located in west of Brittany, is famous for hosting the Vieilles Charrues Festival, which is the largest music festival of France conducted in July every year attracting more than 200000 festivalgoers. The toughest part of sleepless nights is early mornings especially when it is cold. I reached Carhaix CP at 5:35 am and was lucky enough to find a cardboard to sleep. Set the alarm for 6:15 and crashed on the cardboard inside the restaurant. Refreshed and ready for the next daylight — by the time I lost my references to day and date; the only thing I knew was the distance to next CP and the time in hand to cover the distance.
Started the ride without wasting much time and I found myself re-charged out of excitement and rays of sunlight. The route towards Brest was super scenic as we were cutting across Parc Naturel Régional d’Armorique — a 125,000-hectare natural park with granite peaks along a rugged coastline, moors & dense forests. While enjoying the ride and natural beauty, I suddenly noticed a drastic drop in the speed on my bike computer. Even while riding the descents I couldn’t attain 20 kmph without pedalling against the normal 40+ kmph for a normal descend. I was worried whether there was any issue with my bike. I checked the friction of break, rotation of the wheels, etc., but no problem could be identified. To my relief, on looking around I found that all my fellow riders were also struggling at that stretch. It took sometime for me to understand the presence of a strong wind current against us through that forest road, though we were not physically feeling a huge wind. Struggled for another 10–15 km to come out of that strong air resistance area. Since we were passing through the natural park I couldn’t find any place to eat and fuel myself. For the first time, I took the energy gel which I had packed in plenty and had a shot. The problem with energy gel is that its impact is short-lived and one won’t be able to consume it regularly during longer rides due to potential gastro problems. After a long climb of 15 km to reach one of the highest elevations in the route I could find many groups supplying free breakfast from their vans. Had a quick breakfast and continued my ride towards the longest continuous descent in the route spanning for about 20 km. I was dropping freely at 40–45 kmph where many other fearless ones were going like a rocket.
Heart started pumping with excitement while reaching the midway turnaround point. Still we had to negotiate with two more steep climbs en-route to have the first superb view of the port city Brest. Stopped on a bridge to take some snaps as all other riders were doing. Stunning view of the sea, yachts, and a cable bridge nearby. All us were relaxed at the bridge, as we knew that the CP is next door. But to our surprise there was one more major climb, which was not that long, but seemed never-ending.
Brest; the B in the PBP is the 7th and midway control point for all us. Brest is an important port city located in the western end of continental Europe. This harbour city is the second French Military port also. Owing to its connection with sea and the Château de Brest, the city is historically important as well. The beauty of this French port city beckons me back into this town.
I reached Brest by 11:20 am, 90 minutes ahead of my cut-off time. As per the regulations we had to complete the first 600 km in 40 hours and we were allowed 50 hours for the last 600 km. This extra sleep/fatigue allowance of 10 hours will inject an amount of lethargy in most of the riders. The lethargy affected the speed of doing everything out there be it going to the toilet, spending time with other riders or chilling out in the restaurant. I tried to get some sleep in the sun, which I finally abandoned after wasting 15 minutes.
Though I lost a lot of time, I learned a major lesson from there, from a Swiss professor Eric. While I was struggling to eat, he advised me to eat slowly and fill the tummy. There I met another Indian rider from Pune, Prashant and we had the lunch together.
While heading out from Brest I started thinking of the 20 kilometre descend which I enjoyed on the way; now I had to climb it back. But a powerful tailwind made my return journey more comfortable and easy till Carhaix. I could meet one of our team members JP en-route and we were riding together for some time. On the way both us caught one short power nap in the woods. At Carhaix JP said that he would like to have some sleep and allowed me to push off. I was not tired and thought of taking a small break and some food at next food point and secret control St. Nicolas.
After a 30 mins sleep and dinner I headed out to Loudeac where I could meet our support crew. For me, this stretch turned out to be one of the most difficult part of the entire PBP. The steep climbs in the mountain range between St. Nicolas and Loudeac, bad roads, forest area, cold climate and the sleep deprivation — every odds were against me in that stretch. I struggled to keep myself awake even while riding and lost all my confidence while going downhill. Suddenly a cheerful group led by a lady appeared and they welcomed me to join their bunch. I could draft them for about 15–20 minutes with some fresh energy, but couldn’t cope up with their speed in the mountains and slowly that group got disappeared from my sight.
Again the sleep gods started kissing me and I started losing my grip on the bike. Struggled to move ahead, but was not confident to sleep in the roadside in the forest. There comes my saviour angel Ms. Natasha from Ukraine! While I was rolling slowly and carefully, somebody calls me suddenly from behind “Hello Mr. Pious, how are you”. I replied that I am not Pious and introduced my name. Then I realised that this cheerful girl knew only Ukranian language. She continued to speak a lot with me in her language. I was trying to speak back to her in English without really knowing what she was trying to converse. Later I even started talking in my mother tongue and she continued in hers. Anyway this interaction helped me to get out of the castle built by the sleep gods and ride normally towards Loudeac. I should have lost at least one hour on this sleepy ride segment.
Murukan and Ribin were there to shout out for me cheerfully at Loudeac and guided me to the control and food point. There I found the junior most riders in our group, Sarath, trying to catch up some sleep and heard that he was suffering from some injuries on his leg. As usual Murukan denied my intent to take a three-hour sleep; but he allowed me 2 hours that day. Just crashed inside the restaurant with my space blanket on. While my alarms woke me up I felt that 2 hours had gone just like 2 minutes. I knew that the sleep wasn’t adequate, but decided to push myself out of the comfort zone so that I could be safe at the next control point. Got changed to a new jersey and shorts, put some aluminium foil inside my shoes as well as on my chest in order to fight the morning freezing cold. As I was saying good-bye to our crew and co-riders at Loudeac, we were wondering about JP whom I had left at Carhaix. We made repeated calls to him and he answered on the second call. He had overslept at Carhaix!
My early morning ride to Tinteniac was pretty fast and smooth. There I had a heavy breakfast before venturing out into the hottest day of the ride. A team of volunteers was cheering the riders at this CP with music and dance. On my way to Fougeres my bike computer went dead and I was riding literally blind for the next 70 kilometre without any info about the distance or speed. This put me into some kind of depression and senselessness. The day felt unusually hotter, but couldn’t decide whether I had enough water and electrolytes on the way. Reached Fougeres CP by 1:45 pm and I sensed a mild fever and shivering. Really got shocked with this physical condition and was concerned about my capability to cover the next 300 km. Quickly I could realise that I was facing a mild de-hydration and started re-hydrating myself with water, electrolytes and went for a 30 minutes nap under a tree. Got up fresh and relieved and back in the saddle with excitement. Now the balance 300 that I had to cover seemed just like a normal 300 km brevet with just above 20 hours in hand!
The ride to Villaines was comfortable with slight tail wind and long steady climbs. While approaching Villaines we found a guy cheering for us from the sky on a motorised glider. While we waved for him with hands, he was waving back to us with his legs. How fast you can get into next CP will decide how long you can sleep in the last night of the ride. The long winding climbs near to Villaines slowed me a bit; still I could reach there with a reasonable average, bettering my position in the distance to remaining time matrix. As usual Murugan was there to motivate me to cut down my urge to sleep and reminding me the fact that, the finish line is just few hours ahead with just above 200 km to kill. Took a 30 minutes sleep, quick dinner and got back on the saddle by around 10 in the night keeping a target of 5 hours to reach the next CP at Mortagne Au Perche at 1097 km.
I knew very well that this night is going to be tough. Was worried about the hallucination stories from my friends who had done ultra long rides. We used to laugh at our friend Ratheesh who had witnessed an Angel riding a horse during a Cochin-Bangalore-Cochin 1200 km LRM! Many of my friends called me during that night to re-assure me that I am going to finish and its almost done. But I wasn’t sure of passing that night managing the sleep and fatigue. Though the initial part of that segment went smooth being downhill, moving on the roads became much more tougher with steep climbs, headwinds and sleepiness. We have been served with hot coffee, dark chocolates and biscuits at many places; still I keep those unknown French families close to my heart with gratitude. After a struggling night ride I climbed to the penultimate CP by around 3:35 am.
I couldn’t afford to have a long break there as I had to roll another 120 km more. My ride between Mortagne — Druex, the last CP before the finishing point was truly a magical one. I still remember that I had started off by around 4:15 am after a quick snacking and coffee and had joined some groups. Even now I can’t reminisce that journey to Druex- I was riding in a partially blacked out condition. Almost nothing about that segment got registered in my brain apart from the vague memory that there were few massive climbs and had a ride cutting across some fields in freezing cold. When I reached at the parking lot of Druex I was in a situation without any sense or reference about time, place and people. I just remained in the parking lot for few minutes wondering what to do. I could pick up my phone and called my wife Daila and explained the situation. While she was asking few questions, I could see that I was building the references around me and in a minute came back to normalcy.
Druex, a beautiful place near to Paris and we were just 40 kilometres away from the finishing line. My cycling mentor Paul Mathew texted me that I had 4 hours in hand and even if I travelled in 10 kmph speed, I could finish. Without leaving anything to chance, I quickly had a breakfast and embarked with a new group on the last leg of the ride by 9 am. Heart started pumping, I knew that my victory is just few kilometres away. I was filled with mixed feelings of excitement, anxiety and fear of loss between the cup and the lip. So I rode carefully but with a good pace. While getting closer and closer to the finishing point I became more and more impatient regarding the distance still to go. At last a name board ‘Rambouillet’ came to sight. There were 5 more kilometers that I almost sprinted to reach the finishing line.
Our friends caught me even before the finishing point and took a photo before letting me go into the cheering crowd. As we approached the finishing point thousands of people were standing on both sides of the road inside the campus shouting out “Bravo! Bravo!” and clapping for us. I crossed the finishing line of PBP at 88 hours and 16 minutes and I made it in my first attempt.
My friends welcomed me back with tons of congratulations. Can’t explain further about that feeling of standing at the top of the world. It can only be experienced!!
