Paris Brest Paris (PBP) 2023
The dream of a boy who wants to get a photo 📸 in front of the Eiffel Tower🗼.
Preface
This blog describes how the journey of a boy’s dream started becoming a reality from Bengaluru to Paris.
Tried to cover the aspects of dreams getting fulfilled through the cycling event Paris-Brest-Paris(PBP). The journey of taking the first flight an International flight, overcoming all the hurdles until the last hour and leaving behind family in the most unusual way, took risks and made the event special for a lifetime.
Thanks to Mohan Subramanyam, Monish Calapa, Siddalinga Swamy, Jaya Prakash N, Sagar Bhardawaj, Natesh Muthanna, Ananda C, Shivakumar Devan, Abhishek Singh, Raghunandan, Tanveer Syed, Chaitanya, Rajeshwari, Gayatridevi Bayyareddy, Suriya Prakash, Vishal Sujith Gowda, Wife, Parents and my Sister.
Chapter 1: The Cycling Journey
To be frank I never had a dream of riding beyond our own Malenadu. Started the cycling journey again with the inspiration from my friend Vishal Sujith Gowda, he is the one who instigated my lost love of cycling. Thankful to him, who gave me a new dimension to what I am today. Those are the days when the ride was just for food and exploring unknown places.
The next person who I respect the most is Mohan Subramanyam, he is my Guru learnt a lot adapted to his sayings and tried to be his follower. Got introduced to Randonneuring, the second dimension of Endurance cyclist and then to Ultra Endurance Cycling.
My second Guru, Sagar Bharadwaj there is a lot to talk about him and my association last beyond years although we had met and know him for a couple of years.
Chapter 2: The Confusion
After Sagar dropped off from the London–Edinburgh–London event due to various reasons, we thought of doing Paris-Brest-Paris(PBP). I was so adapted to riding together, the imagination of riding again solo was just too stressful and added more pressure. He dropped a bomb saying he could not join PBP due to personal reasons, I was fully committed to attempting the historic event and had dreams of getting on a plane for the first time in my life. This was the first jolt, it took me months to get out of the mindset to ride solo. Also, I was confused about dropping off the plan and thinking of a dream as being a dream.
Spoke to Mohan Subramanyam about the dilemma I am going through and sought his advice, he told me to simply go ahead and train. Don’t think much just do the regular practice and everything falls in your path.
The first challenge in line was to complete the Bangalore-Goa-Bangalore(BGB) 1200 km ride. The story of how I trained and completed the ride is captured here:
The above ride gave me some confidence but the fear of PBP started haunting me with each passing month. Even though I completed Bangalore-Goa-Bangalore(BGB) with good timing, I still had my doubts and confusion about riding for the big day with Jarvis, With confusion and dual thoughts started to look for a road bike.
Chapter 3: Black Panther
With dual thoughts whether to ride with Jarvis or get a road bike, started the trials to hunt for the road bike.
The question is, why Road Bike? when you have completed 1200 km in Jarvis with good timing?
I am still riding with the same pattern, but to get an extra cushion of time, with extra time you tend to afford to sleep more, so my inclination of getting a road bike was getting stronger. I conveyed the same to my friends.
The search for a road bike started disappointing me, due to my height, the model I was looking for was not available in the country for my size and getting a Road Bike had become an impossible task for the timeframe I was looking. Started enquiring in all possible ways, reaching out on social media platforms, and over calls to all the reputed shops all over the country. But the response was poor and very disappointing, with no go and stuck, stopped my search😞.
I was preparing my mindset to train with Jarvis 🚲 in a much stronger way I can. Stopped the search completely, and focused on the training. My thoughts on training were simple it has to be intense and short for the PBP terrain. Why the word Rabbit in my training has become a strong buzzword? The introduction of Rabbit Climbs is described in my next Chapters.
Out of the blue, after a month and a half of stopping my search for a road bike, a message was posted to my Direct Message on Facebook from Pro-Bikers, OMR, Chennai with a Contact number. Out of curiosity, tried reaching out to the given contact, but to my surprise, the stock was available with the dealer. After a couple of discussions and talks, we agreed to deal with it in a way that if the size doesn’t fit me after trying it out at their store I am free to reject it and get back my advance. Sanju, the store manager was very accommodating and helped me in all possible ways. The challenge was it takes 20+ days to get my hands on the bike and I have hardly 110 days left from the timer(Aug 16th 2023), with 20 days gone for the waiting period I will be left with 90 days to train on brand new ride position and different bike type.
The Road Bike arrived at the store, the journey from Bangalore to Chennai. Sanju from Pro-Bikers, OMR, Chennai called and informed me the bike had reached the store and asked me to come over to their store. With my work schedule and ride plans, I had to wait for the weekend, but my friend Jaya Prakash who is in Chennai had different plans for the weekend so I had to shift the plan, actually advance a day which was a week day, to go to Chennai. Again, I am not a good planner and go with what life throws at me. That day called Ananda around 8 p.m. and informed him we had to leave Chennai as soon as possible. With the rains in Bangalore, we somehow reached Bangalore Outstation Bus station around midnight and got into the last bus with great difficulty.
Arrived in Chennai, went to Jaya Prakash’s (JP) home freshened up and had good food, Since JP was busy with his work schedule he gave us his Car keys and asked us to get our work done and assisted us with the phone. Till noon, I had some office work and calls to finish and later post lunch planned to visit the Pro-Bikers, OMR, Chennai store, informed Sanju about the same and he was ok with it.
Me and Ananda started from the place and went in search of the Store, I must admit the roads we took were super smooth and we struggled to find the roads to reach the store (language problem).
Sanju helped with the process, and the unboxing of Black Panther started…
There you go, the Black Panther..
Cannot say Thanks to Jaya Prakash, the feelings are much more, and the kind of hospitality and love we got is indescribable.
Goodbye, Chennai, Black Panther Agamana...
Chapter 4: Rabbit Climb?
What is Rabbit Climb?
I wanted to train but the training had to be intense, relaxing and effective and most importantly mind had to adapt to numerous climb sequences. The motive was clear, with Jarvis or without Jarvis the intention is mission PBP.
Started to search for short climbs not more than 1–2km with a gradient of 4–6%. For the daily routine, Nandi Hills was too far to train, then I found a segment called Rabbit’s Back. Short segment tick marked all my requirements except the distance and started off the routine with multiple repeats and increasing every day.
The repeats sometimes went up to 60–70 in a single attempt, trained with no food and less hydration. The training simulated all types of possible scenarios I could be thrown at. I was just doing these repeat climbs and regular Bangalore Randonneur Brevet rides.
Completed Super Randonneur Series(200, 300, 400, 600) a mandatory requirement for PBP and I was ready with all formalities for PBP Registration.
Chapter 5: The Visa
Since I have never travelled outside of India I had this doubts that my Visa might get rejected with no prior travel history. My mind started thinking negatively, but Mohan Subramanyam guided me very well and so as others (Monish, Nakul) and every bit of the travel procedure was neatly explained.
After finishing PBP I want to visit places around Europe. Rome and Swiss were in my mind but had no clue how to plan it. Talked with a couple of friends and after discussing with them finalised my itinerary for the Visa. Ananda got added to the PBP list. Now the plans started changing due to his addition, but for the Visa, I had to get his name added to bookings and we both are set for the Visa appointment day.
Without many hiccups the visa document collection was smooth and within the span of 3 days, the Visa was dispatched which was a positive sign.
Chapter 6: Toughest SR from Bangalore Randonneurs
It is the Black Panther Super Randonneur(SR) series. After 15 days of practice with Road Bike, I have a complete set of new challenges to adapt to the new ride position.
First in the line, finished the Turahalli 13 Race Event Organised by the VeloKofi Team. As usual had my doubts about participating in Jarvis or Black Panther and did not register for the event, but Ananda pulled me at the last minute and asked me to join the race. We lost track of the race start time and started late, and the race sheet below will show how lazy I am. But the good thing that happened to me, applied all my learnt traits on the ride the race felt easy on my legs without much strain.
Thanks to Velokofi and Ananda
The platform was set, the toughest series going to start with the iconic Anchetty route with more spice added to the route. Since I have not done any big rides on Black Panther, I wanted to Reece the route before the ride day. Thinking of the old route, I knew where to stop and where to give a push. Started the ride with a casual mind, the first mistake I made was not stopping for breakfast at the regular place instead wanted to stretch a bit on the route a bit long. This costed me to miss breakfast and ended up having food only at Anchetty. Messed up my ride, and learnt big lessons about what not to try and follow the fundamentals.
First in the series, when the actual Anchetty event started, I did fairly well and gave a better performance than my previous stint. It took me some time to sync and understand what went wrong and good during the ride. The larger problems are waiting to push into my head.
Second in the series Hogenekkal 300km, with a good week of rest from the previous long ride I was back again to ride the 300km Brevet. I know all the next rides which I will be doing will be my longest rides on this new bike. All went well during the ride but the actual problems I started observing post 250km, started having neck pain on the right side and bum sores started getting painful.
Post this ride, I lost my peace of mind and started thinking about the pain which can be damaging on long distances, especially on the new bike which is never tested for the kind of distance I will be doing. Out of fear, on my next set of rides, I made various adjustments to bike positions and thought on my next rides all issues would be sorted.
Let’s see if these issues are sorted out or not.
Third in the series 400km Basavanbetta, I was trying a new setting thinking all issues would be resolved. Everything was fine till I started climbing Basavanabetta (this is the climb I did very well for the first time with Jarvis and Sagar), man I struggled to the core to climb. Not the best of my climb, my back started to hurt a lot within 2km of climbing and I had to go past another 4–5km with the pain. I have decided not to stop, if I ever stop in between this climb I will be quitting the ride and drop my plans for PBP.
I know if I cannot bear this pain I am never going to see a bigger goal, I crawled with the lowest gear I have ever used and with lots of pain. I managed to reach to the top with no breaks🫣, went and crashed on the floor at the top as soon as I saw the Volunteers (Ganesh and Naveen). They cheered me up and asked me to rest for a while and start from there, I rested more than my usual stoppings.
Started the rest of the journey and finished the ride. My issues with the bike did not settle, I ended up being in the same situation as square one.
The pressure and stress mounted, I was tensed and had no clue whom to seek help from. Started questioning myself, Why I took this decision, Why not that, Why Road Bike, Why didn’t I go for bike fit? All Q’s started haunting me giving me sleepless nights and making me restless.
Before the 4th Ride in the series, I started reaching out to Suriya and then my other Guru, Monish. He told You are good, nothing to worry about. This is not the time to get any settings changed, asked me to train in the same position that I have and told me to give my best. His words and meeting with him came as a relief for me and some peace of mind. I told him I wanted to join the next ride with you, which he invited for the next treacherous route with Rajkumar.
This is it. The next ride was super tough and had all the challenges which I haven’t encountered, full-on climbs with 15+% grades.
With all the confidence I gained, I was mentally and physically prepared for the next big ride 600km Coorg, the last ride in the toughest series.
You would be thinking Is the next ride going to be tough, The answer is yes!
The new route is tougher than the old one. Also, all your mates are training hard, but I am still stuck at getting my basics right. The mental pressure is getting double and eating me. Is that all?? there is much more to it, as the actual ride day started approaching.
Fourth ride in the series, 600km Coorg. All went fine till 200 km, My basics are simple, ride Control Point to Control Point with minimum or no breaks at all. After 200km Ananda called up and when he enquired I was 15 minutes away from him, he said he would wait for me till I reached CP and we could start from there. After rehydrating and loading calories from the Control Point said bye to Mohan Subramanyam, the ride Volunteer and we started together.
With another 10km, due to low visibility and drizzling, the road got wet. At some section due to water on the road, the front tyre slipped and I fell on the road. Due to little alertness, escaped a major injury and tried maximum to not fall on my shoulder but rather stretched my arms during the fall.
Thoughts of a fellow cyclist’s accident story (which happened a couple of weeks back) started running in my mind while falling on the road. I didn’t know what would be the repercussions of this fall at that moment. I was a bit shocked and wondered if I could have avoided the fall while lying on the road. Ananda helped me to get up from the road, I checked my hands and legs if everything was fine, it was just the small wound on the left knee but nothing was major. Sigh!!
With the small wound and torn tights and jersey. Started the remainder of the route to finish the series. Although the knee started paining I didn’t want to show this as a reason to quit but rather wanted to finish comfortably. I felt during this ride, some divine power was behind me and pushing me to achieve what I wished for!
The rides were almost done for the July month and I had another 20 days to fly. I felt happy, even though I had my issues in my ride, but still, I managed to ride comfortably to 600km. Even if I cannot break the next 600km, I can feel satisfied with the result that I will be achieving.
Also, I am going with 11,000+km of quality practice mileage behind me for the year 2023 alone.
Damn, what happened next in those 20 days is painful as a father and son for me.
Chapter 7: The Mental Torture😢
As I was preparing for the rides for August, I fell sick and down with fever and pain in the back of my eyes, the fever symptoms were resembling dengue. To be precise it took me 13 days to recover from the fever. My muscles were paining even for a small walk and I felt weak too and my joints were paining. All these symptoms led me to think of Dengue, I didn’t go for the test but deep down had a positive feeling I would be okay worst case I would not be riding but I could fulfil my dream of being at the Eiffel Tower.
By the time I recovered, my father had a high fever touching 103. I was worried but a day after he was doing good and looked fine. Thinking all was good, I started my plans of getting my cycle serviced and packed at Shah Bikes (Thanveer). Took my son along with me to the cycle shop, I felt something was not good with my son, generally, he is a bit shy but will be active. I saw he was feeling low, and his body temp was alleviating, quickly finished the job and headed home.
After coming home my son’s body temperature was high, he was down with Fever. The next day, my father started getting his fever back and complaining about pains in the joints. The day before my journey I was running between multiple labs, clinics and hospitals. By evening Father’s lab reports came and he was diagnosed with Dengue. I was feeling low seeing both their condition and I had a day to decide. Till the last minute, I didn’t finish my packing and was just observing their condition.
15th August 2023 night, my Wife told me to go and she would handle them. If there is anything serious you can come, but she told you don’t need to worry they will be fine. I was hesitant but somehow left them saying goodbye.
Without my Wife and Sister’s support, this ride and trip was not going to happen. Leaving behind my Son and father would have haunted me for life.
The biggest risk I have taken in my life, the Journey of Paris starts from here with confusion what will happen next? Will I be able to attempt the ride or go back home?
Thanks for reading up till here!
Chapter 8: Paris Touched Down
Thanks to Hemanth, Suresh and Natesh. You guys helped me a lot to reach the Airport and gave me much-needed support.
Days were not passing and my mind and heart were at home thinking of the situation. With all these things going around me, I was not getting sleep properly, it’s been more than 3 days now I slept fully. First shock, Father’s platelets dropped to 90K which is more than 30K drop a day, I started feeling nervous and my mind stopped thinking.
That night after the flight and reaching the hotel it was already late but still without sleeping assembled the bike. The next day morning, there was a plan to do a 50 or 100-km ride. However, due to the long flight and the arrival at the hotel was late, the ride plan was cancelled.
Started roaming around the hotel surrounding and in the early morning hours saw Siddalinga Swamy(Swamy). While talking he said we would go for a ride as planned but would return after 50 or 100km based on how we feel and asked me to be ready by 9 am. I was not ready, but I was in a hung state, informed Jaya Prakash to be ready at 9 am for the ride and went to my room to get ready for the ride.
We had planned to ride from Rambouillet (France) start point. For that, we had to take the train at 9 am from the Hotel Location (Trappes) if we missed the 9 am train, the next train would be after an hour. I hooked up with Swamy and left behind my group. After 10mins got a call from Jaya Prakash and informed him about the plan, he had some work and told me to carry on as he had to return by noon.
I was waiting for a call from my wife to update me on the status. In the meantime, we arrived at Rambouillet and explored the start point and the location where to go and get our BiB cards for the ride day. After the exploration, we started heading towards our actual route.
The first ride in France.
It got late that day, and the next day we had to assemble at 5:30 am to go around Paris for a group Picture. Thanks again to Mohan Subramanyam for coordinating with the larger group and making our dreams fulfilled.
The next day I was still waiting for the status from my wife, no update yet. I didn’t know what to do, started looking for the flights to go home. My face says (down below) the sad state of what I have been through. We came to pick up the BIB card and do promotions of Gates Of Heaven (GOH), I was not involved and clueless about what to do, so I stepped aside and started looking at my phone. In the end before going to the hotel, started taking photos with the people who helped me the most.
After getting to the hotel, the next day was the day the ride starts. My wife called up and informed me both were good but I was not happy with the response, I told her I will come back, but that was not the case. She convinced me and told me to hold back and finish my Job.
We had the last briefing session a day before the ride starts, giving a heads up on the challenges that may arrive and to be cautious on the Third and Fourth nights. It was simple and to the point, during the briefing all riders were handed over 5 caffeine tablets, the caffeine tablets were given and cautioned to use only on 3rd or 4th night very clearly. Since most of the riders will be hallucinating a lot due to sleep deprivation and tiredness this caffeine will help the riders to get rid of sleep for some time and give energy.
The session made me more nervous, the next day its the ride day, I lost the track and was finding difficult to know what to keep in the bike and what to carry. I left most of the important items in Drop Bag and in Hotel room.
That’s it I was frozen!
What’s going to happen next is the history and determination to finish the Job for My loved Ones and for the sacrifice of my time with them.
Chapter 9: Paris-Brest-Paris
There you go I am here in France got ready for the start from the hotel with my dearest friends.
After getting off the train at Rambouillet, we headed in search of a Restaurant to pack food, the plan was to not to stop before 200km to gain some time. Got the parcel and put it in my bag, headed to the start point to realise the real PBP vibe. It was totally different in contrast comparing what I have seen a day before the event and now. I saw a sea of people all over the place and riders queuing up in their wave groups (Standing in start line queue with there respective times).
Headed to lunch point to finish the meal we had opted for in the registration. Much to disappoint, the meal was not likened to our Indian style I didn’t like it and felt next time if I do PBP I won’t opt for the food.
After seeing the food and eating a few bites of the meal, I had still 2 hrs for my start time 5:45 pm. Thought I would use this time to rest for a while, but with the crowd around making sounds, I was not able to rest. I got up and started looking at the crowd and observing the happy faces around me. After some time I saw my wave H group getting lined up in queue I went and joined. By the time I reached the start line, I was at the frontline of the H wave group, starting alone with a depressed mood.
Our wave got flagged off exactly at 5:45 p.m. with cheers and people wishing from all around us. I looked around waved my hand thanked them for cheering up, I started moving towards the route I saw people stopped by the road they had come by cars or in front of their homes cheering up for all the riders who were on the road. It was such a beautiful sight to see their faces and continuously cheering us. The feeling was very new to us who are coming from India.
Somewhere I was not feeling very cheerful, my heart rate (HR) usually would be low but that day it was going up drastically. For the kind of speed I was riding it was not normal. Saw Dhanajaya (Fellow Rider) zoom past me. My mind was constantly bugging me as if I was the last person riding on the road and making me feel lonely, even though I saw a lot of people around.
Then I decided to meditate by taking deep breaths and started observing my breath intake, this helped me to feel better to get some control on what I was doing. After around 30+km saw Kirti Challam saying Hi!!! from behind. I felt relieved as there was some person who was speaking to me. After exchanging the talks I told Kirti I am riding slow and you don’t need to tag with me. But I will be crossing paths whenever I can and wave at you.
From there, the rolling terrain started we had to ride up and down. This flow was going to be intense till the finish line. The weather was very pleasant more like Bangalore with a cool breeze and absolutely no dust. In this environment, you could hear anything as loud as possible. A lot of cycles were passing by, you could hear cycle noises along with their cassette/hub noises. I didn’t hear any riders talking to their fellow riders, they were just hard-hitting their pedals. A lot of pelotons were crossing me, I was afraid to join them. All were pushing at higher speeds also the number of riders in pelotons was large. This could drain my energy at a much higher pace which I wanted to avoid and ride at my own pace.
Even though the weather was pleasant I was feeling too thirsty, Every 10–20km I was taking a stop by and looking for water to fill. The locals were giving water by standing across the road. Note, getting water in France is not as compared to what we get in India. We have to buy water but you don’t have shops accessible to you to buy it, even if you get it is expensive.
En route it’s difficult to get to shops to buy water and if there is one it is expensive to purchase. Although the locals were giving me water, I feared that I might not get water when I needed it and run into a water crunch situation till I reach control point MORTAGNE-AU-PERCHE.
It started getting dark, Marshalls along the route were hinting to riders to switch on their backlight and wear reflective to be visible as a mandatory safety precaution. I stopped just before a forest section, started putting on my reflective vest and switched on my backlight in steady mode only.
I reached the first Control Point or Food Point MORTAGNE-AU-PERCHE (120km) around 11:15 pm, I forgot it's just a food point and stamping of a BIB Card is not required here. I went inside thinking of getting stamped but found out there was no stamping. Quickly sat at the same point where I parked my Bike, took my parcelled food and started eating there, Dhanajaya my fellow Bangalore rider reached the point and we exchanged talks and informed him that stamping is not required there. Finished my food at this point, said bye to Dhanajaya and headed towards the next Control Point VILLAINES-LA-JUHEL.
The next control point was around 80km, within a few kms from the food point my face started to feel cold. Since I had already started with the base layer (Merino wool) and winter BiB tights my body was protected from the cold. For my face I was carrying a neck warmer, pulled it from the jersey and covered my face.
After some time, I started feeling sleepy, which is new for me In all my previous rides I never slept on Day 1. I was feeling sleepy and drowsy while riding. To get over, sleep, I thought riding fast could help I could control for some time.
While I started feeling drowsy I started to have a strong feeling that Siddalinga Swamy was just somewhere ahead of me in reachable distance. While rolling up the hills I was slowly crossing riders 1 by 1 and whoever rider I saw in front I was feeling it was Siddalinga Swamy and Prasad duo. After a couple of failed guesses finally thought I wouldn’t guess anymore and moved past riders while climbing. In the next hour or so I heard Siddalinga Swamy’s voice and turned aside to see, yes to my excitement it was Swamy and Prasad. We greeted and I conveyed that somehow I had a feeling of meeting you, looks like the divine heard me and you are here.
For the next few kilometres, I tagged along with Swamy and Prasad but slowly I started feeling saddle soreness. Also, I was feeling very sleepy. I felt it was not safe to ride in the state and stopped by the side to wash my face and apply chamois cream to start fresh. The coconut oil which I was carrying froze and the chamois cream which I was supposed to carry was not there I could not find it in my bike bags also in my Jersey pockets. Feeling ditched just washed my face with disappointment, walked around a bit got back on my bike and started the ride.
Again within a few kilometres, I was feeling sleepy and not all comfortable, I stopped at a coffee shop to have a coffee. I took an Espresso Coffee thinking it would be enough to get rid of my sleep, but the scene is I just got a small shot of coffee, the cup was something looking like a Tequila shot glass. I saw Ganesh & Naveen Anchetty boys here, greeted them and finished my coffee in a single sip. Naveen was in the same sleepy mode as I was, I asked them if I would lie down on my face and asked them to wake me up when they were leaving. Ganesh had hard set the time, they were supposed to leave in the next 2–3 minutes. I closed my eyes and laid down my head in a minute I went into trans and got up quickly with shock and fear. Quickly stood up from there and said bye to the Boys and started moving forward towards VILLAINES-LA-JUHEL the next control point.
The ride is fully rolling, riders who want to attempt PBP don’t expect the route to be flat. The route is rolling till the finish line and the road is rough and not as we describe butter smooth. To give a crux, the route is similar to Virajpet to Hunsur(Karnataka) or from Jog to Honnavara.
This was the hardest phase I thought in this ride, but life gave me another twist whilst I was nearing the next control point, I started feeling pain in my left Knee. The Control Point came, I got my card stamped and stood in the queue to fill my calories for the next phase. I called up Swamy to see if they had passed but they were at the same control and having food, another Divya gyan from Swamy.
Are you not carrying ready-to-eat? I realised that point, I kept food in my cycle bags and got off from the queue. Quickly went to the cycle parking spot to get food and went to meet Swamy, and Prasad, I saw Kirti, Rohit and Barry there.
Swamy and Prasad finished their food and left the spot, I finished my food and started moving towards the next Control Point FOUGERES, the sun started popping out from here. Got a call from my wife informing both are doing good and their conditioning started improving. Felt a sigh of relief, She enquired about my whereabouts and asked her to follow the tracker site https://track.rtrt.me/e/CC-2023#/tracker/R2T9FHCS which I have already shared with her.
I was positive from here, but my knee started paining I ignored the signs and reached the drop bag point.
I managed the food with the ready-to-eat food which I was carrying on the cycle. I just wanted Hot water and allow the water to cook the food. My CP in and Out was at max 15mins. Sometimes if I was not getting or finding hot water I skipped eating or relied on a Snicker 22gm bar only if I felt energy drop, just to reach the next control.
At LOUDEAC got stamped on my BIB card and marched towards the drop bag collection point which was hosted by JFT Cycling, collected the bag and went to the bath(5€) to freshen up. That’s the luxury of having a drop bag point and the downside is it's too early at 430km. I took more than an hour at this control point just wasted time running around here and there. Felt I could utilize this time for proper sleep.
I left the place after filling calories, the ride from here till Brest is going to be Cold, High Rolling with lots of Turns. Somehow passed through the day and reached CARHAIX-PLOUGUER control point. For some time after the CARHAIX-PLOUGUER control point the stretch was lonely and found no rider passing through and no red lights seen, I felt it was a forest section down the hill, without Garmin navigation I was clueless if I was going in the right direction and was just relying on the markings on the road by the organizer. I felt scared at this section, it was dark and no mobile signal was available. Even if I wanted to check the route or talk with someone to overcome the fear I had no option. After an hour or so saw a few riders crossing by, and felt a sigh of relief. With each passing Kilometer the cold was getting stronger and my left knee started paining badly, with the never-ending rolling terrain it was getting too difficult at that point.
I was completely shivering while riding and wanted to take a break badly, just to change my gloves to winter ones to block the cold. The climbs were not going to end any time, but at a distance at the hill point, saw a camper and people stopping by at that place. After reaching there, an old person was helping out people by giving them coffee, I asked him if he could give me some coffee in a soft tone, he knew only French and understood looking at me and he showed me a chair to relax and went to get coffee. I got a coffee cup and finished it quickly and closed my eyes lying on the chair.
Again I went into trans mode visualising all my recent days in a flash. Got up with the shock and said Merci and thanked the old man very much. I don’t know if I can ever meet him and return this favour. It was so cold it felt like the temperature was between 4–8°, even after so many layers I was shivering, his hospitality and helping nature got tears in my eyes I wanted to badly finish this ride what may come between me and finish, I will FINISH the ride.
After the pit stop, it was a long downhill section. The body started getting cold and the sleep started kicking In due to downhill. I wanted to reach the control point to feel some warmth, the ride till Brest was going on and on, going up and down but the Control Point(CP) didn’t come. Finally, Around 3:30 a.m. I reached the CP, parked the bike and removed my winter gloves to get the BIB card stamped. By the time I returned, someone picked up the gloves, and with a disappointed face I was thinking how will I ride back now? in this cold?
Then came the call from Ananda enquiring about me and where I am, I told him my situation and he told me to come near the dining area at Brest Control where they are sleeping. I went to him, and he told me to rest for some time and told me he would place the painkiller tablet next to me while leaving the place at 4:30 a.m. I wanted to join them, but deep down I was not feeling well and getting chills due to knee pain and saddle soreness. I know Ananda would get into a situation to tag along with me which I didn’t want that to happen.
He and Abhi left the place I slept till 4:45 a.m. and didn’t find any tablet around me. That's it, the next stretch is going to be painful, It's not going to be an easy ride the difficulty is going to double triple up. I had never ridden more than 600km on Black Panther till now, I felt some setting has changed between the packing and assembling here. With a brave face and a smile started with bare hands on my second leg of the journey towards the finish line.
I don’t know how I managed to ride in the cold post starting my ride from 5:00 am to 7 am. Thereafter sun was coming out and it was getting warmer.
The route was so scenic and you would forget that you were rolling up and down. While riding in this section I saw the rider who was riding without a saddle, I thought how can someone ride without a saddle for 1200 km but seeing his hill climbing pace he was easily cruising all the riders in the route and making it look easy. If I ride the next edition of Paris-Brest-Paris for sure I will try to enjoy the vibes and the surroundings fully utilizing the 90hrs slot, maybe I will be romantic and utilize my time well. A surprise secret control was set up and the volunteers pulled us into this control point and asked us to get timestamped. This secret control point was in between BREST and CARHAIX-PLOUGUER.
After the secret control point, the route till you reach LOUDEAC is full of rolling, the frustrating part in the PBP route is you climb and get down but there are numerous turns you have to take. While riding in this section, I saw Monish, Rajkumar and Pritish they stopped at the nearby town where volunteers had set up a makeshift food and refresh point. I didn’t stop but rather continued on my route to reach the next control point CARHAIX-PLOUGUER. They overtook me again, I tried to keep up with their pace, but I was reminded by my knee to ride slow and easy. It started getting hotter also the riders gap on the route started to decrease, I reached CARHAIX-PLOUGUER control point.
As usual, get BIB card stamped and move towards the next control point, but I saw Mohan Subramanyam at the CP talking to Raghu Reddy. I went and wished both of them and enquired Mohan Subramanyam about his ride, unfortunately, he missed his BIB card and had to go back and forth, in this process he lost time. I felt sad for him, but he told me to continue and finish the ride and he will continue the ride along the same route.
I skipped to eat food at the control, said bye to Mohan Subramanyam and headed to Loudeac Control Point direction. Somewhere along the route I saw a Pharmacy shop and stopped by to get a pain relief gel for the knee. I was asking for Volini, they didn’t understand I figured out they didn’t understand and googled Diclofenac gel and showed them the same. For the precautionary purpose in case the pain elevates to an unbearable situation, I thought let me keep at least a Paracetamol tab. I asked the same they gave 1000mg Paracetamol tablet, I knew that was a high dosage. In sign language asked them to give me half of that dosage and got the 500mg tab. The medicine here is super expensive, paid the bill and got out. After getting out of the shop, I had 1 tab and applied the gel on my knee. The medicine slowly started showing its effect while I was climbing or nearing LOUDEAC town.
Again finished the same routine at LOUDEAC Control Point, took a fresh kit from the drop bag went to the bath, and saw Prithish and Monish there. I finished my routine at this Control and while going near the parking spot, saw Nakul at the control. After a chat he too told me that he wanted to eat something I said I would join too and we went to the dining place to eat.
This is the first time I am eating at the control, the food was ok ok just for the sake of filling the calories I forcefully finished my plate. Checked my phone battery it still left with 50% or more power, the power bank which I was carrying was not used at all, and I didn’t transform anything from the drop bag. Nakul said he wanted to sleep at this control I said I would move, left the place without sleeping and told them I would plan to sleep at TINTENIAC or FOUGERES.
I was left with 400km and due to my condition, the ride was getting harder and harder. In between the control points, I thought to increase my saddle height hoping it would help, there I realised the saddle had gone down the mistake I was so dumb to not recognise it and I was riding with bad saddle height till this time. Increased the height to the actual level, hoping the issues get sorted out.
I was still feeling uncomfortable, maybe I was over-adapted to lower seat height. Riding to TINTENIAC was during daylight, due to pain I was taking a Paracetamol tab which I took at the Pharmacy shop every 6 hours to overcome the pain. I reached TINTENIAC control, got stamped prepared ready to eat and ate. I didn’t feel like sleeping at this control but rather go to FOUGERES and sleep if I felt like it. The ride between TINTENIAC to FOUGERES was at midnight, and the riders on the road were very less they might have stopped to sleep. I was alone and the night was too dark, the route in the dark felt like I was repeating the same climb again and again like I was stuck in some time loop.
I stopped for 2 to 3 times just to get out of boredom and sleep. It was too tiresome and slow due to sleep deprivation and pain. I found it difficult to reach FOUGERES control. I observed during the night in French towns all the lights will be switched off not even street lights. It was pitch dark, even FOUGERES was dark and no lights until I was nearing some castle, I lost the route and the markings on the road, I was going round and round. Saw some riders at a distance, sprinted to reach them and started following them, finally reached FOUGERES at 3:15 a.m. and got my BIB card stamped.
Instead of going to the next control I decided to sleep for a while and looked out for a sleeping spot to sleep. I slept for an hour or so and got up at 4:30 a.m. due to cold. I could not sleep after that, I was feeling cold resting here more would further cool down my body so decided to ride in the Cold till the Sun got out.
The finish line from here was just 200 km away, I prepped my mind for 50x4 as the target. I was hallucinating and started to talk loudly, questioning why I stopped enjoying the ride, started revisiting my journey and was introspecting on whatever happened during the ride and found out the remaining route I needed to enjoy and feel it.
It was totally hot on the 3rd day between 3 pm found two old people offering Aqua(Water) I stopped to refill some cold water. They offered me Coke Tin to drink and also told me to take some more. In between we were having a conversation with the help of a translator and was telling them I am from India, my ride details and whereabouts. I was telling them the weather was hot today in sign language and it's slowing down my pace. I don’t know what the old man understood, he went inside and got me the eyeglasses and asked me to wear them.
I told them I was fine, I could ride without it. He insisted and told me to wear it as it would help me, I didn’t understand that time what he was referring to but later realised during the night the insects were more in that place without glasses they would clash with my eyes which would be problematic to ride. The glasses really helped me for the rest of my ride till I finished it.
While saying bye to these young-hearted lads, they asked me to send the photos after reaching home safely. These are the moments I missed in the first half, I really enjoyed the ride in the last leg, with everyone cheering up for you.
For me the most scenic route in the entire route is around the MORTAGNE-AU-PERCHE Control point, I was lucky to ride around evening time and it started drizzling. The view was super scenic I could feel the place but was not daring to pull my phone to capture the surroundings, it was a long climb till I reached the control. I wish I get a chance to ride again in daylight at this place.
After the MORTAGNE-AU-PERCHE Control point the route going from hill to hill, we have to cross one hill and climb another one. It was totally greenish and quiet, you will just enjoy the green and blue sky contrast and forget everything else. After crossing the hills, there comes a long downhill the road here was too rough it was down but there was rolling resistance I started feeling sleepy. I stopped at a place where locals were serving coffee. I took a coffee and bread to eat, I got a message from Sagar and called him to update my status. I think that’s the first call I spoke for long.
From the coffee shop, the route was not that rolling. It started getting dark also the route had a lot of turns and forest sections. Reached the final control Point DREUX, with a good buffer. The DREUX town is totally different from the towns I have seen till now, there was a different vibe at this place. It was dark I could not get to see the full view of DREUX to take pictures, also I didn’t feel like it was in France.
First time in the entire ride, I was charging my Phone for the first time at DREUX, you can imagine how I could have ridden the entire route with just me around.
My plan was to reach the DREUX control point at any cost with a super comfort buffer and utilise the buffer time to sleep. Thought to have a final full-fledged meal at the control point and post that go and sleep. At the control, I saw Nakul, Prithish and Rohit Chandrashekar reaching and they were coming towards the dining area.
While having dinner, me and Rohit started discussing about the ride and my sleep, I explained to Rohit due to knee pain I was riding Control Point to Control Point and had planned to sleep only after reaching DREUX. Also to relieve knee pain, I took around 4–5 500mg of paracetamol tablets to reach this point. He advised me to not ride like this without sleep and started teasing me, but after listening to my story, he gave me an Ibuprofen tablet and a Magnesium sachet. He touched my thighs and asked if it was paining, I said yes and he gave me a Magnesium sachet, and he said this will relax your muscles.
We took our time to finish the dinner and were ready to start together. At the bike parking place, I observed that my saddle went down again 😡. Don’t know what was happening with my seat post, raised the height of my seat post and we started together from DREUX.
Rohit C went ahead with the Peloton, Nakul was a bit ahead and I hung up with Prithish. While we were having a chat and peddling, we lost the route and went off the course. Checked the correct route and synced up again with Nakul and from there we rode together to the control point.
I don’t know if it was for the Magnesium or the Ibuprofen, my thighs were super pumped up. I was in a feeling, is this how I should have ridden from the start? I totally enjoyed the full power till the end point.
Saw the endpoint Arch and I stopped to wait for Prithish and Nakul to reach. We together crossed the End Point.
Chapeter 10: Thank You
Thanks to Hemanth and Suresh who helped to get us to the Airport.
Thanks to Siddalinga Swamy who got me clothing in time.
Thanks to Arun Sivanesan who got me clothing from the UK with just a message.
Thanks to Chaitanya and Rajeswari for their talk and kind words with a coffee, can never forget that.
Thanks to Bangalore Randonneurs team, right from how to manage food, what to eat, and how to control sleep everything was outlined and given to us on a platter, It was because of their continuous support I was able to finish it.
Thanks to my college and dear friends Vishal Sujith Gowda, Harish, Manjith, Manoj and Abhishek who wished and followed my progress.
Thanks to my Cycle friends Binod, Vidhya and others who wished us a successful finish.
Thanks to my Cycle buddies in PBP Ananda, Jaya Prakash N, Natesh M and Abhishek Singh.
Thanks to Sagar Bharadawaj who had confidence in me.
Thanks to Monish C, who guided me to the right path.
Thanks to Prasad Sadashiva, Raghunandan the gurugale from Bangalore Randonneurs.
Thanks to Mohan Subramanyam, without him this is not going to happen.
Thanks to my Wife, Sister and Family who held with me and supported me even though they were not happy with me going cycling.
Thanks to Tanveer Syed, Shah Bikes.
Thanks to Tharun.
Thanks to Gayatridevi, Srihari and my team and Office Colleagues who supported me.
Thanks to Rashmi, Venkatesh, Bala, Reual and Others who supported me in this journey.
Thanks to all well-wishers!!
Chapter 11: Paris Brest Paris Ride Stats
Merci for reading my part of life!
