2007 PBP

OK, this has taken me quite a while to put down in words. It was such a long ride, not to mention a long vacation, that it may take me as long to write this thing as it took me to ride it.

For the past four years I have been riding long distances on my various bikes. I started out looking to find others to ride 100 mile rides with and has now grown to over 700 miles at a time.

These past four years were training for the granddaddy of all long distance rides Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP). PBP is held every four years so it is kind of the Olympics of long distance cycling. In order to quailfy for PBP you must ride, in the year of PBP, a 200k in 13.5 hours, a 300k in 20 hours, a 400k in 27 hours and a 600k in 40 hours. I have done this entire series each of the past four years and I really enjoy all the rides. I especially enjoy the longer 400k and 600k as you will certainly ride at night. If you have never riden at night it is very peaceful and quite, and with the proper gear it is a blast.

For 2007 I rode the San Francisco 200k, 300k & 400k as well as a 400k out of Santa Rosa the 600k out of Davis and another 300k up in Portland when I picked up my new bike. The 300k in SF was a wet and windy ride and it rained in Portland as well. The Davis 600k had an 8pm start which is similar to the 90 hour start in PBP. These three brevets really came in handy for this years PBP. I have ridden a few times in the rain and other than getting wet it is not so bad. The trick is to stay warm and/or to be able to get warm using a change of clothes or finding a laundry mat. The Davis 600k taught me that if there is a night start I will have a tough time riding thru the second night. Very valuable info for PBP and the rain rides will prove equally helpful.

Fast Forward to August 2007