My Path to PBP ‘23

[Derek]

I am new to the idea of ride reports. I usually just ride my bike and don't feel like it's special enough of an event to justify a lengthy write-up, but this Memorial Day weekend marked the end of a series of rides which were a considerable undertaking. I'll get to all that in a moment, but first, let me start at the beginning.

It was the year 2000, and I had just received a letter from the Uruguayan embassy. They were writing to inform me that they wanted me to represent their country in the Sydney Olympics. I was born and raised in rural Western Pennsylvania, but because my mom was a Uruguayan native, I had dual-citizenship until I was 18 (and I was 17 at the time). I thought it was neat, but I quickly dismissed the idea because it was my last summer with my friends before we went our separate ways for college. I declined the offer, and doing so has been one of my biggest regrets in life. 'Get last place if you have to, but be a part of the opening ceremonies and the entire Olympic experience you idiot!'

20 years pass. Fitness wanes. Weight gains. Dabble in running. Cycling. Bad fit. Debilitating knee pain. Try swimming again. Can't revive an old flame. Then finally I find an old used Burley Hepcat recumbent in 2016. Storage Wars type sale where the guy doesn't know what he's selling. $150, what a steal, and I just fell in love with the ride. [13-15mph avg]

Eventually needed more speed. Bought a used Challenge Fujin II low racer. Super light, pretty fast [16-17mph avg], but built custom for a guy who was 6'6". I'm 5'8". Not good.

Sold the Fujin. Bought a used Bacchetta Carbon Basso. Niiiice bike. Almost as light as the Fujin, but faster [18-19 avg]. Basso = small front wheel = not terribly aero. Faster bikes out there. I want more speed.

Sold the Bacchetta. Bought a floor model Cruzbike v20 from Jonathan Garcia at Rose City Recumbents. Goddamn. Screaming fast. Everything I was looking for and more. [20-21mph avg] Distances grow. Power increases. No power meters and fancy electronics, just my perceived exertion, foot speed, and post-ride averages to go by, but fitness was definitely improving.

I signed up for a USA Randonneurs (rusa.org) membership because I liked the idea of self-supported non-looped long-distance rides. I never got to go on one.

2 years ago, on Juneteenth, disaster struck. I set out on an 80 mile ride and didn't make it home for 5 days. I was ripping down the road at 21mph listening to "Good Vibrations" by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (don't judge me. FEEL IT. FEEL IT.), and I went down on a wet metal grated bridge (wasn't even raining - just early morning dew condensation on cold metal). Foot still clipped in, hit a vertical metal surface with the tread on the bottom of my shoe. Leg snapped sideways and the bike flipped over my head. As bad a fracture as you can imagine. Bone out of skin, ankle in 5 pieces, hand compression to stop the bleeding, crab walking to the side of the road. Hopefully help will come quickly. Ambulance ride to a satellite facility. The doctor is angry at the driver for taking me there. "He needs trauma". Get some feel-good drugs. Ambulance ride to Atlantic City Trauma unit. Bones put back inside my skin. Have to wait for the ankle specialist. He's on vacation. Will be back Wednesday. It was Saturday.

Long-story short, after a couple more surgeries and 6-months of intensive rehabilitation, I got back on the bike with some permanent titanium reminders of my oopsie. Bad news: each morning sucks for 5 minutes. Good news: I know when it's going to rain that day.

The first day back on the bike was the scariest. It was very traumatic, and I had PTSD. 22 mile up and back to Atsion Lake - my usual training route. No fireworks today. Just nice and easy. Get your head back in the game. Then about 13 miles in: POP! <ground quickly approaching at 45º angle> THUD! Apparently I hit some broken glass and had a massive front tire blowout. Spooked, yes, but I had now experienced what a NORMAL bike crash feels like and it was nothing remotely recognizable in comparison to what I endured on that bridge 6 months prior.

<timewarp>distance increases, speed increases, power meter and all the electronic gadgetry now confirm: I am improving. 2nd dedicated v20 now on the smart trainer. Joined a virtual racing league (heyyo LowDrag!), cat up to C (heyyo Vendettas!), wake up every morning before work for a month to climb the virtual Alp Du Huez, eventually climb 50k meters in ~60 days, and I'm ready to hit the road for my first Randonée.</timewarp>

This is the year of PBP (Paris-Brest-Paris), a global reunion of endurance cyclists the world over. Like the Olympics, it only comes around once every 4 years. Like the Olympics, you need to qualify. Unlike the Olympics, it's not a race (officially). People still like to go fast, but it’s a race against the clock (and themselves) vs each other. To me, this has the makings of a redemption song. Redemption from 2000. A comeback story from 2021. And so, I set out on the series of 4 qualifying rides - committing to complete the first two and play the remaining two by ear. After all, since the bridge, my personal mantra has always been "COMING HOME SAFELY COMES FIRST".

Well, I completed the Batsto 200k in the requisite time, posting the second fastest time of a group of 30 riders, behind a velomobile rider who has come to be a bit of a mentor over the past few months. Nothing too remarkable about that ride except driving rain in 45 degree weather and 25 mph wind gusts w a 80mm front and rear disc wheel.

<tldr>
Here are my rough notes for folks who like more detail:
- Beforehand I ate a pb banana blueberry sandwich + coffee
- Fuel During Ride:
- 3 Macaroons
- 5 Dates - started them at around mile 80 took one every 5 miles or so till I felt sufficiently energized (maybe mile 105?)
- 2 large slices of pizza
- 33oz 30 water + 320/caf mix
- 8oz water + Liquid IV
- .9L of regular water
- Total liquid consumed: approx: 2.3L
- Fell on way to start. Wasn’t paying attention to road surface, doh! Ripped AmFib pants!
- Check wind conditions in advance next time
- Feet got freezing cold despite neoprene sock and shoe covers
- Toes fully numb but left much worse than right (because of poor circulation due to prior injury)
- Sideways wind gusts (28mph) dangerous and would move me. Need to ride further in center of road when conditions are like that.
- Left shoulder began to hurt about 100 miles in
</tldr>

 

[Derek]

Part 2/2:

Next up was the Hacketstown 300k. I had no idea what I was in for. Not like pancake flat South Jersey. This ride had 8000 ft of climbing and grades up to 19º. Despite all the virtual climbing I did to prep my leg muscles this past winter, I've never actually climbed a real hill. Like ever. So, I had no technique and suffered from front wheel slip, shifting irregularities, bad balance at slow speeds, and too small a cassette. Not going to lie. I had to push my bike up 2 sections of the hills because of a combination of the aforementioned factors. Not good. Felt like a failure. But guess what, I didn't fail! I finished the ride and well under the time required to qualify for PBP.

<tldr>
Here are my rough notes for folks who like more detail:
- 1st finisher across that line at 12hrs 10min
- After 200k my skin at the front of my elbows and backs of my knees started to hurt. When I got home the ball of my right foot by the pinky toe was raw. Should use petroleum jelly there next time.
- Thought I was going to fail at around mile 80.
- Suffered from front wheel slip on big inclines 10°+
- Glad I moved from a 10-30 to a 10-33 cassette, still not big enough need to go 10-36
- Generally would like to avoid routes that have 10°+
- Need an integrated battery for Karoo2 or get different bike computer
- Lost Castelli Jersey and AmFib glove on ride home - fell out of open bag when bike was on car rack (doh!)
- Rode with Matt Roy - apparently he's a big name in endurance riding
- Was told I missed R60 time by 10 min. Not sure what that is.
</tldr>

So then I looked up R60 time, and apparently there's a special group of riders who have finished their full qualifying series (called a Super Randonnée) in less than 60% of the total allowed time. You can redo any distance ride however many times you like and have 2 years to hit all 4 distances. I was 90 minutes faster than the R60 requirement on my 200k (flats) and had missed it by only 10 minutes on the 300k (with walked hills, getting caught at a long train crossing, and sitting at over 30 minutes of traffic lights in NJ suburbs). So, the lightning bolt struck: I CAN DO THIS.

Fast forward a few weeks to the Pinelands 400k. 250 miles felt like a big jump on paper but one of the women who helped organize the events told me "it's not a big difference from a 300k", and that gave me the confidence to take it out more aggressively than I would have otherwise - took the first century out in a 20 mph avg. Again, wind was a challenge. The 25mph+ cross-winds were so bad that gusts would blow me 2-3 feet sideways. Note to self: don't use a disc wheel when it's that windy out!

The closing scene was pretty awesome: the clouds came as night fell, and I got a few minutes of riding by headlamp in a thunderstorm. I was shooting for a sub 16:12 R60 time (i.e. 60% of the 27hr max allowed time including controls, el baño, and traffic lights). Finished at 13:40. 13 moving. :40 stopped.

I ended up finishing 2nd behind Mr. Bill Russell in his shiny new Bülk velomobile.

Which brings me to this weekend's Cape May 600k, the last PBP qualifier. Going into this year, I had previously done a 160 mile ride on my own last year, so while a 200k (125mi) and 300k (185mi) were well within the limits of my confidence, the 400k was a stretch, and 600k seemed even more unobtainable since it would consist of a 400k + a 200k the next day. Only one problem: this pesky R60 concept that had been planted in my head and I couldn't shake. I can go back and hit any number of 300ks and check that one off the list if I can get this 600k in R60. But on a 40 hour limit to qualify for PBP, the R60 meant I needed to finish 375 miles in under 24 hours. <cue Beastie Boys>"No sleep till...DAYS INN!"<again don't judge me>

The route was as varied as the state. People who aren't from New Jersey think of what they've seen on TV: HBO's Sopranos or MTV's The Jersey Shore. Well, there are 4 distinct parts of the state and both of those TV shows represent 1 of them: the Northeast part - the suburbs of New York City. The Cape May 600k circumnavigates the other three parts: 1. Central/Southern NJ (rolling hills/flat summer-camp-esque pine forests), 2. South Jersey Shoreline (mainland backroads across the bay from Ocean City to Cape May, beautiful country), and 3. Northwestern NJ (foothills, small quaint hamlets carved into the hillsides).

First 400k: flat and fast - pretty much solo, equally distanced behind Bill and ahead of a fast group of riders behind me. Took out the first 100 at 20mph again, but then I hit Cape May's 15 miles of multi-use-pathways (MUPs) which capped speeds at 10-13mphs to navigate what felt like 200 road crossings and avoid pedestrians, families, and other equally frustrated cyclists on one of the busiest weekends of the year. Bonus: I got to experience a bit of comic relief at mile 123 when a Karen on a motorized bike yelled at me for not warning her (one of 300 people I passed in that hour stretch) that I was approaching from behind.

During one of the road crossings a bump in the road at a bad moment in my slow pedal stroke caused me to hyperextend my knee a bit and put the tiniest crack in my foundation which over the course of the next 10 miles would escalate into a pain that had me questioning my ability to do another 140 miles. I studied my pedal stroke and leg extension (or lack thereof) and came to the conclusion that the hyperextension only exacerbated a problem I already had brewing. Rides over a certain distance have a way of identifying looming gremlins in your bike fit, and I had my pedals too close to my seat. So, I extended them out at the next control point, and the pain thankfully subsided.

Pretty uneventful ride from there back to the Days Inn. That's where most people turned in for the night, but 4 riders rode on. Bill was about an hour ahead of me, and two strong upright riders were about the same distance behind me. I stopped at my car, refueled, attached two sidebags to the back of my seat. One had a reflective emergency blanket, an ultralight sleeping bag liner, and a spare headlamp battery in it. The other contained cold weather gloves, arm warmers, leg warmers, and foodstuffs. It was supposed to drop from 70º to 45º over the course of this leg of the journey.

Long story short, the night contained A LOT of climbing, some swear words, about 200 deer who just stare at you but aren't spooked (very eerie), a number of complements from Princeton students (the intelligent ones understand the brilliance of the recumbent!), having to walk my bike across the Delaware River bridge at the behest of the Stockton-New Hope security guard (adding 10 min of precious time to the clock), each control stop gas station attendant knowing that I was coming. "You are riding over 300 miles aren't you?! The guy ahead of you told me you were coming!!" More deer. Lots of opossums. A few foxes and raccoons. Very neat to night ride on empty hilly forest roads. After all, it was my first time riding through the night and my second time ever climbing hills.

Then it was dark. Like pitch dark, at speed. My battery died. No clue how. I had a massive 25,000 mah battery that I had tested to last 15 hours w/ my light but somehow out there in the middle of nowhere, it died after 6 hours. Luckily, guided by the randonneuring ethos of redundancy, I packed a spare.

Hard climbs, more cursing. Finally got to the penultimate control point, a Wawa at mile 358. It was 17 miles before the Days Inn finish where we had to scan a QR code to essentially alert the volunteers to ready the cowbell for our return. The second I opened the door to get back on my bike, I knew something was wrong. It felt 20º colder than when I dismounted my bike 5 minutes earlier. I felt wet. My adrenaline had run out. Can you get hypothermia riding a bike when its 45º out? I was feeling the fatigue of having ridden for 22+ hours on 2 hours sleep the night prior (hopped up on coffee and excitement). My body and heart felt fine, but my head felt like I was...well, how do I put this?...drunk and hallucinating.

If I felt like this at the end of the 400k I would have called it. If I was still back at mile 300, I would have broke out the emergency blanket for a nap. But here, 17 miles from the finish, I needed to press on. After all, am I going to DNF this close to the end, and would it take them as long to come get me out in the cold as it would for me to ride it in slowly? So, I opted for the latter, I took the last 17 miles at an extremely slow pace - probably around 10-14mph. I propped myself up to a 60 degree angle, essentially turning my v20 into a v60, and coasted / slow pedaled my way back to the Days Inn safely.

I now know what my limit is, and it's riding 375 miles in 23.5 hrs on 2 hours sleep.

Solo 600k R60 accomplished. PBP coming up. Until then, I need to figure out which 300k I'm going to circle back and grab that last R60 on...

2023

NEW JERSEY RANDONNEURS

www.njrandonneurs.org

 

[ed72]

Well done. The 600k isn't real hard but all the stop signs, lights, the 100 or more stops on the MUP, walking across the River twice, and a few hills in my neck of the woods make it a real challenge on a bent. Five riders went into the night from the Days Inn, the last one had an asthma attack at the smoky 10 alarm type fire in Princeton and decided to sleep 5 hours after walking the bridges. You probably did not see the fire. I had over 2 hours stopped on the 400k (there was a bad crash and I also had 2 flats on my tubeless rear tire and another one Sunday).

If it matters, if on a bent, I would have walked the climb out of Hacketstown on the 300k, the 19% one to the reservoir that is all bumpy, sandy and turny. Why mess with it and cars passing you. I found the 600k R60 ride hardest because there is almost no chance to find another rider, other than Bill Russell, to ride with you, so, it is all solo amd you have to concentrate to do 380 miles in 24 hours on public roads with all the navigation, controls, buying your food, etc. R60 on a 300k can be challenging, it always seems the organizers make the 300k really hard, maybe so the 400k isn't so much of a jump. GL chasing R60. Are you doing Charly Miller on PBP? It has only been done once by an American on a recumbent, a faired one.

 

[Beano]

Chapeau

 

[ed72]

The 600k had a 320 line cuesheet and probably a hundred or more stop signs and red lights.

Really impressive ride.

Chapeau for sure.

The velomobile did 22:32, Bill usually cracks 20 hours on the flat routes. The second day wasn't really hilly but clearly wasn't flat. Very impressive time on a bent.

 

[CruzinCambridge]

Well done! You're on fire. I did the four state 400K with the NJR and I'm glad I missed you there or I would have tried to follow your wheel and been left for dead in Hudson. I've walked some hills... on the 200K I was angry every time it happened. On the 400K I powered through the climbs and paid the price. Then on the 300K there were two hills that ramped up to 12% or more and I just put my foot down, got up and walked and tried to not let it get to me since I wasn't losing time by walking. I've had some fit/strain issues I've been working on - I think I strained my hip flexor trying to muscle my way up the hills on the 200K with the wrong gearing. Since then I've been experiencing some Achilles tendonitis which I've tried to aleviate by bringing the pedals in 1.5mm and putting an extra insole in my right shoe since I can't find a shim for that foot. I'm careful to not
change the position too much since too short of a reach I get knee pain. Maybe I'll adjust it mid-ride to distribute the pain.

I haven't been thinking about R'ing ... just that I want to finish sooner than later... but looking at my times, I'm just minutes short of R70 on my 300K and 400K, but on track for an R80. R80 on the 600K this weekend will be tough but doable depending on how long I tarry at the Day's Inn (and also if I can power through heat and injuries to finish at all). Thank you for putting the Beastie Boys in my head... that won't come back to haunt me... no way.

NER is running a 300K in the fall from Boston's south shore to Newport/Plymouth and back which you may want to check out for your R60. It's not flat but it's relatively flat for New England.

 

[Velocivixen]

Are those cues on your handlebars? The writing. congratulations on your big effort.

 

[rdl03]

Wow! Having done a SR series (actually, I think 2) - at dramatically slower speeds, feel like I can appreciate at least some of what an extraordinary accomplishment this is.
Chapeau!

 

[Beano]

@Derek what group are you starting in at PBP? Sunday evening or Monday morning? If you are still able I'd recommend the Monday morning group. At the speeds you do, you could (if you wanted to) treat PBP as 3 long days rides. Paris > Loudeac, Loudeac > Brest > Loudeac, Loudeac > Paris. Just a thought, this is what I done back in 2015 and it worked out okay and apart from the first night at Loudeac where I queued for about 20 minutes for a cot there was very little in terms of queues.

 

[Derek]

Well done. The 600k isn't real hard but all the stop signs, lights, the 100 or more stops on the MUP, walking across the River twice, and a few hills in my neck of the woods make it a real challenge on a bent. Five riders went into the night from the Days Inn, the last one had an asthma attack at the smoky 10 alarm type fire in Princeton and decided to sleep 5 hours after walking the bridges. You probably did not see the fire. I had over 2 hours stopped on the 400k (there was a bad crash and I also had 2 flats on my tubeless rear tire and another one Sunday).

If it matters, if on a bent, I would have walked the climb out of Hacketstown on the 300k, the 19% one to the reservoir that is all bumpy, sandy and turny. Why mess with it and cars passing you. I found the 600k R60 ride hardest because there is almost no chance to find another rider, other than Bill Russell, to ride with you, so, it is all solo amd you have to concentrate to do 380 miles in 24 hours on public roads with all the navigation, controls, buying your food, etc. R60 on a 300k can be challenging, it always seems the organizers make the 300k really hard, maybe so the 400k isn't so much of a jump. GL chasing R60. Are you doing Charly Miller on PBP? It has only been done once by an American on a recumbent, a faired one.

Hey Ed - sorry wasn’t ignoring you just haven’t been on this forum much lately. To answer your question, I am playing it by ear. I tend to ride as fast as possible within my abilities. So, while I’m not going into the PBP with a Charly-Miller-or-bust mindset, I do plan to take it out at my usual brevet pace. If I find myself on the way back from Brest with time to sleep and still take a run at being the first non-faired recumbent rider to accomplish the CM-time, then I’m sure that will light a fire.

I did end up ticking off the final R60 ride up in the Finger Lakes region a couple weeks ago. They said the terrain is very similar to France which gives me more confidence since I finished about an hour ahead of R60 pace.

My motto for the qualifiers was: above all else, come home safe.

Now for the main event I’m adding: …don’t rush, just peddle faster.

https://strava.app.link/oVLGAn9ijBb

 

[Derek]

Are those cues on your handlebars? The writing. congratulations on your big effort.

Yes! I wrap my bars w glow in the dark tape (~$15 a roll on Amazon) then write important cues on it with sharpie marker. Then, I have a little single led light on my waist pack that I shine on it for 2 seconds and can read it perfectly even in pitch black conditions.

 

[Derek]

@Derek what group are you starting in at PBP? Sunday evening or Monday morning? If you are still able I'd recommend the Monday morning group. At the speeds you do, you could (if you wanted to) treat PBP as 3 long days rides. Paris > Loudeac, Loudeac > Brest > Loudeac, Loudeac > Paris. Just a thought, this is what I done back in 2015 and it worked out okay and apart from the first night at Loudeac where I queued for about 20 minutes for a cot there was very little in terms of queues.

Yes, I am doing the 84 hr specialty bike group starting on Monday. Planning to sleep based on how I’m feeling. I did my 600k straight without stopping, so there is the possibility that I push to Brest, rest, and then head back. Or I noticed that a lot of the fastest riders seem to fight slumber off until Loudaec on the way back - so Im open to that possibility but only think it’s feasible for me if I fuel and hydrate better on this ride than my 600k since I got dizzy at the end. (which upon further self-reflection may have been partly caused by the fact that I didn’t eat or drink much in the last 5 hours of my ride). But then again, if I find myself spent at the 400k mark (and I don’t dismiss that possibility given the elevation gain I’m unused to and the time zone change), I’m making a mental note of your suggestion, sir!

 

[Velocivixen]

@Derek - clever idea About cues on h’bar tape.
When I completed a marathon & half’s I usually wrote 3 words of inspiration with a sharpie on the back of my hand. It was a reminder to me that I was prepared as well as a bad@ss!

 

[Derek]

Well done. The 600k isn't real hard but all the stop signs, lights, the 100 or more stops on the MUP, walking across the River twice, and a few hills in my neck of the woods make it a real challenge on a bent. Five riders went into the night from the Days Inn, the last one had an asthma attack at the smoky 10 alarm type fire in Princeton and decided to sleep 5 hours after walking the bridges. You probably did not see the fire. I had over 2 hours stopped on the 400k (there was a bad crash and I also had 2 flats on my tubeless rear tire and another one Sunday).

If it matters, if on a bent, I would have walked the climb out of Hacketstown on the 300k, the 19% one to the reservoir that is all bumpy, sandy and turny. Why mess with it and cars passing you. I found the 600k R60 ride hardest because there is almost no chance to find another rider, other than Bill Russell, to ride with you, so, it is all solo amd you have to concentrate to do 380 miles in 24 hours on public roads with all the navigation, controls, buying your food, etc. R60 on a 300k can be challenging, it always seems the organizers make the 300k really hard, maybe so the 400k isn't so much of a jump. GL chasing R60. Are you doing Charly Miller on PBP? It has only been done once by an American on a recumbent, a faired one.

Ed - I’m curious, were you the one who did CM on a faired recumbent?

 

[ed72]

Ed - I’m curious, were you the one who did CM on a faired recumbent?

My recumbent is unfaired. I did CM on an upright. I did 75-76 hours on an M5 with very nearly 20 hours of sleeping and around 50 hours riding basically into the wind both ways. I am pretty sure on a modern velomobile, I could still do CM because one can use big tires and suspension on it. There were a couple faired bents who did fast PBPs. Bob Fourney in 1999 rode a completely faired F90 around in 47 hours or thereabouts. There was a red one in 2019 that passed me before Fougeres, it had a really massive wrap around to the rear and I think he did about 52 hours riding with another bent rider, they are well known, I just forget their names at the moment. I saw a couple of homemade one.

 

[Beano]

Good man @Derek , got around in just under 71 hours - chapeau.

 

[Mathew Fy]

I got this link showing some Cruzbikes from my Google alerts:

Weird and wonderful bikes at Paris-Brest-Paris

Some of the most bizarre and beautiful bikes from the biggest audax in the calendar

www.globalcyclingnetwork.com

The top photo shows an aero-looking bag with the computer in its shadow. Making me think of a possible 3d printing idea.

 

[ratz]

The top photo shows an aero-looking bag with the computer in its shadow. Making me think of a possible 3d printing idea.

Or try these:

https://www.amazon.com/XLAB-Stealth-Pocket-Frame-Pack/dp/B0189O08FK

https://www.performancebike.com/pro...YKO9zT9yqQV_wlq3PPcLPhP3_FOWEEtxoCV1IQAvD_BwE