RAAMBO

The 1,250km Paris-Brest-Paris was as close to the Tour de France as I will ever get.  We were cruising through the French countryside; through the little towns with their round-a-bouts. Motorcycles whizzing by with video cameras, fans cheering along side of the road. Riders speaking in French. It was quite a high.

Training for the PBP began for me just over a year before the event this included the qualifying rides, a 200km, 300km 400km and a 600km.  Personally I found the 400K ride to be the toughest, with the 600 you can make up a bit of time and catch some zzzzzzzzzz but the 400 is go, go, go. That ride took Steve

Cooper and I, 20hrs on a rainy and cold Aussie winter day. We were both on Optima Barons.

With just a week to go until the start of the PBP I was held up with trying to bring a business deal together, it didn’t look like I would make it to this PBP at all. On the same day the ride started the gods (those that ride bikes) smiled and the contract was signed……..

I jumped onto a plane at 8.30pm Aussie time, tried to get as much sleep as possible on the 24hr flight. We (baron and me) arrived in Paris the next day; it was now more than 30hrs after the start. What to do? My body clock was somewhere between Australia and France and the slowest of the riders was maybe 300-350Ks ahead of me. Starting so late! This was now not to be an official PBP for me but still enough to be a real PBP adventure. The Baron performed very well on the mostly undulating roads of that part of France at times I passed packs of 30-40 riders, sometimes at more than double their speed. This often draw interesting comments from those roadies in the bunch – one French rider yelled out “Mon Dieu!!” (what does that mean??)

As the sun goes down, it starts getting chilly and there's a bit of mist in the air. Occasionally you'll see a bike going the other way – cycling is popular here and people cycle for sport, fun and transportation. Baguettes too - not a cliche - you see people walking or cycling down the street with baguettes in their arms everyday.

The PBP is not just about riding a bike for 1200kms, it is also about people and how different personalities react to what is  very stressful on both the mind and body. 

I saw a bloke who had fallen asleep while eating, and when he raised his head from the table he had mashed potato in his hair and down one side of his face, he didn’t seem to notice or maybe he was just too tired to care. He put on his helmet and rode of into the cool French night.

All along the route, the children giving water, biscuits or other French tit-bits, the families brewing coffee in the middle of the night, and the crowds applauding and shouting "Bravo!" as It was unbelievable.

The French are really into the spirit of the PBP and many of the small towns and villages decorate the roadside with old bicycles festooned with flowers, emblazoned with Christmas lights and similar ornamentation.

The start and finish of the ride takes you through city streets in large packs of eager cyclists. Sometimes it feels like a Sydney-Gong or Round the Bay in a Day as we're directed through traffic lights and local cyclists jump on to join the fun. I rode with a pack through  city parks with narrow lanes and steep climbs and their  momentum hurled me on.

My memories of PBP are ones I will cherish 

---Original Message-----
From: Glenn Druery [mailto:weec@bigpond.net.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 23 December 2003 12:31 AM
To: ozhpv@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Wallaby v Lowracer

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