Decided to go

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-11 00:00:00

PBP, Paris-Brest-Paris, the mother of all Brevets. 1200Km of unsupported riding across France. The kind of thing that seemed way too much, way too crazy, back when I rode my first 200 Brevet in 2017.

Back then, riding 200 km was an incredible thing to do. I was scared, afraid that maybe I won’t be able to finish it. I wanted to do it, badly, so there was this mix of feelings inside me.

Then I did ride a 300 km Brevet (and several other 200) and I met more experienced randonneurs. I listened carefully to all the stories they wanted to share, experiences of 400 and 600 Brevets, as well as bigger feats like PBP.

And I dreamed. I fell in love with the idea of riding longer distances, pushing myself and doing things that, at that moment, seemed impossible to do.

A few years later, I’ve done more long distance riding, both official Brevets (up to 400) and unofficial long rides. Last year I broke my yearly distance record (almost reaching 10k km) and I gained a lot of confidence in myself.

During the different Brevets I rode last year, talk about PBP started to pop-up here and there. It was a nice little dream, but one that (still) did sound like an impossible thing to do.

It was not only the idea of riding 1200 km, it was about everything it means, like preparations/training, doing the full super-randonneur series 1 and finally the whole trip to Paris before PBP (+ the come back home afterwards). It did sound like way too much again.

And yet… 2023 started, pre-registrations for PBP opened… and I signed up.

Pre-registration opened in blocks 2 based on the longer Brevet you rode the year before PBP. First it was the turn to those who rode a Brevet of 1000 km (or more) in 2022, then the ones that rode a 600 km Brevet, and so on.

Sadly, last year I was not able to ride a 600 Brevet (due to some personal problems) while several of my friends did ride at least one of them. Those did their pre-registration a couple of weeks before me, and I had those 2 extra weeks to think it through, to reconsider everything and make up my mind.

And when the time came (today), I was 100% decided about it.

And so I’ve just pre-registered myself for the 20th edition of Paris-Brest-Paris.

1

Riding 200, 300, 400 and 600 km Brevets in the same year.

2

According to the PBP rules: https://www.paris-brest-paris.org/en/rules

Signed up for the trip to Paris with the FECT

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-15 00:00:00

In order to be able to participate in PBP, first I’ve to get to the departure place, Rambouillet#1 (a road trip of almost 1400 km from my place).

And I’ve to get there with everything I will need for PBP like clothes, food, spares, tools, bike bags, helmet… and the bike of course.

A few fellow randonneurs that already participated in PBP 4 years ago (2019), suggested me to look into the organized trip by the FECT#2 (the spanish ciclotourism federation). They do an organized trip from Madrid to Paris for FECT members (which I have been for a couple of years now) with some stops along the way to pick up members from several other places in spain.

Members and luggage go in a bus, while the bikes go in a van or small truck.

I already knew about this option before doing the PBP pre-registration, but I didn’t sign up right away with them. Signing up means paying half the money in advance and it is non-refundable, so I guess even with the pre-registration done… I wasn’t 100% sure this was going to happen.

Today I made up my mind and signed up, as there was a limited number of seats and there was the risk of not having that option anymore.

For me, the two big advantages of going to Paris with the FECT are:

Meeting more people that will do PBP too (and hopefully make some new friends ;-D)

Transportation of the bikes, as we won’t have to disassemble and pack the bikes into boxes or transport bags/cases.

The last point is very important for me, as I’m not comfortable at all with disassembling my bike and putting it back together.

There are some other benefits too. First they handle hotel reservations for before and after PBP. Second, volunteers from the FECT will be in 2 control points (one on our way to Brest, the other on the way back to Paris) with our luggage/bags. This means we can leave things like food, clothes, spares, etc ready to be picked up quickly and keep riding.

It will be a hell of a trip though. First I’ll have to get to Madrid myself (4-hour drive from Lugo), then pack my stuff into the bus, van, etc and head off to France.

One more thing decided, one more step forward.

Footnotes

#1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambouillet

#2

https://fect.info

Plans, ideas and thoughts

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-18 00:00:00

A week has passed since I pre-registered, and my head is already full of plans and ideas.

I know there is a long way to go before PBP, but I could not resist to look up on the web for articles, blog posts, etc. I’ve read plenty of blog posts about PBP experiences before and I went through them again, taking notes, learning from valuable hints and advices. I found some more content, as people is writing about their previous experiences during a PBP year like 2023.

With my brain already in full-planning-mode, I talked to those friends of mine that pre-registered a few weeks before I did. Turned out, they had a group in Whatsapp and they added me to it. They already have some plans as a group, and they even booked a hotel for the first longer-sleep stop!

They plan is to do a long initial stretch, near 500 km, then sleep in a hotel for a few hours before arriving in Brest.

That’d be ok with me, but when I looked for accomodation for myself in their hotel… all booked up. Other hotels/hostels in the area? all booked up. The closest room available I could find meant a detour from the main road of near 20km, and then there is the “little detail” of them having their departure time 2 hours before mine.

And there it was, my poor brain, going through options, trying to see how to fit into my friends’ plans, when a couple other randonneur friends got in touch, telling me they had signed up for PBP too… and with the same departure time as me!

Without a plan decided yet and no hotels booked, we chatted for a while about options and ideas, just to decide we should discuss about it in person, during the first Brevet of the year (in a couple of weekends from now).

Meanwhile, my brain don’t stop. Plans, ideas, what to bring, how to package everything on the bike, strategies for stops, when to sleep, and how much, how to keep track of time…

Footnotes

The qualifying starts with bad weather

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-22 00:00:00

The first 200 Brevet in my calendar will take place next Saturday, 25th of February, 2023 - that is, in 3 days from now - and damn, the weather forecast/prognosis looks awful.

We have had a hard autumn, with lots of rain, followed by a hard winter with even more rain and temperatures colder than what we are used to in recent years.

After all that, the last 2 weeks had been like an early spring. Mild temperatures and winter sunny days, simply perfect for a long day on the saddle.

Starting today, temperatures went down again and the rain is back. Forecast says we should expect a wave of cold, polar winds from the north with lots of rain and humidity. Snow is expected near 500m over sea level (here in Lugo - where I live - we are around 440m).

Fun, isn’t it?

I’ve waited until the last moment to sign up for this first 200 Brevet (I’ve just signed up a few minutes ago).

I know there will be more options for riding 200 Brevets, but somehow it did not feel good to skip one, considering something unexpected can happen in the future that may force me to skip one of the other 200s (sickness, family trouble, etc).

Let’s hope the weather won’t be as bad as they say it will…

Footnotes

Installing full fenders/mudguards

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-24 00:00:00

Considering the weather forecast for tomorrow, I’ve decided to install the full fenders again on the synapse.

It has been a while since the last time I used them (IIRC 2020) and when I picked up the little plastic bag where I stored screws and small parts, I noticed that several metal pieces and screws were completely rusted :-(

Luckily I had enough spares, so I didn’t have to use the rusted ones.

Note

These are SKS Chromoplastics mudguards, model from 2017 or 2018 (it seems they have been replaced with some other name models). They are light, long - so they cover a lot - and they fit perfectly with my Cannondale Synapse hidden eyelets and bridges.

Installing this SKS full fenders is easy (the hardest part is to install them for the first time, cutting the metal stays, etc) and all I needed was a bit of time, the bike stand and some basic tools (allen keys).

Once they were in place, I tested everything was ok (no rubbing parts, etc).

Sadly, I won’t be able to do a test ride before the Brevet tomorrow, breaking one of those sacred rules, never go to a Brevet with untested gear.

Well, this is not really untested gear, as I’ve used them in the past… right??

Footnotes

BRM 200 - Polas Terras Altas

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-26 00:00:00

As I wrote in my previous entry in the journal, the weather forecast did not look good for this weekend. Many of my usual colleagues and friends decided to skip the first Brevet of this season in Galicia (can’t blame them, honestly) but I decided to take my chances with the weather.

As I always do, I booked a room in a hotel near the Brevet departure place. This gives me a bit more sleep time the night before the Brevet, and it grants me a good night sleep (sleeping home is a bit of a gamble, my daughters have this “nice” habit of waking me up several times in the middle of the night).

When I got to the hotel the evening before the Brevet it was raining, not very hard, but constantly. I fell asleep with the sound of rain on the windows, just to wake up a few hours later with the sound of some birds singing outside.

“Cool” - I thought - “It stopped raining already!”

After a quick shower, I noticed the sound of rain hitting the windows again, hard. Honestly, it felt like someone pouring a jar of icy water over my head. Images of some of the previous Brevet’s I’ve ridden, when we had to ride under strong rain and wind for hours, started to come to mind.

Not in the best mood, I tried to push down some breakfast (I was able to eat only half the usual mix of cereals, fruits, honey and milk). I got ready and packed my things up, then left the hotel and headed to the starting point.

When I got there, all doubts dissapeared completely. I got the bike out of the car, prepared everything and went to get my Brevet card. At that moment, I did not care anymore about the rain or the weather, all I wanted was to start riding my bike.

Soon the place was full of cyclists. Time to get the Brevet cards, say hello to old and new friends and get ready to go. By that time, it had stopped raining completely.

At 08:00, someone took the usual “departure picture” and we left with lots of cheering, laughing and shouting.

The roads were all wet, with lots of water puddles, so I was happy I decided to mount full fenders/mudguards again on the synapse.

It was colder than usual, but not terribly cold. This Brevet starts at sea level and goes (almost) all the time “up” until km 52 (more or less). That helped keeping the cold at bay.

Usually at the start of a Brevet you pick up a relaxed pace, going a bit slower than usual, still saying hello and talking to people you met in previous Brevets. This time though, I found myself soon at the head of the group and going on a faster pace. I joined one of the friends I made last year, someone that is registered for PBP too. We rode for quite some time together, catching up first, talking a lot about the whole PBP idea afterwards.

We weren’t alone though, after a while I looked back and noticed we were quite the group, riding together.

We passed the dam of Cecebre and took some nice secondary roads with lots of ups and downs, like a rollercoaster. We have lots of those here in Galicia and they are a joy to ride. They are in very good condition and they do not have a lot of traffic on them.

After a while, we joined another bigger road with more traffic. With everything still so wet we had to be very careful, specially on some fast descents in the bigger roads, where it is tempting to push it a bit and feel the speed.

Luckily, there weren’t so many descents (yet) and soon we started the first bigger climb of the day, towards Coirós. This first climb split our bigger group in smaller ones. Me and 5 other cyclists kept on, riding ahead of the rest. A while after the climb to Coirós we left the main road again, taking another secondary road towards Torre Lavandeira.

This is the start of the most beautiful part of this Brevet. The roads from there up to km 120 are really wonderful. You ride fast, passing woods, farms, open fields, livestock… with (almost) no traffic (with the exception of a couple of connections between smaller roads, when you have to take a bigger road to get from one small road to the next).

Yesterday I would say it was also magical. We had thick patches of fog several times, and those gave the whole thing a very nice atmosphere.

The second control (first one is at the start point) was in Teixeiro, a small village where we did a short coffee stop and got our Brevet cards stamped for the first time. Our little group-of-six stopped at the first cafetería we found open, the bigger group arrived at the same time our coffee had been served. I really like these little re-grouping moments at coffee stops.

After getting a bit warmer in the cafetería, we hopped on our bikes and resumed our trip on secondary roads towards the next stop, Corredoiras.

This control is very close to the previous one (just 15 km) but going there means having to do an extra loop to get to the old village of Sobrado dos Monxes on our way to the next control in Friol.

As we had a coffee stop in Teixeiro, the stop in Corredoiras was one of those fast stops. There is a gas station at the entrance of the village, where we did stop to get the stamp on the Brevet cards.

A group of friends (all belonging to the same cycling club in Coruña) packed all their Brevet cards together, giving them all to one of the cyclists. Then, this is the one that puts the stamp on all the cards, writes down the times, etc. They do it like this in all Brevets, and this was no exception. In Corredoiras, only this guy (Edgar) stopped to get the stamps, while the rest of them kept riding. As I had to stop to get my card stamped, I decided to wait for him and help a bit.

I’m not sure I’ll do it again.

We left Corredoiras together but soon he started to push to catch up with the others. For a while I kept up with his pace, but at one point I decided to let him go, no use getting burnt this early in the day.

I’m used to ride alone. Most of my weekly cycling hours are alone and I’ve ridden solo for shorter and longer stretches in Brevets a lot of times. I’m perfectly fine with it and sometimes I really enjoy those times of solitude. And I did enjoy this one.

Letting this guy go didn’t mean going into a slow pace, I kept it allegro. The road to Sobrado dos Monxes is fast, without any big climbs or hills, and the tarmac was perfect. Soon, I was entering Sobrado dos Monxes and I was able to see the group ahead of me.

I wasn’t in a hurry to catch the group and I was running low on water, so I decided to do a quick stop in Sobrado to refill my bottles. There is a good water fountain in the main square, just beside the road I had to follow.

Leaving Sobrado, we took the road to Friol, which meant the start of the second bigger climb of the day, towards Marco das Pías and the line that separates the provinces of A Coruña and Lugo.

I’m no climber, but I was faster than this group on the climbs, so that was the perfect place for catching them. Also, arriving in Sobrado meant entering my territory. From that moment on, we were going to ride in roads I know well from all my training rides. The kind of detail that gives you a bit more confidence while riding.

After the climb came a fast descent, followed by a road mostly flat until we arrived in Friol, next control point. We decided not to do another coffee stop there, instead we got our stamps from a small shop that sells gardening stuff, tools, livestock food, etc.

As it happened in Corredoiras, the group split a bit, as people did not wait to leave as a group and instead they resumed riding by pairs, trios, etc. I left in the middle of some pairs and as soon as I was getting out of the village, I heard a “CLACK” sound and noticed something hitting my right leg. When I looked down I noticed something was wrong with the front derailleur, so I stopped to take a look.

Other cyclists were passing by, some asking if everything was ok - “Not sure - I replied - “I’m still trying to find out”. Something was odd, there was a small plastic piece that got loose and I was trying to find out what happened when another cyclist (Ángel, like in an angel, funny, isn’t it?) stopped to help. We tried to find out how to put the piece back in place, but we were not able to.

Another cyclist from a local cycling club, not participating in the Brevet, stopped too, to ask if we need anything. I asked if his bike had a Shimano Ultegra r8000 (like mine) to take a look, see if we could find out how to put that piece back in place, but no luck.

For a moment I got worried that maybe some other piece may have popped up on the road, but I decided to pick up a small piece of velcro tape I always bring to the Brevets and do a quick-and-dirty fix. We were wasting too much time there.

I did a couple of tests and gearing seemed to work just fine, no parts rubbing, nothing looked life-threatening or dangerous, so we resumed our ride.

I got a bit anxious about all the time we lost there and the fact that our main group must be quite ahead of us at that point, so I decided to push it a bit. As I’ve said, I know this road quite well. It is that kind of road where, once you reach a bit of speed, it is easy to keep rolling fast. So, no more talking, just pushing the pedals and keep a steady pace all the way to the next village, Parga.

Or so I wanted to do.

But when we were a few km from Parga, we noticed a couple of cyclists on the side of the road. When we got closer, we recognized them as two of the members of our little group. Alberto got a flat tire (third one already!). We stopped to ask if they need help. They didn’t need any help… but we decided to stay there and wait for them. It is always nice when you have company in these cases and it would be nicer to resume riding together afterwards.

With a new inner tube in place, we resumed our way to the next control point, in Baamonde, passing first through Parga without stopping, crossing the train railway track and leaving secondary roads again to ride on the bigger Nacional VI road.

When we arrived in Baamonde, the group was waiting for us in a bar by the road. They already had ordered food for us too!. We sat for a moment and told them about the incidents and why it took so long to get there. Food took quite the time to be ready (some simple bocadillos, but maybe too many at once for the poor cook there ;-D). We had time both to catch up about the status of the Brevet so far, and to get very very cold while waiting.

Most of the group went inside for lunch, while me and some others decided to stay outside, on the covered terrace. In cases like this, I prefer not to get too warm or I’d suffer a lot afterwards coming outside and resuming cycling.

While waiting for the food, I started to check all the other bikes, looking for another Ultegra r8000. When I finally found one, I took a closer look at its front derailleur and… BINGO, found out how to put that small piece back in place. I also confirmed that no other small piece was missing, which was a big relief, to be honest.

The food took so long to arrive that, when we finally got the bocadillos we wolfed them down super fast and we hurried to leave. I was still munching the last big piece when I clipped in and started pedaling again (bad idea, as I found out later).

Without digestion even started, we approached the third, final, and harder climb of the day. Going up a hill towards a Wind farm with a couple of steep sections reaching 15/16%.

Everybody took it easy, most of us already knew what was waiting for us, and those who didn’t, listened carefully to our suggestions and comments about it.

Digestion kicked in, not at the best moment, and made things a bit harder. Even so, we chatted a bit, made jokes and kept pushing the pedals all the way to the top.

At the top I did stop for a moment to remove my scarf (I should have done it after lunch, before starting the climb) and then I started another long descent, still on a smaller road which was a bit broken half the way down. I was solo once again.

After the descent, we had to take another bigger road for a few km before turning again into another little nice and quiet road, passing through villages as small as 3-4 houses together, most of them being (cow) farms. Again, lots of going up and down just before arriving at the last control point in A Tolda. There used to be one of those bars by the road here, but it has been closed for several years now, so instead of another stamp in our cards, we took a group picture.

This was the third time I rode this Brevet (I already did it in 2018 and 2019) and every time there is the overall sensation that all work has been done when we arrive at this control point. That is far from true though, as this control is at km 145 (more or less) and there are a couple of hills to climb on our way back.

A little after leaving A Tolda, the Sun came up, warming us up. We rode towards Guitiriz, where we left the secondary roads again and went on the Nacional VI one more time. That was the road that would take us back to A Coruña.

Leaving Guitiriz, we rode for another 20km before starting the last long descent of the day, first on A Costa do Sal and then down from Coirós (which was the first climb of the day, earlier). Those 20km felt like a neverending flat road, with a few “bumps”. I was eager to get to the start of the descent, and it wasn’t only me, everybody was making jokes - “Are we there yet?”, “When did they move A Costa do Sal?”.

At one point we noticed we were heading towards some dark clouds. “It seems we are going to finally get wet” - someone said. And before passing by Montesalgueiro it started to rain. The further we went, the harder it was raining. I was wearing a water resistant (not fully waterproof) winter jacket and my Rapha Brevet Gillet - “This should be enough, it will stop soon anyway” - I told myself. And I was right, after 10, maybe 15 minutes the rain stopped and the Sun came out again, just in time to get dry during the descent.

The last part of the Brevet, as it happens with all the Brevets that start in A Coruña, means having to get back to the big city, that is, having to ride among lots of traffic (cars, trucks, motorbikes, etc). Add the fact that we usually get back at rush hour (when people go back home after work) and things are even uglier. Luckily, we managed to pass that part without trouble and soon we took a turn right towards smaller roads with less traffic (but still traffic, plus lots of roundabouts where we had to be very careful).

We were less than 5km away from the finish line when we did spot another cyclist ahead of us. We recognized him inmediately, he was part of the little group I rode with at the start of the Brevet, when we were going up to Coirós. He was strong, and at one point he pushed it a bit, leaving us all behind. But it seemed like his energy was gone there. He looked tired and he was going slowly.

We decided to make a joke and we pushed it a bit, passing him a bit faster and shouted, trying to cheer him up - “Vamoooossss”, “Venga que ya está hecho!” - He smiled at us, surprised.

And we were almost there. Laughing, everybody telling what a good time we have had for the day. I prepared myself for the last short climb of the day, the arrival in INEFG, a short steep one before the finish line.

Another tradition of mine, when riding Brevets arriving in Bastiagueiro (and if there is anything left in the tank, of course), is to push it - sprint style - up that short steep climb.

I pushed as hard as I could at the turn where the climb starts and I heard Dani laughing behind me - “Are you going to sprint it? Seriously??” - I smiled and then heard him saying - “Wait, here it goes Edgar too!” - and all I could do was watching him passing me at the last turn. That was the icing on the cake ;-D.

After delivering our Brevet cards, we sat down for a while, cooling down and talking about the day, the plans for next Brevets and, of course, Paris-Brest-Paris.

And here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Footnotes

Plans starting to take shape

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-05 00:00:00

It seems that finally a basic sketch of a plan is taking shape. I know riding something the distance of PBP means I’ll have to go solo several times, and I know for sure I’ll have to adapt to the unexpected (TM). But, you know, I really like the idea of having a basic plan in advance, specially if it is a plan shared with friends that will be there too.

So, after talking with these and those, today I booked in advance two hotels for a couple of nights during the ride, with enough room for 3 people (a couple of friends will start almost at the same time as me, so the idea is to try to ride together as much as possible). One booking is for the night of the 21th of August, which will be the second night on the road, and the other is for the night of the 22th of August, the following night.

I pre-registered in the 90-hour group R, with departure scheduled for the 20th of August at 20:15. This means starting late in the evening and ride all night long (which I’ve done several times already, and is perfectly fine with me).

The plan is to ride all the way to Brest (~600 km, ~5700 m) without any big stop for sleeping. Saying it out loud, it sounds quite… let’s say “optimist”, but talking with several fellow randonneurs that did PBP before, they told me it is doable in some time between 23 and 27 hours (depending on lots of factors, of course).

I know from previous experiences that I’m able to ride for 27 hours without any sleep at all (even under very bad weather and having had a crash) so I decided to book the hotel for the second night near Brest. There I’d have the first big stop, sleeping in a proper bed for a few hours.

After that break we will resume riding, this time in direction to Paris, with the idea of riding near 300 km (~3700 m of elevation gain) before the next bigger stop in Fougères. There is where I booked the hotel for the third night.

That means we still will have a final stretch/stage/ call-it-whatever-you-want of around 300 km (~2500 m of elevation gain) before arriving back in Rambouillet.

With this plan, we should be riding only one full night (sunday) with stops for sleeping in proper beds on monday and tuesday nights. Don’t get it wrong, we will ride during those 2 nights too, but not all night long (which can make a big difference).

One thing I like about this plan is that we have secured 2 beds (quality resting) for the whole ride. It may be that I’ll need to sleep a bit more than that but there will be always the chance of sleeping in the control points.

Control points in PBP have places reserved for sleeping. Some will have small beds or mattresses, some will have gym mats, but there is always some chance to get a quick nap there.

The longer stretch between controls is 120km, and that is from the start in Rambouillet to the first control in Mortagne-au-Perche (and hopefully I won’t be falling asleep so early in the ride!). After that, control points are less than 100km apart from each other. The tricky part there will be actually deciding that I have to stop and sleep, specially if I’m riding in a group because then, there is always the temptation of keep on riding to not loose the company.

Finally, I’m still thinking about options to bring with me for sleeping anywhere, like inflatable mat/pillow, packable blanket, etc. But, honestly, I don’t really like that option. First, it means carrying extra weight “just in case”; second I got lot of advice from veteran randonneurs about sleeping on the grass/floor/etc (basically never do it during PBP - no good rest and probably getting really cold and ending with cold-related issues); and third, considering controls, hotels and the help of the villagers along the road I really hope sleeping on the side of the road or the floor of a cafe is not needed at all.

So, with the initial plan for sleep stops decided, I guess I should start thinking about food and drinks… shouldn’t I?

Footnotes

The second brevet of the year

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-07 00:00:00

I know, I know, for the qualifying part (the Super Randonneur series) I only need to do one 200 Brevet, and I already finished one last month.

The plan, though, is to ride as many Brevets as possible before August. Doing so means:

good training

opportunities for testing stuff (gear, clothing, food, etc)

chances to find myself in problems/issues that may appear during PBP, finding out how to overcome them before PBP

spend more time riding with the fellow randonneurs with whom I’ll spend (hopefully) lots of time during PBP (team building! ;-D)

The next one in the list is another 200, this time organized by my friends from Astorga Randonneurs#1, and taking place in Castilla y León.

In their website#2 you can find all kind of details about this Brevet (route, map, elevation, gpx).

The route leaves Astorga and goes for near 215 km on secondary roads passing small villages and towns, the bigger village of Villablino, the Babia Biosphere Reserve (with some interesting wild life, like bears) or the dam of Barrios de Luna, just to mention a few interesting places.

On paper, it definetely looks like a lovely route. With a total elevation gain of 2000 meters it does not seem like a hard one, but looking at the profile chart…

It seems we will have 4 interesting climbs, with a higher point near 1500 m, followed by a long and easier come back to Astorga.

Last year I did a couple of Brevets (200 and 300) in Astorga, but none of them share parts of the route with this one, so it will be the first time for me on these roads.

Can’t wait for Saturday to arrive.

Footnotes

#1

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#2

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com/brevet-200-babia/

Anger, frustration and dissapointment

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-09 00:00:00

Those words pretty much describe my feelings right now.

I won’t make it to the second 200 of the year, because… reasons.

We have had a couple of rough weeks at home. Everybody got sick, secuentially.

Last week it was my younger daughter, who developed a very ugly coughing, with lots of phlegm and mucus, which meant slepless nights followed by horrible days at home without school.

This week it was my elder daughter, who catched some variety of the Flu. Overall pain, high fever, sleepless nights again.

Yesterday I was so exhausted that I had to put myself to bed and get some rest, as my body started to complain so hard, I thought I also had catched the Flu.

“There it goes the Brevet next saturday” - I thought.

But no, all I needed was some good rest/recovery time.

This morning I woke up feeling much better.

“Great! It seems I’ll be able to be there on saturday!” - I thought.

Wrong again.

My elder daughter still woke up with high fever today (4th day) and it seems my mother got some kind of the same thing too. There it goes all my planning (the girls were going to stay with the grandpas while I was away).

That was the last punch that brought my little cards castle down.

I should be prepared for this. This same thing happens every single year. Brevet weekend? let’s see who gets sick, who needs to be where, who wants to do what. There is always something. And even when there is nothing blocker, there is always some complain about me going away for some time.

And I’m angry, frustrated and dissapointed.

And tired, really tired.

And, sure, I know I should simply accept it and move on. Maybe start thinking on the next Brevet or think about going for some smaller ride this weekend, anything that could help bringing me out of this hole where I’m right now.

But doing so is so g*****, f***** hard.

Footnotes

Finally, the second brevet of the year

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-17 00:00:00

After the fiasco last week, when I had to cancel my trip to Astorga, I had high hopes for the next 200 in my calendar, but the week didn’t start any better than the previous couple of weeks.

Several problems appeared, all at once, including our smaller daughter being sick again. No chance to get any cycling done… ouch.

I had to start considering that, maybe, I would have to cancel this 200 too.

But… here I am, laying on the bed in a Hotel in Coruña, near the starting point for tomorrow. Big surprise, honestly.

I’ve had a big bowl of pasta salad for (early) dinner and a snickers bar as dessert. Then I double checked the weather forecast for tomorrow (rain… let’s see tomorrow how much), the lights, the garmin, prepared the clothes I’ll wear…

While doing all that, I noticed how tired I do feel. It has been a hell of a week. Actually, the last few weeks have been quite rough, with the whole family getting (and passing) the Flu (except me). I didn’t have much time for cycling, with the exception of a few short rides on the trainer.

So, let’s see what will happen tomorrow…

Footnotes

BRM 200 - De Vacas e Peixes

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-19 00:00:00

Second Brevet of the year done. I look happy in that picture, don’t I?

Indeed I was happy at that moment, but this Brevet was a hell of a ride, let’s go back in time a few hours…

6:00, I open my eyes and check the clock, the alarm should sound in 15 minutes but I’m fully awake already so I cancel it. I take a quick shower and put on part of the cycling clothes I’ll be wearing today (just the socks, long pants and the base layer).

I prepare my usual Brevet day breakfast, a big bowl with a mix of muesli, granola, sliced banana, honey and milk and I sit by the window to eat.

It is still dark outside and it is raining. Any other day I’d love the sound of the rain hitting the window. It is raining quite hard now, big drops coming against the window in waves. Nice, wind too.

Last night I prepared everything for the Brevet. Clothes, tools, spares… I usually bring with me a lot more things that what I’ll pack for the Brevet, so I’ve to decide what to leave in the car.

This time, the weather will be a big factor in what to carry with me.

Usually, in 200 Brevets I try to be as minimalistic as possible and pack the minimum amount of things. This means a medium-small saddle bag with tools and spares and a small top tube bag for food.

This time, though, what I see outside the window makes me change plans. I pack some extra clothes (long sleeve jersey, long sleeve base layer, socks and gloves) into a couple of ziploc bags and I put those into my large apidura#1 saddle bag, alongside the medium-small saddle bag with the tools and spares (yeah, I decided to simply throw the smaller bag inside the larger one, lazy, I know).

Then I pick up my things and leave the hotel under even heavier rain and drive my car 10 minutes to the start point in INEFG#2 in Bastiagueiro#3.

Luckily, the rain stops when I arrive there, at least long enough for me to take the bike out of the car, put lights, bags, etc on it and go to the main building to pick up my Brevet card.

Almost everybody is already here and we go through the usual flow of salutations, jokes, small talk… This time we talk even more than usual about the weather. It seems everybody agrees it is going to be a tough day.

Today we have a newbie, someone that is doing a Brevet for the first time. Alejandro, coming from Pontevedra, has already participated in several ultra-cycling races, and he was wondering about this whole randonneuring world.

8:00, we leave Bastiagueiro without rain. I start from the back of the group, as I want to say hello to an old fellow randonneur (Óscar). We chat for a while, catching up a bit.

Less than 10 minutes in the ride and there is already a drizzle floating in the air.

I don’t like riding at the back of the big group, so I push a bit the pedals and start passing other cyclists until I’m at the front. It is starting to rain properly again and the roads are all wet and full of water puddles.

Only a few of us have full fenders on our bikes, which means that being behind someone without fenders is like being in front of someone with a hose watering you. So I simply try to be on the front at all times.

We leave the big city and go into the smaller roads near it while it starts raining even more. I’m wearing my castelli gabba jacket and a rapha brevet gillet over it. Those are simply perfect under light rain, but not enough under this, stronger, rain. I tell the others that I’m stopping to put on a rain jacket and I do stop. While I put the rain jacket on, 2-3 smaller groups pass me fast. It is ok, I’ll catch them.

I pedal alone for just 10 minutes or so, before catching those smaller groups, passing them one by one until I’m back with my group on the lead.

It is raining a bit less now (this will be a constant the whole day, drizzle, light rain, strong rain, light rain, no rain, strong rain… and so on) and we start talking a bit more. The main topic is… right, PBP, what else!.

Dani (who is pre-registered, like me, for the first time) and I listen carefully to the veterans, the ones that had done PBP before (some even several times). We also ask “a few” questions, of course.

We are going up the first bigger climb of the day now, subida a la cantera. I’ve done this climb a lot of times already, as it is one of the usual ones when leaving Coruña during these Brevets. This is the place where usually we split into smaller groups and solo riders, but this time our group sticks together.

The chat and the lack of rain cheers us up a bit, but it does not last long, as it starts raining again.

After the climb we took the first big road of the day, lots of lanes, lots of traffic and still going up (under the rain, of course). This big, open road is fast, with a few short hills and long descents and we push through. We pass small villages, like Cerceda#4 or Xesteda#5, where there is no one to be seen outside.

One bad thing about these long rides with lots of rain is how the rain is able to disrupt your regular eating/drinking habits. Luckily this time I realize I’m not eating as I should before it is too late. But getting food out of pockets, or even the top tube bag, is hard, complicated… I should have brought some protein mix to fill in one of the water bottles, that would be much, much easier.

A bit after Xesteda we leave the main road and take a nice small road towards the second control, the dam of Vilagudin (km 40). I have so many good memories from last year about this part. I’d love to record our arrival at the control point with the gopro, but it rains so much I don’t feel like bringing out the camera from one of my back pockets (this will be also a constant the whole day, passing amazing places but not being able to record them on camera).

9:50. At the dam there is no place for stamping our cards, so we take a group picture instead.

We haven’t lost our good sense of humour though, and we make a few jokes about the weather, the rain and, specially, about what is waiting for us the next few kilometers (hint: very broken roads).

The next 10 km have lots of short, steep climbs and the roads are badly broken most of the time (potholes, loose stones, etc). But, oh my friend, they are beautiful! This is the stretch where we pass by big farms. On a good sunny day you can see lots of cows on the fields and you ride really close to them. Not today. Today the cows must be inside the barns, as the rain refuses to stop and go away.

We start to wonder when (if) will it stop (the rain), when we pass by a sheltered bus stop with the following message wrote on it in big letters:

“E se chove, que chova!”

Which is an old galician saying, literally translated “if it rains… let it rain!”.

Finally we are done with the broken roads and back into bigger ones with good asphalt. The rain is still there, and I’m glad that at least there is not much traffic on these roads today.

We are passing by Trazo#6 now, another small village, and I can’t help noticing its city council building#7. A circular building from 1975 that catched my eye as we pass by.

Just as we are leaving that village, on a short hill, someone has a problem shifting gears and the chain gets loose (and, as we will discover later, stuck between frame and chain rings, which took a huge effort to fix). Someone else stops to help, so the rest of us keep on pedaling, just slower to give them time to catch up.

The guy is lucky, it stopped raining right now and the sun is shining, which is much better than strong rain when you have to deal with mechanical trouble.

It must be 10:30 or so and we pedal slowly while we wait for the others. The sky is finally clear of dark clouds, looks like a blue field with some white/light-grey (big) spots on it. Nice, the weather report was right! We would have some early rain and then sun and some clouds. This definetely cheers everybody up.

There is no trace of those 2 that stopped to fix that chain. Damn, we are going very slowly, they should have catched us already. Could it be the problem was bigger than we thought? Let’s hope not. After a while we decide to stop for a moment in a crossroads. We take a wee and try to reach one of them by phone, no luck. Well, if something bad happend, bad as in scratching, they would have called us, right?

We take a moment to eat something quick and take a couple of photos and then we decide to leave. Those two will have to catch up with us at the next control. Only that, as soon as we start pedaling again, they appear on the horizon behind us. Great, let’s push it again and recover some lost time.

11:07. We arrive in Portomouro#8 (third control, km 67) after another fast (and fun) long descent. It hadn’t rain in a while now and the sky still seems “open”. We get the stamp on our Brevet cards in a gas station, where we meet Alejandro again (he didn’t stop at the crossroads, so he arrived here earlier than us).

Removing the rain jacket is sooo tempting. The sky looks clear, sun trying to make its way through the clouds… what could go wrong?. The others do not see it as clear as I do, so in the end I decide to keep it on, I simply unzip it. I remember we will have to climb our way to the next control point from here.

We cross the big, old, stone bridge over the Tambre#9 river and took the road to the right and… damn, it is raining already! We just have crossed the bridge from the gas station!

Light rain it is, but rain nevertheless. It comes and goes for the next 15/17km, alternating with short periods under the sun. At one point we start seeing rainbows around us. We pass by Ponte Maceira#10 and Negreira#11, where we had a super-nice coffee stop last year, but today we are still all wet and right now the weather is much better (more sun, less rain) so (almost) everybody prefers not to stop. A couple of voices would love to stop at that café again, but the discussion is over as soon as we get there, the café is closed today.

So, we keep on and tackle the second bigger climb of the day, towards the next control point, Portocamiño (km 88). It is a gentle climb, around 9-10 km long without any really steep parts. As the weather improved a bit, I decide to take the gopro out a few times and take some shots.

We ride together, chatting, agreeing on having a coffee stop at the end of the climb, at the control point. I remember from last year that this cafe/hostel there is not open always and I really, really hope, it will be open today.

“It is open!” - someone say when we arrive.

12:20. We park the bikes whenever we can, some leaning on the concrete wall opposite the café, some on the walls on both sides of it. I put the synapse by the front door for a moment to take a picture.

The weather seems to improve a bit, the sun is back and it is warming us up a bit, so everybody decides to remove some of the outer layers and “hang them to dry” on handlebars and seat posts.

Sadly, it is just an illusion. The sun is there only for a few minutes, dark clouds covering everything again. At least it does not rain.

One thing I love about riding Brevets with the guys from this cycling club (Mesoiro), is how well organized they are. They work like an efficient machine on each stop. I’ve already talked about this in my previous Brevet reports. This time it is no exception, in a few minutes drinks are ordered and cards are stamped.

We decide to have our coffees outside, to avoid getting too warm inside and then having a huge temperature drop when coming outside.

I have a big latte, and I eat something too. Meanwhile we talk about how things have been so far and what is waiting for us for the rest of the day. I also take a moment to take some pictures of the bikes (look at alex’s beautiful Giant TCR…)

We finish our drinks quickly, gather our things and off we go again. The next control point is 30 km away. We are getting closer to 13:00 and the weather forecast said the worse weather/stronger rain would happen between 13:00 and 15:00. And it wasn’t (fully) wrong.

It starts raining again, and it increases intensity over time. This stretch feels faster, specially after the longer climb to Alto da Pena. There is more rolling time, longer downhills. Even with all the rain, I decide to use a bit the gopro (also, at the last stop I decided to put the camera in the top-tube bag, instead of one back pocket, which makes things a lot easier when bringing it out, then storing it back again).

14:00, we arrive in Zas#12 (5th control point, km 118) after a fast descent, around 4km, passing by small stone churches, old houses and big green fields.

At the entrance of the village, to the left, a huge stone house catches my eye. It is the city council building, which looks totally like one of those Manor Houses from the movies.

This is the point in the Brevet when we had lunch last year and, honestly, right now I wouldn’t say no to a hot meal and sit inside for a while, avoiding the rain.

We go right away to the same pizzeria where we had lunch one year ago, it looks full, with lots of people having drinks inside. We stop and put the bikes where we can see them and where they do not cause trouble to the pizzeria or its customers. Someone says something about a quick coca-cola and keep on riding and I feel my mood going down fast.

In the end, we decide to sit inside and have some bocadillos and the coca-colas (f*** yeah!). Well, all of us except Alex, who gets his card stamped, drinks something quick and leaves (later on, we discovered that he arrived 20-30 minutes earlier than us to the finish line).

While eating, we discuss the “plan of action” from now on. It is clear that the weather won’t improve anytime soon (a few more rain showers fall while we are inside, poor bikes) so we will keep on with our current plan of reducing stops to a minimum. There is only one more control point left, and then the last one at the arrival, back in Bastiagueiro.

Everybody refills the water bottles and prepare everything. After thinking it through, and discussing it a bit with the others, I decide to use the extra clothes I’ve brought with me. In the bathroom I remove the Gabba and the base layer, then try to get myself a bit dry using some paper (the one you can find in public bathrooms for drying your hands) and I put on another base layer and my Rapha pro winter training jersey.

The change of clothes feel wonderful, to be honest. I feel warm and dry (well, at least the upper part of my body). I pack the wet clothes + the wet merino gloves into the ziploc bag and go outside to join the others.

Before leaving, I put on the brevet gillet and then the rain jacket over it, as (incroyable) it is raining. It feels amazing to not be shivering when I get outside, as it always happens to me after lunch breaks in brevets during winter.

(spoiler alert: all this was a big mistake, as I was going to discover later).

The roads from Zas on are in good condition. Bigger roads with a bit more traffic, but roads where we should be able to roll faster. Also, the wind should be on our backs now, pushing (suuure… LOL).

The road is like a roller coaster. We go up, then down, then up. Not super steep, not super long. What we call here “terreno rompepiernas” (literally translated “a terrain that breaks your legs”).

I don’t feel fine. Something is definetely wrong. I’m suffering.

I already told them earlier this morning, at the start, that I’ve had a rough couple of weeks at home. I couldn’t train properly for this Brevet and I was expecting some “down” moments today. So, this does not catch me by surprise.

Still, something feels odd, very, very odd. I start to stay behind, further and further behind the group. On the climbs I can’t keep up with them and on the descents I push hard to catch them (while they rest by simply coast down the hills).

After a few hills, at some point between Coristanco#13 and Carballo#14 I realize what is happening. It is too damned warm and I’m way over-dressed. Shit.

Note

Let me do a break in my story here, to add a couple of details to it.

Earlier today, when I decided to pack some clothes “just in case”, I packed the Rapha jersey and I had 2 options for the base layer:

A Craft short sleeve one, suitable for not-cold but not-hot days

A Decathlon long sleeve deep winter one, the warmer base layer I have

Which one do you think I packed?

YES the long sleeve one :-(

Now, back to my story…

I’m suffering a lot because I’m totally over-dressed and at this point the rain is not constant anymore. Either it is a hard rain shower or it does not rain at all and the sun comes out.

I’m cooked for good, but I can’t remove the rain jacket (the Rapha jersey is not waterproof at all). I think about stopping for a moment, remove the rain jacket, then the gillet and put the rain jacket back on. But I don’t want to slow them down and I don’t want to loose them neither.

So, another big mistake, I keep pushing myself, I keep cooking myself slowly in my own corporal fluids.

I can’t bare it anymore, I unzip the rain jacket. “E se chove, que chova” - I repeat to myself. It helps a bit, specially on the downhills, but it is not enough.

They realize I’m suffering, so they slow down trying to give me some extra breath.

“I should have put only the jersey on, not the base layer”

“I should not have put the gillet on, how stupid”

“I should… I should not…”

All I can do is think about all the things I should or should not have done. Oh, and look at the Garmin and get crazy as the kms do not move forward. I’m a cooked snail, dammit.

Dani asks if I’m ok, and I told him I’m not. I ask him to keep on without me, no need to slow them down any more. Obviously they refuse “you know how we are and how we do things here” - he said - “we start together, we finish together”. I can’t say I wasn’t happy to hear that.

We talk about yet another big mistake on my side. I should have brought salts and/or protein stuff to put in one of the water bottles. Right, this is a 200 “only” and there is lots of places to stop and refill, drink, eat. But it is a horrible rainy day, stops are better “minimal” in these days and, what is worse, with the rain jacket on at all times, you sweat a lot, so you loose lots of electrolytes and stuff.

We are passing through Carballo now. No need to stop here, the next control point is in Caion#15 and we still have 15-20km to get there. I have to admit that even without a proper stop, the few stops at roundabouts and traffic lights give me a break.

After Carballo, we are going up another short hill and it is not raining. I’m definetely pissed off and I simply remove my gloves, storing them into a pocket on my back. This simply act helps a lot.

I look at the sky. It is grey, there are clouds, but it is not raining and it hadn’t rain in a while so I take the risk and stop for a moment to remove the rain jacket, packing it into a pocket on my back. Meanwhile I see them putting some distance with me.

But now I feel much better, simply removing gloves and rain jacket helped by cooling me down.

One more climb, this one longer, on our way to Caion. I remember last year I was ahead of everybody, doing several turns on the roundabout at the top waiting for them and then stopping to bring the camera out and take pics of everybody as they were passing me. Not today, I do the climb in “reserve mode”. When I get to the top, they are already going down the other side.

We do a short stop at the side of the road to take a group picture with the view of the small sailor village behind us.

To get to Caion, we go all the way down to sea level. It is a wonderful descent with some impressive views of the ocean, the coast, the village itself. But I’m so destroyed that I don’t even consider picking up the gopro.

16:12. Arriving in Caion, it starts raining harder again. We talked earlier about doing a “stamp only” quick stop, but when we get to the main square, we find open a nice, small and quiet restaurant. It is too inviting, so we have a coffee to warm up a bit before starting the climb back up (yeah, from sea level all the way up from the point where we came from).

Dani and me start while the others are still gathering their belongings. We take it easy, talking a bit about everything. At the top we stop at the water fountain to refill our bottles (better here than the tap water at the restaurant), eat something quick and regroup.

I look again at the sky and it does not look very promising. It is a uniform mass of grey clouds and it is raining already, so I replace the gillet with the rain jacket and I put the gloves back on.

Time to start the last part of the Brevet, near 40km to get back to the start point in Bastiagueiro.

A few minutes after resuming riding, I quickly remove my gloves again. I prefer my hands wet from the rain than from my own sweat. This part of the ride pass like in a blur, a cycle of hard rain showers followed by light rain and then more rain showers. Those showers are more intense every time and by the time we pass through Arteixo#16 it rains even harder.

“Of course it has to rain harder when we are so close to the finish” - someone shouts over the rain and the noise of all the traffic in town.

One last real climb, Boedo, we take it easy but the rain is falling hard on us, sucking every last drop of energy left out of me.

20 more km and we will be there. The sun is shining now, the sky is much clearer, someone say we will be lucky and arrive in Bastiagueiro with good weather. “No way” - Dani replies - “There is still more to come”. And he was right. We enjoy the sun while it lasts, speeding up a bit through the sliding road that takes us to O Burgo, but there more hard rain is awaiting us.

This town in the outskirts of Coruña is always full of traffic, which is not nice under all this rain. We are lucky though, and we pass all traffic lights in green while riding through the long avenue that takes us to Puente Pasaje.

We are literally at the finish now. We climb from Santa Cristina, going on Avenida Che Guevara. They are ahead of me and I can’t catch them, I’m too tired, but in the roundabout at the end of the climb (where you can see a big sculpture of the head of Ernesto “Che” Guevara) they have to stop to let some cars pass by… and I push with whatever is left in the tank, arriving at the roundabout when they are going to resume pedaling. I pass them, shouting loudly “nooooow is my turn!!”, leaving them behind, laughing.

Arriving in Bastiagueiro I feel happy, relieved. I push on the last climb to reach the parking lot and then beyond, to the arrival point.

18:05. Unclip, leave the bike, fill in the Brevet card with the arrival time and leave it in the suitcase.

So, here we are, back to the picture at the start of this report:

So, was I happy there? definetely yes. Sure, I’ve had some bad moments in this Brevet, but overall I enjoyed it a lot, and I’ve learnt some valuable lessons that will be useful in the future, I’m sure about it.

Of course we took the usual arrival group picture…

But we cut the “after brevet” chatting short. Everybody is soaked to the bone and we are getting cold fast. We say our goodbyes and agree on meeting next month, in the first of the 300 Brevets in the calendar.

I get to the car, leaning the bike on one side of it, and open the trunk. My car is a Toyota Verso, which has a very nice space on the back (once you pack/lay down the second-row seats). I remove both the overshoes and shoes and I leave them outside, while I seat inside to remove the wet clothes, dry myself a bit and put on dry clothes.

While doing so, it starts raining hard again. I can’t help myself and I start laughing. I wait for a while until it finally slows down a bit. Then I finish packing everything in the car and leave.

And here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Footnotes

#1

https://apidura.com

#2

https://inefg.udc.es

#3

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastiagueiro_(Li%C3%A1ns)

#4

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerceda_(La_Coru%C3%B1a)

#5

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesteda

#6

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trazo_(La_Coru%C3%B1a)

#7

http://arquitecturadegalicia.eu/blog/casa-consistorial-de-trazo/

#8

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portomouro_(Valle_del_Dubra)

#9

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Tambre

#10

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontemaceira_(Espa%C3%B1a)

#11

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negreira

#12

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zas

#13

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coristanco

#14

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carballo_(La_Coru%C3%B1a)

#15

https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cai%C3%B3n,_A_Laracha

#16

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arteixo

BNO 200 - Montañas, Mar e Navallas

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-25 00:00:00

BNO: Brevet Non-Officiel. It is like a real Brevet, only that it is not organized by a club member of the Audax Club Parisien, so you don’t get a valid brevet card and the homologation afterwards. I’ve made up the term anyway ;-D

“The best plans are the improvised plans” - some would say.

And this was completely true in this case. During the last few days all pieces of the puzzle stick together, everything fit in place, and by thursday evening there was a big chance I would have the whole saturday for me.

My wife had plans with a friend, the girls wanted to spend the weekend with their grandparents… which would leave me with a whole saturday for myself.

So, in a few hours - and after a few conversations on the usual messaging apps - I had it arranged to do an unofficial brevet today.

I knew telling everybody about this plan with just a couple of days to arrange everything would mean less people jumping into it, but that is how improvised plans go. Worse case, I’d end up doing it alone (again, I already did it last year).

In the end, only my friend Dani (you already know him from my previous Brevet reports) managed to get the time to come and join me.

We decided to do it as if it was an official 200 Brevet, so we decided to start at 8:00 and we set 5 control points: Lugo#1 (at the start), Fonsagrada#2 (Km 62), Vegadeo#3 (km 113), Taramundi#4 (km 132) and Lugo#5 again (km 202).

A few minutes in, two friends joined us on our way to Castroverde#6. Xurxo and Anton would give us company all the way to Alto da Fontaneira, where they would turn back.

Easy pace, chatting, Brevet style, until Fontaneira we went almost up all the time, with a few short downhills here and there, and climbing also Alto da Baqueriza (836m).

At the top of Alto da Fontaneira (936m) we said goodbye to Xurxo and Antón and we kept on. A lot more climbing to do today, and a lot to do until the second control point.

The road to Fonsagrada is so beautiful, specially on clear days like today, as you have open views of the valleys around, and you can see the mountains on the horizon. After Fontaneira we went down to A Lastra, then a bit up and then a long descend until Paradavella. This descent is on a big, open road with lots of visibility, so we went down fast and we could enjoy the views to our right too.

Then we started the next climb, Alto de Cerredo (835m), which is a long steady climb, perfect for chatting and enjoy the views a bit more.

It was cloudy, but the sun warmed us from time to time too.

After Alto de Cerredo the road became a fast roller-coaster, so less chatting and more pedaling!

One thing I love about this route is that there are lots of fountains. I think there are like 5-6 “on route”, by the road, no need for detours to get fresh water. Before Fonsagrada there is one of those nice fountains, in a place sheltered by trees, which is the perfect stop in summer when it is hot and you need a break.

Today, though, we decided not to stop there, we still had plenty of water and we were going to do a coffee stop in Fonsagrada anyway.

And we did, in Café Bar Demetrio. There I told Dani that my idea was to prepare a couple of Brevet cards, so we could get stamps on them (even if it was not an official thing) but in the end I didn’t have the time to prepare them.

When we got outside again, the sun was shining and that helped a bit preventing the usual shivering I have after stops (a bit, I started shivering anyway, but not that much).

As we didn’t have Brevet cards, we agreed on taking a “proof photo” on each of the control points, so we stopped for a moment at the exit of Fonsagrada to take a couple of pictures there, by the big sign with the name of the village.

After the photos we left Fonsagrada, for good this time, and kept on pedaling on more roller-coaster roads. A big downhill part after Fonsagrada, arriving in Paradanova and then followed by some gentle uphills and more downhills.

From there until Vegadeo the views were amazing. We were high, with views of the valleys around us, either on one side or the other.

A bit up, a bit down, all the way to Santa Eulalia de Oscos#7, leaving Galicia and entering Asturias. After a while we arrived in Santa Eulalia, at the start of the next climb of the day, 14km to get to Alto da Garganta (900m).

On our way to Alto da Garganta we pass so many nice places, lots of amazing views. The higher we were getting, the nicer the views of the valleys to our left or right was. We rode along a few small rivers too, passed another fountain (just a few km from Santa Eulalia) and we looked, curiously, at snakey little roads that went up the other side of the valleys, twisted and with lots of turns, up up up into the mountains and hills.

We also talked a lot. Everything seems (and feels) much easier when you have good company. Soon, we arrived at the top of a Garganta.

Once at the top, we took a few seconds to enjoy the awesome view on the other side, letting the bikes coast for a while, without pushing the pedals.

From there, on a clear day like today, you can see all the valley, villages, houses… and the cantabric sea, far but not far.

Going down from a Garganta to Vegadeo means going down for 18 km, with just a couple of a bit more flat sections (but short ones). As one good friend of mine would say in a case like this:

IT IS PAY DAY!

We started to gain speed, but we had to be careful. This road is not in bad condition, but it is narrow and there are some small pot holes here and there. Also, it has a bit more traffic. Sadly, this meant not being able to fully enjoy the views, as I had to keep my eyes on the road and only take short glimpses at the nice views.

It also meant no recording with the gopro, at least not for a few km.

At one point, where I knew already that the views were going to be gorgeous, I decided to take the camera out of my back pocket. Dani was in front of me, and I had a very good spot for recording him.

I picked up the camera with my right hand, then I switched it to my left hand and…

SHWOOOOPS!!

there it went the camera, flying out of my hand

F***!!! noooo, no no no NO!

I saw the camera flying, like in slow motion and then saw it smashing against the road, PAM, and bouncing from the asphalt, flying again, PAM, another smack, more bouncing…. I counted 5 times.

I was going down fast (maybe 60-65 km/h) so pulling the breaks crazily wasn’t an option. By the time I could stop safely, I looked around ensuring no traffic was approaching and I re-traced my steps back, trying to find the camera (or its pieces).

No luck, the camera was nowhere to be seen.

This was starting to take too long to sort out. I picked up my phone and sent a message to Dani, telling him about the camera falling from my hands and that I was looking for it. I also told him where to wait for me in Vegadeo.

A second pass by the area where the camera fell and bounced several times on the road, still no luck.

I was starting to consider simply leaving it behind, it is an old hero3 gopro after all… but I’d be really, really sad if I’d loose all the footage from today. And while I was thinking about that, I noticed the gopro there, in the middle of some higher grass area by the road. I was lucky after all… or not… It was only the outside carcass. Somehow it opened and the camera wasn’t there.

F******!!! - I thought again. Even if I could find the camera… without the waterproof, hammerproof carcass… no way it would have survived… or maybe… There it was, like a meter and a half back, the camera, in some taller grass too. Incredibly, the camera was intact. I bet the carcass opened when it hit the grass. What a lucky strike.

I double checked the camera and the carcass, except for a few scratches in the latter, everything seemed ok. I packed it up and put the camera back into a back pocket.

And damn, I pushed the pedals like if the devil was chasing me.

I didn’t want to keep Dani waiting for me a lot longer, so I pushed and coasted and pushed. The downhill seemed to have no end.

After a while, I was in a series of turns when I noticed Dani, stopped at one of the turns. I did pull the breaks, gently, and slowed down a bit. He was looking at his phone, probably reading my messages, when I shouted “Here already!” passing him. He got on his bike and soon was pedaling by my side.

We chatted and laughed at the whole thing for the rest of the descent until Vegadeo.

In the third control, we went straight to the place I had in mind for a quick lunch (bocadillos, tortilla…) just to have a big surprise when we found it closed, and a sign at the main door with big letters: “FOR SALE”. Too bad, I really liked that place.

We looked for options around there, but it was 13:15 and all the other bars and cafés were full of people having beers, wine or martinis.

Finally we found a place and we had some coca colas with some pasta salad and a couple bocadillos de jamón con tomate (ham, tomato and olive oil sandwitches with multi-cereal bread) that Dani had brought with him.

After the quick lunch, we refilled our water bottles and stop to take some photos on our way out of town.

On our way out of Vegadeo, we went right into the next climb from sea level to Sela de Entorcisa (432m). Yet another long, steady and gentle climb around 12 km long.

One good thing of not having a proper lunch is that our bellies weren’t full and digestion didn’t kick in during the climb. Another good thing was the weather. At Vegadeo we were around 17ºC but on our way up temperature dropped slowly, being fresh but not cold (and definetely not hot), just the perfect temperature for a long climb.

Once again we had some awesome views, as soon as we were a bit higher we could see valleys, hills, green fields, livestock (cows and sheep mostly). What a wonderful day we had.

As soon as we started the descent on the other side of this climb, the wind started to push us back. Damn, it seems the weather forecast was right, strong gusted wind will be upon us any moment now.

The wind intensity/speed increased slowly, but luckily we had a long descent ahead of us. We pushed our way to the fouth control in Taramundi#8 (km 132), where we did a quick stop to take some pictures and have a quick coffee stop.

We made this stop very short. We already knew what was coming and the sooner we could leave, the better. The wind was stronger and it was blowing from the south-west. Up to A Pontenova#9 we had it mostly on our front, but coming at an angle, left-front. It was tough, but bearable.

Then we arrive in A Pontenova and it started blowing full-force on our faces.

We cursed, but we also laughed, “You know, my friend” - I told Dani - “Last Saturday we had to train riding under the rain, today it is the turn to train riding with strong wind, we have to train for all kind of conditions!” - and we laughed a bit more. You know, laughing makes everything a bit easier.

After A Pontenova we took the main road that would lead us back to Lugo, passing by Meira#10. This is the easiest, faster and more straight way to get to Lugo (or, let’s say, it should be).

The last climb of the day (I’ve lost the count already of how many we did!) started right at the exit of A Pontenova. 9-10km of climbing to Alto de Marco de Álvare (at 603 meters). As I suspected, we were protected from the wind on our way up. This is the kind of climb where you have the side of the hill or mountain on one of your sides at all times. In this case, this meant it was protecting us from the worse part of the wind.

A different story was the approach to the top of the climb. No more shelter there and strong wind gusts pushing us like marionettes. No more gopro recording from then on.

Reaching the top was hard and going down the other side, towards Meira, was even harder. It is a 5-6km descent and we had to push the pedals as if the climb wasn’t finished yet.

We did another short stop in Meira, this time at another fountain to refill our water bottles and get ready for fighting the wind for the last 30-something km.

Since we left Meira, the weather got worse and worse every moment. The wind was terrible, but we were managing the fight against it… when it started raining. At first it was just a drizzle, then it came the light rain and then it started raining more consistently.

And the ghosts from one week ago started to dance in my head. Long hours under the rain, my energy being drained, getting all wet all over again…

But we couldn’t do anything but keep pushing the pedals and move forward.

Both the rain and wind came and went and came back and went away again… meanwhile we were rolling as fast as we could on the flats and slightly downhill parts and we took it easier on the repechos.

Finally we arrived back in Lugo, we took the Ronda Leste and then the main N-VI road around the city, arriving back at the starting point around 18:45.

No suitcase and no Brevet card to be delivered this time, we took a “proof photo” of our arrival and we talked a bit about the awesome day of cycling we just had. Dani changed clothes and got ready to leave to Coruña, and I said goodbye and went back home on the bike.

I got home, had a hot shower and ate something. And now, here I am, writing this report while waiting for my wife to arrive back home too.

Here is some data taken from my activity in Strava, as usual:

Footnotes

#1

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugo

#2

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonsagrada

#3

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegadeo

#4

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#5

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugo

#6

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castroverde

#7

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Eulalia_de_Oscos

#8

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#9

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pontenova_(Lugo)

#10

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meira_(Lugo)

One week of the bike (traveling)

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-04-09 00:00:00

I’ve been off the bike for one week.

Me and Dolo had a trip to Morocco scheduled for the 31st of March with another couple, very good friends of us. It all started months ago, when having some drinks on a terrace, Pili told us about the idea of doing an adventure trip without the kids (they have 2 kids too). We totally jumped into it and soon things were arranged.

So, one week ago we drove all the way from Lugo to Porto (in Portugal) and from there we took a flight to Marrakech, to spend one week in the north of Africa (first time for me visiting this continent).

We were not alone there, we met a local guide (Said) and 8 more people from Spain. The plan was to get there with a backpack, a sleeping bag and a few clothes only.

It was quite the adventure indeed, spending some time first in Marrakech and then crossing the Big Atlas Mountains and going into the Desert of Merzouga, where we met a nomad family and slept in their camp, visited small villages learning a bit more of their culture and spent one night under the stars (and a sand storm) in the middle of the desert.

I’ve to admit, I had such a good time that I only thought about cycling a couple of times (in the Atlas… so many beautiful roads there… ;-D).

Footnotes

BRM 300 - Del Urogallo

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-04-16 00:00:00

First 300 Brevet of the year. Like it happened last year, I went to Astorga#1 to do it. Organized by my friends at Astorga Randonneurs#2 I was sure this was going to be another epic ride.

This time I arranged things to go there with my friend Dani “El Gordo” from the Mesoiro cycling club (you already know him from my previous Brevet reports). I booked a room for both of us in a Hotel near Astorga for Friday and Saturday, and he picked me up on his way from Coruña to Astorga on Friday evening. Split expenses and a nicer 2-hour trip to Astorga instead of driving there alone. Some other friends (Manolo, Roberto and Juankar) booked a room in the same hotel too.

Looking at the route profile, we were going to have several long climbs in this Brevet, followed by equally long descents. Niiiice!. I really like long, steady and gentle climbs. You can adjust power/intensity much easier and enjoy the climb a lot more than in those shorter, steeper, climbs with percentages over 12%.

They made a last-minute change to the route. We were supposed to start from San Justo de la Vega#3 (a little quiet village near Astorga) but precisely this weekend they celebrate a big party there, with lots of people, events, music and party all night long. Too many people, too much noise, things could become a bit more complicated, so they decided to move the start point to Astorga, to the square between the Cathedral and the Palacio de Gaudi#4.

We met some people from Astorga Randonneurs there on Friday evening (Salva, Sergio) as well as some other randonneurs, we got our brevet cards and had dinner together.

After that, it was time to double check everything for the brevet (bike, gear, clothes) and go to sleep.

We woke up around 5:30, gather our things and picked the car to go from the hotel to the start point in Astorga (shame on Dani and me! Manolo, Roberto and Juankar did it properly and rode those 10km already on their bikes!).

10-15 minutes before the start time (7:00) we were in front of the palace, ready and saying hello and good morning to everybody.

We left Astorga and took a road that would join, after 4km, the original route coming from San Justo.

As a pack we rode in the dark, on a small road that was a bit broken here and there. Nothing serious but the kind of road that makes me a bit nervous, specially in the middle of a big group at night, specially when going fast. And man, in Astorga all the Brevets start fast.

In Pradorrey we joined the big N-VI road, just a few km before our Hotel, and the big group started to push it a bit. We were expecting some head wind during this initial part of the Brevet and indeed there it was, blowing on our faces.

We noticed Manolo was missing and we did slow down for a moment and check if everybody else in our group was there. That was enough to loose the big group and we went all the way up the first climb of the day on our own.

Cesar and Anselmo joined our little group during this climb. We already knew Cesar from previous Brevets, but it was the first time we met Anselmo, a 76 year old man that proved to be younger than all of us later in the day.

There was no trace of Manolo, but he is a seasoned randonneur with lots of experience, so we didn’t worry about it. We simply kept on (later in the day he told us that he had to stop at the hotel, as he had forgotten his brevet card there).

The road up to this first climb was probably the ugliest part of the route. Not really ugly (I’ve ridden on worse roads) but it has nothing special. Big road, not really nice views, plus the wind blowing on our faces all the time.

The descent on the other side was a different story. We started going down still on the main N-VI road, enjoying some awesome views and crossing high bridges on direction to the North. Around km 32 we left that one to take a smaller road towards Torre del Bierzo#5. As soon as we left the main road, we were protected from the wind by the mountain on our right.

It was also a beautiful descent, with some nice views to our left, time to grab the gopro and start recording.

As usual, this first part of the Brevet has a lot of small talk. We were going fast and passed several villages, Bembibre#6 and Alto de Santa Marina del Sil. We also catched another galician randonneur, a guy from Ourense who was having a bad time because of the cold. He joined our little group.

The first checkpoint/control was going to be in km 116. We decided that was too far for the first stop, so when we arrived in the village of Toreno#7 (km 62), we looked for a place to do a quick coffee stop. We found a small bar open and we had some coffee there. Sadly, it was a bit too early and the guy there did not have any food to give us with the coffee.

This stop felt wonderful, warmed me up a bit. During the stop we tried to re-sync Juankar’s Garmin device, which was not able to load the route/course for navigation and climbs info. We failed miserably ;-D

As soon as we left Toreno, another randonneur catched up with us. Estefanía started like half an hour later than the rest of us, because she had some trouble with her Di2 shifters and it took her some time to sort things out. She had to ride by herself all the way here. We welcomed her into our little group (the more the merrier they say). She told us that she had passed our friend Manolo, which was good news for us, at least we knew then that he was ok and riding.

After Toreno the road had several short climbs, a nice “warm up” for the second big climb of the day, Alto de Valdeprado. Before the descent that led us to Fabero#8 I stopped for a moment to remove some layers and the gloves, it was starting to get a bit hot and I knew that more climbing was waiting for us ahead. These short stops for adding/removing layers would become a habit during the whole ride.

I catched the group at the end of the descent, at the entrance of Fabero, where we took a small road to our right, climbing all the way up to the open sky mine. This climb was soooo beautiful, IMHO the most beautiful one of this Brevet.

We started the climb and I took the lead, getting them on the camera. Estefanía soon started to push it a bit. She is a climber, small and fast, and I kept up by her side during all the climb. I was feeling fine and my HR was showing 145-150 bpm, which is low for climbing (by my standards/numbers).

A few times I looked back and noticed the guys were a bit behind, and at the end of the climb I noticed the group was way behind us. We were about to start the descent on the other side and she was pushing, I guess she wanted to recover some of her lost time. I decided to let her go and turned back, riding back to meet the guys and resume riding with them.

We went together all the way down to Páramo del Sil#9, from where we start the climb to Alto de Valdeprado

The road was a bit broken and Juankar and me were a bit faster than the others. We did chat for a while, enjoying the views, but at one point he started to fall back. I kept on with my steady pace. The HR shows 140-145, easy for a climb like this, so I decided to not slow down any more and wait for them at the top.

I did enjoy the solitude, looking back from time to time to check they were still there. I was so focused on pushed the pedals that I didn’t use the gopro in this climb. Not even a short recording.

When the garmin beeped, showing “the end of the climb” I did stop and waited for them, camera ready, recording them on video when they finally passed. Then we stop at the Mirador de la Corza to take a couple of pics of its impressive view.

Time to put some layers (and gloves) back on, long descent ahead. 47 km going all the way down to Cangas del Narcea#10 (with a small bump in the middle). We also crossed the border between Castilla y León and Asturias.

At km 116 we stop at Cerredo#11, first checkpoint/control. There was an open café, where we met Estefanía again and our friends from Astorga Randonneurs (Sergio(s) - two of them - Valentín and Saul).

We went as quick as possible through the usual checkpoint workflow (grab water bottles, order drinks and food, get our cards stamped) and we took a moment to say hello and ask everybody how was the Brevet for them so far.

We drank our coca colas and ate our pinchos as fast as we could. We were getting too cold and we didn’t want to do a long stop here. We still had a 40-km descent ahead of us, with little chances to warm up again.

Xacobe, Estefanía and the others left a few minutes before us. We refilled our bottles and off we went, cold and shivering, Dani, Ferreiro, Juankar and me.

Down and down we went, with some ocasional flat parts where we were able to pedal and warm up a bit.

We passed villages like Degaña, Fonduveigas or Larón and then we crossed a long tunnel through the mountains, the Túnel de Rañadoiro.

It was past noon already and the temperature was raising, it felt good to have such temperature on the last part of the long descent.

We arrived in Cangas de Narcea (second checkpoint, km 156) at 14:20, so we decided to stop in a cafe and eat something (bocadillo de jamón for everybody). We followed the usual checkpoint workflow (pick up bottles, order drinks and food, get the stamp on our brevet cards) but this time we sat for a while to eat the bocadillos and chat a bit.

Our friend Anselmo was quite the showman and kept us entertained and laughing the whole time.

Once we finished the food, some order some coffee and meanwhile I picked up some more food from my big saddle bag and refilled the top-tube bag with several cereal bars and stuff (at this point, I had eaten everything I had in that bag already + whatever I had in my back pockets).

I refilled my water bottles and packed the light rain jacket and the gillet into the saddle bag. With a 33 km climb ahead of us, starting precisely in this town… no need to get those layers on anytime soon. I even considered changing clothes, replace my rapha winter jacket and the warm base layer with the short sleeve base layer and the rapha long sleeve jersey, but in the end I decided against it (spoiler alert: I did regret it later).

Anselmo started a bit before us, “you are younger and stronger than me, so you will catch me on the climb!” - he said.

When we were ready to leave, Manolo appeared and then Cesar too. Cesar decided to stay for a while, while Manolo decided to keep on riding with us.

33km up to “El puertu” (Leitariegos#12) the longest climb I’ve ever made. Luckily this is one of those gentle and steady climbs, without big percentages.

We left Cangas de Narcea in good spirit, again like a pack, chatting. Half of the Brevet was done at this point and everybody seemed to be doing just fine. Also, the first few km are easy, not really climbing, so we were a bit faster.

This time I did slow down and I kept myself with the group. We enjoyed the views, which became more and more impressive as we slowly climb up the mountain.

At this point the temperature was higher than 20º, and I realized I was overdressed. I started to sweat but unzipping the jacket seemed to improve things.

Note

Later, after the brevet, I realized that all that sweating made my shorts and bottom all wet, too wet, so I had some trouble/pain/reddening at my bottom. Nothing too serious, but if I’d have to ride a 400 or 600, maybe it would grow into some serious trouble.

After a while Dani, Juankar and me were a bit faster, so we left the others behind and went all the way up together.

On our way up we catched Xacobe again (the guy from Ourense that had problems with the cold earlier) and we passed him. During the last few km we were running out of water, so we started talking about how cool it would be to find a nice fountain at the top (we already knew there was one there).

The last part felt a bit steeper for a while, ending with an easier part after the last couple of turns. The temperatures dropped to 10º again, which felt really cold, considering the > 20º we had one hour earlier + the fact that we were all sweaty.

We did a quick stop to take some pictures at the “El Puertu” sign and then at the fountain to refill the bottles and put some layers back on (light rain jacket, gillet and gloves for me). Ferreiro arrived already while we were taking the pictures and the others arrived just when we were about to resume riding.

The descent from Leitariegos was shorter than the climb, but still long. It took near 15 km to get to Villablino#13, the next bigger village. The road was full of 180º turns and the asphalt wasn’t in the best condition in some places.

I was expecting it to be colder, but the lower we were, the higher the temperature was. Also, the sun was shining, which added a bit to the warming sensation.

We weren’t a pack or a group anymore at this point. Ferreiro and Juankar were quite ahead, with Dani following them and me chasing Dani from a distance. The others were behind me, but nowhere to be seen.

I’m still not sure why, but from this point on, I didn’t record anything else with the gopro. On one hand, I spent most of the time chasing someone else, which meant having to be focused on what I was doing and pushing the pedals a bit harder. On the other hand, I was starting to feel tired and the last thing I wanted was to drop the camera (again, as you may remember from the report on the *BNO* to Vegadeo…).

In Villablino#14 I did stop for a moment to remove layers again, remove gloves, and eat something. Some decide to do a quick stop in a bar and have some drinks, some kept on pedaling.

I pushed it once more and caught Dani and Juankar again, time to go up Puerto de la Magdalena. Another long climb (15.6km) but a bit different this time. It has steeper parts/gradients, followed by some rest/easier parts. We started to “suffer” the amount of km and climbing on our legs, but we pushed the pedals all the way up anyway.

During the climb, Juankar asked if we could share something to eat with him. One of the things that amazed me at the start of this Brevet was the fact that he wasn’t carry anything with him on the bike. No big saddle bag, no frame or top-tube bag and what looked like empty pockets on his Castelli winter jacket. Nothing. All he had with him was one bottle for water and one small storage bottle (for tools and spares, I guess).

He managed ok so far, but I think this was the “lowest point” of the day for him. We shared something with him and that seemed to help.

At the top of the climb we stopped for a moment to take some pictures and put some layers back on (yeah, the game of the day!). Another long descent was waiting for us, near 36 km going down with a short bump in the middle again, just before the next (and last) checkpoint in Riello#15.

In that stop I also had to pee, which means they left without me (again) and I had to push it a bit (again) to catch them.

The wind was pushing us a bit harder (from behind) now and I couldn’t see them in front of me. WTF, it did not take that long to resume riding, I should have them just in front of me by then. I grabbed the drops, head down, and pushed. Going mostly down, with such a wind on my back… it felt good, it felt like being flying.

I arrived at a hairpin, a small repecho, and I kept pushing the pedals, standing on the bike, to not loose momentum. And when I got to the top, I could see the road going down on the other side and I saw them, maybe a couple of km ahead of me.

I smiled and pushed it a bit more.

I finally catched them and we were getting closer to the last checkpoint. I started to dream about a big coffee and a sandwich. I’ve been eating a lot today and at this point all that was left in my bags were a couple of cereal bars. It seemed I was burning everything fast.

We arrived in Riello and looked for a café or any place where we could stamp our cards and eat/drink something. We found a nice café, road bikes parked in front of it, and I recognized some of them. When we got inside, Sergio and the others were there, enjoying some drinks and pinchos.

We ordered something too (big café con leche and another bocadillo de jamón for me) and I took a moment to go to the bathroom (later I made some jokes about how fast I’d be in the last part of the brevet, being like half a kilo lighter after this stop ;-D).

While we were waiting for our order to be ready, the rest of our group arrived. First Ferreiro, then Manolo, then Anselmo. We refilled the bottles and packed up quick, time to leave. Just before leaving, our friend Roberto (who already had finished the brevet at that moment) called and told us that, from there on, it is one last climb, 2 repechos and “time to fly”. Liar ;-D

Leaving Riello there was a mistake in the gps track and it sent us on some broken path (path, not road). When we realized about the mistake, we noticed the path should join the main road at some point, so we kept on. In the end we had to jump over some road barriers (with our bikes on our shoulders, CX style) to get to the road again.

Next climb, Alto de Escuredo. Shorter, not a big thing if it wasn’t for the 260km and lots of climbing on our legs already.

The sunset was almost there, but we still would have some more day light time. This time, Dani and me were the ones going a bit faster, so we put some distance between us and the others. We finished the climb and then we pushed it through the following repechos (not 2, obviously, but “a few” more).

When we reached the point that it was getting darker, we did a short stop to put some layers back on, ensure lights were ready, etc. And when we were about to resume riding, our friends appeared on the turn behind us.

“There they are! they were not that fast in the end!” - someone shouted as they passed us. We laughed, we didn’t expect them to be this close.

We resume riding together, fast, downhill and into the night.

Ah, the time in a Brevet when all you want is to arrive, to finish. It was getting late and we had a reservation for dinner with friends at 22:30. No more stops until the end and time to take advantage of the flat/down road and the pushing winds.

What worried me then was… wild life.

This is the same road I rode on last year to finish the 300 in Astorga, and that time a huge deer crossed in front of us (a couple of meters, maybe?) and a bit later, a family of wild boars almost wiped us out of the road.

Going fast means danger in this road.

But we still pushed, with Dani and me taking turns on the lead, no time to look back. Front lights at full power and spending more time looking at both sides of the road ahead of us, than on the road itself.

At least the road condition was perfect (no holes, no broken parts), one less thing to worry about.

We crossed the turn to San Justo de la Vega and we kept straight to Astorga, passing village after village. Honestly, enjoying this fast end a lot.

We shouted and hooted loudly when we finally saw Astorga’s Cathedral from afar. We were almost there!

We looked back, no one there. wtf, Ferreiro was there a moment ago, “where is he?” we asked ourselves.

We waited for a moment in a roundabout and Ferreiro catched us, just in time to get into Astorga, the finish line.

We got to the square by the Cathedral and the Palacio de Gaudi just in time to hear the bells from the Cathedral ringing, it was 22:00. We made it.

My garmin shown 299km, Dani has 1km less than me, so we decided to ride back to the car with a few extra roundabouts to get to 300km and then we went back to the parking lot to pack our things and bikes into Dani’s car and head back to the hotel, where we had our reservation for dinner with friends.

And, as usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Footnotes

#1

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astorga

#2

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#3

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Justo_de_la_Vega

#4

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_Episcopal_de_Astorga

#5

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_del_Bierzo

#6

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bembibre

#7

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toreno

#8

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabero

#9

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A1ramo_del_Sil

#10

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cangas_del_Narcea

#11

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerredo_(Dega%C3%B1a)

#12

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_de_Leitariegos

#13

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villablino

#14

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villablino

#15

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riello_(Le%C3%B3n)

BRM 300 - Percorrendo a Raia

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-04-23 00:00:00

Second 300 of the year, in less than 7 days from the first one.

Organized by CC Riazor, but this time not leaving from Coruña. We were going to leave from the city of Tui#1 (southwest galicia, in the province of Pontevedra#2) and going along the border with Portugal. Our fellow randonneur Javier Costas designed it, and my friend Dani knew beforehand almost all the roads we were going to ride.

As we were leaving from Tui, at home we decided to go all the family together to Vilagacía de Arousa (the town were my wife was born). I left my wife and daughters there, in my mother-in-law’s place, and then drove for one extra hour to Tui. This was quite convenient, as this way my wife was going to have some help with the girls, but also has the drawback of having to pack the bike, my things and their things in the car (a bit more complicated than simply put my things in the car and leave).

There was a big group dinner scheduled for 21:00 on Friday. Almost everybody was there and we had a very good time over a nice meal.

At dinner they introduced me to Graeme, from Scotland, who does not speak Spanish at all. I gave him some company, we chatted over dinner and tried to translate what the others were saying as much as I could. We had a good time at the restaurant, telling stories, catching up and discussing plans for the Brevet. We were having so much fun that we left the restaurant a bit late.

The Mesoiros and me still had a 30-minute drive to Dani’s family house, where we were staying for the night. When we arrived, I went through my checklist, preparing everything for the Brevet, when I realized I had forgotten my water bottles back home :-(

“Fuuuuuck, Fuck, Fuck!” - I said loudly. I felt like being slapped hard. The guys asked me what have happened and I told them, “Well, at least it wasn’t the helmet or the shoes!” - Edgar said, and he was right I guess.

Dani gave Javier a call and asked him if he may have some spare bottles around, luckily he said he had some and that he would bring two 500ml bottles for me the next morning. Lucky strike.

We went to bed a bit late, so I barely slept 4 hours. It did rain too much during the night, and it was so windy that waves of rain were hitting the windows hard, making lots of noise and waking me up several times.

I woke up before the others and went through my usual breakfast-and-get-ready procedures while they started to wake up and get downstairs for breakfast.

When it was time to leave for Tui, it was raining a lot. We drove in 2 cars to the start point under waves and more waves of strong rain. Edgar was in my car, and we both agreed… “WTF are we doing out here right now?!?”

But then, we arrived in Tui and it stopped raining. Unbelievable.

We met the other randonneurs at the start point, a bar called Pura Vida, which was opened this early only for us. There were some people having hot drinks like coffee and tea, but I was still full from my breakfast.

I looked for Javier - and my water bottles - man, what a relieve when I found him and he gave me those two bottles.

We took the usual group picture at the start and hopped on our bikes. When I clipped in and started pedaling… it started raining again, growing in intensity as we left Tui, towards Baiona and the first climb of the day (yeah, we started going up right away from the start!)

We started as a big group, but with the first climb starting right there in Tui, we got scattered early. I rode with several friends from previous Brevets, chatting and catching up (when the rain let us, of course) and moving forward.

After 10 km and almost 40 minutes, we reached the top of the first climb and started the descent to the other side, 10 more km under ocassional showers, some of them quite strong.

Less than 1 hour into the Brevet and I was already all wet, specially my feet as I gambled it a bit and decided to not put the shoe covers on (hint: this time I was right and I would not need them at all).

The first checkpoint was Baiona#3, km 26. We were so wet and cold at this point that we did a quick stop in a gas station to get our cards stamped (and pee).

My plan was to ride as much as possible with Dani and the others from the Mesoiro cycling club. I’ve mention it in previous reports, these guys organize things so one of them is responsible for carrying all the Brevet cards together, getting all the stamps on them at once. I usually keep my card with me, but this time I was so cold and soaked that instead of fighting with my wet gloves, I gave my card to Edgar (thanks, my friend!).

We left Baiona with the sun rising from behind some hills to the west and took the road by the coast, on its huge yellow-colored bike lane. The rain came and went and the wind started to push us back. This road was fantastic, flat and fast. We rode by the atlantic ocean, and today there were big waves crashing against the rocks on the shore. We passed a lighthouse and we kept pushing the pedals. We were quite the group here, a mix of people from different clubs and parts of the country.

A few minutes before 9:30 we arrived at the village of A Guarda#4, and at the second climb of the day, Santa Trega#5, short and steep climb with gorgeous views of the mouth of the Miño River, where it joins the Atlantic ocean.

I did this climb with Alfonso, Ángel and Jose, while the others followed closely behind. The climb goes from sea level to ~300m in 3.65 km, with lots of turns. On each turn, the four of us agreed that the view was even nicer than in the previous turn.

During the climb we noticed someone handling a drone and somebody else taking pictures of us with one of those pro cameras. What a luxury for a Brevet!

At the top, another surprise. Javier was there, with the trunk of his car full of food and drinks. This was the second checkpoint (km 61) and we took a moment to enjoy the views and take some photos. We also formed the little group that would stay together for the rest of the day.

Then we went down the hill. It was steep, so we had to pull the breaks a lot, some times maybe a bit too much, personally I wanted to enjoy the views as much time as possible.

We crossed the other randonneurs that were arriving there later than us, like Carlos and Oscar from Naron and several guys from CC Riazor.

The next 30 km were almost flat and took us back to the start point in Tui. The sun started to shine and it stopped raining, we were getting dry and warm.

The Mesoiros, Graeme and me decided to do a quick coffee stop in Tui, in the café that was our starting point earlier - Pura Vida - before starting the next - and toughest - part of the brevet. We split, as some other randonneurs decided to keep on without stopping.

A quick coffee stop and soon we were on our bikes and back on the road, just in time to get cought by another rain shower. At that moment we thought we weren’t lucky, but it turned out we did the right thing doing such stop. The guys that didn’t stop got caught by a strong storm later in the day, while we avoided such storm because of this stop.

A few km after resuming our ride, we had to stop due to a flat tire (the first of the day, sadly not the only one). We did stop and Oscar replaced the inner tube in his rear wheel quite fast. Off we went again, under some light rain.

This Brevet didn’t have long climbs. Instead, we were going up for a while, then a bit down, then up for a longer while, then down a bit… and so on. What we call around here “terreno rompepiernas” (leg-breaker terrain, literally translated).

We rode for a while more on roads of the province of Pontevedra#6, then we crossed to the province of Ourense#7.

We were having light rain here and there, followed by the ocassional open sky with the sun warming us and then back to dark clouds. The roads were almost empty (we crossed just a few cars) and as soon as we started to go up, we also had nice views around us.

The next checkpoint, Paraños (km 137), was in the middle of one of the shorter/smaller climbs, just before the larger climb of the day. It was around 14:00, so we decided to do a longer stop there and ate something. We had some awesome bocadillos de tortilla, which tasted soooo good. The owners of the restaurant were very nice, and they brought us a lot of pinchos with our drinks, to have while we waited for the bocadillos.

When we arrived in Paraños, Alfonso and Felipe were already there and while we were eating our bocadillos, several randonneurs arrived too.

Bottles refilled, I made some food arrangements (picked up some food from the saddle bag and refilled the top tube bag and the back pockets) and finally off we went, right into more climbing.

For the next few hours, the roads looked familiar to me. Secondary small roads with only the ocassional car passing us, everything so green around us, with certain parts where there are so many tall trees that we are completely covered from the sun and at the next turn, open views to our left or right of valleys below us. It all reminded me clearly of those roads I use to ride near Vilagarcía de Arousa, Caldas de Reis, Moraña, Campo Lameiro or Cotobade. These roads today looked sooo very similar to those a hundred km away.

We went up to Porto de Moncelo, the longest climb of the day, going from 309m to 800m in 17km. The group split after a while, with Graeme, Jose and me leading, followed at some distance by the others.

At this point it had not rain in quite some time, the sun was shining and there was a fresh breeze that felt awesome.

I enjoyed the climb a lot, riding at my own pace, enjoying the views to our left on every turn. There was a point where we did a hard turn to our left and we had a good view of the road behind us, so I was able to see Dani and the others coming up, behind us.

At the top we took a few group photos at the Porto de Moncelo sign, as this was the next checkpoint (km 155) but there was no way to get a stamp in our cards there.

If the climb was nice, the next 23 km going all the way down to Ribadavia were awesome. We started the descent and after a few km we had another shorter climb, near A Cañiza. Then, all the way down and fast.

Ribadavia was our next checkpoint (km 178) and we decided to drink some coca colas in a café and get our cards stamped. Sadly, that café didn’t have anything to stamps our cards with, so Edgar went to look for some other place (and came back a few minutes later, with our cards stamped).

We took a moment to enjoy the short rest and then refilled bottles, did quick visits to the bathroom, etc. The next checkpoint (Celanova) wasn’t that far from us (just 40 km) but the road to get there was going to be tough, with lots of climbing and lots of short, steep repechos (which meant it would take quite some time to ride those 40 km).

Off we went, leaving Ribadavia and into yet another climb, passing small villages like Barral, Foxo or Noallo de Arriba. Going up for while, then a bit down, up again… and so on. Rompepiernas again, making having a conversation quite difficult.

At least the roads were very nice and the scenery around us, magical. The only thing disturbing such a good moment was the noise all our chains were making. All the rain we had so far, plus all the water and spray coming from the road, made our drivetrains quite noisy. At one point we started to talk about looking for some options to oil our groups during the next stop.

Our little group stick together, taking turns pulling or staying behind with whomever was having a tough moment.

And then, it was my moment. That dreaded moment when you feel you are loosing the group, running out of energy and not being able to keep up with their rythm. It didn’t happen suddendly (I didn’t bonk completely), it was just that I was slowly being dropped. They kept on and I was slower and slower until there was quite the distance.

It wasn’t a matter of eating enough, as I had been eaten well and regularly on the bike (+ eating even more during stops). I was simply running out of steam and couldn’t keep up.

So, I switched into maintenance mode. “Keep pushing the pedals, just keep pushing the fscking pedals” - I told myself. I’ve lots of confidence on myself and I’m sooo used to ride alone, that I’m perfectly fine with these situations. No anxiety about being dropped, no need to push my limits.

Just.Keep.Pushing.The.Fscking.Pedals and I’d be fine.

But they noticed I was having this tough moment. And these guys… they are too nice to let me there, miserable and alone and dragging myself like a snail.

So, they took turns to stay with me and ride slowly. First it was Ángel (you probably remember him from the 200 - polas terras altas) and then Dani. They slowed down and rode side by side with me, talking to me, trying to keep my brain busy.

And, in the meantime, we almost arrived in Celanova.

One last push, one last repecho. I looked at the screen of my Garmin and noticed the 8% value of the gradient. “Oh yeah, I noticed it” - I told myself out loud. 9% - “Ok, stop looking at that fscking screen” - I said out loud again.

Luckily we were there already and we found a super nice café/bakery with a terrace where we could seat for a while and eat something.

As Celanova was another checkpoint (actually, last one until the arrival back in Tui for the finish line) we also got a stamp in our cards. This time, I helped Edgar with the whole stamping thing (I was glad to have something to do and keep my mind busy).

I was starving. I didn’t realize about it while riding those 40 km since Ribadavia, but as soon as I stopped, unclipped and left the bike leaning on the wall, an overall sensation of need.food.NOW washed over me.

I ordered a big café con leche and a big cream-and-strawberries cake and I wolfed it down fast. Clearly it wasn’t enough.

While I was making up my mind about ordering something else, and why exactly, the waitress came out of the café carrying 2 huuuuuuge bocadillos. I followed her with my eyes opened like saucers. The bocadillos where going towards Alfonso and Felipe, our fellow randonneurs from Coruña.

I was totally into ordering something like that, but I knew it would take too long to prepare. And just at that moment, Dani came up with two of his famous bocadillos de jamón y tomate and offered me one. He is a life saver, always.

Meanwhile, Edgar had gone to a shop nearby and bought something to oil our chains a bit. All he could find was some sewing machine oil, but it worked just fine on our poor chains.

When we finished, refilled our bottles and packed everything up again, we left Celanova, with 82 km still to ride.

The way out was, of course, more climbing. Again, not a steady climb, but a series of more steep repechos (what else?). It took some time to digest all that food, but I slowly I recovered myself and soon I was out of the hole.

We passed the village of Carracedo and we started a long descent towards the Miño river. The sun was shining, the wind was gentle and the descent felt soooo good. We were riding fast, taking advantage of the descent, when I heard someone shouting.

Another flat tire. This time it was Ángel’s rear tire. We stop and gather around Ángel, trying to help. It took us more than half an hour to fix it, as the first attempt ended with a pinched inner tube (bad luck when putting the tire back on) and then the second attempt proved to be quite challenging, it was really tough to get that tire back on.

Several other randonneurs passed us while we were there, all of them asking if we needed anything or if they could help us somehow. Finally, we were ready and we resumed our ride.

Next we had to cross the Miño river. In order to do so, we pass by the dam of Frieira, crossing a huge/tall bridge to the other river bank. The views were gorgeous all the way down and across the bridge.

Last 50 km. Later than expected, but still doing a good overall time. The toughest parts were history now, only a few more repechos and we would be in Tui.

I was fully recovered already, and it felt wonderful to be able not only to keep up with the group, but to lead the group a few times. We had some head wind ocasionally, but nothing too strong.

One repecho, another one, one more… we were counting them like a countdown. Dani knew this road quite well and it was nice of him to tell us in advance which ones were harder, which ones a bit easier.

During our repechos party the night fell on us. The sun went down and soon it was pitch black around us. The roads had no lighting at all and we crossed just a few villages here and there. There was no full moon today neither, and the sky was covered with thick clouds anyway. I tried not to think too much about the chances of another strong shower while riding in the dark.

Only 20 km to arrive, when I heard someone shouting again. Uh, oh. Right, Ángel’s rear tire again. We stopped and in the dark he pumped some air into it. It was loosing air and pressure slowly, so maybe we would be lucky and we could get to Tui without having to replace the tube again.

While they were pumping some air into that tube, I talked a bit with Graeme in the dark. He was doing fine, actually enjoying the whole thing, but he was hungry and he had no food left with him. I gave him one of my Clif bars and he was so grateful. “That’s what friends are for” after all ;-)

We resumed riding, but after a few km, that rear tube was empty again. It was clear that it needed another inner tube replacement. Thing is, Ángel hadn’t sign-up for the Brevet, he was riding it with us for the joy of doing it, without doing it officially. So, after talking it through, we all agreed he would stay there and someone was coming to pick him up with a car, while the rest of us would keep on to the finish. A quick phone call and Javier was on his way with a car to pick him up.

Once more we resumed riding, last 12/14 km. We were closer to Tui and there was more traffic. We crossed Javier on his way to pick up Ángel, then we passed the place where Óscar had the first flat tire of the day earlier.

We arrived in Tui with some light rain at 23:20 and we went straight to the café, Pura Vida, which was the start point earlier in the morning. Lots of known faces there, plus some people we don’t know (customers of the café) who welcomed us with shouts of “congratulations”, “great job”, “you are too crazy”… Someone even said “Ok, quick coffee and time to do it again!”. We laughed at that, would that be really that crazy?

Brevet cards stamped one last time, then delivered, we ordered some beers. While the beers were coming, I quickly gathered my things and bike and went straight to the car, picked up my bag of clothes and put bike, shoes, helmet, etc into the trunk. I ran back to the cafe to enjoy the beer and chat a bit with everybody.

After a while, I went to the bathroom to change clothes and get ready to drive back to Vilagarcía, where dolo and the girls were waiting for me.

It still took a while to leave, time to say goodbye to everybody. See you in the 400!

As usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Footnotes

#1

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuy_(Pontevedra)

#2

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Pontevedra

#3

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayona_(Espa%C3%B1a)

#4

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Guardia_(Pontevedra)

#5

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_de_Santa_Tecla

#6

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Pontevedra

#7

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Ourense

BRM 400 - Braganza

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-04-28 00:00:00

What a month, this april 2023, I won’t forget it anytime soon. After doing two 300 Brevets in 2 weeks, this weekend I did the first 400 Brevet of the season.

Back in Astorga#1 again, this was the first time doing a 400 here for me. This time the start was going to be in San Justo de la Vega#2 but due to some national holidays the prices of the hotels in the area sky-rocketed (doubled prices) so I booked a room in a hotel in the nearby village of Hospital de Órbigo#3 (11km from San Justo).

I drove all the way there from Lugo on Friday afternoon, earlier than usual as the Brevet would start at 06:00 next morning and I wanted to go to sleep as early as possible (I’ve had a very bad week at home, with several slepless nights).

After doing the check-in at the hotel, I left my luggage in the room and took the car to San Justo to meet my friend Sergio and some other randonneurs at the Oasis, the bar that is the usual meeting point in San Justo, and the place marked as the start point for the Brevets there.

I got my Brevet card and had dinner with Sergio and the others. We talked a lot about the 300 we did a couple weeks before, and about what everybody was expecting of the 400 we were about to do the next day.

After dinner I said goodbye and went straight to the hotel, to double check everything for the next day and go to bed. As soon as I did lay my head on the pillow, I fell asleep instantly.

As usual, I woke up before the alarm, 4:40, had a quick shower and full breakfast and left the hotel silently.

When I arrived at the Oasis, there was nobody there. I checked the clock, 5:35, with the start scheduled for 06:00 it felt a bit awkward that there wasn’t anybody around. Anyway, I got things ready and when I was almost done Sergio appeared riding his Trek Émonda.

In a few minutes everybody was there. Some fully ready, some still preparing things. At 06:00 we took a few group photos and we left San Justo, direction to Astorga.

We left San Justo in the dark, as a big group (15-16 maybe), and we took a small broken road on our way to Astorga, as the main road was blocked (a bridge fell down and they were rebuilding it). Once we crossed Astorga we took the bigger road that was going to get us to Puebla de Sanabria#4.

This first stretch of almost 100km to Puebla was smooth and fast. The road tarmac was in perfect condition and there were no climbs. As a group, we rolled fast on the flats and descents (with the occasional repecho).

The temperature was very good, my garming showing 12-13º C for the first few km and then a drop to 7-8º C for a while (which was good anyway, as we were spinning our legs strongly). Only when the temperatures dropped a bit, while going down one of the repechos, I realized I had forgotten my gloves.

“Fuck!” - I thought then, not having my gloves at that point was ok, and I was sure I wasn’t going to need them during all day but when the next night comes… I’ve enough experience already riding in the roads near Astorga to know how cold it gets, with temperature going down 20º C or more.

Ah, well, nothing I could do about it right now. Just enjoy the ride.

At one point the sun came out from the horizon to our left, giving us the chance to enjoy a gorgeous sunrise.

At that moment, I was leading the pack, riding with Alfonso (a fellow galician member of the Riazor Cycling Club and Randonneurs Galicia). We chatted a bit, talking about how different these roads were from the roads we are used to in Galicia, as well as about PBP (of course!). I think PBP is a big topic for everybody this year, and I take every chance I’ve to talk to those randonneurs that had done it in the previous editions.

The sun finally came out completely, and we were able to enjoy the views around us, with long open flats on both sides, covered with bushes and small trees, and the sight of mountains and hills far to both left and right.

At one point, we noticed something moving ahead of us, to the right. It was a small deer, running alongside the road. We slowed down a bit, looking carefully around us, when the deer crossed the road to the other side, followed by a few other deers of different sizes.

I wasn’t able to get them on camera, as they moved fast. It was one of those magical moments in a Brevet.

We arrived in Puebla de Sanabria#5 around 09:30, passed by old town with its cobblestone streets and old houses and castle-like buildings, and decided to do a quick coffee stop.

The stronger/faster riders left a few minutes before our group. We followed them soon, but that difference plus the fact that they were way faster than us meant we won’t meet them again.

The group we had made so far would stay together the rest of the day. Both Sergio(s), Valentín and Saúl have done several Brevets together before, I already knew Estefanía from the 300 a couple of weeks before and it was the first time riding with Manuel, a very tall and thin guy from Alcalá de Henares (Madrid).

Leaving Puebla we had a 9 km climb. It wasn’t hard at all, and we were rested from the recent stop, so we keep on a good rythm. Then we had a long descent (10 km) until the next repecho, which was also the point where we crossed the border into Portugal.

More descents, passing villages like Portelo, França or Rabal and getting closer and closer to the first checkpoint, in Bragança#6.

Temperatures were already over 20ºC and I had already removed the gillet and the arm warmers. Even this early, the sun was starting to hit us hard.

Since we left Puebla, I started to feel a pain on my left knee. Like being stabbed with a needle, repeatedly, a bit below the knee, on its outside part. It was the kind of pain that grows over time, and I started to get worried about it.

Note

I didn’t mention it in my previous brevet reports, as I didn’t consider it may be something serious, but I felt this same pain in the 300 a couple of weeks before (AKA, Del Urogallo).

Back then, I started to feel the same pain with 100 or 100-something km to the end. Then I felt like shit afterwards (couldn’t walk normally up/down stairs) and then it went away after a full night sleep.

I thought it was some problem with my new shoe cleats (I replaced the old, broken ones, the week before that Brevet), so the week between the 2 300 brevets, I double checked the cleats and re-adjusted them. I tried again in a couple of short rides and all seemed to be fine.

Then I did the 300 Percorrendo a Raia and I didn’t have any pain during that hard Brevet, so I thought it was indeed some problem caused by the new cleats position, and that it was fixed.

I was wrong

At one point I told Sergio about my problems with the knee. Luckily he had some painkillers (ibuprofen) and he offered me some. I decided to wait until the stop in Bragança to take it.

Bragança was km 135 of the Brevet. As we already did a coffee stop around km 100, we decided to do a stamp-only quick stop here. No need to waste more time.

We passed a gas station at the entrance of the city and took the road left, which is that kind of outskirts road that let you go around the city without having to get inside the city. The thing with these roads is that sometimes you don’t find cafés or shops (the kind of places where we could get our cards stamped). But then, after yet another roundabout, we noticed there was a bike shop to our right.

It was perfect, the faster guys already had passed and had the same idea, getting their cards stamped at the shop. So, when the owner saw us at the door, he already came out with the shop stamp at hand.

When I said it was perfect, I meant it. Being a bike shop, I bought some gloves to bring with me, as I was 100% sure I was going to need them later during the night. Imagine the face of the shop owner when I asked him about some winter gloves, in april and with 23/24ºC outside. He probably thought I was crazy.

I took the painkiller before leaving the shop and off we went, going up on that steep 4 lane street which was full of traffic lights. Some of them turned red when we were arriving at them, so it was quite an unpleasant ride until we left the city.

We were already in the hardest part of the Brevet. The next 100-something km from Bragança#7 to Miranda de Douro#8 were going to be probably the most beautiful part of the Brevet, but also the toughest. Lots of short climbs, crossing bridges over big rivers, and fast descents with gorgeous views of the valleys we were crossing.

Luckily, the painkiller soon made its effect and the pain on my left knee went away, which helped a lot.

We were riding in Portugal (first time riding my bike here) and soon we noticed how different the car driver’s behaviour was, compared to the drivers back in Spain. Cars were passing us too close, speeding aggresively most of the times. Motorcycles were even worse, speeding up when they were upon us and several times honking when they were passing way too close.

A couple of times a motorbike passed so close that almost made me loose balance, it was scary and dangerous.

It is a bit sad that in a country so beautiful and full of nice roads, like Portugal, there are drivers like those.

On the other hand, the roads were in perfect condition and we were able to roll smoothly on them. Village after village we rode, Santa Comba de Rossas, Chaos, Vila Franca, Vinhas… every one of them having something that catched our eye.

Around km 185 we tackled possibly the longer climb of the day, 10km of going up to the villages of Santulhao and then Carçao. We had decided to stop for a longer lunch stop in the village of Vimioso (we had some good references of a restaurant there) but there was a misunderstanding and we all thought that village was going to be at the end of the climb.

We got to the top in 3 separated groups, but the village was not there, so while we re-grouped, we noticed the village was still a bit far away. “It is not much” - someone said - “it must be around the next turn”.

But it turned out it wasn’t. There were still 10 km to get there, 4 km going down and another 6 km climb afterwards. Nothing too serious, but most of us ran out of water in our bottles during the first climb and the sun was cooking us real good at that moment (my garmin was showing 27-29ºC during that climb).

Again, the group split in 3 and we arrived in turns at the entrance of the village and the restaurant, Vileira, located after the first roundabout.

The restaurant was quite good. At first it felt a bit awkward to sit, all sweaty and smelly, in its dining room, which looked like prepared for some event (like a wedding or similar).

They told us to seat at a big round table, which was perfect for our little group of 7. We sat and ordered drinks first, then food. Instead of simple bocadillos, we ordered some house-made starters (queijo, presunto, chouriço, melao…) and then each one ordered a second dish (bacalhau, vitela, …). Every bit of it was delicious.

Just when we had ordered, another randonneur appeared at the door. Alfonso, who had been on the stronger/faster leading group earlier. He told us that at some point he decided to let the faster group go. They were going too fast and the heat was taking its toll on him. He saw us passing a few km before, and he decided to chase us and try to catch our group. We welcomed him to the group and added another chair to our table.

We had such a good time in the restaurant. It all felt like sharing a meal with old good friends. We made jokes, we laughed, we told stories of previous Brevets and details of the day so far.

When we were done, we refilled our bottles, packed our things and resumed riding. During lunch, I used my external power bank to charge both the garmin and the front light a bit (charging the light was specially important, as I discovered later).

Leaving the restaurant, we had to keep on climbing, passing Caçarelhos and Malhadas where the descent into Miranda de Douro#9 started.

The effect of the painkiller started to go away and the pain on my left knee was back. I started to suffer again.

Sit on the saddle and pedal? -> pain

Stand and push the pedals -> no pain

“Fun” - I told them - “all I had to do is ride the next 200 km, standing”

I tried to make jokes and keep on, but the pain was there and I was getting worried more and more. At one point, Alfonso told me he has some analgesic cream and that I could try and see if it may help.

We arrived in Miranda de Douro#10, next checkpoint at km 235 around 17:15, and we stopped to get our cards stamped in a café, the Vista Bela.

While we drank some coca colas and/or coffee, I put the cream all over my knee. It definetely helped, but only for little while (maybe 1 or 2 hours). It was clear at this point I’d have to “live with it” the rest of the Brevet, so no use keeping my brain focused on it. What I was hoping was that all the stress put on the knee today would not mean some more serious injury afterwards.

I forgot at the stop to replace the batteries of the gopro, which had ran out of juice on our way here. Man, how much I regret forgetting that.

Leaving Miranda we went down towards the Douro river (Duero in spanish) on one of the most beautiful descents I’ve done in a long time. And the camera refused to turn on :-(

“Ah, well…” - I thought - “So be it, let’s enjoy the descent anyway!”

At the bottom of the descent, there is a big dam we had to cross to go back to Spain. We stopped there for a moment to take some pictures, the place really deserved the stop.

We crossed the dam and went back into Spain, just to do another climb into the province of Zamora, followed by a few km of ups and downs and then a nice descent into another dam, Salto de Villalcampo, where we tackled another longer climb, Puerto de Villalcampo.

During that climb, the temperature got up to 30ºC. We had no shades, no protection and the sun was hitting us hard. But we also had some regarding views of the river.

At the end of the climb, just before the village of Villalcampo, we found a fountain by the road. This was a life saver, as everybody needed a refill on their bottles.

After that refill (I took the opportunity to eat something too) we resumed riding by taking a turn left at the entrance of the village and going into secondary roads, the kind of roads that give no break, no resting, lots of ups and downs.

Alfonso and me noticed Sergio was missing, so we did slow down a bit, to give him the chance to catch up again. It took him a while, but in the end he made it. When he was with us, he told us he still had one bottle to refill at the fountain when everybody left.

We kept riding and got to the descent that took us to cross another dam, another river. This time it was the Esla. After crossing the dam, we had to do one more climb and, again, we had such gorgeous views of the river and the sun setting behind it.

The next 30 km were hard. We rode all the way to Tábara (the next checkpoint) while the sun was setting. This is usually a bad/low moment for me while riding Brevets. The moment you realize the night is coming and there is still a long way to get to the finish and, inevitably, you will be riding in the dark, tired. Every time this happens, anxiety starts to grow inside me and it feels like my energy levels go down.

This part of the route was tough, with short steep climbs and broken roads, but it was also beautiful, as secondary roads always are. The thing is, I did not really appreciate such beauty at that moment.

We passed village after village, in some of them, people were seating on benches outside old houses. Some other villages look completely empty. In one of the villages, a group of old ladies were seating outside and they cheered us up as we were passing, one shouted “go, go, go up that tough climb ahead!” and indeed there was yet another steep repecho a few meters after leaving the village.

In another village we did another short stop to refill our bottles in a fountain. It was still hot and we were drinking a lot of water, so fresh water from a fountain felt wonderful.

Finally we arrived in Tábara, checkpoint at km 319, around 21:30. We decided to have something quick for dinner while we got our cards stamped. As soon as we entered the village, we started to look for any bar/cafe/restaurant where we could get some food. We found a square with 2 bars and Sergio, Manuel, Alfonso and me stopped right there. The others kept on and we called them. We saw Estefanía coming back, so we asumed everybody was coming back.

We asked the waitress of the first bar for a table for 8 and soon we were seating and looking at what to order. We ordered some sandwiches and, while they were being prepared, we took turns to go to the bathroom and change clothes. It was getting colder and we all knew it was going to get even colder soon.

When I got out of the bathroom, with my warm clothes on, I realized Valentin, Saul and Sergio Pulido were missing. I asked the others what happened and then everybody realized about it too. We gave them a call and they were in another bar on the next square. Weird. Anyway, we agreed on having our dinner quick and leave as soon as possible.

Problem was, the kitchen in our bar was terrible. Terrible as in really terribly slow. It took ages for them to prepare the sandwiches and soon we got a call back from the others, they were ready to leave.

Panic. Everybody went into panic mode real fast. Some wanted their sandwiches packed to bring with them (as if they would be able to eat them on the bike, in the middle of the night, without any light around), some were even ready to leave without eating anything or carrying anything (crazy as it sounds).

And in the middle of it all, Alfonso, completely astonished, saying he wasn’t going to leave until he had dinner.

I did hesitate for a moment. I didn’t want to leave without having dinner, both the rest having dinner AND the dinner itself were a good thing, considering we still had 90 km ahead of us. Eat the sandwich on the bike wasn’t an option for me, too risky at night, and I didn’t see the point of it. But the worse thing, IMHO, was leaving Alfonso behind, alone, knowing he would have to do the last 90 km riding alone in the dark.

But I also didn’t want to loose the group. Specially not with that pain on my left knee.

So I tried to put some sense in the situation, but I failed. And then Alfonso told me to go. To just go along with the group, “I will be fine” - he said, “don’t worry, really”. I ate my sandwich in 3 big mouthfulls, paid the bill for everyone (didn’t want to even think about how much time it would cost to split the payment), picked my bike and left with the others.

And into the night we rode.

Just before leaving, Estefanía gave me another painkiller, which made effect quite fast. At least I didn’t have to worry about my knee for another while.

All I was worried about was Alfonso, and the fact that we just left him there alone in Tábara. Even now I think we should have waited for him. I should have waited for him.

But soon my worries focused on something else. The night was very dark. No lights, no villages to be crossed and a cloudy sky that was pitch black (no moon to light our way, no stars could be seen).

We were going fast and we started to take turns pulling. One of us would pull while the rest of the pack did stay in line behind. When we reached one of those road signs marking that one km have passed, the one on the front would move aside, letting the whole group pass and staying on the back, in the last position. Then the one that was second would pull until the next sign.

We kept on like this for a while, but pushing this hard was taking its toll on my knee, and the pain came back earlier than I expected.

Anyway, when I was considering not taking any more turns pulling, we changed into smaller roads and the take-turns-pulling game was over. These smaller roads were really, badly, broken. And we were going too fast. At that speed in the night, the guys up front were not able to tell the ones in the back (like me) about potholes, gravel, etc.

It was a total gamble, an act of faith on whoever was in front of you. If the wheel in front of you did a hard turn to the left, you simply and blindly followed, no matter what may happen afterwards.

I trusted them, honestly, but I wasn’t happy about the whole situation.

And then, it happened, they didn’t sign a huge pothole and I smashed both wheels against it. The hit was so hard that one of my bottles (the one that has any water left in it) was sent flying away (and we were going so fast I couldn’t even stop to try to find it). But worse was that just after this one there was a second one, as huge as the first one. Again, no sign from whoever was in front of me and BAM, BAM, both wheels hitting hard.

I did complain loudly, we were going too fast for a road like this, we had been lucky so far that nobody got injured or a flat… And then I heard the long phhhhhhhsssssssssss while my rear tire got completely deflated.

Snake bite (or llantazo as we call them in spanish).

I was angry, very angry, at that moment. Angry at the night, at the broken road, at the pothole, at whoever was in front of me for not giving any sign or advice about the pothole, angry at my bad luck and angry at me, for not being more careful and keeping myself behind that wheel.

Everybody stopped and Valentin did most of the job replacing my pinched inner tube (it is up to this day, that I’m completely amazed about how fast this guy can replace an inner tube). Meanwhile someone told me “I’m so sorry, I could not warn you in time, I’m really sorry”. It didn’t really matter, not anymore. The good thing is, afterwards we slowed down a bit and people started to give advice about holes, etc.

Temperatures dropped a lot, as I was expecting, and this was the moment when having the chance to buy those gloves back in Brangança paid back. My fingers were starting to get numb with the cold, so I put those winter gloves on and told the others “You know, tomorrow I’m going to drive all the way to that shop in Bragança, and I’ll give the guy there a huuuge tip”. We laughed and the mood improved a bit.

Luckily we finished with the broken roads without any other damage. We took the main N-VI towards La Bañeza. I had been riding without any water for quite some time now, as the bottle I lost was the one that has any water still in it, so when we were closer to La Bañeza, I asked them to stop if we could find a 24-hour gas station or similar.

We found one on our way out of La Bañeza and we did stop there, to refill the bottles before tackling the last 15 km.

I got into the 24-hour shop and grabbed a couple of big bottles of water (4 litres total, enough to refill all our bottles) and on my way to the counter to pay for them I passed a shelve full of boxes… filled with doughnuts. I couldn’t help myself and I picked up several boxes of chocolate-covered doughnuts.

When I came out of the shop, eyes opened wide at the sight of those boxes… and in no time all of them were gone.

Time to resume riding and finish this Brevet. The last 15 km were tiring, with another mix of main roads and smaller, broken ones, but we finally arrived in San Justo at 02:30.

One more Brevet done, first 400 of the season. I was tired and my left knee was throbbing. I said goodbye to the group (“see you at the 600!”) and started to pack my things up in the car.

Once I had everything ready, I decided to wait for a while, waiting for Alfonso to arrive. I still was worried about what had happened in Tábara, but I was sure he would arrive shortly after us. It started to get colder, so I sat in the car (parked in front of the Oasis, I had a good view of the entrance) and I ate something.

After a while, I saw him (great! ;-D). I stepped out of the car and said hello, he seemed surprised to see me there. He looked exhausted (but happy), I bet this last part was hard on him too. He chatted a bit but it was late and colder by the moment, so we said goodbye to each other and part our ways.

Then I drove the car to the hotel in Hospital de Órbigo, where a hot shower and a comfortable bed were waiting for me. I was exhausted too and worried about the whole knee issue.

When I got to the hotel, there was still one more surprise waiting for me. I got to the bathroom and started removing layer after layer of clothes, just to find out I was totally sunburnt. I trusted the weather forecast before the Brevet, which was 90% cloud coverage the whole day with chances of storms and some rain here and there (and some big showers from 13:00 to 15:00 in Portugal). I did not put any sunscreen on, and what was worse, I did not bring any with me neither.

And the day was cloudless, with some strong sun most of it. Hot as it was, wearing short summer cycling clothes… I guess this was expected, but I was so busy thinking on everything else that I didn’t realize about being sunburnt until I looked myself in the mirror.

Ahother lesson learnt, I guess.

As usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Footnotes

#1

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astorga

#2

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Justo_de_la_Vega

#3

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital_de_%C3%93rbigo

#4

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puebla_de_Sanabria

#5

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puebla_de_Sanabria

#6

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braganza

#7

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braganza

#8

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_de_Duero_(Portugal)

#9

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_de_Duero_(Portugal)

#10

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_de_Duero_(Portugal)

Worried about injuries

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-03 00:00:00

As I’ve mentioned in my brevet report, during the first 400 of the year, I had some serious pain in my left knee. I had to take some painkillers to make it through the Brevet and afterwards walking and specially going up/down stairs was painful.

My knee got swollen (not a lot, but enough to be noticeable by looking at it) and still today I’m not fully recovered.

So I’m getting worried about it. What if I’ve damaged something there, something that may prevent me from doing the next brevets?

I talked about it with several friends, both cyclists and not-cyclists and I’ve tried to get an appointment with a phisiotherapist/osteopath. The problem is all clinics around here are super busy. I’ve got two recommendations of good clinics. One gave me an appointment for May 30th (bad, this is after both the next 400 - 13th May - and the first 600 - 27th May). The other clinic gave me an appointment for the 11th of May (bad, as I’ll have to wait still one week from now and it is actually the day before the start of the 400).

While I sort out the medical appointments, I’m resting. I’m not doing any cycling at all, to give my knee some time to heal from whatever it is. I’m also trying to find out what may have caused it, but I’ve a strong suspect there.

Yeah, my new shoe cleats.

I’m sure that’s the root cause of all this. I’ve checked again them last night and I re-positioned them, looking carefully at the marks on the shoes and some pictures I’ve from the old cleats before replacing them.

I’ve found out that the left shoe cleat was indeed a bit tilted, causing my heel to point outwards. Which is what every cyclist friend is telling me that cause this kind of pain.

I’m going to rest 1 or 2 days more before going for a test ride, but I really, really hope this is the cause, and not some serious injury there.

Footnotes

Bike fit and phisiotherapy

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-10 00:00:00

After resting for a while and fix the cleats on my shoes again, I’ve done a couple of rides in the synapse, 109 km, +1332 m, 4 hours in total, without having any pain at all. I also did a 1 hour ride on the trainer, 39km +146 m in Zwift.

The knee definetely feels better, which is a relieve, but I still wanted to get to the root of it (if possible) and I’d really like to have some medical oppinion on the status of the knee.

And today, I had both things sorted out.

Last week, during a visit to my local bike shop (MyBike#1), I explained them what happened with my knee and my doubts about the positioning of my shoe cleats. They also pointed to the relation of pain and cleat position and they suggested me to give a call to a friend of them, Anibal Belassi#2, who is a cyclists trainer with lots of experience. He has a studio where I could get some help and even a complete bike-fit service.

I gave him a call last week, explained a bit the reason of my call and got an appointment for today. The idea was to talk a bit, look into my shoe cleats and maybe do the bike fit.

Remember I wrote in my previous entry (worried about injuries) that I had an appointment for the 30th of May with a phisiotherapist? Well, I got a call from that clinic yesterday. They had a slot available today.

So I had a busy morning today. First I took my daughters to school. Then I came back home and picked up the synapse, clothes, cycling shoes (both summer and winter) and packed everything in the car. I drove to one of those car wash stations to wash the synapse (which was completely dirty after a rainy ride yesterday) and then I headed to Anibal’s studio.

I arrived there at 10:00, our scheduled meeting time. I introduced myself and explained him my problem. He listened carefully and patiently and then he told me about his bike fitting and biometric testing procedures. I liked what I heard and saw, but I told him about my big concern regarding doing big changes in the bike fit in the middle of the season.

Finally, we agreed on doing the full bike fit but step by step. We were going to do all the measurements, both on myself and the bike, then move to check sizes and positions of saddle, handlebars, stem, etc and see if there were any adjustments needed to do. Finally, decide IF we should do them and what would that mean.

First he measured me, then he measured the bike and, after that, he put some tiny yellow dot stickers on my feet, leg, hip, etc. After measurements, I got on the bike and we checked my feet position to see if my shoe cleats were correctly set. Interestingly, they were “almost right” after my latest adjustments last week, we just had to do one minor adjustment on the right shoe cleat (my foot was a bit too close to the crank arm).

With the cleats adjusted, he did a few more measures with me sitting on the bike, and finally I started to push the pedals.

I did pedal for a while, with him watching closely, and then we did record a few videos while I was pedaling.

Long story short… My beloved synapse is like a glove for me. All fits perfectly, from frame size to stem length, crack arms length, handlebar width, all of it.

But (there had to be a “but”) he noticed something with the way I pushed the pedals. Not something serious, but a place where we had room for improvement.

Let’s see a capture made while I was pedaling, with the bike as it was when I went to visit Anibal:

Now look at my right foot, specifically at the angle of my heel in relation with the floor. Apparently, that angle was too high/wide, which means I’ve been pedaling like walking on tip toes, which means I don’t transfer full power to the pedals when pushing them.

So, nothing serious that could cause any injuries, but something I could improve to be a better cyclist. Nice!

Based on that little discovery, plus all the measurements we made, Anibal suggested to move my saddle a tiny bit forward and then lower its height another tiny bit. Then he told me some tips on how to improve the way I push the pedals.

We did those small adjustments on the saddle and we repeated the video recording, with me trying to follow his advice to improve my pedaling.

The software he was using for recording the videos has some capabilities for taking measurements too, which helps comparing my position on the bike before and after the adjustments:

Before the adjustments:

After the adjustments:

Looking at the numbers, it seems 31.49 degrees is way too much for that foot-floor angle (based on whatever scientific data they use as a base). Looking at the position… it definetely looks I was indeed pedaling like walking on tip toes.

I did pedal for a while on that trainer, and everything felt ok. I guess I’ll have to wait to do some longer rides to see if there is any significant difference (good or bad) caused by these adjustments.

Around 12:40 we stopped, with just a few things left to do, because I had the appointment at the phisiotherapy clinic at 13:00. I packed up my things and then booked an appointment to come back next week and finish things up.

And off I went, to the clinic. There I met Erik, tall muscled guy, who was going to take a look at my knee. I told him about the kind of cycling I do, long distances, brevets, etc and then I went right into describing the past month of April with those 3 strong brevet weekends, the shoe cleats issue and finally, the pain on my knee.

Based on the info I gave him, and the experience treating other cyclists, he also suspected the cleats could be the root of the problem, but we did an ultrasound scan on both knees to check how things were in there.

In the scan we saw there was a bit of liquid in both knees, but apart from that, all seemed fine. Back to “what happened here, doctor?”, Erik was really nice and took some time to explain his theory. The bad position in the cleats made me pedal in the wrong way for those long efforts, which caused one of the muscles connecting hip and leg to work in a way that made one tendon (called cintilla, in spanish) to suffer/rub/whatever. When that friction and extra work for the tendon was too much, pain appeared and then the body released the liquid in the knee area to compensate and prevent some more damage. (I just hope I’ve explained it with the proper words here).

Now, “should I rest longer, doctor?” (specially considering the next 400 and 600 in my calendar).

The answer was that the knee should be ok, specially I have fixed the shoe cleats problem. Then, Erik suggested to do a treatment to speed up the recovery on the tendon + the removal of that liquid.

Electrolisis Percutánea Intratisular is the name in spanish for that treatment (Percutaneous Electrolysis Therapy). Basically they use a needle to send galvanic micro-currents through you, focused on the area where you have a damaged tendon. Theoretically, this helps rebuilding/fixing tendon tissue, speeding up things.

No side effects and no problems about doing the Brevet this weekend… so I said yes and we did the treatment.

Needle went in without much problem, then we did 3 rounds of micro-currents, 8 seconds per round. The first one was barely noticeable, the second round was “interesting” and the third round… ouch, felt almost like the pain I had on the bike.

After the treatment, Erik gave me another treatment applying heat on both knees and then a full massage on the upper muscles of both legs. Man, that massage was a lot more painful than the micro-currents!

Before leaving, we discussed again the plans for this month. Erik was confident that the knee won’t cause trouble, but he suggested to bring some painkillers with me “just in case”. We decided to book a couple more appointments for the next weeks, he recommended to do another 2 sessions of the EPI treatment, plus he said it would be nice to keep an eye on my legs for some time.

So, I guess I did everything I could to handle this knee problem. I found what seemed to be the root of it, we fixed it, and then I double checked that everything was ok with my knees.

Let’s see how things will go this weekend, in the second 400 Brevet of the season.

Footnotes

#1

https://my-bike.es

#2

https://www.abciclismo.com

BRM 400 - Polas catro provincias

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-14 00:00:00

If I’d have to give you a summary of this Brevet in a few pictures, I think these would be the ones:

In words, that would be something like centenaire, all-night cycling, double pinch flat and friendship.

But let’s go back to the beginning, so you can get the whole picture.

This was the second 400 Brevet this year for me, just a couple of weeks after the first one. This one was organized by my friends from CC Riazor, which means we started again in Bastiagueiro, A Coruña.

This Brevet is called “Polas catro provincias”, which translated from Galician would be something like through the four provinces. Galicia is split into 4 provinces: A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra, and during this Brevet we were going to ride on roads from all of them.

The 400s organized by this club still honor the tradition of having to ride all night long, and so we started on Friday (instead of Saturday), at 22:00.

I arrived in Bastiagueiro around 21:00 and I had a quick dinner sitting in the back of my car, with the trunk open. While eating my pasta salad I watched the other randonneurs arriving, unpacking and getting ready. Once I finished dinner, I hurried up and got ready too, closed the car and got to the start point to get my Brevet card.

As usual, this pre-brevet time is the time to meet friends and colleagues, catch up and talk about what to expect for the Brevet. 20 randonneurs signed up for this Brevet, less than the number of participants in the 300s and a lot less than the ones in the 200s. This time, apart from the usual suspects, I saw a few new faces.

We took a moment to take the usual group picture before departure, as well as our club group picture (which means the picture of the members of the Mesoiro cycling club + myself on it).

Start time was approaching and everybody was ready, time to start another adventure. There was still some light when we left INEFG, but soon the only light was the one from the street lamps and our front/head lights.

We passed Santa Cristina and crossed Puente Pasaje, then turned left towards O Burgo, as we had done in a lot of other Brevets. This is one of the main in/out roads to/from Coruña.

As we left the main city areas and outskirts, there were less and less street lamps, and soon we were riding on our beloved secondary small roads. The temperature was nice (around 13ºC) and we were riding on a good pace. Soon we were on the first climb of the Brevet, La Cantera, a classic already in Riazor Brevets.

We rode all together, as a big group, chatting and making jokes. In a couple of hours we arrived in the first checkpoint, A Pontepedra (km 45). There was a bar open, just by the side of the road, and everybody stopped there to get the first stamp in our Brevet cards. Initial plan was to do a quick coffee stop there, but as we saw everybody getting inside and ordering, Dani and me looked at each other and said at the same time - “maybe it would be better to make that coffee stop in Santiago?”.

We were too many people, so preparing coffee for everybody would take quite some time, and it was a bit early for the coffee stop for me anyway. So Dani, Edgar, Jose, Óscar, Alex and me got our cards stamped and left A Pontepedra in direction to Santiago de Compostela#1. A little while afterwards another randonneur joined our little group, a portuguese called Helder, whom we knew already from previous Brevets.

We had a moderate tail wind on our way there, and the terrain was mostly going down with some flat parts and a couple of light repechos. The road was a secondary one but in very good condition, so we were literally flying and we arrived in Santiago in an hour.

We did the coffee stop in the first bar we found open. It had a nice big terrace, so we could have our bikes on sight at all times. In this stop we put some money into our common pot (which still had 30 eur from our previous Brevets this year).

We made the stop as quick as possible, but when we were about to leave, we saw another group of randonneurs - part of the bigger group that had coffee in A Pontepedra - passing by, while shouting “you are too lazy during stops!!” and laughing.

We left the cafe and took the road that passed by old town and the Alameda, a big green area/park located in the middle of Santiago. There were lots of lights, noise and people around there, as during this time of the year, they do a big local celebration, the Ascensión

I’ve lived in Santiago for a couple of years, back in 1997, and while we were passing through the city a lot of memories from those old times started to come to mind. I also wondered what old 1997 me would say if someone would tell him I’d be riding 400 km a few years in the future…

On our way out of Santiago we had to stop at a traffic light in avenue Romero Donallo. A guy that was walking on the sidewalk came a bit closer and told us another big group of cyclists just passed on the same direction, and then he asked us what was it that we were doing cycling at night like this. We told him about the Brevet, that we were going to ride 400km and a few names of the places we were going to pass by. He seemed a bit impressed before saying something like “you are nuts” and then “hurry up then, the others passed like half an hour ago!” laughing.

We knew it wasn’t that long, he was teasing us a bit.

Finally we left Santiago on the road towards Ourense#2.

We still had that wonderful tail wind and the roads still were fast ones. We rolled fast, passing villages and towns, O Sisto, A Ponte Ulla, A Bandeira, A Cruz… We passed the group that was riding ahead of us, and Helder decided to stay with them. We kept on and soon passed Silleda too.

I rode a long time of this stretch with Alex. This was his first 400, and even having some previous experience riding longer distances (he did several ultracycling#3 races), he was a bit nervous. In the past, when I was in such situations myself, it helped a lot having someone with experience by my side, talking through the whole thing. I tried to be that person for him this time.

The temperature started to drop, slowly, 10, 9, 8ºC. We were expecting some real cold later, after passing the next checkpoint (Lalin#4 at km 121) and it seemed the forecast was going to be right this time.

On our way, we passed more randonneurs and some of them, like Óscar from Naron and Ferreiro, joined our group.

We finally arrived in Lalin#5 at 03:56. Being a big town, we decided to look for something that may be open 24-hours, like a gas station, to get our cards stamped and something to drink. Everybody had brought food enough in their bike bags, so that should not be a problem. In case we could not find anything open, we were going to take a group picture at the sign at the entrance of town, showing its name.

We were talking about options when we spot a big restaurant to our left. All lights on and a big sign by the road Open 24 hours. “Great” - we thought - “we will be able to drink some more coffee!”.

We stopped there, parked our bikes and started to get our things to go inside when someone said “the door is closed!”. WTF, we looked around but the door was indeed closed, no bell to ring, nobody inside (even all lights were on). So much for “Open 24 hours”… Anyway, nothing we could do about it, we got back on our bikes and rolled a bit more, passing through town and finding a gas station that was open.

Everybody rushed inside, I kept myself outside for a moment, taking everything I’d need during the stop (clothes, food, bottles for refilling). I also refilled the top tube bag with more food from the big saddle bag. During the last 5 and a half hours I ate most of what I had there.

Inside, we ordered some coca-colas and ate something from what we had packed in our bags (bocadillo de jamón con tomate for me). More randonneurs arrived while we were eating and chatting.

Temperatures were definetely getting lower and, even inside, being stopped felt really cold. I ordered a big cup of coffee before leaving, to warm me up a bit.

I had brought with me my Rapha thermal jacket, to wear instead the long sleeve jersey I’d wear so far, when temperatures would get lower. But it was so cold, I decided to simply put the jacket over the jersey, and then the brevet gillet over it.

Once we finished and sorted out changes of clothes, we refilled our bottles and left the gas station with me shivering and praying to get some uphill roads soon.

After Lalin, on our way to the next checkpoint in Cea#6 (km 151), we had to tackle the longest, highest climb of the day, Alto de Dozón. Not one of those long, steady climbs, this was more like a series of repechos with very short descents on the other side, with one final stretch of 10 km that were mostly uphill all the time.

It was cold, the garmin showing 4-5ºC but the sensation being much colder (even going uphill most of the time). Most of the time we did ride in complete darkness. The sky was dark too, covered with clouds, no stars could be seen and no trace of the moon.

And then the moon appeared. To our left. Huge, yellow, like a huge cheese that was missing a big chunk on its right. It was beautiful.

We all were amazed by its beauty. It was quite distracting, so distracting that I did not see a hole ahead, in the middle of the road, and I bumped into it hard.

One of the bottles went flying away (right… just like 2 weeks ago after Tábara) and the front tire got deflated instantly. Pinch flat. “Fuck” - I said. I warned them and we all moved to the side of the road.

Edgar had found my bottle and I put it back in place, got off the bike to start replacing the inner tube on the front wheel when I heard a loud sound coming from the rear wheel - HHHHHSSSSSSSHHHHH - “FUCK” - I said again - “I can’t believe it”.

I had a double pinch flat. Both wheels, both tubes at the same time.

We put ourselves to work, quickly, and while I was fixing the front wheel Dani took care of the rear one. It took us 20 minutes to fix everything and start rolling again. 20 minutes of jokes and laughs. Riding with these guys is awesome, even when things get a bit complicated.

We resumed riding and got to the top of the climb, from where we had a 14 km descent to Cea#7. If going up to the top felt cold, imagine how it felt to go downhill fast for so long.

We arrived in Cea at 06:15, we didn’t get our cards stamped and instead we took a group photo at the entrance of the village. As we could not find the sign with the name of the village, we decided to take the picture at one of those signs showing which km of the road you are in.

Picture taken, we left towards the next checkpoint, O Carballiño#8 (km 159). Right, the next checkpoint was merely 8 km away, and it was mostly downhill there. 20 minutes later (06:38) we were there already. We found a bar open but they did not have anything to get our cards stamped with, and nobody needed a coffee stop, so we simply took another group picture at the sign and kept on riding.

We left O Carballiño with the sky changing its colors again. The sun was rising and slowly the sky turned from black to dark grey to a mix of colors. We didn’t enjoy a gorgeous sunrise (like we did 2 weeks ago on our way to Puebla de Sanabria, during the 400 organized in Astorga) instead the sky started to get clearer and the roads and scenery around them visible.

At one point I picked up my water bottle (the one that fell off when I hit the pot hole) and I noticed it was quite light. “Weird” - I thought - “this was the bottle that was full”. I tried to drink anyway and when I squeezed it a bit, my hand and arm got all wet. “WT…” - I put the bottle away from my body and squeezed again and I could see perfectly the water coming out from the bottom of the bottle, which was clearly broken :-(

We had a 24 km descent (with a few bumps in the middle) before arriving in the city of Ourense#9. Luckily we didn’t have to pass through it, we went around it riding on one of those ring roads you can find usually in big cities.

This part was ugly, I’d say the ugliest road of the day. First we rode for a while by the Miño river (that part was ok) and then we crossed it, following the road south. Once we crossed the river, we passed by some industrial area which looked like something out of post-apocaliptic dystopian movie. Ugly scenery around, big main road, lots of traffic. “Wonderful”.

Then the next climb started. Slowly the group split into several pieces, Jose and someone else riding first, followed by Alex, then me a bit behind and Dani, Oscar, Edgar and Manolo at the back. I rode alone most of the climb, finding my rythm there and enjoying every moment of the 18 km climb.

We passed several villages on our way up, O Piñeiral, San Cibrao das Viñas, Noalla, Santa Marta, A Petada. And finally we arrived in the Allariz#10, the next checkpoint at km 208.

It was 09:00 when we arrived there and everybody agree on having some good breakfast. During the climb a few more randonneurs joined our group, so we were quite the sight for the few people walking the streets at that hour, specially on a very cold morning like this one.

We found a café near the main square, parked our bikes and went inside to order breakfast. As I did in Lalin, I did stay for a bit longer outside.

First I rearranged things in my saddle bag, they were a bit moved around and disorganized after the double pinch flat, as the spare inner tubes were at the bottom of the bag and I had to take them from there in the middle of the darkness, in a hurry.

Second, I moved some more food from the saddle bag into the top tube bag.

Finally, I picked up the broken water bottle and threw it into a recycling container nearby. Then I picked up the other water bottle and went inside with the others.

Inside, people were lined up at the counter, ordering. I joined them and ordered coffee and a big piece of tortilla. Then I looked for a table to seat a bit while breakfast was getting ready.

The coffee wasn’t really good and my piece of tortilla had a few pieces of eggshell, so I’m not going to say it was a wonderful breakfast. It helped filling up reserves a bit though.

With our bellies and water bottles refilled, and after a successful visit to the toilet, we left the bar and picked up our bikes again.

It was shivering time again. Outside it was cold (so cold I kept all my night layers on) but at least the sun was out and shining. I was ready, so I moved myself to a nearby spot under the sun, to wait for the others

Soon the others joined me. After a great time riding our bikes in the dark of the night, this sun light was definetely cheering us up even more. We made jokes and we laughed a lot. And someone even found a nice spot for sun bathing!

We left Allariz, taking some secondary small roads without much traffic. The restart was very cold, but luckily we soon started going up towards the next checkpoint, Alto do Couso (km 234). The sun was shining and warming us up a bit, but I still was wearing all my layers.

This part of the Brevet was specially beautiful. The roads were in good condition and we were rolling fast, even going a little bit up all the time. Temperature was rising, slowly, and the scenery and views around us was very nice.

A couple of villages catched our eye, first Baños de Molgas#11, a village from the times of the Roman Empire which is well known by its bridge built by the romans, the roman baths, its natural hot water springs, among some other things. We did not stop there, but what we saw while riding through it was beautiful.

The other village was Maceda#12, with its old castle from the XI century, its cobblestone streets and old stone houses. It was a pity that they were doing some construction works on several streets, which we had to pass on our way through the village. But even with all that work, the village looked nice.

In one of the villages we did a quick stop to remove some layers. I removed the Rapha jacket and packed it in the saddle bag, but I kept the gillet on (it wasn’t that hot yet).

We were reaching the top of Alto do Couso when we spot a nice fountain on the left side of the road. We stopped there to refill our bottles. An old couple was sitting on a bench, outside a house nearby. They said hello and asked “Where are you coming from? Ourense?”. When we told them from where we actually came, they were surprised, but when we told them what we had still ahead of us… I bet they simply thought “This young people is nuts”.

A few meters after the fountain we stop at the top of the climb, at a gas station and got our cards stamped at 10:55. Quick stop to get the stamps and off towards Ourense again, on a 20 km descent with a few flat (and fast) parts.

We literally flew there.

Getting closer to Ourense, we passed by the Encoro de Cachamuiña (the dam of Cachamuiña). The road passed just by the side of the artificial lake made by the dam, and the views were gorgeous. They had one of those parks there with access to the lake, so people can go there for walks, running, swimming or simply spend some time outside.

Half an hour later we were entering the city, again on a ring road, but this time on the east side of the city. We were riding down a long avenue, with lots of traffic lights, when I noticed a Trek bike shop to our left. We stopped for a moment to check if it was open… and it was indeed!

The guys waited outside while I went inside Codigo Bike#13 and bought a water bottle (since Allariz I had only one with me, which wasn’t ideal for a 400 Brevet). I also told the guy there about the Brevet we were doing and my little accident with the pot hole. He offered to check pressure on my wheels and pump some air if needed (great!) and even refilled my bottles with fresh water.

Second time this year that a Trek bike shop saved the day (do you remember about Bragança?)

We resumed riding and passed by Ourense again without entering the city (luckily). On our way to the bridge to cross the Miño river (again), suddendly we had to pull the breaks, completely astonished…

A duck was crossing the road, followed by a few ducklings!!

I tried to take the camera out, everybody tried the same with their phones… but they were too fast and we weren’t able to take a picture. Too bad, it was quite the picture.

We crossed the Miño and took the road right alongside it, towards the climb out of Ourense and towards the next checkpoint, Chantada#14 (km 290), in the province of Lugo#15.

Big main road, lots of motor traffic, going all the way up under a strong mid-day sun that soon started to cook us for good. If only we would have some nice views… but there wasn’t any.

We started with a 10 km climb on the bigger Ourense-Santiago road. At the village of Cambeo we took the road to Chantada#16, still a big main road but with a lot less traffic at least. This was the moment when the wind started to push us back seriously.

We were tired and our mood wasn’t that good anymore, but we pushed through. Time to stay inline and take turns pulling. The road was a series of ups and downs, with the ups being longer than the downs, which meant less recovery time.

We were going up another long repecho, everybody silent, when I saw the sign with the name of the next village, Toldavia, and I couldn’t help myself.

“They should have added a big ‘NO’ at the end!”

It took a second, but then everybody was laughing out loud.

Note

Explanation for non-spanish speakers:

The name of the village was Toldavia

Todavia in spanish means Yet

If we add a No at the end… “Toldavia No”, literally translated… “Not Yet”

Now place all this after a lots of little climbs, one after another… ;-)

It took a few more repechos, but soon we crossed from the province of Ourense into the province of Lugo. Our next stop was getting closer and closer, and we were already dreaming of having lunch, but we still had a few more repechos to climb, a few more villages to cross (like A Barrela, A Estivada, Pradeda or Soilán).

It was a relief when we finally reached the 5 km descent that would get us to Chantada#17. On that descent we catched our friend Manolo again and we arrived in Chantada with him at 13:42.

We rode around some streets for a while, trying to find a good place to eat something, and we finally followed the recommendations of some locals and found a nice little restaurant with enough space to park our bikes outside.

The bar was pretty full, almost all tables already taken, but there was some space at the counter, so we decided to order anyway. I order a bocadillo de calamares (fried squid sandwich) and a beer. I wanted to order some tortilla too, but the waiter said that, sadly, there was no more of it left.

While they prepared lunch, people from a few tables finished and left, and we finally sat for a while. Alex, Óscar and me sat at one table, and the rest of the group sat at another one.

When we finished our food, a few of us still had some free space, so we got some croissants and pastries as a quick dessert. Some others had coffee. We spent a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes during this stop.

Manolo was ready before the rest of us, so he paid for his own food and left, while we were paying ours with the money from the common pot.

Then we went outside and got ready to leave.

We knew the hardest part of the Brevet was history at this point. From then on there should be no more big climbs left to do, but still we would find lots of little climbs. First one right at the exit of Chantada.

The next checkpoint was 102 km away, in the town of Betanzos#18, and on our way there we had to pass by Taboada#19, Monterroso#20 and Palas de Rei#21 (still in the province of Lugo#22) Melide#23 and Curtis#24 (already back in the province of A Coruña#25) among some other smaller villages.

From Chantada to Taboada we rode in parallel to the Miño river, but we didn’t really have a view of it. A bit before arriving in Taboada, we hit the mark of 300 km.

We crossed Taboada without stopping and took the road towards Monterroso. On our way there, while riding on a long straight road, we saw an ambulance on the road, some traffic police and lots of people. There had been a car crash, some car hit a motorcycle hard.

Then we passed Monterroso and Palas de Rei, also without stopping, and we pushed through to Melide#26 (km 340) where we decided to do one last coffee stop.

We were almost there, almost done. The last stretch, usually the one that feels longer, harder, more difficult. Everybody was tired, so we focused a bit more on pushing the pedals and less on talking, with Dani and Edgar doing most of the work, pulling us all the way.

I started to feel a bit strange, like when sleep is coming over you fast. Not dizzy and not really sleepy, but weird. This brought up memories of a similar sensation in the 400 last year, so I decided to apply the same solution that worked fine one year ago. I pushed myself a bit.

I put myself in front of the group and pulled strongly. We were on a road that was going up and down like a rollercoaster, so I pushed hard on the parts where it was going a bit up, and a little easier when it started to go down. I kept an eye on the guys behind, trying to adapt my rythm, not too hard, not too easy.

And it worked. After a while I was fully awake and I let somebody else take over the lead pulling.

Then Alex was by my side, looked at me and asked “what was that? what happened? you started to pull like a maniac!”. I smiled wickedly and explained why.

I really enjoyed this part of the Brevet, between Melide and Betanzos. The roads were in perfect condition, we were rolling fast (we had head wind, but not as bad as the forecast said) and we had some nice views all the way to Betanzos.

At one point dark clouds started to cover the sky, threatening us with some rain. But we were lucky and it didn’t really rain (but we had a few light showers).

After Curtis there was a long descent to Betanzos. 20 km going downhill, with a short stop in the middle to get some water from another fountain (called Fuente del Caballo because there is a big statue of a horse head by the fountain).

We arrived in Betanzos#27 (km 392) at 19:30 and we got our cards stamped in a gas station. We didn’t want to spend too much time there. Everybody was looking forward to finish the Brevet. We still had around 15 km to the finish line, with 3 interesting little climbs on our way.

The thing with those climbs is that they are in the main road to get to coruña from this side. This could mean lots of traffic, specially at certain rush hours, like the time we were going to pass by there today.

The guy at the gas station told us 3 other randonneurs stopped there too to get their cards stamped. Two of them a lot earlier than us, but the other one had passed by not long ago. We recognized our friend Manolo by the description the guy gave us.

We said goodbye to the nice guy at the gas station and off we went, to tackle the last 15 km.

One climb out of Betanzos, then another one at Guisamo and then some descent in the middle of the fast traffic until we took the road right towards Santa Cruz. That little road is a life saver, we were riding in the middle of all that traffic and suddendly, pop, you appear in a smaller, quieter road.

In no time we were on the road from Santa Cruz to Bastiagueiro. Everybody smiling and getting back to making jokes. I was telling Alex about our little tradition of sprinting all the way up the parking lot ramp to the finish line in INEFG, when I noticed someone on a bike in the last roundabout before INEFG.

It was someone on a road bike, but it was a very small person. When we were getting closer, I noticed it was a kid. And when we were really close, he dashed out of the sidewalk, into the roundabout and towards INEFG.

I realized it was the son of one of the Mesoiros, Jose. I was on the lead then, so I pushed the pedals and got side-by-side with him on the ramp. He looked at me, eyes wide open, standing on the pedals and pushing hard.

“HEY!” - I shouted - “Don’t you dare! You can’t win! I’m gonna win!” and I did stand on the pedals, making it as if I was doing a hard effort. He pushed and I kept myself side by side with him, shouting “Oh!, No!, you are too strong! But I’m going to win!”.

I heard the others laughing behind and we kept like that all the way up the ramp. When we were almost at the top, I let him pass, cursing and shouting about my bad luck finding someone so strong at the finish line.

It was a damned fun ending for a Brevet ;-D

20:21. Brevet card delivered, pictures taken, we did stay for a moment there, chatting about the day, the Brevet, everything. It was the first 400 for both Óscar and Alex, and I had the sensation both of them had a good time.

Personally, I had a great time. I started the Brevet worried about my knees, about the change in saddle height/position, about doing a second 400 2 weeks after doing the first one… lots of doubts, but all of them were completely cleared/wiped out during the first part of the Brevet.

It felt so good to see my knees were just fine again, big win there.

After socializing a bit more, some left home, while me and some others went to the parking lot to pack our things up in our cars.

It took some time to pack things up, mostly because we keep chatting and sharing our points of view of the day, then talking about what will be next in our agendas… the 600 Brevet(s).

As usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Footnotes

#1

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Compostela

#2

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Ourense

#3

https://ultracycling.com/what-ultracycling/

#4

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalin

#5

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalin

#6

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Crist%C3%B3bal_de_Cea

#7

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Crist%C3%B3bal_de_Cea

#8

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carballino

#9

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orense

#10

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allariz

#11

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba%C3%B1os_de_Molgas

#12

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maceda

#13

https://www.codigobike.com

#14

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantada

#15

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Lugo

#16

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantada

#17

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantada

#18

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betanzos

#19

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboada_(Lugo)

#20

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterroso

#21

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palas_de_Rey

#22

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Lugo

#23

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellid

#24

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis

#25

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_La_Coru%C3%B1a

#26

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellid

#27

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betanzos

Change of plans to get to Paris

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-19 00:00:00

As you may remember, back in february I booked a place to go to Paris with the FECT, just after I made up my mind about pre-registering for PBP#1.

Back then it seemed like the best option for all the travelling and accomodation. Even some of my friends from Astorga Randonneurs#2 signed up with the FECT#3 too.

I few weeks later, though, I discovered that a few randonneurs from A Coruña were going directly from there. One of them being my friend Dani (whom you already know, from my brevet reports, as I’ve ridden almost all of them with him). And they offered me a place to go with them.

On one hand, going with the FECT#4, which means driving myself for 4 hours to get to Madrid or Burgos (the two places where they could pick me up with the bus) and then a long trip by bus all the way to Paris.

On the other hand, driving less than an hour to Coruña, then a trip in a couple of big vans with some friends to Burdeaux, sleep there, then get to Rambouillet the next day.

The second option definetely sounded better, specially considering that on the come back from Paris, with the FECT#5 option I still would have to drive my car for 4 hours to get back home…

So I discussed my options with the guys from the FECT#6 and I had two options:

find (by myself) someone that was going to signup for the trip with them, and then pass him/her my reservation.

wait until all the seats have been booked and they open a “waiting queue”, then the first person that gets a place in that queue will get my reservation

Finding someone by myself was going to be difficult, so I simply waited.

Weeks, then months, passed. The more we were getting closer to the date when the final PBP registrations will be open, the clearer it was that there won’t be a “waiting queue”. It did not seem they will fill the bus.

Luckily, I managed to find someone that was interested in going to Paris with them. During one of the Brevets, I heard another randonneur that he was thinking about booking a place for the trip. I got in touch with him a few days ago and told him about my reservation and that I was looking for someone to pass the reservation on.

He was interested and, in a couple of days, everything was arranged. He made me a money transfer of the amount I had paid in avance to the FECT#7 and they arranged internally the transfer of my reservation to him.

So, another step forward towards that crazy idea of riding Paris-Brest-Paris for the first time…

Footnotes

#1

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#2

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#3

https://fect.info

#4

https://fect.info

#5

https://fect.info

#6

https://fect.info

#7

https://fect.info

Why your Brevet homologation name is important

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-24 00:00:00

You know, I have this super long and complicated name:

“Francisco de Borja López Río”

With “Francisco de Borja” being my first name and “López Río” my last name (or surname, or family name, whatever).

Using multiple first names was quite common in spain a few years ago, when I was born. As it happens, it has caused me trouble several times through my life. Some times it is simply mispellt (one word or several), some times a mistake is made and they put only “Francisco” as the first name, some other times people think it is not long enough and add some more words to it…

Anyway, trouble one way or the other.

For a long time, I decided to stick with the full thing, as that is how my name appears officially in my ID card (called DNI/NIF in spain), but they are too many words, which raises the probabilities of errors. So in the end I decided to use the simpler version every time I’ve to sign up for anything: “Borja López Río”.

So, in order to pre-register yourself for PBP#1, first you have to open an account in the Audax Club Parisien website#2. There you provide some basic information, like full name, address, etc. I provided “Borja López Río” as my full name.

Then you can proceed with the pre-registration, which I already did back in february

Then you have to do the full Super Randonneur Series before a given date (some day at the start of July) to be able to confirm your registration.

For the ACP#3 to check that you have done the needed Brevets, in order to confirm your registration, you have to look for them in their website, under your account. You can look for them by club or by Brevet homologation number, and once you find the Brevet data, you have to confirm it (clicking on a button).

Easy… isn’t it?

Maybe not so easy. They have some constraint set on the data, so even if you look for a Brevet by its homologation number, if the name in your ACP#4 account does not match the name provided when doing the Brevet homologation, then you cannot confirm it as yours.

On every Brevet I signed up for in 2023, I’ve used the same short version of my name, “Borja López Río”, except in one case, the first 300 brevet of the season, the BRM 300 - Del Urogallo (my mistake there, I should have paid more attention).

And now that brevet is missing from my account data. I can find it by its homologation number, but it appears with first name “Francisco” and last name “de Borja Lopez Rio” (second mistake, last name should have been “López Río”).

Looking into data from previous years in my account at the ACP#5 site, several brevets that appear there with the first name “Francisco de Borja” and the last name “Lopez Rio”, so I guess the constraint there is applied only to the last name.

Being a bit worried about all this, and how it may affect the requirements to finally confirm my registration to PBP#6, I dug a bit about how I could fix this Brevet homologation name, so I could have it under my account.

A few emails later with the representative of the ACP#7 in spain (Randonneurs Catalunya#8) I discovered that I’d have to send by post the Brevet card for that Brevet and some writing in a paper telling what needed to be fixed. Then, this spanish representative would send it to the ACP#9 in Paris and we would have to wait for them to fix it.

In the end, the good news is, I don’t need to do all that (even if I’d like to, really, to have my ACP#10 profile complete) as this year I’ve been a bit ambitious since the start, and I’m aiming at doing 2 full Super-Randonneur series, instead of 1.

This means that even missing that 300 brevet, I’ve enough brevets to confirm my PBP pre-registration. But for someone without the time to do some extra Brevets, this could have caused some serious headaches.

So, remember kids: always, always, double check the name on your Brevet cards when you get them!

Footnotes

#1

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#2

https://myaccount.audax-club-parisien.com

#3

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#4

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#5

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#6

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#7

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#8

https://rancat.cat/

#9

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#10

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

Bike problems just before the first 600

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-26 00:00:00

As you may remember, during both 400 brevets this year I hit a pothole hard. Hard enough for the water bottles to fly away from the bike and get some serious pinch flat (rear wheel in the BRM 400 - Braganza and both wheels at the same time in BRM 400 - Polas catro provincias).

After the second 400 I did a few shorter rides, and during the last one, I noticed some slack somewhere on the front part of the bike. I couldn’t tell if it was the steeering, the headset, the fork, the wheel… Also, for a few rides already I noticed an ugly “crack” sound coming from the bottom bracket every time I had to stand on the bike and push the pedals a bit harder.

Add to it all that, during the bike fit, I found out that my pedals were so worn out that they were not retaining the cleats properly in place (so even using the black cleats from look, my feet were too loose and the heal moved a lot sideways).

It was time to get the bike to my favourite LBS, MyBike#1.

I brought the bike to the shop last monday, so my friend Ginés could take a look at it and tell me a diagnostic.

Next morning, he told me it was time to replace the BB30 bottom bracket of my Synapse, and that he had stock of the Keo Blade Carbon pedals, so we could replace the old ones with some new pedals of the same brand/model.

He also told me that the thing with the front part of the bike wasn’t definetely the steering/headset or the fork. It seemed like some problem with the wheel (probably the bearings).

As I ordered those wheels online from Scribe#2, and they were still under warranty, I decided to write them an email before doing anything else about the wheels.

I sent an email to Scribe’s support team on the 23rd, 09:30, explaining the problem in detail, and in less than 2 hours, I already had a reply (excellent support service). They suggested to give it a try replacing the front wheel bearings.

I called back the LBS and asked Ginés to replace the bearings, but he didn’t have stock of the ones needed for my wheel, OUCH. No worries, he told me he was going to get them in time, so the bike could be ready for the 600 Brevet this weekend.

Days passed, and the bike wasn’t ready, and yesterday (thursday) I called the LBS at noon to check the status. At that point, I was already considering replacing that Scribe front wheel with the old DTSwiss I’ve here, somewhere…

In the end I got the bike back yesterday evening, and this morning I went for a quick test ride (1h) to check everything was ok.

And it was, everything in place and perfect, just in time for the 600 Brevet tomorrow…

Footnotes

#1

https://my-bike.es

#2

https://scribecycling.com/en-eu

BRM 600 - Santiago

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-29 00:00:00

My first 600 Brevet ever. As it happened before with the previous distances (200, 300, 400) I won’t forget this one anytime soon. I still have vivid memories of my first brevet on each distance, as each one was special in some unique way. And this wasn’t any different.

An epic 2-day ride along the Camino de Santiago, on nice roads and with good company, awesome climbs and fast rolling parts, as well as the usual galician rollercoasters… we had it all, and everything went by the book, just perfect.

Another brevet organized by my friends at Astorga Randonneurs#1, my idea was to ride as much as possible with the same group of friends I rode the BRM 400 - Braganza with (both Sergios, Saúl, Valentín and Estefanía). They already did a 600 together last year, and they had a few ideas about how to do in this one, including the answer to the big question:

Stop for a few hours of sleep… or not??

This was going to be a tough 600, with around +9400m of climbing, almost an SR#2 600 (which amount of minimum elevation gain is +10000m). But where the time limit for an SR#3 is 60 hours, for a normal 600 Brevet the limit is 40 hours.

I’ve heard a lot of times, while doing other brevets, comments from veteran randonneurs about the 600s being easier than the 400s because “you can do a short stop for sleep a few hours”. But the last couple of weeks, those same randonneurs were giving me advice against a stop for sleeping in this precise 600. “It is too much climbing”, “You won’t make it in time”, “It is a tough and slow one”, and so on.

But this group of friends thought otherwise. They wanted to do a sleep stop no matter what and, honestly, I thought it was a good idea. So a couple of weeks before the brevet, we booked a place to sleep around km 340, just on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela#4. This area had plenty of options that fit well our needs, as El Camino passes by there, so they are used to have lots of pilgrims all year long.

The next big question to solve was, what should I carry with me?.

So far the longest distance I’ve done was 400 km, without any proper sleep stop. This was going to be different, not only the extra 200 km and the stop to get some sleep, the weather was going to be a big factor there too.

The forecast was getting worse day by day, and a couple of days before the Brevet it was clear that we were going to have some interesting spring rain showers and, quite probably, thunderstorms too.

So, apart from what I’d bring to a 400, I’d also need:

More food than usual (more time on the bike)

More clothes (something to wear when sleeping, something to wear on the second day, stuff to protect myself under strong rain)

Bags to carry things comfortably

Regarding food, I packed the usual mix of Clif#5 bars, oats+honey bars, nuts bars and powerbar#6 protein bars. I just threw in a few more than usual. These bars were split between my top-tube bag, my jersey back pockets and a ziploc bag inside my saddle bag (from where I’d refill the top tube bag and my pockets during the Brevet).

Then I prepared a big bocadillo de jamón con tomate using rich multicereal bread with nuts. I sliced the bocadillo in three pieces and then packed them carefully into ziploc bags.

I also packed a bag of 226ers#7 isotonic drink powder and a few isostar powertabs#8 (enough to prepare 3 bottles of salts mix). I usually bring the powertabs with me in 300 and 400 brevets too, but only to prepare 2 bottles.

About clothes, I decided to bring enough for 2 “summer” days (2 short sleeve jerseys, 2 base layers - one a bit warmer than the other -, 2 bib shorts and 2 pairs of socks) plus arm and leg warmers, toe and waterproof shoe covers, my Rapha Brevet gillet with pockets and a light wind/rain jacket.

The idea was to wear one of the kits on saturday, and the other kit on sunday, adding arm/leg warmers, etc as needed during the ride. The waterproof shoe covers where a bit of a gamble… but it turned out it was worth bringing them with me.

With everything I wanted to pack spread over my bed (yeah, shame on me, I did not take the usual “before packing” picture!), it was time to pack everything up. And then I did regret not having bought a frame bag in time for this Brevet.

I thought I could manage with just my small Restrap#9 top-tube bag and my Apidura#10 9L saddle bag… but soon the saddle bag looked really bulky. And then I remembered that I had a small frame bag from decathlon#11. Not ideal, but good enough.

In the top tube bag I packed some bars, the isostar powertabs and the gopro camera.

In the small frame bag I packed one piece of the bocadillo, some more bars, the wind/rain jacket and a small ziploc bag with the key of my car.

In the saddle bag… everything else. Tools, spares, all the clothes, the other two pieces of the bocadillo, the bag with more bars, another ziploc bag with a powerbank and 2 additional batteries for the gopro, etc…

I did a couple of tests at home, to check things were ok once on the bike (with lights and everything), and then I removed the bags from the bike and packed everything in the car.

Time to drive a couple of hours to San Justo de la Vega#12.

I arrived in San Justo just in time to meet a few of the others in the Oasis, the bar which is also the start point of the Brevets there.

I got my Brevet card, we had a couple of beers and dinner (burger!) while chatting about what was waiting for us during the weekend.

As usual, it took some time to finish up dinner, grab my things and go to bed.

I woke up at 04:50, had full breakfast in my room and grabbed my things. I spent the night at the Hostal Juli, which is just the next building to the Oasis (the brevet starting point). This meant being able to sleep a bit more and also meant sleeping in the same place as most of the other randonneurs, so when I left my room, the corridors were full of other people with bags, bikes, etc.

I got to my car (as I left the bike there for the night) and started to get ready. Sadly, I had some issues when attaching the apidura saddle bag (I guess it was so loaded, that it made things harder to set up). I was almost ready when Salva came by to tell me they were leaving now (I missed the start group picture :-( ).

I hurried up and left, at the tail of the 17-randonneurs group, into the night.

We rode for a bit less than an hour in the dark, as a pack, before the sun came up. We were about to start the first climb of the day, Foncebadón#13, passing by Cruz de Ferro#14. 14 km of continuous climbing, easier at the start and getting tougher by the end, after we passed the Cruz de Ferro#15.

The group did stay together for most of the climb, with a few exceptions (a couple of fast riders putting some distance on the group soon, a few stopping to pee…). Overall, time to chat and catch up with friends, as usual.

This road is part of the Camino Francés#16, so we found several pilgrims on our way. Most of them were walking, but we also passed several people riding their bicycles.

Note

I’ve to make a special mention about a man that was riding his bike up to Foncebadón, wearing sandals, regular shorts and a shirt. His bike was a normal city bike and he had only a bag attached to its handlebar.

It was cold and damp so early in the morning and there he was, riding that city bike with a big smile on his face.

And this wasn’t going our only encounter with this man during the weekend, as on sunday, on our way back, we crossed him again on our way to Alto do Poio, from where he was coming down!

Before arriving at the top of Puerto de Foncebadón (1504m) thick fog banks surrounded us, making it hard to see a few meters around. Soon it was difficult even to see who was riding in front of you.

Luckily, the fog went away when we arrived at the top of the climb, where we did a short stop to wait for several members of our group.

It was really nice that the fog went away, as that way we were able to enjoy the gorgeous views before the long descent into Ponferrada#17.

That descent was… fast. At the top we agreed on sticking together and arrive together in Ponferrada#18, but soon Valentín and I were way ahead of the others.

In the middle of the descent, we crossed the village of El Acebo, with its broken cobblestone main street. Let me tell you it is a beautiful village to visit walking, but not really nice to find yourself there in the middle of a super-fast descent and after a 180º turn.

Our little group reassembled there, but after leaving the village, Valentín and I were faster once more, so we put some distance between us and the group again, just to stop after Molinaseca#19 and wait a bit for them.

We resumed riding together, with the addition of Juankar and two italians, Maximilian and Emmanuelle. We were a big group (10 people) and we had the wind on our backs. The road was smooth, fast and we were going a bit down all the time, so things started to go a bit out of hands.

We rode by the Sil#20 river, crossing the tunnel of Peñarrubia and passing the dam with the same name. I don’t know why, but crossing tunnels on the bike always feels… special.

Note

Maximilian and Emmanuelle weren’t the only foreigners in this Brevet. There were also randonneurs from Russia, Argentina and Portugal.

I didn’t met nor the Russian, who was just a red tail light way ahead of us for the first 60 km or so (and we didn’t hear anything about him for the rest of the brevet), neither the Argentinian.

I met the Portuguese several times during the first day, he was riding solo and he always seemed like having a very good time.

People started pushing the pedals and taking turns on the lead. After a while there was no more chatting, no conversation at all. At least for a while, until the complains started to appear. We were going too fast, too early.

At 10:05 we arrived in Puente de Domingo Flórez#21 (km 95), where some of us decided to do a coffee stop. It just felt like the right moment, after the first 4 hours of riding and it was perfect to break a bit that too-fast rythm we were falling into.

Some of us took a moment to rearrange things a bit (clothes mostly) and then we ordered some coffee. Instead of ordering something to eat, I decided to have one of the three pieces of my bocadillo de jamón (and it was just perfect!)

30 minutes later, we resumed riding. Juankar decided to wait for our friend Manolo, he wasn’t enjoying our pace at all. The italians didn’t stop at all, so our little group of friends was going to be on its own from there on.

We crossed from Castilla y León#22 to Galicia#23, directly into the province of Ourense#24, passing the village of O Barco de Valdeorras#25, which is known because of the wine produced there.

On our way to Monforte de Lemos#26 (the first Brevet checkpoint) we passed by Rúa de Valdeorras, Quiroga and San Clodio, among a few more smaller villages.

We were still going fast, on smooth roads. For some time we took turns on the lead, pulling the group. Each one pulled for 1 km, until the next 1-km-sign by the road, then it was turn for the next in the queue and the first one had to go to the last position on the line.

I’m not particulary fond of this game. I’m always too nervous and I spend more time looking at the wheel in front of me (and any pot hole that could slip by that wheel without warning) and less time enjoying the scenery around (which is, for me, the primary reason to do Brevets).

But I’ve to admit that this way km pass by fast.

We crossed the Sil#27 river like 5 times, as many times as the Lor#28 river. Bridges and bridges and more bridges.

The sun was hitting us hard, with temperatures between 25 and 28ºC, there were no clouds to give us some shelter from it and the roads were quite open, without any trees or woods around them to protect us neither.

I didn’t want to end completely sunburnt, like at the end of the BRM 400 - Braganza, so during a quick group pee stop, I put some sunscreen on arms, neck and legs. I also packed my arm/leg warmers in the saddle bag, I wasn’t going to need them for the time being.

Before arriving in Monforte, we had a short climb (5km, 4% average), nothing too serious, but under that strong sun and with our bottles almost empty, it was interesting. At the top we decided to do a quick stop at a gas station to refill our bottles.

Roberto and Estefanía didn’t stop at the gas station and they kept riding towards Monforte, telling us they would find a nice place for lunch and then they would send us the location to one of our mobile phones.

We left the gas station with bottles refilled and we pushed through the remaining 11 km to arrive in town. during that last stretch, we noticed big clouds were gathering in the area towards where we were going.

According to the weather forecast, we should expect rain and/or thunderstorms, and it seemed we were going to have some of those soon.

We arrived in Monterroso, looked at Roberto’s location and headed there. He was waiting for us in a restaurant in downtown, with Estefanía, Juankar and Manolo. We were on our way there, crossing some pedestrian-only area, when it started raining. We were going very carefully, one foot loose from the pedals and using that to push our bikes, the stone streets were wet and full of people, there were lots of terraces and all of them were full. Suddendly, I heard a big CRASH sound, followed by an even bigger THUMBM!! and then I realized Sergio was on the ground.

His bike slipped and he crashed loudly on his right side, falling on a few plastic chairs from a terrace.

We all went there quickly, to check on him. Luckily, he was ok. He smashed one of the chairs (completely broken), but that chair saved him from having a much worse crash.

After double checking him and his bike, we moved a bit forward, on the next turn, there they were, our friends sitting on a covered terrace.

We looked for a place to park our bikes, under some roof, and we sat for lunch. Just after sitting, lighting and thunders started to crack the sky and a huge rain storm fell.

Unfortunately, lunch took a lot longer than expected. The service wasn’t very good and there were several misunderstandings (one being the waitress forgetting to actually order my food to the cook). There were a couple of anxious moments, but in the end all went ok.

Bill paid, bottles refilled and bellies full, we left Monforte without rain but with clouds everywhere.

We were starting probably one of the most beautiful parts of this Brevet, but also probably the toughest. We were going towards the Ribeira Sacra#29, one of the most beautiful places in Galicia#30. Basically we went all the way down from Monforte to one of the biggest dams on the Sil#31, Os Peares#32, and then we had to climb our way up along the river banks.

Right after leaving Monforte, we took a nice small road towards Ferreira de Pantón#33.

This was one of those nice and quiet roads from the rural countryside in Galicia. All the time going a bit up, a bit down, and then a bigger climb passing by the old cistercian monastery and then through the village.

When we were arriving in Ferreira, dark clouds were covering the sky. It seemed quite clear that it was going to start raining any moment now.

We left the village and entered an area completely covered by trees, thick foliage making a natural roof over our heads, making it difficult to know if it was raining outside.

What we were able to notice were the thunders. When we heard the first one, nobody said anything. When we heard the second one, I couldn’t help myself and said loudly - “Man, was that a truck on a big road parallel to this one?”.

Saúl laughed and replied - “Suuuure my friend, there is a huge highway just a few meters to our right” - and another thunder cracked, sounding even louder.

We laughed and we kept pushing the pedals, in hope of avoiding any big thunderstorm coming our way.

As we were leaving the woods, thick rain drops started to fall, just before the long descent along the river banks, towards the dam. Quickly, we decided to push a bit harder, see if we can either leave the storm behind, or cross it quickly.

It worked, we went all the way down to the river fast, and it was worth the effort. We had a bit of rain at the start of the descent, but when we arrived at the Os Peares#34 dam, it had stopped completely.

The dam was the next checkpoint, km 205. We arrived there at 15:54 and we stop to take a proof picture.

On our way down we catched Juankar and Manolo again, and we took a moment to enjoy the gorgeous views of the dam, talk about how lucky we just had been - avoiding the storm - and take a few more pictures.

We crossed the dam and started the climb on the other side of the river, with a hard start, percentages around 14-16% and reaching 21%. At least it wasn’t raining!

The next few km were lovely. Right, it was tough because of those high percentage climbs, but going up there slowly gave us the chance to enjoy the gorgeous views around us. In fact, it was soooo, so, tempting to stop and take pictures… I guess if I wasn’t riding in a group, I’d stop a few more times.

Nobody was talking, you don’t talk a lot when you are panting, you know. And then, Roberto decided to play the DJ role. He attached his phone to an adapter on his handlebar and played some music… Highlights from a different era, from maybe 30 years ago, the spanish classics like Raphael, Nino Bravo, etc (I rolled my eyes and pushed the pedals, I don’t really like that kind of music…).

At one point, in the middle of another tough little climb, he selected a joke of a song from the 70s, La Ramona by comic and singer Fernando Esteso… That made the climb twice as hard, as it caught us by surprise and we started laughing in the middle of it. I was running out of breath and almost had to step down the bike.

The road was ok in those short climbs, but it was quite broken in a few of the descents. Treacherous, dangerous, those descents were full of holes and loose stones. I was being very careful, the last thing I wanted was another pinch flat, like in the previous 2 Brevets (the 400s). Then, in one of the descents, I noticed everybody was stopped a few meters in front of me.

Sergio hit a hole and got a double pinch flat. We quickly put everybody to work and in 15 minutes both tubes had been replaced. While we were replacing them, Manolo and Juankar passed us (we had left them behind a bit earlier) and I shouted - “Manolo! it wasn’t me this time, I promise!” - and he laughed as we remembered the last 2 brevets and my double pinch flat in the last one. “I see, but these things always happens in YOUR group, man!” - he replied.

We resumed riding, more short steep climbs, more broken descents. It seemed like a never-ending road at that point. We were running out of water, Roberto had been without any water for maybe an hour now and we were not able to find any fountains or places to get some.

Finally, we found a fountain and we did a short stop for refilling.

The last stretch, like climbing your way out of hilly hell, gave us probably the best views of the river and the vineyards around its river bank. The Ribeira Sacra#35 is well known by the quality of the wine produced there, and all the way up from Os Peares we passed by so, so many vineyards.

It took us almost 2 hours to ride the 30km from Os Peares to Chantada#36. When we arrived there, the group split again. Roberto and Estefanía were ahead of everybody, me and Valentín a bit behind them and way behind were both Sergios and Saúl.

Valentín and I decided to wait for the others and then stop for a moment in a terrace to have a quick coca-cola together. I had the sensation that Sergio was having a low moment there. Maybe it was just me, but I tried to cheer him up a bit, and he didn’t seem to be in a good mood.

We gave Roberto a call, to tell him we were going to do a quick stop. He and Estefanía were already out of town, going towards the next climb - Alto do Faro - but he told me they would find a place by the road to stop too and wait for us.

The next checkpoint was 35 km away, in Lalin#37, and to get there we still had to climb our way out of Chantada#38, going up for 15Km up to Alto do Faro. We took it easy, finding Roberto and Estefanía a few minutes after leaving town. They already had finished their drinks, so we didn’t even have to stop.

We rode together for a while, then the group turned into a line and eventually we split again. I arrived at the top of Alto do Faro and decided to put some clothes back on (arm warmers, gillet). It was early evening and the temperature had already started to drop. Also, we had a fast descent ahead towards Lalin#39.

It took me a moment to dress up and by the time I was ready, I was alone. Everybody pushed it on the descent, so I did that part alone and I cought them on the next repecho, after the village of Rodeiro.

We arrived in Lalin#40, next checkpoint - km 280, at 20:17 and we were completely soaked. On the last descent we found the road completely wet. It seemed as if a big storm just passed by there before us. The roads were so wet and full of water puddles, that the spray our tires were sending up got us all wet in no time.

I tried to keep myself away from the others, to avoid getting even more wet on my upper body, but it was pretty much useless.

As we were entering Lalin, we met Maximilian and Emmanuelle again, they mentioned something about some gears trouble in Emmanuelle’s bike. Sadly we weren’t able to understand what they were saying, and they didn’t stop with us, so we couldn’t offer any help.

I suggested the others to do a stamp-and-coffee stop at the same gas station I did stop in the BRM 400 - Polas catro provincias Brevet a couple of weeks before. I knew the café there was nice and there was plenty of space to park the bikes on plain sight.

While having that wonderful cup of hot coffee, I ate the second piece of my bocadillo de jamón, which was the perfect companion for the coffee.

As I’ve mentioned already, it was early evening and the temperature was dropping. And at that moment, we were all wet, so things were not going to improve regarding the cold. We all decided to put on some more layers before leaving the gas station.

I put on the leg warmers and the waterproof shoe covers. I did hesitate about putting my warmer gloves on or not. I did, but then just after leaving I decided to remove them again and pack them into my gillet back pockets. It wasn’t THAT cold yet. I also kept my rain jacket at hand, in case I may need it in a hurry.

Putting shoe covers on was the right decission, as for the next few hours we would ride on wet roads and more water puddles. It definetely seemed like we avoided the worse of the storm by a short margin. All the way to Santiago my feet were a bit drier (they were wet already) and warm.

We had 40 km to go until Santiago de Compostela#41 and from there, 20-something more km to O Pedrouzo, where we were going to stop and sleep for a few hours.

The road to Santiago was smooth and fast again. Even on the wet roads and with the ocassional repecho, it was so much fun. I spent a lot of time riding side-by-side with Roberto, talking, making jokes. How nice it is to have good company.

We also rode again with Juankar and Manolo. They were at the gas station in Lalin when we arrived and we left it together. While we had plans to sleep 3 hours after Santiago, they were going to do the Brevet without sleeping.

Hours were passing by, and soon we had a nice view of the sunset. We were riding northwest, so we had a good view of the sun setting over the horizon to our left.

We rode together for a while, but then Manolo and Juankar decided to stop in a village near Santiago to have dinner there, instead of trying to find a place in the big city, where things would be busier on a saturday evening.

We said our goodbyes and Roberto and me pushed on to Santiago, with the rest of the group behind us. After a while, we decided to stop at the top of one of the multiple repechos and wait for the others. It would be nicer to get into the big city together.

As we were approaching Santiago, we started to talk about what to do about dinner. Our idea was to arrive in O Pedrouzo before 23:00, but it was clear at that point that we were going to be late. One idea was to look for a place to eat in Santiago (I was dreaming of a dish full of pasta) but Saúl pointed out that a proper dinner stop would mean arriving way too late at the appartment we have booked.

Santiago was also the next checkpoint, km 320, so we had to get our Brevet cards stamped. We arrived there at 22:45 and we did a quick stop at a gas station at the entrance of the city. The gas station had a a small 24-hour supermarket, so we got in, got our cards stamped and bought whatever food we could find that was easy to carry with us.

I bought several empanadillas (traditional galician cake-like food, that can be filled with almost anything), meat, chicken, tuna fish… and a couple of Snickers chocolate bars. I put everything in my back pockets.

We left the gas station as quickly as possible, with Roberto still trying to finish the food he just bought at the supermarket. That’s why I decided to put everything in my pockets and eat everything later. Eating so fast usually causes me stomach problems later.

As I’ve mentioned already in the report for the BRM 400 - Polas catro provincias Brevet, I’ve lived in Santiago some years ago, and I know the city quite well, so I took the lead and brought them right into the old part of the city, to Plaza del Obradoiro and the well-known Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, where we took a few pictures.

We crossed the square and left the old part of town on a street that I’ve walked thousands of times long ago, when I was a student at the Faculty of Physics. So many memories from old times came at once.

Maximilian and Emmanuelle rode with us for a while, but on one of the traffic lights, or a roundabout, we lost them.

We took the old road that goes from Santiago to Lugo, my home town. Surprisingly there was almost no motor traffic, even for that time on a Saturday night. We passed by the Hotel Santiago Apostol on another little climb out of Santiago, then we took the Avenida de San Marcos avenue.

Suddendly, Roberto’s front light started to behave strangely. It switched to something like a flashing mode, but flashing too fast. Like one of those lights in a rave or some disco-bars. It was really annoying, and for him it was completely useless.

He tried to switch mode without much luck, then he tried to turn it off, but it won’t turn off. In the end, he asked us to stop for a moment so he could check the light more carefully. It seemed that some water got inside the light, probably causing some damage. He had some duct tape, so he covered the light with it, at least protecting us from the constant rapid flashing.

He didn’t have a spare front light, but we were a big group (7 people) so the lights of the rest of us should be enough if he stay in the group.

When he finished and we were about to resume riding, I noticed the rest of the group wasn’t there - “They probably went on slowly, they will be waiting for us a bit ahead” - I said. There were lots of street lamps anyway, so we managed… Until they were no more street lamps.

The rows of street lamps ended abruptly just before the entrance of the airport of Lavacolla. After that, complete darkness.

I was surprised the rest of the group wasn’t there, but all we could do was to keep on riding. I switched my front light into a higher mode, so we could have light enough for both of us. Luckily, my bontrager light has a beam that is quite wide.

I had a spare light with me, but it was packed into my saddle bag, so we decided to keep on like that, sharing my front light.

The night was specially dark, with the sky covered with clouds, the moon nowhere to be seen. It was quite the relief when we finally got near O Pedrouzo, and we found some street lamps again. Finally, we managed to arrive at our destination, the street where our appartment for the night was.

Valentín was waiting for us at the crossing of roads and streets and showed us the way to the entrance of the appartment.

We took the bikes into the appartment, taking turns to take the elevator (only person + 1 bike fit inside). When everybody was there, we choose rooms - I shared one room with Sergio - and then Valentín, Saúl and Sergio Pulido decided to visit a bar around the corner that seemed open, while the rest of us decided to stay.

I ate a couple empanadillas and some fruit and I drank a couple of big glasses of orange juice. The owners of the appartment left lots of fruit for us there (oranges, bananas, apples) as well as muffins, croissants and stuff to prepare breakfast (coffee, milk, juice…). Total luxury.

Then we took turns to have a quick shower, before going to bed. I was the last one having a shower, and while I was waiting for my turn, I re-packed things in my saddle bag. I removed the bags with fresh clothes for the next day, packed the dirty clothes of the day in those same bags, and I picked up a t-shirt and some boxers I brought with me for sleeping.

After the shower (which felt awesomely good) I went to bed and put the alarm for 5:00. I fell asleep instantly.

I woke up a while before the alarm (maybe 20 minutes or so?) feeling completely refreshed and fully awake. I picked up my things and went to the bathroom to get dressed. Then I went downstairs to eat something. I had a banana, an apple and an orange, as well as another big glass of orange juice.

Then I finished packing up my things and I took a moment to clean a bit the chain on the synapse, using some kitchen paper first to remove whatever could be removed, then putting some wax lube on it.

When everybody finished a quick breakfast and got everything ready, we left the appartment. It was around 06:20 and it was still dark outside, but a bit of sun light was visible on the horizon.

I did remember the problems Roberto had with his front light a few hours ago, so I gave him my spare one, which was good enough at that time of day.

Everybody was in good spirits and we were going fast on this rollercoaster of a road. Temperature was around 12ºC the sky was clear and there was no wind. Everything was just perfect!

When we were getting closer to Arzúa#42, thick fog covered everything around us. It was a bit annoying, but not as thick as the banks we had the day before, going up Foncebadón.

We crossed Arzúa fast, at 07:15, the streets were almost empty, with the ocassional pilgrim passing by. We pushed on, with the idea of getting to Melide#43, the next big town on our way, and stop there to have a proper breakfast.

Not that I was really hungry, but the idea of having a hot coffee was… attracting.

The mist we encountered in Arzúa went away after a couple of short climbs on our way to Melide#44. The sun came out, which was a plus to our overall good mood. Roberto started to play the DJ role again… more laughing.

We started to pass by (or cross) more and more pilgrims. Some were walking, some were stopped somewhere, like waiting for someone. Some were entering or leaving some of the sleeping places along the road. Every time we pass or cross one, or a group of them, we shouted “Buen camino!!” - the usual salutation to pilgrims doing El Camino de Santiago - and we always got something in response. Some times a nod with the head, some times a big smile, some others “Buen camino!” back or a simple “Gracias”.

We arrived in Melide#45 at 08:00. I knew a couple of places there where we could have breakfast, but I was not sure if they would be open, so I warn the rest of the pack to look for any place that looked nice. I was sure that at least a couple of options near the big roundabout in the middle of town should be ok. As we were crossing the roundabout, I noticed a Churrería was opened to our left, so I called them to stop.

It even had a nice alley on its side where we could park our bikes and see them from inside.

We got inside and sat in two big tables. The place was full of people already and the waitresses were completely busy. For a moment, I thought stopping there was going to be a very bad idea, that it would take a long time to get breakfast and then another long time to pay for it.

Luckily, soon one of the waitress, an old lady that looked like one of the owners, took notes of what we wanted and delivered everything quite fast.

Big breakfast we had there (we spent a total of 45 minutes on it). We had coffee, churros, croissants, toasted bread… some people even had coffee and a hot chocolate! Everything was delicious and, as someone pointed out, it would be wonderful to stay there and have another round of breakfast, but we had a long distance to go for the day.

And so we left Melide#46…

I’m not sure if it was the 3 hour sleep, the super breakfast, the fact that we were riding roads I know by heart or all the excitement of being riding my first 600 Brevet… but I was feeling great, strong. A few times I had to pull the breaks not to get too far from the others.

At one point the fog was back, this time thicker, more dense, making it more difficult to see not only the scenery around us, but whatever was ahead of us on the road

By the time we arrived in Palas de Rei#47 the fog was starting to go away. To cross the village we had to climb a bit and soon Roberto, Valentín, Estefanía and me were ahead of the others (up to not being able to spot them when we looked back). So at the cross roads between the main road to Lugo#48 and the smaller road towards Ligonde#49 (following el camino) we decided to stop for a moment and wait for them.

Once the group was reassembled, we resumed our journey following el camino backwards.

The next stretch would take us on another small, secondary road, still on the French way (Camino Francés). Another rollercoaster of a road, with a few double-digit percentage ramps on it.

We crossed a lot more pilgrims then. This road has a dirt-path-sidewalk for the pilgrims to walk on, so we passed by people doing el camino alone, couples, small and bigger groups; young people, old people… and people from a lot different countries (judging by the look of them). We were quite impressed with the number of Asian people we crossed.

And every single time, “Buen camino!!”, while waving at them.

We crossed the main national road that goes from Lugo to Santiago and we took the one that was going to get us to Portomarín#50, another of the well known stop places for pilgrims on their way to Santiago.

These were my roads, my terrain, the roads I ride more often during shorter week rides as well as connections to other roads when doing longer rides during the weekends. I felt myself home.

From the roundabout at Alto del Hospital we went down to Portomarin fast. We passed the village without stopping, without even going through its center, which has a nice main square and old church (it wasn’t a checkpoint and we didn’t need to stop for food or water).

We crossed the bridge over the Miño#51 river and kept on riding to tackle the first real climb of the day, Alto de Paradela.

As I told Estefanía and Valentín, this is one of my usual training climbs. A gentle 6-7 km climb with a moderate average gradient, good tarmac and nice views.

After Portomarin, we went up and down for a few km, crossing another bridge, this time over the Loyo#52 river, well known for the eel that live there, and the couple of restaurants that prepare delicious dishes with them.

Just after crossing the Loyo#53, we started the climb. We were all together, but the steepest part of this climb is precisely at the start, and soon our group was split again, with Roberto, Estefanía, Valentín and me ahead of Saúl and both Sergios.

On and on we went, all the way up until we arrived in the village of Paradela#54 at 11:00.

I think I made my slowest time ever on that climb, riding the bike with all the extra bags and weight made a big difference (+ all the km and climbing already on our legs).

We did a short stop at the fountain in the middle of the village, where we waited for the others while refilling our bottles and eating something.

Once everybody was ready, we resumed riding, this time towards Sarria#55. A long and fast descent, with a couple of short climbs in the middle. This should be perfect for a quick recovery.

On the descents, I took advantage of the extra weight on the bike. I knew this road by heart, so I was confident when cornering. I guess that gave me a bit of an advantage, and soon Roberto and I were way ahead of the others.

At one point, a small white car (toyota yaris, maybe?) passed me too close, way too close and then raised its speed dangerously to approach Roberto. The driver pulled the breaks hard being too close to him and then did something very, very, stupid, trying to pass Roberto on a turn, just to pull the breaks in the middle of the maneuver and keep driving on the other lane.

The driver was completely reckless and almost caused a crash when another car was coming in the opposite direction. We were lucky that he/she finally passed Roberto without any other crazy maneuver (and no accident).

When the rest of the group catched us, they told me that the car almost crashed into me, just before doing all those crazy things behind Roberto. We were very lucky there.

Apart from that short moment of danger and tension, I enjoyed that part of the ride a lot. When we reassembled, on the first short climb after the longer part of the descent, we passed by green fields, pastures where cows were having their morning snack

We passed by Sarria#56 - 11:40 - without stopping. As it happened in the previous villages and towns, I didn’t have to look at the gps or map, so we crossed town quickly.

There was no time to waste, but we did a short stop on our way out to change clothes a bit. I finally removed my gillet and replaced the long sleeve jersey with a summer short-sleeved one.

I knew the hardest part of the day was just around the corner. Short climbs again after Sarria, on our way to Samos#57, and then one of the two biggest climbs we still had to do.

The temperature already started to get higher, slowly raising, and before we arrived in Samos#58 it passed the 20ºC mark. After another couple of short climbs the group split in two again, just like it happened at the start of Paradela.

We waited a bit, to check if everything was ok with everybody, and Sergio mentioned he would appreciate a coffee stop, as he was feeling a bit sleepy. I told him Samos would be perfect for a coffee stop, we could stop there by the old monastery, take some pictures and have a coffee.

One more short climb and then we had a long descent into Samos#59. Before starting that descent, I told Roberto about having a quick coffee stop in Samos#60, to which he agreed. On the descent, the group split in two again, and Roberto, Valentín, Estefanía and I arrived in Samos#61 first, at 12:27.

We went all the way to the monastery, where there were several cafés with some nice terraces, and we stop there to wait for the others.

On our way there we passed César, another asturian randonneur doing the Brevet. He was sitting on a terrace, eating something.

We waited for some time but the guys didn’t appear. Estefanía went into one of the cafés, to use the bathroom and we waited a bit more outside, just in case they would pass without noticing us.

After a while, Valentín got a call from Saúl. They were already having coffee somewhere. We told them we were by the monastery, asking them where exactly were they, but they couldn’t say. “Weird” - we thought - “Maybe they did stop at the first bar they saw, at the entrance of the village?” - I pointed out.

We waited for Estefanía to come out of the café and we rode back to the entrance of the village. There they were, in the bar of a hotel. There was some misunderstanding about where/when to have the coffee stop, but things were cleared up over some hot coffee and something to eat.

During the stop, we attempted to talk about when/where/what we should do a proper lunch stop, but it was clear that everybody had a different oppinion about it, so we left Samos without deciding anything.

Before leaving, I took a moment to put some sunscreen on. The sun was shining strongly then, and I didn’t want to get sunburnt. I also repacked things a bit in my bags + refilled the top tube bag and back pockets with more food.

My idea, before arriving in Samos#62, was to take a group picture with the old monastery from the XI century on our backs. Due to that little misunderstanding, it wasn’t possible, but I managed to get them all on camera while we were riding passing it.

The next village was Triacastela#63 and we had to climb our way there again. We tried to keep the group together, talking about options for that lunch stop we would have to do, eventually. Roberto proposed to stop at a place he knows in Vega de Valcarce#64, which was very close to the next checkpoint (Villafranca del Bierzo#65), while Saúl proposed eating something at the top of the next big climb, Alto do Poio.

Personally, I didn’t have an oppinion. I was feeling fine and I’d been eating regularly all day long, going through the stash of food in my bags and pockets, so I was ok with whatever the guys decided.

After passing Triacastela#66, we were already in the first serious long climb of the day. Alto do Poio, 15 km climb with an average gradient of almost 5%, all the way up to 1335m. Just long and steady, without double digit ramps, the way I like climbs to be!.

I was feeling strong, so I looked for a pace that was comfortable for me and started to spin the pedals. In a few minutes, I had left the group behind and I could not see them anymore.

The views were awesome and I was having so much fun, and then, dark clouds quickly covered the sky and a light breeze started to blow. Even the temperature seemed to lower a bit. All of a sudden, I saw a lighting, then another, and then I heard the crack of the thunders.

A broad smile on my face, I couldn’t help it and suddendly I was humming Thunderstruck by AC/DC - I love that song - while thunder started to sound more and more closer to me. Unforgettable Brevet moment right then and there.

After the thunder it came the rain. Thick big drops at first, then transformed into a torrential shower. When it started to rain harder I did a quick stop to put my rain jacket on.

It took me one hour to get from Triacastela#67 to the top. I had to push the pedals under the rain for maybe 20 minutes or so. I can’t complain, I don’t mind riding under the rain - some times I even like it - and the temperature was still “ok” (around 15ºC).

A bit before the end of the climb, it stopped raining and the sun came out briefly, as it fo warm things up a bit. There was also a bit more wind, so both helped getting me dry.

Pilgrims were walking on the other direction (towards Santiago) and most of them were wearing huge rain coats, suits and big plastic hats.

I did another short stop to remove the rain jacket, it was warm and sunny and I wanted to get as much dry as possible.

When I got to the top I saw the bar Saúl mentioned for lunch. I decided to stop there by the sign of Alto do Poio and wait for the others. I had more wonderful views from there, and I could sit on one of those metal barriers by the road. It was warm, as the sun had been warming the metal up for a while.

I put my rain jacket back on to avoid getting cold, and then I decided to treat myself with the last piece of my bocadillo de jamón.

I finished the bocadillo and waited a bit more. Dark clouds started to cover the sky again and it seemed like it would start raining again any moment.

Finally the group appeared and it started to rain. They didn’t stop and I got on the bike and resumed riding with them. We went down Alto do Poio for a moment, just to climb again, this time to Alto de San Roque to pass by the Monumento al peregrino#68, a black statue of a Pilgrim, made in honor of all the pilgrims that pass by there on their way to Santiago.

After we passed the statue, there was another descent, towards O Cebreiro. We didn’t pass by that village though, a few km in the descent we left the main road and took a short and very steep climb to our right. Another smaller road that would take us to A Faba and then Vega de Valcarce#69.

As minutes passed by, the rain was getting stronger. It was a pity that it started raining harder. The next descent ahead of us was really beautiful, but that small road with very sharp turns, and raining hard… it was a bit too dangerous to enjoy it fully.

Roberto and I did the descent passing by A Faba alone, ahead of the others. He was a bit nervous descending on those narrow wet roads, so we took it really easy. He also had a couple of dangerous encounters with cars that were passing too close to us, on the other direction.

It was raining harder and by the look of the darker clouds approaching us, it was going to get worse. So, when we saw a bar open by the road, in the village of Las herrerías de Valcarce, we did stop right away. They even had a small stone porch on the other side of the road, where we could park our bikes and keep them dry.

Roberto went in right away to ask the waitress if we could have something for lunch there, while I waited at the door so the others could see me. A few minutes later I saw them coming and I waved at them. They stopped and parked their bikes too under that porch and we all came inside for lunch.

While we had lunch, the worse of the rain storm passed over us. There was a moment when water was hitting hard the windows of the bar and we were so glad of being inside.

We even had desert and/or coffee, waiting a bit longer before leaving, giving the storm time to pass. In the end, we spent 1 hour and 15 minutes in this stop.

When we went outside, it almost had stopped raining. Luckily, it wasn’t cold, because we still had to go down to Villafranca del Bierzo#70. We rode for bit more on that small road and then we took the bigger main road towards Villafranca. Time to play a bit more the game of taking turns to pull - “el juego de la plaqueta” as they called it.

It stopped raining, but we found lots of water on the road, even a few big water puddles that looked like small lakes. Gladly we didn’t find too much traffic at that time.

We crossed the tunnel that led us into Villafranca, the next control point at km 516. It was 17:15 and we decided not to stop there. We had our Brevet card stamped in the place where we had lunch anyway, so here we did a short stop by the road to rearrange clothes/layers and we resumed riding.

Time to ride on another roller-coaster road. 90 km to go. I thought I’d be more tired by then, that the amount of hours and climbing - with barely 3 hours of sleep - would take its toll on me. But I was feeling good and not tired at all.

After a couple of short climbs, the group was split again in two, as it had been happening all day long. We got back together again at another gas station stop, to do a quick refill of our bottles, a bit before arriving in Ponferrada#71 and with “only” 72 km to go.

We crossed Ponferrada#72 for the second time this weekend (we already crossed it after descending from Foncebadón on saturday morning) but this time instead of taking the road south-east to Molinaseca#73 we took the road north-east towards San Miguel de las Dueñas and Bembibre#74.

That road out of the city was steep and with lots of traffic, but luckily we had a couple of vías de servicio (those service roads that go parallel to main roads that you usually find on the outskirts of big cities and in industrial areas).

I noticed I was putting some distance with the group again, so I tried to slow down a bit, forcing myself to keep riding in the group.

At the end of that short climb out of Ponferrada#75, we had a fast descent on the other side. We were on the bigger national N-VI road, which there is a big and wide main road, so we were going down quite fast. Roberto was leading and I simply followed him, blindly, trusting he knew where he was going. Turned out he missed a right turn and we had to improvise a bit to get back on track and join the others a few km later.

Time to play a bit more “el juego de la plaqueta” and take turns pulling. One km, another km, another one… We passed Bembibre#76 and Las Ventas de Albares and the game stopped there, as we left the faster main road to get into another smaller secondary road.

We were approaching the final climb of the Brevet, Puerto del Manzanal from Torre del Bierzo#77. I already knew this climb, as we did it on the other direction (descending it) in the BRM 300 - Del Urogallo a few weeks ago. Now it was time to climb it.

Somehow I already had put some distance with the group at Torre del Bierzo#78 and, honestly, I didn’t feel like slowing down and making the climb longer than needed. So I did what I had been doing all day long, spin the pedals, find my rythm, and enjoy the climbing.

Another long (14 km) and steady climb, without high gradients but with gorgeous views to my right, which got better and better on every turn as I was getting higher. The first part of the climb goes on a snake of a road that twists itself all the way up until it joins the bigger N-VI. On its right, a cliff that goes down a long distance, offering a superb view of the valley below and the old mines and quarries in it.

I have to admit that I feel a bit of regret now, for not taking the camera out on my way up. The sky was blue, no trace of those dark clouds anymore, and the views were sooo nice. I guess I was having so much fun simply cycling, that I totally forgot about the camera.

When I got to the join with the N-VI I stopped for a moment, to look back (there is a good view of the smaller road from there) trying to see the guys, but I couldn’t see them at all. After a couple of minutes, I decided to keep on going and finish the climb.

The second part of the climb was on the N-VI, bigger road but still nice, as the road there goes on some very high bridges with some incredible views. Soon I passed the village of Manzanal del Puerto and finally I arrived at the sign that marks the end of the climb.

I did stop there to wait for the others. I took some pictures, ate something and then I put some more clothes on. From this point on, it was all the way down to Astorga#79 and then to San Justo and it was getting late and a bit more fresh.

After 10 minutes, anxiety started to grow on me. Up to this very moment, I had been ok, but it was 21:00 already and we still had to get to San Justo before 22:00 (the time limit).

The group hadn’t arrived and I started to worry. “Maybe something happened?”, “Another flat tire?”. And then, something came to mind, a memory from the BRM 400 - Braganza, when Saúl took us on a shortcut road to avoid an extra 4 km in the track we had… What if… what if they took a shortcut and they weren’t going to pass by this sign?

I gave Roberto a phone call, no answer. Couple of minutes later, second call, no answer. “Ok” - I thought - “five more minutes, if they are not here by then, I’ll resume riding alone”.

Just when I made my mind to get on the bike again, I saw Roberto appearing on the last turn before where I was waiting. I was SO relieved. I got on the bike and resumed riding with him. Then he told me they others were coming a bit behind him, but they had stop to put some clothes on before the descent into Astorga#80.

We catched up a bit, I told him I was sorry I dropped them on the climb, but I wasn’t feeling like slowing down on that last climb. I also told him about my worries, about arriving over the time limit. He talked me out of the anxiety, being kind and understanding my worries.

Just before entering Astorga#81, the others joined us. First Valentin and Sergio Pulido, then the others. We crossed Astorga and took a small road towards San Justo, passing by the cemetery.

The sun was setting and the thick clouds were on us again, so we turned on our front and rear lights once more this weekend. Everybody was happy, we shouted and congratulated each other. We did it, we did this beast of a 600 Brevet and we had a great time.

We arrived together in San Justo at 21:45, only 15 minutes before the time limit.

We congratulate each other, we hug, everybody was happy after such a good weekend of cycling, after having finished such a tough challenge.

For me, it was an awesome experience. During the previous days I had been nervous, excited, maybe even a bit worried. The kind of feelings you have when you are about to get yourself into something new, uncharted territory, something you had never done before. But everything went by the book and I had so much fun. I think this has been the best Brevet so far this year.

Sergio left us quick, as he wanted to go back home for dinner with his wife. Me and the others went inside the Oasis to have dinner together.

We had a wonderful Tortilla, with some good bread and some beers. We talked and talked and laughed. I savored the moment, every bit of it. After dinner everybody took their own way, and I went to the Hostal El Juli - next door - and into my booked room, to have a shower and a well-deserved all-night sleep.

As usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Footnotes

#1

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#2

https://rusa.org/pages/super-randonnees

#3

https://rusa.org/pages/super-randonnees

#4

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Compostela

#5

https://www.clifbar.com

#6

https://www.powerbar.eu

#7

https://www.226ers.com

#8

https://www.isostar.es/powertabs-limon.html

#9

https://eu.restrap.com

#10

https://www.apidura.com

#11

https://decathlon.es

#12

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Justo_de_la_Vega

#13

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foncebad%C3%B3n

#14

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruz_de_Hierro_(Le%C3%B3n)

#15

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruz_de_Hierro_(Le%C3%B3n)

#16

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Way

#17

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponferrada

#18

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponferrada

#19

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molinaseca

#20

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Sil

#21

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_de_Domingo_Fl%C3%B3rez

#22

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castilla_y_Le%C3%B3n

#23

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia

#24

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Ourense

#25

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Barco_de_Valdeorras

#26

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monforte_de_Lemos

#27

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Sil

#28

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Lor

#29

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribeira_Sacra

#30

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia

#31

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Sil

#32

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embalse_de_Los_Peares

#33

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferreira_(Pant%C3%B3n)

#34

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embalse_de_Los_Peares

#35

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribeira_Sacra

#36

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantada

#37

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalin

#38

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantada

#39

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalin

#40

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalin

#41

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Compostela

#42

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arz%C3%BAa

#43

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melide

#44

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melide

#45

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melide

#46

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melide

#47

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palas_de_Rey

#48

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugo

#49

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligonde

#50

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puertomar%C3%ADn

#51

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Mi%C3%B1o

#52

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Loyo

#53

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Loyo

#54

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradela

#55

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarria

#56

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarria

#57

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#58

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#59

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#60

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#61

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#62

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#63

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triacastela

#64

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_de_Valcarce

#65

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villafranca_del_Bierzo

#66

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triacastela

#67

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triacastela

#68

https://vivecamino.com/o-cebreiro/alto-san-roque-3223/

#69

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_de_Valcarce

#70

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villafranca_del_Bierzo

#71

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponferrada

#72

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponferrada

#73

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molinaseca

#74

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bembibre

#75

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponferrada

#76

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bembibre

#77

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_del_Bierzo

#78

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_del_Bierzo

#79

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astorga

#80

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astorga

#81

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astorga

PBP Registration confirmed

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-31 00:00:00

Last Saturday (27th May), the ACP#1 opened the procedure to confirm registrations for PBP#2. As you already know, I’ve been a bit busy during the weekend… but this morning I got a message from Salva (the guy behind the brevets organized by Astorga Randonneurs#3), he already had done the homologation of the 600.

After finishing the BRM 600 - Santiago Brevet, I’ve fullfilled the requirement of completing the Super Randonneur Series, and now that its homologation was available under my account at the ACP#4 website, I could confirm my registration for PBP#5.

The procedure is basically to log into your account in the ACP#6 website and fill in a web form. It is the same form I had to fill in for my pre-registration, plus some more fields:

Give the homologation numbers of the brevets that complete your Super Randonneur Series

Answer a few questions (will you have a support vehicle? who would we call in case of accident)

Choose if you want a variety of extra services (like food before departure the first day, parking for your camper van and/or car during PBP, place for sleep the day before departure, etc)

Choose if you want some extra items, like a results brochure or a PBP official jersey (which size and how many you would like), as well as the size of the official PBP vest (this one is included with the registration fee)

Times, basically your departure time for PBP and at which time you will pass on saturday to pick up your “documents” (the package with brevet card, rfid card, vest, jersey, etc).

I left my departure time was it was (20:15 in the 90 hours group) as there were no free slots earlier. And I set the pick up hour on saturday to 16:00 (which is what we decided to set all together, the group of friends that will go there together).

Once you are done with the form, it is time to pay. Depending on the extra items/services you choose, the final amount is different. In my case, I paid 242 euro (190 euro registration cost, 52 euro “extras” - a jersey size M and the results brochure in english). As I had paid already 50 euro when I did my pre-registration back in february, this time I had to pay only 192 euro.

One step closer to achieve this big dream.

Footnotes

#1

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#2

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#3

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#4

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#5

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#6

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

Changes in the PBP departure time

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-06-10 00:00:00

Since the procedure to confirm registrations for PBP#1 was opened by the ACP#2, everybody with a pre-registration, or a completed registration, could log into the ACP website and change the departure time to any other slot available.

One could even change group, from 90 hours to 84 or 80 and vice-versa, if there are free slots on a different group.

My friends Dani and Ferreiro pre-registered for the 20:30 slot, while I pre-registered (and then confirmed my registration) for the 20:15 slot. Our friend Manolo was in the 17:45 slot and our friends from Astorga (sergio(s), Valentín and Saúl) were in the 18:30 slot.

We talked about it and our plan was to move as close as possible to the 18:00 slot, so we could start earlier. That would be better for our initial plan of riding the 600 km distance to Brest before having the first proper sleep stop. The earlier we start, the earlier we will arrive in Brest.

Since I confirmed my registration, I’ve been looking periodically at the page where they show information about the available slots, as some times some of them got available. If you are lucky - and quick - enough, you could grab a slot for you.

For example, a few days ago, I was looking at the list, when a slot at 19:15 was available. Quickly I edited my registration and changed the departure time to that slot, which made my previous slot at 20:15 free (and it was picked up by someone else in a few minutes).

Then, the ACP#3 announced that on the 10th of June (today) at noon, they were going to free all the slots from those pre-registrations that hadn’t registered yet.

Discussion in several chats and forums with experienced randonneurs suggested that this would mean lots and lots of slots available, so we should be able to move to an earlier slot without much trouble.

So, at 11:55 this morning, I was sitting in front of my computer, ACP account page loaded in a web browser, waiting.

At 12:00 I reloaded the site, expecting it to take ages to load (how many people would be reloading this same page exactly at the same time). Surprisingly it did load quite fast… but there were no free slots available.

I kept reloading the page for a while, but no free slots.

This weekend, I had to help my wife moving stuff from the old place where her business (language academy) was, to a new place she bought for it. So I brought the laptop with me and kept it open on a table, reloading the ACP website every once in a while.

12:30 - no free slots

12:45 - no free slots

13:00 - no free slots

13:30 - no free slots

14:00 - no free slots

Meanwhile, I was also chatting with Dani and the others, keeping them in the loop. We all were wondering what was happening with those slots.

At 14:30 we went for lunch, to a restaurant nearby, with our daughters and my parents, and at 15:00 I checked one last time, but no luck.

So, I decided to forget about it and check it later in the afternoon.

And then, around 15:30, I got a message on my phone, from one of the multiple randonneuring groups I’m a member of in whatsapp. Someone said that there were lots of slots, he just changed himself into some other slot.

I quickly picked up my laptop and, while it was loading my ACP account page, I sent messages to all the others - “NOW, SLOTS ARE AVAILABLE, QUICK”

A few minutes - and 3 phone calls - later, everybody had moved to the 17:45 slot. The same our friend Manolo was since the beginning.

Well, everybody except our friends from Astorga, who had their departure time already fixed and weren’t able to change it anymore. But it is only a 45 minutes difference, I’m sure we will meet along the way.

Footnotes

#1

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#2

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#3

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

Got myself a frame bag

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-06-14 00:00:00

I did learn a lot of things a couple of weeks ago, during the BRM 600 - Santiago. Valuable lessons for future Brevets, Randonees and long distance cycling in general.

One of those lessons was that big saddle bags, like my 9L expedition pack from Apidura#1, are very useful but not for everything (and they have their limits).

They are not very practical for items you may need frequently (i.e. it is no good if you have to get stuff from them on every stop).

The more stuff you pack in there, the bulkier the bag becomes, which ends in the bag moves a lot more, from side to side, specially on the climbs if you have to stand on your pedals.

This is not a problem in my case, it is not annoying or affects my pedalling at all, but I bet all that extra friction against the saddle rails is no good for the bag straps.

The attachments for lights are not very useful once the bag is completely full, as the light ends pointing to the sky. Right, I know, It probably depends on the light, how you attach it there, etc. I’ve tried 3 different rear lights and all of them ended pointing towards the sky

So, here is a picture of the synapse, during that 600 Brevet:

See the light attached at the end of the bag? Exactly, that’s what I meant.

For that Brevet, in the saddle bag I put:

spares and tools (multi-tool, 2 x inner tubes, 3 x patches, 2 x adhesive strong patches, 2 x tire levers, presta adapter for gas stations)

clothes (separated in several ziploc bags, t-shirt and shorts for sleeping, socks, short sleeve jersey, long sleeve jersey, bibshorts, summer base layer, waterproof overshoes and light wind/rain jacket)

batteries (10000 mah power bank + two small batteries for the gopro)

food (another ziploc bag full of a variety of bars, a bag of 226ers electrolytes power)

small sunscreen bottle + couple of ibuprofen pills

And then, during the Brevet, I threw in several more things, like leg and arm warmers, toe covers and whatever I wouldn’t need for a while during the ride.

I think I’ve opened that saddle bag on every single stop. All of them. And repacking things into those saddle bags while you are in a hurry is no good, trust me. Things won’t get optimally placed and the bag will look bigger and larger every time.

True, I had a small top-tube bag and a very small frame bag with me, but they weren’t enough.

So, after thinking a bit about it, I decided to buy a proper frame bag.

I looked at different brands and models available out there, checking dimensions, placement, attachment/straps methods, price…

In the end, I decided myself to buy the Racing Frame Pack#2 from Apidura#3, more precisely, the 4L model.

I have to admit I may be a bit biased here, and even if I like some other brands too, the products from Apidura#4 are top-quality. Durable, light and with an awesome finish touch to them. So it was an easy decision (even if the price is a bit high).

The final push to decide myself to buy this model was that it fits (theoretically, in paper and measurements) my synapse frame size, leaving enough room for easy access to the second bottle. This would let me use a larger bottle there, which is perfect for longer rides in summer or when you ride in places without chance to refill bottles oftenly.

I ordered the bag on the 2nd of June and it arrived at my place on the 5th (quite fast!).

At first sight, it looked larger than what I expected. I took a scale and weighted it, as I usually do with these kind of products. It gave me a weight of 201g.

Then I installed it on the synapse, to see how it fit there. The installation was quite easy. It was three velcro straps to attach to the top tube, and 2 more straps to attach to the down tube, these 2 without velcro, but using a small plastic piece to keep them secure.

As you can see in the pictures, the pack fits perfectly well on the synapse, leaving enough room for a larger bottle on the second/rear bottle cage in the seat tube. Just as I hoped it would be.

You can also notice that the bottle in the front bottle cage, in the down tube, is very close to the bag. I did try to remove the bottle and put it back, and that could get definetely messy while riding, specially when the pack is full of stuff.

I already knew about this, the other randonneurs I know that have this kind of frame bags told me about this already. So I got in advance some bottle side cages.

These side cages are designed so you can remove and put back your bottles from the side of the cage, not from the top.

Yeah, I got them green… what else?!?

Again, I used the scale to measure the weight of both the old bottle cage and the new one. Turned out the new one weights 1g more.

I replaced the bottle cage in the down tube with the right-handed side cage, but I decided to keep for now the old bottle cage in the seat tube. I’d like to give a try to those side cages before replacing both of the old ones.

Finally, today I prepared everything and went for a test ride. 65 km, +800m I tried to do a bit of everything, roll a bit on some flat roads, then hit a couple of steep short climbs and a few descents with interesting turns.

For the test I loaded the pack with a wind/rain jacket, a gillet, 4-5 cereal bars of different sizes, the 10000 mah power bank and a banana. I also put the arm warmers in there in the middle of the ride.

It was as if there was not any bag there at all. A couple of times, standing on the pedals and moving the bike a lot side-to-side, it rubbed on my left leg but it was almost nothing.

Of course, handling the bottle from the side cage was more complicated than it used to be without the pack there, but it was ok, and I’ll get more practice soon…

Overall, happy about getting this frame pack, I’ll tell you more on the next, more serious, test.

Footnotes

#1

https://www.apidura.com

#2

https://www.apidura.com/shop/racing-frame-pack/

#3

https://www.apidura.com

#4

https://www.apidura.com

BRM 600 - Especial Galaico Asturiano

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-06-19 00:00:00

Three weeks ago I finished my first 600 brevet ever. It was quite the experience, shared with a few members of Astorga Randonneurs#1 and a couple other randonneurs I’ve ridden several other Brevets with.

This past weekend it was time to ride another 600 Brevet, this time with my friends from A Coruña.

Pre-brevet, this one has been as exciting as the first one. The numbers were quite similar on both Brevets, but I had the feeling this one was going to be a bit tougher, considering the kind of climbs we were going to deal with (shorter, steeper) and the lack of flat parts to recover (replaced instead with the usual saw of the asturian and galician roads, rompepiernas terrain).

There was another big change planned for this 600, which was adding a bit more of anxiety to it. We were going to do it without sleeping. Sounds crazy, right?. We discussed doing a short stop around km 350 (in the village of Vegadeo#2) and sleep 2-3 hours, but in the end we voted and sleepless won.

I must admit that I didn’t like the idea, at all. I considered it an unnecesary risk, dangerous, and I had serious doubts about how I’d perform on sunday, after being riding all day long on saturday and then all night long (spoiler alert: I was wrong).

Anyway, I prepared once again my now-famous bocadillo de jamón con tomate, split into 3 pieces.

And then packed up everything I’d carry with me. Spares, tools, clothes, food, sunscreen… pretty much the same things I had carry with me in the previous 600. This time I took a picture of everything before packing it into the bike bags.

The weather forecast promised some strong rain showers during the weekend, specially on sunday afternoon, so I decided to pack the waterproof shoe covers, as well as my water resistant arm and leg warmers, and the Rapha#3 light wind/rain jacket.

This time, I split my things among the top tube, frame and saddle bags. Having my new apidura frame bag meant I could pack things more evenly, keeping things I won’t need often in my saddle bag which, btw, didn’t seem as full as in the previous 600.

Early friday evening I packed everything and drove for 1 hour to Bastiagueiro, the usual start point for Brevets in Coruña. As usual, I had a room booked in advance in a hotel nearby. This time I spent the night at the wonderful After Surf#4. A bit more expensive than other options in the area, but worth the money because their rooms are wonderful, the views are super-nice, their restaurant is very very good, and it is around the corner from the start point of the Brevets.

I wanted to go to bed as early as possible, so this time I brought my dinner with me, instead of going to their restaurant. A big bowl of pasta salad and then a banana and a big piece of chocolate cake for desert.

Soon, I was in bed, fast asleep.

I woke up 20 minutes before the alarm, had my usual feast of a breakfast before Brevets, gathered my things and went to the start point. I arrived in INEFG and this time there were no delays. In a few minutes I was ready and gathering my brevet card.

While getting ready, another guy came and asked me if I would have an extra pair of cycling shoes, as he had forgotten his back home. He wasn’t lucky and could not find any shoes… so he decided to do the Brevet wearing normal shoes. Right… 600km on normal shoes with clip-on pedals… what could go wrong?.

I took a moment to take a picture of the synapse before starting the Brevet, fully loaded and ready

We also took the usual group picture at the start. 17 randonneurs ready for another weekend of good time, cycling and suffering.

At 06:00 our adventure began. It was still dark, but we knew the sun was going to come out soon. We left A Coruña on (almost) the same road we took during the first Brevet of the year, the BRM 200 - Polas Terras Altas. All the group together, chatting and catching up. I spent quite some time telling my friends stories and impressions from my first 600.

Near Betanzos#5 we left those nice secondary roads, to take the bigger N-VI on direction to Lugo#6. It was time to do the first climbs of the day. First Coirós and then A Costa do Sal. As usual, this was the moment the group split into smaller groups and pairs.

I went ahead with Alfonso, chatting a bit about my first 600 and then again about PBP details (I’ve asked him already soooo many questions…), but my group was just behind us, we didn’t drop/left them behind.

Note

I know there are no rules regarding the kind of bike you can bring to a Brevet. All it matters is that it is something you can ride and that it has the needed lights/visibility (and maybe that it conforms to the road regulations/laws of the country the brevet is taking place on).

In fact, one of the things people mention most often about PBP is all the kind of crazy bikes you can see there.

I’ve seen in the past people doing shorter (200) brevets in city bikes, mountain bikes and even I saw once a fat bike, but I had never ever saw something like this before:

That guy on the picture is the guy that was looking for a pair of road shoes earlier, before starting the Brevet. He had this road bike with a custom cockpit. Basically he added some extensions to the steering tube, raising the position of the handlebars a lot.

All of it looked weird, the bike, his position on it and the way he was pedaling (very upright).

We did the second climb, A Costa do Sal, together and then we gather some speed on the rollercoaster towards Guitiriz#7. A town I know well, as I’ve some family living there, we crossed it fast. No time to loose this early in the day.

We kept riding on the N-VI for a while longer, leaving Guitiriz#8 towards Baamonde#9 and then Begonte#10, where I knew my parents would be waiting for us by the road, with my daughters, to say hello. Before leaving Guitiriz#11 I sent them a message, telling them we were there so they could organize themselves. I also sent them my live location on Whatsapp.

We were going fast in this stretch, on good tarmac and mostly going down with short flat parts. We were almost in Baamonde#12 and I was telling my friend Dani, while we were leading the pack, that I was going to stop for a moment in Begonte#13 with my family… when I did hear it.

A strange crashing noise, someone shouting… I looked over my shoulder just in time to see one of the bikes on the back of the group falling, its front wheel turning right like a scythe, cutting through everything on its way, including the front wheel of our friend Alex.

Alex couldn’t do anything about it, his bike tripped off and he was sent flying head-first to the ground, smashing his head and helmet hard against it.

And he did stay there, on the ground, completely frozen.

Panic. I shouted everybody to stop and then “Call emergencies, NOW!”, but Dani had already his phone out, calling 112.

I parked my bike against one of those metal rails/barrriers/protections on the side of the road and hurried towards Alex. Someone was already crouched by his side - I can’t remember who exactly - talking to him. No response. “Fuck, fuck, fuck…”.

We didn’t want to move him, too risky, too dangerous. Suddendly some blood started to appear from below his head, on the tarmac. More panic.

Then I saw a car coming on our direction. Alex was partially laying on the lane, so I quickly went on direction to the car, waving my arms and trying to get the car to slow down. It worked.

Meanwhile Alex woke up, clearly disoriented, and tried to actually got himself up. We didn’t let him. We started to ask him questions - “Do you remember your name?”, “Do you know where are you?”. At first he didn’t answer, he simply looked at us with a wondering look in his eyes. After a few minutes, he started answering and he even made a joke about his name. That was a big relief.

I called my father, explained everything, and asked him to bring the car and pick up Alex’s bike (as he could not get it with him to the hospital). Then, Manolo and me took a moment to look at the bike. All seemed ok, chain out of place, that was all. We put it back into place and tried the shifters, all working ok. We took a quick look but nothing seemed broken or severely scratched.

Alex face, on the right side, started to look really bad. It was getting swollen and some parts looked quite damaged. We kept asking him questions and we asked him to please remain there, laying, while we waited for the ambulance to arrive.

The ambulance arrived a few minutes later, it was quite fast. Nice surprise, the two guys in the ambulance were people I knew. One being a cousin of my mother, the other being a cyclist I knew for a long time now, founder member of the cycling club I’m member of. Second relief moment, alex was going to be in good hands.

While they were taking care of Alex, my father arrived. We talked for a moment and he told me they were already waiting for us by the road, in Begonte#14, when I called him. At that very moment I realized we still had a long 600 Brevet to do. Honestly, right then and there, it felt like an impossible thing to do. I was completely shaken, seeing the crash in my mind over and over again.

Finally the Ambulance left for the hospital and we forced ourselves to resume riding.

Note

What happened exactly?, What caused the crash?

I’m not going to point fingers. In the end, all I saw with my own eyes was a bike falling and, in the process, hitting Alex’s front wheel, sending him to the ground.

Some time later, after talking about it among the people that was in the group, it seems that the guy with the weird bike went to pick up one of his bottles and, while doing so, one of his feet slip off the pedal. And he lost balance and fell.

His was the bike I saw falling, hitting Alex, sending him to the ground.

Accidents like this, crashes like this, they happen. When you ride your bike in a group, you are aware these things can happen to anybody. But, IMHO, this accident could have been avoided.

I think riding a road bike with clip-in pedals on normal shoes is very irresponsible, specially if you are riding in a group and you are going fast.

We remained silent for a while. Quite a while. My father passed us on his car, Alex’s bike in the trunk, visible from behind.

Arriving in Begonte#15, the village where I spent my summer vacation when I was a kid, I saw my daughters by the side of the road, waiting to see their daddy passing by on the bike. I stopped there to say hello (and get some loving hugs) while the others kept on riding. I did stay with them for a few minutes, before resuming riding myself.

The first control point wasn’t far from Begonte#16, so even if I couldn’t catch my group before it, I knew I was going to join them there. But I wanted to hunt them down, so I pushed myself a bit, trying to keep my brain focused more on the pedals, less on everything else.

Soon I passed a couple of riders, the one with the weird bike and another guy riding a gravel bike. Then I catched a small group of randonneurs from the Riazor Cycling Club, the club organizing the Brevet. Emilio, Fran and Alfonso. I decided to slow down and join them, and chat a bit with Emilio, a veteran randonneur with whom I’ve ridden a few of my first Brevets a few years ago. He is always good company and this time I took the opportunity to ask him about his latest adventure, doing El Camino de Santiago from France on his Surly#17 steel road bike.

We arrived in Outeiro de Rei#18, km 85 and first control point, at 10:03. This was 30-40 minutes later than expected and in a mood considerable worse than expected. The fact that we didn’t find any place to have some coffee (at least not without doing a detour) didn’t help. When I arrived with Emilio, Fran and Alfonso, the others were stopped near a 24h pharmacy.

Manolo went in and asked if they could stamp our cards. They could, but wearing a mask was required in order to go inside. They gave Manolo one mask, so we gave him all our Brevet cards and he got the stamps for us. Meanwhile, I removed my arm warmers and packed the gillet into the frame bag. Then I checked my phone and I sent Alex a few messages, in hope he would be ok enough to reply.

Off we went, towards the next control point at A Pastoriza#19. We were riding on the part of Galicia know as A Terra Cha (literally translated, The Flat Land). For the next 40-50 km we rolled fast on flat roads.

We passed through Castro Riberas de Lea, where some decided to do that late-breakfast stop. The mesoiros, Cesar and me decided to push it a bit more and do the coffee stop in A Pastoriza#20. Two more people were with us, one being the guy with the weird bike. We did a quick stop to get some water though, and I checked again my phone, still no news.

Maybe I was being childish at that time, but I wasn’t happy at all having that guy with the weird bike around. I felt anxious, alert, and I didn’t trust him. I tried to keep myself separated from him as much as possible, keeping him always behind me.

Turned out I wasn’t the only one feeling like that and soon some others shared the same concern.

It was a pity the situation was like that, as the roads after Castro Riberas de Lea where fast and beautiful. The kind of small rural one-lane-only roads with perfect tarmac where you roll fast. Those roads are fun to ride and the scenery around with green fields, pastures, livestock and farms is lovely.

Dani started to talk with Cesar, another veteran randonneur, about PBP. Cesar had done PBP four times already and he had lots of stories to share, as well as recommendations, suggestions, etc. It was good distraction, helping switching our focus for a while.

We arrived in A Pastoriza, second control point at km 121, at 11:54. My body was craving for some coffee. First we did a short stop in front of the square where the village city council building was, to take a group picture.

Lots of people were gathering at the square, before going into the building. We have had local elections a couple of weeks ago, and it seems today was the day the new local government was “taking over” here. One woman asked us if we would like to join them, as it was going to be “an entertaining/fun session this morning”.

We declined, of course, and went on looking for a cafe. We found one just crossing the street, but as soon as we got inside, I noticed the old guy behind the counter didn’t like the idea of working too much this morning.

No coffee, I ordered a coke and picked up the first piece of my bocadillo de jamón.

We tried to keep the stop as short as possible. I did a quick visit to the bathroom and wolfed down fast both the bocadillo and the coke (spoiler alert: this was a very bad mistake). I also sent some messages both to alex and my family, sending them each other’s phone numbers, so they can get in touch, in case Alex may need anything while being in the hospital.

I picked up my bike and took one last glance at the phone and I noticed I had some audio messages from Alex! I called everybody and played them. He was fine, they made several tests, scans, etc on him and they found no broken bones, no severe internal damage. Of course he was going to need time to heal and recover, it was a big crash after all, but these were good news indeed.

It was like if a new Brevet started right there. Everybody’s mood improved a lot. It was a mixture of being happy, relieve and grateful at the same time.

We left A Pastoriza#21 still on nice secondary roads, passing more farms and fields with lots of livestock on them.

We crossed several smaller villages, O Teixeiro, As Rodrigas or Riotorto#22, which is famous for its blacksmiths and their iron craftmanship.

Temperatures were already around 28ºC, luckily there were a few clouds here and there, protecting us from the sun at intervals.

Soon we were in A Pontenova#23, which was an important mining town from the XVIII century to the XX century. Proof of that past are the big chimneys that remain in one of the now main squares of the town. In that square there is a nice fountain, so we did a short stop there to refill our bottles.

This town was also the start of the hardest part of the day. From there we were going to climb the Alto da Garganta, first from A Pontenova#24, Taramundi#25 and Bres#26 (riiight, missing a “t” at the end!) and then from Santa Eulalia de Oscos#27 and Villanueva de Oscos#28.

I already rode on part of these roads earlier this year, while riding the BNO 200 - Montañas, Mar e Navallas with Dani in march. Riding on them again today brought back some good memories from that day to both of us.

We started the climb towards Taramundi#29 on an easy pace. With our mood definetely recovered and our group established (César, the mesoiros and me at that moment) we tried to enjoy that part as much as possible.

It was tough, specially because the temperature kept raising, but it was also sooo beautiful. We passed through some woods and then we had some gorgeous views to our right, of the valley we were leaving below.

It took us half an hour to get from A Pontenova#30 to Taramundi#31. It was 13:25 when we entered this Asturian town, well known for the quality of their hand-made knives. Our mood was definetely better at this point. Personally I was having a good time.

It was a bit early for lunch. We considered doing a stop to eat something there (later we found out that most of the others had lunch there) but we decided to push it a bit and do the first serious climb before having lunch.

And so we passed by Taramundi#32 and kept on riding, passing Bres#33 and taking the road to our right and into the more serious part of the climb, to Alto da Garganta.

It took us almost an hour to climb the next 12 km, enjoying the open views of the valleys below to our left, as well as the long stretches at 9-10% gradient.

As we were going up, temperature started to drop and darker clouds started to cover the sky. It was perfect, as the near-30-degrees temperature we have had before Taramundi would be a bit too much for me on the climb.

I tried to keep hydrated, alternating sips of water with sips of a mixed drink of salts, carbs and electrolytes. I also tried to force myself to eat regularly, having small pieces of different bars.

Note

The last 3-4 km of this climb was on the road Dani and me took down to Vegadeo a few months ago (on the unnoficial Brevet BNO 200 - Montañas, Mar e Navallas) as well as the long descent into Santa Eulalia, which we do on the opposite direction then, climbing all the way up from Santa Eulalia.

One hour after we left Taramundi#34, we arrived at the roundabout at the top of the climb. Then we still went a bit more up to the point where the sign of Alto da Garganta is, before taking the long, fast, descent (10 km) to Santa Eulalia de Oscos#35.

During the descent, I confirmed that my stomach was a bit upset. Since we left A Pastoriza earlier I felt a bit weird down there, but I tried to keep myself focused on the ride, not worrying too much about it. But when we were maybe a couple of km before Santa Eulalia, something exploded in there and I felt I needed to go to a toilet urgently.

I arrived first in Santa Eulalia, followed by Oscar and Jose, but there was no trace of Dani and Cesar. We did stop for a moment at the entrance of the village and waited a bit. Santa Eulalia was the next control point of the Brevet, km 178, it was 14:55 when we arrived there.

I was feeling like a big balloon about to explode, but I was sure I could not simply let go of the gas… and we were still waiting for the others :-(

I told Oscar and Jose that I needed a bathroom urgently, and when I was about to leave them there waiting and search for options, we saw Cesar. He arrived and told us that Dani stopped for a moment in a fountain maybe 1 km behind, but he was on his way already.

A few minutes later Dani arrived too and we looked for a place to have lunch. We found a restaurant on our way through the village. A couple of cyclists were arriving there too, from a different road than us. We did stop, greeted them and then asked if they know Santa Eulalia and if they could recommend us a place for eating something. They both suggested precisely that restaurant, Casa Diego.

We parked our bikes and I hurried up inside, to the Toilet (spoiler alert: this was only the beginning of a series of gastric problems through the weekend that made me suffer a bit more than expected).

When I finally came out, Dani told me a couple of “bad” news. First, the restaurant was full, with a family doing some event there, which meant food availability was a bit limited and that cooking stuff would take some time. Second, they didn’t have a stamp to put on our brevet cards.

Even so, we decided to stay. They prepared a couple of tables outside and we sat to enjoy some coca colas and a few raciones (tortilla, croquetas, calamares, whatever they say would take less to cook).

While the food was being cooked, I walked to a nearby hotel (Casa Pedro los Oscos) and got our Brevet cards stamped.

When I got back to Casa Diego, the guys were talking with those 2 cyclists that recommended us that place for lunch. They were doing a tough and nice route in the area, and when we told them about the Brevet (route, distance, etc) they were impressed. One of them looked really interested in the whole Brevet idea (who knows, maybe we will meet him next season?)

Finally our lunch was served and we wolfed it down quick. We were hungry, and thirsty. The clouds were gone then and temperature was back to 29ºC. Luckily we were seating under the shade of the building and a fresh breeze was passing by us to cool things down.

Bellies full, one more visit to the toilet, bottles refilled and off we went, towards the next control point, Villanueva de Oscos#36.

We had a 22 km climb waiting for us as we left Santa Eulalia, with a stop in Villanueva a few km into the climb. In Santa Eulalia we decided to not have desert and/or coffee, and have that in Villanueva, as we would have to stop there and stamp our Brevet cards anyway.

At 16:40, 40 minutes after we left Santa Eulalia, we arrived in the next control point, Villanueva de Oscos#37, km 187. We found a nice café+hotel+shop by the road and we stop there to get our cards stamped and some coffee. We parked the bikes and took some seats outside. I went inside to get the brevet cards stamped.

I was talking to someone while coming in, when I heard “Well, well, well, look who is here! what a nice surprise!!”, I turned and, what a surprise indeed, my friend Estefanía was there!. She is one of the members of my group in the Brevets organized in Astorga, and she was in Villanueva to participate in a couple of races during the weekend. What a coincidence.

She asked me if I was doing another Brevet and I told her about the 600 (We did the previous 600 together). She told me about her racing plans for the weekend and that she was really looking forward doing the next Brevet.

She insisted on paying coffee for all of us (thanks Any!).

While we were stopped there, several other randonneurs arrived, like Alfonso, Manolo and Ferreiro. The time we gained while they were having lunch in Taramundi was spent in our 2 stops in Santa Eulalia and here, in Villanueva. When we left, Manolo and Ferreiro joined our group (and we remained together for the rest of the Brevet).

More climbing ahead, starting with a very steep section on our way out of the village. Lots of “mmmffff” and “ufffffmmm” and cursing until the road flattened a bit.

During the stop, the guys that did the climb to La Garganta after having lunch, told us that they had thick banks of fog on their way up. It seemed we missed the fog by doing the climb before lunch (good!). Thing is, we were going up there from another different side now.

We expected fog, and fog we had. Going up to the roundabout at the top of A Garganta it got thicker and thicker, slowly at first, then making things difficult to see around us and, what was more dangerous, ahead of us. We were literally riding through the clouds.

I started to struggle.

The road was narrow and the fog so thick we weren’t able to see clearly where its sides were. As you probably know already, I’m nearsighted and I wear prescription glasses (without them, I see objects/things far from me “blurry”) and I do wear them even when cycling (can’t stand contact lenses). This means I’ve to wear my glasses at all times on the bike.

With all that fog, the outer part of my glasses started to get more and more wet. I was riding without gloves (too hot) so cleaning them wasn’t an option. At one point, I decided to put my gloves on, at least that way I would be able to use them to remove the water from the glasses. Oscar captured it on camera.

In situations like this, I use the softer part of the gloves from their palm/inner side, which works quite well to remove water from the glasses, kind of a manual wiper washer.

We kept on like this, passing the roundabout at the top of A Garganta and taking the road that passed by Serra da Bobia. We still had a few more km of climbing ahead of us, but at least we left the fog behind and the clouds below us…

But it was all an illusion, a mirage. Soon we were surrounded by thick fog again, riding through dense clouds. This time, things were even more dangerous, as the road was narrower, with sharp turns… and we were descending!

I tried to keep up with them, but they were going too fast for me, given the circumstances. If riding fast down on that snake of a road, through the clouds, wasn’t hard enough, wiping the water from my glasses was useless. The second after wiping them, they were totally foggy and watery, making it even harder to see the road.

I kept like that for a while, moving very slowly, until I realized I couldn’t see anybody else. Then I saw a tail light, Cesar, who was going down as slowly as me. I told him about my trouble with the glasses, he told me we should be very careful on this road with this fog, as in these hills there were wild horses, foals and probably cows wandering around.

We kept riding together for a while, but I was going slower and slower because I wasn’t able to see the road clearly. I got so fed up about the whole thing that at one point I decided to remove the glasses completely.

I packed them into one of the pockets on my back and kept on. Big surprise, it turned out I was able to ride the bike without the glasses!. Ok, I must admit I was very lucky the road was in perfect conditions. One pot hole and I would smash the bike against it without any doubt (no chance I’d be able to see it in time without the glasses).

Thing improved a bit and I was able to go a bit faster… until I noticed something moving across the road a few meters in front of me. A group of horses was in the middle of the road!. Foals and huge horses, some at both sides of the road, some in the middle, some more crossing it.

I slowed down and waved one hand slowly so Cesar, who was coming a bit behind me, could see it and slow down.

We passed through the group of horses, really close to a few of them, while some of them looked at us passing by. Magic Brevet Moment right there. The whole thing with the thick fog, the huge horses… something that will stay in the back of my mind forever.

After a while riding without the glasses I gained a lot of confidence, so I went back to my normal speed. I kept an eye Cesar (as much as I could, without the glasses) as I didn’t want to drop him. Finally, we catched the others, just before arriving at the top of Alto de Penouta.

We regrouped there, sharing a few experiences we just had on that difficult part of the ride. Some took a moment to eat something, some (like me) decided to put on some more clothes. We had a long descent ahead (near 30 km) all the way to the town of Navia#38, on the Cantabric coast, and temperature had dropped down to 15ºC.

The descent was fast. We still have some nice views of the valleys to our right and soon we were able to see the Cantabric sea. The clouds we have literally passed through a while before were now above our heads, but the road we were riding on was wet, looking as if those thick clouds had been there just a moment ago.

During that fast, long descent, we lost Cesar. We slowed down a bit for a while, in hopes he would catch us before getting to Navia#39, but he didn’t.

It was early evening when we arrived in Navia#40 and we crossed the big bridge over the river that gives the name to the town, the Navia, taking then the road east, towards Luarca#41.

We did a short stop at a gas station in Navia, to refill our bottles and eat something quick. We still had around 37 km to the next control point, which was going to be in a lighthouse, without many options nearby for having dinner. So, conversation started about when and where should we stop for have proper dinner, considering we were going to keep on riding all night long.

We all agreed to keep on riding to Luarca#42 (next bigger town before the control point, 20 km away) and reconsider things there.

Riding along the Cantabric coast, on the usual roller-coaster road, soon we were in Luarca#43, one of those beautiful coastal towns/villages you can find in Asturias, with its old squares and buildings and its beautiful small fishing port.

We didn’t stop there though, as we wanted to arrive in the next control point at the lighthouse in Cabo Busto#44 with daylight. We pushed on and in less than 45 minutes we had covered the 16 km to the lighthouse.

On our way to the lighthouse, we passed by a big restaurant that was just by the road and we stopped for a moment to reserve a table for dinner. The idea was to stop on our way back from the control point, have a full dinner and get ready for the night.

From the restaurant to the control point in the lighthouse the road was sooo beautiful and quiet. Smaller road that twisted itself towards the sea, with a last couple of km of an almost straight line to the lighthouse.

We crossed the small village of Bustos, which is famous because of its cake/sweets shop pastelería cabo busto#45 (take a look at their website and you will see why it is famous, then come and visit it, and you will understand why ;-D).

Without a way to get our cards stamped at the lighthouse, we took a few proof pictures. Arriving earlier, I would have proposed to get a stamp at the cake shop, but at 21:15 it was too late for that.

After enjoying the scenery around and the views for a moment, we took the road back to the main road, through the village of Bustos again. The others left, but it took a moment for Dani to be ready. I waited with him and we resumed riding together, talking for a while about how the Brevet has been going so far.

Almost half Brevet done, still another half to do, including a full night of cycling.

On our way back, we did stop at the restaurant to have dinner. They let us park the bikes on a covered terrace, near the entrance, and we went inside to seat at a big table. It felt good to seat there for a while.

We opted for the house menu (starter, main dish, drink, desert and coffee) as usually that’s a good option if you want a full meal without having to wait too long for it to be cooked/ready (usually they are dishes they have already cooked and only need some warming).

One hour and a half later, we left the restaurant. The dinner stop was reinvigorating. Having some proper food helped a lot, but even better was to sit at the table with these guys, chatting, making jokes, sharing experiences.

During dinner we make lots of jokes about sleeping a few hours that night. Everybody agreed to ride through the night, but making a few jokes wouldn’t hurt. The first joke was that the restaurant has a sign offering rooms, but the look of the building wasn’t really inviting to do so. We kept doing jokes until dawn, every time we passed by some road hotel or hostel, or the hotels in bigger towns.

It was night when we resumed riding, and half a km after leaving the restaurant we were riding in complete darkness (no street lamps, no big moon to light our way, nothing). Soon we hit the 300 km mark.

We went back along the coast, on the same road we had been earlier that evening. We crossed Navia#46 again, crossing the bridge over the Navia river, but this time keeping ourselves on the coastal road, instead of the road from the mountains we had came from earlier today.

This road by the coast, full of small vacation villages and kind-of resorts for tourists, had lots of street lamps, which meant lots of light, which meant being able to run our head lights in less-powerful modes (hence, saving some battery life).

To be honest, riding that night was a much better experience than expected. I was expecting to feel tired, dizzy and sleepy, but instead I was quite awake and I didn’t feel tired or like if I was dragging along.

And then, my stomach turned upside-down again.

It started like a balloon getting filled up again, just like it happened before Santa Eulalia de Oscos a few hours before, and as it happened back then, soon I realized I couldn’t simply let go of the gas. I needed to go to the toilet.

Now try to find anything open, past-midnight, on these roads. Mission: Impossible. All we could found were small villages where everything was closed, road side cafés: closed, gas stations: closed.

There was a time when gas stations used to be open until late in the night, with some of them open even 24 hours. A few years ago that changed, and gas stations are now open only up to 23:00, with a few exceptions (like that wonderful place in Lalin where we stopped both at the BRM 400 - Polas Catro Provincias and the BRM 600 - Santiago) and the gas stations located in the highways, those are usually open 24-hours.

I kept on riding, keeping an eye on any possibility of a toilet I could find. At one point, I told the others about my needs. We looked for options near the bigger villages, but without any luck.

“There is a gas station that seems to be open” - Shouted Oscar, just before the turn to the village of Tapia de Casariego#47. A quick look from afar and we weren’t 100% sure it may be open, but I decided to give it a try. I went there and it was one of those self-service gas stations. There as a bathroom, but locked, available only by day. “Dammit” - I thought, while unzipping the left side of the frame bag and picking up a pack of paper handkerchiefs, I was going to need them soon. And off I went to look for a nature toilet spot.

The mesoiros had waited for me, while Manolo and Ferreiro kept on riding. We resumed riding, but I wasn’t feeling good. Something was definetely wrong down there and it didn’t feel like it was recovering.

We passed Tapia, then Serantes and then we kept on riding on the old coastal road towards Vegadeo#48, the next control point, instead of crossing the big bridge over the Eo bay.

Soon we catched Manolo and Ferreiro again. This part of the road was darker, there were fewer street lamps near the villages, and no lights at all between them. Soon I started to feel like I’d need another toilet stop. It was bothering me so much, I didn’t really enjoyed this part of the ride. All I could do was to focus on not lettting go.

We arrived in Vegadeo#49, control point at km 332, at 01:57. Obviously there was nothing open (even if I’ve had hope of finding a pub or night club open at that time on a saturday night…). We took some proof pictures in the main square, near the iconic cows sculpture (those letters behind us… they used to say “VEGADEO”, but some where missing that night!).

I had to look for another nature toilet spot. Meanwhile they waited for me by a set of self-service machines that offered almost everything (chocolates, salty treats, all kind of drinks…).

I grabbed myself a couple of Aquarius#50 (lemon flavored) and some chocolates, hoping both may help a bit with my current situation. I filled one of my bottles with aquarius, drinking there whatever was left after filling the bottle, and ate one of the chocolates. At least I wasn’t feeling weak or tired, the main problem was that those “explosions” in my bowels happened unexpectedly, and when they happened… well, I had to stop.

Psychologically, I started to get worried about causing trouble to the others, making them stop without need, making them slower. So I did all I could do in a situation like this. I told them to just keep on if I had to stop again. No need to stop with me every time. Of course, they nicely told me to STFU and keep going, they weren’t going to drop me.

Half an hour after our arrival, we resumed our ride, crossed the Eo#51 river and went into Galicia. The Eo#52 river is like a natural border between Galicia#53 and Asturias#54 at its mouth, where it joins the Cantabric sea. There are two towns there, one on each side of the river. One is Vegadeo, east riverbank in Asturias, the other is Ribadeo, west riverbank in Galicia. Both towns names mention the river (eo) and have a word meaning “riverbank”, “vega” in Asturias and “riba” in Galicia.

We were going towards some places I know quite well. A Mariña Lucense, the coast of the province of Lugo, where I spent a few summers with my parents while I was a teenager (and then by myself a few years later). Such a beautiful coast, full of tall hills, sharp cliffs, beautiful beaches and small fishing villages.

Thing was, we were riding there on a very dark night, so we missed all that. That is one of the drawbacks of riding through the night, you miss all the nice views, the daily life in small villages… You can’t have it all, I guess.

All the way to Ribadeo#55 we were riding on a small road that was really close to the river. Then we crossed the big town of Ribadeo (where I asked them “Are you sure you don’t want to stop and sleep for a bit on a comfy bed?” when we passed a nice, big, 24-hour-open hotel ;-D) and took the main road that went parallel to the coast.

The next stretch of 35-37km was fast. With a couple more serious bumps on the road, but overall almost flat with some gentle, short, repechos.

We were passing village after village, chatting, enjoying the night, when suddendly Dani shouted loudly - “CUIDADO! CUIDADO!!” - and then the rest of us saw the big wild boar in front of us, crossing the road from left (the hills) to right (the beaches and the sea). We were lucky that Dani did spot it in time, specially Jose, who was riding a bit ahead of us, rolling faster.

After the boar crossed the road, it left us wondering “where the h*** is that boar going?” - “Maybe for a night swim?” - I said, and we all laughed at the idea.

San Miguel de Reinante, San Pedro de Benquerencia, San Cosme de Barreiros… All the villages before the next bigger town (Foz) had the name of a saint on their own names. We passed through them all and we reached the crossing over the Masma river. As it happened with the Eo, we crossed the river where it joins the Cantabric sea.

On the other side we had one of those a bit more serious bumps. Nothing really hard, but enough to slow us down a bit. Someone (IIRC Ferreiro) was a bit behind, so we used this little climb to take it easy and wait a bit for him. With day light, we would have enjoyed the nice views on our right, the bay of Foz. Instead, we enjoyed the views to our left, another couple of wild boars going the opposite direction from us, all the way down the repecho.

We passed by Foz (without entering town), Fazouro, Nois, Cangas de foz… again crossing village after village in the quiet of the night. No cars, nobody on the street. We were approaching Burela#56, the next bigger town on our way, when another little explosion shaked my bowels.

With Burela#57 being a bigger town, I was expecting something to be open at that time of the night (around 4:00). Instead of that, what we found were several pairs and groups of drunken people on the streets. It seemed the saturday night parties were all over.

When we entered the main street into town, it started to rain. Lightly at first, a few drops here and there, by the time we left that main street towards a smaller road by the coast it was raining with more intensity.

The next control point, in the village of San Cibrao#58, was just 14 km away. It was really close, so we pushed through the rain, deciding to not stop to put our rain jackets and gear on. It was a big mistake. Suddendly the rain was really strong, summer storm rain, lots of thick drops falling on us There were no street lamps on this smaller road by the coast, so soon things started to be quite interesting…

It was raining more and more, stronger every minute, but at that moment all we could do was to push and try to arrive as soon as possible in San Cibrao and look for some shelter there.

It was 04:46 when we finally entered town. We knew finding something open (like a bar, cafe or gas station) was practically impossible, so we just looked for something with a roof, where we could shelter from the rain.

We spot a few places, but in the end we decided to stop in a big bus stop. There was some good sheltered places for the bikes, plus big long benches for us. Just as we stopped and parked the bikes, another explosion took place you-already-know-where, and I had to rush and look for another nature toilet spot. Right, under the heavy rain…

Back with the guys, we tried to get as comfy as possible. It seemed like we were going to be there for a while. We checked several weather apps on our phones and none of them showed any promising forecasts. We removed the wet outer layers, as well as helmets, gloves, etc. Some changed socks and base layers. Personally I put my arm and leg warmers on, as well as the waterproof shoe covers and the rain jacket. It wasn’t that cold, but I knew being there and stopped, I was going to get cold fast.

We took the opportunity to eat something. There it went the second piece of my bocadillo de jamón. Even with all my gastric problems, I forced myself to eat. If not all I should have, at least keep on eating regularly.

We did chat for a while, considering which options we had. It didn’t seem like it was going to stop anytime soon. It wasn’t really cold, but it wasn’t warm either. We considered looking for one of those banks that have ATM machines inside, in closed rooms (as there we would be warmer). Dani and Ferreiro took the chance to doze for a while. I tried to do the same, but I wasn’t so lucky. I guess I was too excited about the whole 600-without-sleep adventure.

At one point, Ferreiro tried to get us back on the road, but it was still raining too much. We discussed it for a while and in the end he decided to resume riding alone. The rest of us decided to stay until rain slowed down a bit or dawm arrived, whatever happened first.

A bit later, while still waiting, Manolo got a phone call. It was Ferreiro, he found a bar opened a few km later, back on the main coastal road!. We didn’t hesitate, packed everything and got back on the road, under the rain. Lucky bastards… on our way out of San Cibrao it stopped raining ;-)

We had been there, sheltered by that bus stop, for one hour and a half.

Less than 15 minutes later, we arrived at that roadside bar, left our bikes under a small canopy outside and hurried up inside. The guy there didn’t have much food to offer, but the warm drinks were more important that food at that moment. I didn’t want to risk it by drinking milk, so instead of coffee I ordered some red tea and went straight to the bathroom (finally… a fscking toilet!!).

I removed my wet, damp, filthy clothes and washed myself as much as I could. They I tried to dry up a bit using some drying paper and, finally, I put some dry clothes on. I packed the wet clothes into the ziploc bags.

The dry clothes and the hot tea felt wonderful. Still, when I tried to eat something, my body simply refused to. I forced myself to eat my last oats+hazelnuts+raisins bar and ordered a big muffin, which I put in the top tube bag before leaving the bar. I also ordered a couple of cans of Aquarius#59, to put into one of the bottles, refilling the other one with water.

45 minutes later, we left the bar, again under the rain.

Thing is, we didn’t expect rain that early on Sunday. We expected the rain to appear some time after noon, light rain at first and then a few summer storm showers. But this wasn’t light, and it was no summer shower neither.

We had constant strong rain for a good part of the rest of the morning.

Nothing we do about it, so we do what we were supposed to do. Keep on pushing the pedals. We left again the main coastal road, taking another smaller road towards the next control point, Faro de Punta Roncadoira#60 at km 427. We were tired, wet and without sleep, but this little road was so nice that we enjoyed it a lot (or at least, I did).

The thing with the roads that go to these lighthouses in the Galician coast is, they are usually tough. They used to build the lighthouses in parts of the coast that are higher, way above everything else, so they could be easily spotted/view from the sea. This, for cyclists, translates into “short steep ramps with double-digit gradients”. It was time to stand on the pedals and move slooooowly.

The other thing with such roads is, once you get to a point high enough, they are very rewarding, with breath-taking views of the sea, the cliffs and the lighthouses themselves.

This last stretch to the lighthouse confirmed something I’ve had in my mind for some time now. My gastric problems appeared every time I had to step down the bike. All the time I spent on the bike, pedaling, I was ok. As soon as we had to stop… BAM, explosion.

So, when we were a couple of km from the lighthouse and Oscar said - “Shit! guys, I left my glasses at the lighthouse!” - and turned back to get them… instead of wait for him like the others, I came upon kind of a big parking place for a house nearby and kept riding in circles while waiting.

Once Oscar was back, we kept riding on that small road towards Celeiro. Beautiful road, but quite hilly. As soon as we left it and joined the main coastal road towards the town of Viveiro#61 we had a long descent ahead of us.

I hadn’t eaten anything in the last hour and a half, and finally I was feeling hungry, so I picked up the muffin from the top tube bag, unwrapped it, and wolfed it down during the descent.

We passed the town of Viveiro without stopping, not even slowing down. It was raining, so it wasn’t too inviting to slow down and enjoy the views anyway. We crossed the bridge over the mouth of the river Sor and then we climbed our way to the village of Mañón, taking then the road to the next control point, in another lighthouse, in Estaca de Bares#62.

In other circumstances, I’d have enjoyed this part of the Brevet a lot. I’ve ridden on this road a few times before this one, doing a couple of 300 Brevets, and it is a beautiful road that goes along the bay of Viveiro all the way to the lighthouse. It is tough, with lots of ups and downs, but it has the kind of tarmac where you can roll fast.

But, this time, the rain was torrential.

And what was worse, I felt the need of another toilet stop. This was around 09:00, so I was hoping to find something open. A bar by the road, a gas station… anything. But nope, no luck, not a single gas station, no road side bars. So I hold it and pushed the pedals. But my humour was getting worse and worse.

On the last repecho, before going down all the way to the village of Estaca de Bares, I saw a small bus stop by the side of the road and I couldn’t resist it anymore. I was a bit ahead of the others, I pulled over and when they were passing I shouted - “Don’t worry, keep on, I’ll catch you up in a moment”.

I parked the bike in the bus stop, went behind it and… well, no need for more details, I guess. Done with it, I resumed riding. The guys were nowhere to be seen, but I knew they would have to come back from the lighthouse on the same road, so I just kept on riding.

The road went down for a while, until I arrived in the small village before the lighthouse, then I had to climb up to the lighthouse where they were waiting for me. I finally arrived there, km 466 and next control point, at 09:45.

Since my quick toilet stop, rain had stopped gradually, which was quite nice as that way I was able to enjoy that little climb a bit more. This lighthouse is at the far point of a piece of land that goes into the sea. As it is in a higher point than the land around it, on your way up you can see the sea to both sides, and you have nice views of the rocky cliffs too. Soooo beautiful.

When I got to the lighthouse Manolo took a proof picture of me in front of it, as there was no way to get our cards stamped here neither.

Everybody was getting hungry, so we decided to stop at the first place we could find open on our way back.

We left the lighthouse, going back on the same road we took to get there, all the way to Mañón again. The road looked much nicer now, without the strong rain falling on us. Even the sun came out a bit to warm us up.

Just after Mañón we found a bar by the road, open, and we stopped there in hopes to get some breakfast. Everybody was dreaming about hot coffee and big toasts of bread and tomatoes… just to be slapped by reality. It was too early and the owner of the bar didn’t have any bread yet. All he could offer was lots of industrial-made croissants, muffins and pastries.

Ah well, that would do. We had coffee and we mostly ate everything he had. I have to say that the coffee was delicious (be it really delicious or simply that I really, really, really wanted it… I don’t know).

Once again, I took a moment to go to the toilet (and turned out, this was the last time I had to go to the toilet like that, for the rest of the brevet… yeah!!).

I also removed the shoe covers and the rain jacket, it didn’t seem like I’d need them anymore (or, for a while at least).

20-25 minutes later, we left the bar and took the road that would get us to Alto do Caxado, the biggest climb of the day.

The rain was definetely gone. The sun started to shine more and more and things were getting warmer. A few km later the real climb started. Oscar, Jose and me went on a bit ahead of the others - “We are the climbers!” - as Oscar would say.

They had been telling me stories and details about this climb during the weekend, about how tough it was going to be, quite the long climb. Honestly, it felt good. I rode with Oscar and Jose for a while at the start and then waited for a moment so Dani could catch me and we could ride together for a while.

We were arriving at the end of the first section of the climb, when we noticed some signs on the road and a guy on a motorbike. The signs said something about some “sport event” so we asked the guy on the motorbike. There was some cycling race going on that road at that moment.

What a coincidence… right? We asked him if we could go on anyway, and he said we could.

A while later, while riding on a flat-descent part before the next section of the climb, a single cyclist passed us so fast it looked like a motorbike.

“wow!” - I shouted - “That one is fast!”. The guy was clearly pushing it, possibly trying to put some distance between him and whoever was chasing him.

And then, we heard a swwoooossshhh sound coming from behind, just in time to be passed by a medium-sized peloton (maybe 10-12 cyclists?) going almost as fast as the previous solo rider.

We were talking about the whole racing thing and how fast these guys were when we started going up another little repecho and we noticed that, at the top of it, there was one of those canopies they use in these events to put a place with food and drinks by the road.

Yes, of course we did stop there!

The race was the XXIII Desafío Vila de As Pontes#63, an amateur event organized by a cycling club from the town of As Pontes de García Rodriguez#64. The guys from the organization that were there under the canopy were so nice that they offered us food and drinks.

We did stay there for 10-15 minutes, eating some fruit (I had a couple bananas) and some refilled their bottles too. When we told them what we were doing exactly (the Brevet, the distance, etc) they were quite surprised.

Note

Fun fact: during the 10-15 minutes we did stay there, several groups of participants on that race passed by. Only a couple of riders stopped to eat/drink something.

I guess in these races… food stops are not that important.

Off we went again, on our way to As Pontes. We were riding the same route as the racers, so some more groups passed us. Some of them cheering us and waving as they dissapeared on the next turn.

During this stretch, we passed the 500 km mark, we were getting closer and closer to the finish line, back in Bastiagueiro.

We also passed by some of the people from the organization, who were in places like crossings and turns that may be a bit more dangerous. They all cheered us like if we were participating in their race. We even came across one of their official photographers, who took a picture of us!

After passing the finish line of the race, where they had a photocall for riders to stop and get themselves some nice finish-line photos, we got to the long descent that took us to the town of As Pontes.

It was a bit before 13:00 when we arrived in town, and we decided to have an early lunch there. We found a nice restaurant were we had some bocadillos.

We ordered and while the food was being prepared, Dani went to a bakery next door and bought some desert. Homemade pastries for everybody!

While waiting, I went outside to re-pack some things in my bags. While I was there, a couple sitting on a terrace asked me if I wouldn’t mind telling them what was it that we were doing on the bikes, with all that extra luggage we were carrying. I tried to summarize it as best as I could, the further I went with my summary, the wider they eyes opened in disbelief.

In the end they wished me good luck and bon voyage.

One hour later we left As Pontes, with near 40 km to the next control point in Guitiriz#65 and less than 100 km to the finish line in Bastiagueiro. We had done the hardest part of the day already, but we still had to get out of As Pontes, which meant a couple of short, tough climbs.

We managed, and soon we were back on roller-coaster roads towards Momán. These up-and-down roads let us gain some speed which, added to the idea of being closer and closer to the finish, cheered us up a bit.

It didn’t last long though, dark clouds started to cover the sky again, and it was clear that sooner or later it was going to start raining. The question floating in the air was… how much was it going to rain?

After another repecho, everybody agreed on a quick stop to put on some rain gear. I put on my rain jacket. A few moments later, we realized it had been a good idea. Water started to fall from the sky like if some giant was throwing big buckets of water over us. The hardest rain storm I’ve ever had on the bike, in my entire life! (spoiler alert: “YET”).

As it happened earlier this morning, there was nothing we could do about it. There was no place to get some shelter from the rain, nowhere we could stop and wait for the storm to pass, so we just kept pushing the pedals.

Luckily this road was fast, roller-coaster like but without hard gradients on the “ups”. I can’t tell for sure for how long it was like that, maybe 20-30 minutes? It stopped as soon as we left the main road from Momán and took the smaller road that would get us to Guitiriz#66, passing by Os Villares.

Something happened then, someone started to push it a bit more, pulling the whole group with him. I tried to keep up but the increasing rythm was a bit too much. Suddendly I looked back and noticed Ferreiro was missing, I did hesitate for a second and the gap between me and the group was too big. I pushed, trying to get back into the group, trying to tell them about Ferreiro being dropped, but it was useless, they had a fast pace now, too fast. The effort I would have to make to catch them was too much to do at this point in the Brevet, so I let go of them.

I looked for a fast pace I could sustain and kept there myself all the way to Guitiriz#67. Just as I was entering the village, I catched them. It was 15:40 and we were at the last control point, km 551, before the finish line.

We had a quick stop to drink something in a bar, while we waited for Ferreiro. We got our cards stamped and off we went again, taking the main N-VI that would take us back to Coruña, to our starting point in Bastiagueiro.

Everybody was excited at this point. We were so close to finish. Just a couple more short climbs, the rest of the near-50 km we had still to cover were quite favorable, with a few longer descents (the same we climbed on saturday morning).

We set to a nice pace and we chat, made jokes, enjoyed the last hours of this wonderful Brevet.

And then the sky fell on us. Remember what I wrote a few paragraphs above, about the hardest strong rain ever? That was light rain compared with what fell on us near Betanzos afterwards!

It was so much rain, falling hard, that at one point it started to hurt on my arms and legs. Again, no place to get shelter, and this time in the main road to get in and out of Coruña, the big city. The cars, both passing us and driving on the opposite direction, created waves with the water that was on the road, which at that time looked more like a river than a road. Our wheels were inches into the water, it was like crossing a not-so-deep river.

Now, this truly was the hardest rain storm I’ve ever had on the bike, in my entire life!

Anyway, we did endure it. We kept on, head down and handlebars firmly grabbed (which after a while was quite the task, as everything got super slippery) and pushed the pedals.

With maybe 12-15 km to go, it stopped raining again, the clouds were gone and the sun started to shine a bit. It all felt like having a bad nightmare. All we wanted at that point was for the next rain storm/shower to hold on until we had arrived back in INEFG.

We hurried up, as much as we could, and we finally arrived in Bastiagueiro at 18:00.

Everybody was soaked to the bone, but we took a moment to congratulate each other, take a group picture and talk a bit about this crazy weekend of cycling and adventures.

I also picked up the brevet cards of everybody, writing the passing times on each control point. I had been writing them in my phone during the Brevet, instead of writing on each brevet card, to save some time. On every stop we made, I sent a message to my wife (so she could follow our progress and know I was all right), and those messages kept recorded the date and time.

All that done, I said goodbye and packed my things in the car and went straight to the same hotel I had stayed on friday evening. Arriving this early on Sunday, driving for 1 hour and go back home was tempting, but I did not even consider that option, after having two very bad experiences after 400 Brevets, when I almost fell asleep at the wheel. Imagine after riding a 600 without any sleep at all.

I turned the car on and then I realized how tired I really was. It was like if my body was saying “ok, done, no need to keep things running anymore at this point”. I got to the hotel, had a shower, had a quick dinner and fell asleep instantly as soon as I touched the bed.

As usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Note

The photos you saw in this report were made by Me and my friends Óscar, Ferreiro and Manolo.. Thanks for sharing them, guys.

Footnotes

#1

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#2

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegadeo

#3

https://www.rapha.cc

#4

https://after.surf

#5

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betanzos

#6

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugo

#7

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

#8

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

#9

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baamonde

#10

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begonte

#11

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

#12

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baamonde

#13

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begonte

#14

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begonte

#15

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begonte

#16

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begonte

#17

https://surlybikes.com

#18

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otero_de_Rey

#19

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastoriza

#20

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastoriza

#21

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastoriza

#22

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riotorto

#23

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pontenova_(Lugo)

#24

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pontenova_(Lugo)

#25

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#26

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bres_(lugar)

#27

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Eulalia_de_Oscos

#28

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanueva_de_Oscos

#29

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#30

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pontenova_(Lugo)

#31

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#32

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#33

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bres_(lugar)

#34

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#35

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Eulalia_de_Oscos

#36

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanueva_de_Oscos

#37

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanueva_de_Oscos

#38

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navia_(Asturias)

#39

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navia_(Asturias)

#40

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navia_(Asturias)

#41

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luarca

#42

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luarca

#43

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luarca

#44

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faro_de_Cabo_Busto

#45

https://pasteleriacabobusto.com

#46

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navia_(Asturias)

#47

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapia_de_Casariego

#48

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegadeo

#49

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegadeo

#50

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarius_(beverage)

#51

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Eo

#52

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Eo

#53

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia

#54

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asturias

#55

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribadeo

#56

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burela

#57

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burela

#58

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Cipri%C3%A1n_(Cervo)

#59

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarius_(beverage)

#60

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faro_de_Punta_Roncadoira

#61

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivero

#62

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estaca_de_Bares

#63

https://www.ccaspontes-vilalba.com/el-desafio/

#64

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puentes_de_Garc%C3%ADa_Rodr%C3%ADguez

#65

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

#66

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

#67

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

Super Randonneur… twice!

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-06-21 00:00:00

One of the targets for this year was to complete the Super Randonneur#1 series (do 200, 300, 400 and 600 Brevets in the same year) as that was one of the requirements to be able to participate in PBP.

It did sound like something I could do, but I had never done a 600 Brevet before, so it was a bit of a challenge.

Last weekend I finished the second 600 Brevet of this year, which means I’ve not only done the complete series… I’ve done it twice, riding 2 Brevets of each of the required distances.

The 200s

We started the season with low temperatures and lots of rain. I did both 200 Brevets in Galicia, missing one in Astorga because of some family trouble.

The first one, Polas Terras Altas went much better than expected. It was the first Brevet of the season, time to meet old friends again and make new ones. This year it was also the time to talk about our common dream, the goal of the year, participating in PBP. And all that with temperatures near 0ºC.

The second one, Vacas e Peixes, was probably one of the toughest 200s I’ve ever done. We had very bad weather, with lots of rain and humidity, which broke me after a while (preventing me from eating and drinking properly while on the bike). It was one of the few Brevets in my life where I ran out of steam at one point, having to readjust my pace and adapt in order to be able to finish.

The 300s

For the 300s, I finally managed to go to Astorga again to do a Brevet, after having so much fun last year on both a 200 and a 300 there. The first 300, del Urogallo was perfect. We had a few long and steady climbs mixed with roads where we were able to roll fast. Nice scenery and views from quiet secondary roads and good company.

The second one, Percorrendo a Raia was a bit special. Organized by the guys from the Riazor Cycling Club and Galicia Randonneurs, this one didn’t start in Bastiagueiro. Instead we started from Tui, a small village in the province of Pontevedra, in the south of Galicia. The weather wasn’t perfect and we had again lots of rain, but that didn’t prevent us from having a great time riding along the invisible border between Spain and Portugal, enjoying our usual Galician roller-coaster roads and a few tougher climbs.

I made both 300 within the same week, followed by the first 400 the next week, another challenge for me, as I had never done so much km in 3 weekends.

The 400s

For the 400s I did also the first one in Astorga and the second one in Galicia.

During the BRM 400 - Braganza we left Spain and went into Portugal for a while, including the longest lunch stop in a Brevet ever, to enjoy some Portuguese specialities. I rode this one with a group that somehow is now my group for Brevets in Astorga, friends from a variety of places (Astorga, Leon, Asturias, Madrid). This was also the first time in a Brevet when I had physical problems that almost made me scratch. In the end everything went well and I did finish it in time.

Back in Galicia, in Bastiagueiro, it was time for the BRM 400 - Polas Catro Provincias. I started that one with lots of doubts after my left knee problems, but everything went perfectly fine. For this Brevet I was back into my galician group, the Mesoiros, plus the addition of our new friend Álex. We rode on roads from the four different Galician provinces (A Coruña, Pontevedra, Ourense and Lugo - in that order). Once again, roller-coaster roads and a few longer climbs, without much time for resting or rolling on flat roads.

The 600s

The 600s. The distance I had never done before… and yet I did it twice this year. Two brevets, so different to each other like day and night.

The first one, the BRM 600 - Santiago, started in Astorga and went all the way to Santiago de Compostela, following the French Way (El Camino Francés). Riding with my astorgan-brevets group, plus our friend Roberto, we did a short stop for sleeping in the middle of the Brevet. We booked in advance an apartment in a village near km 340, and we had a 3-hour sleep there before resuming our ride. This was my first 600 ever, an experience I’ll never forget.

The other one, the BRM 600 - Galaico Asturiano started again in Bastiagueiro and went through the northern part of Galicia and into Asturias. Marked by an early crash that sent our friend Alex to the hospital, things were a bit shaken for a while. This time we decided to do the whole Brevet without a sleep stop, and it worked out quite well. I didn’t miss the sleep stop at all. I learned a few valuable things, like the fact that - if needed - I’m able to ride my bike without the prescription glasses, and how important it is to bring some meds to fix gastric problems during long distance riding.

Looking back, riding all these brevets have been an awesome experience. Lots of good moments, a few not-so-good moments, and a lots of things I’ve learnt one way or the other.

Definetely the year I’ve ridden the most (time, km, elevation gain) in my life. It feels like a mark in my randonneour life, a point of no return.

And now, what? PBP will take place in a bit less than two months from now, so I should keep on riding my bike, training, keeping myself fit for it. There are still two more Brevets in my calendar before PBP, a BRM 1000 in Galicia and another BRM 600 in Astorga. Thing is, I’m not sure I’ll be able to do those, somehow it feels like adding too much stress to my family life.

But, one way or the other, I’ll have to keep on riding my bike, combining short training sessions with long days on the saddle. I don’t want to throw off the window all the effort done up to today.

Footnotes

#1

https://rusa.org/pages/award-sr

Another week off the bike

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-07 00:00:00

This week has been tough, getting more and more complicated as days passed by.

First my daughters were home, as school time ended the previous week (on the 22nd of June). This always means a change in habits and time availability at home, both for my wife and me. I knew I’d have even less time than usual to split between work and training, but I was more or less ready to deal with that.

But then the virus came.

On Tuesday, Lara (my older daughter) started to feel strange and by early evening she developed some high fever. Soon I followed her (luckily, my wife and Emma, our younger daughter, didn’t seem to be affected by it).

What came next was a combination of fever, sore throat, a lump in my throat, strong headaches, slepless nights and an overall sensation of feeling like shit.

It wasn’t COVID (or so the tests said) but whatever it was, it brought me down for a week (and both of us are still recovering).

Hopefully it has passed now and I’ll be back on the bike soon.

Footnotes

Trying to help a bit with the BRM 1000

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-07-14 00:00:00

Yesterday evening, a few friends of mine and several other randonneurs left the usual Brevet start point at INEFG in Bastiagueiro. It was 20:00 and they were starting the last Brevet in Galicia for 2023, the BRM 1000 - Reviravolta a Castela.

Sadly I wasn’t there. The plan was to be there and do my first 1000 km Brevet, but things didn’t work out in the end.

But… I wanted to do something for them.

So, knowing they will have to pass by my home town, Lugo, near midnight, I did prepare a little something.

The idea came to mind a couple of days ago. I knew Lugo was going to be km 90-something and I thought that, after 4-5 hours of riding, maybe they would like to have a coffee stop and eat something. I told Dani about it, he discussed with a few of the others and soon all was settled.

So yesterday I did some calculations and, around 30-40 minutes before the time I was expecting them to be passing Lugo, I prepared lots of coffee and put it in one of those (big) insulated flasks to keep it warm. I also put some warm milk in a couple smaller insulated flasks and I packed up some food: a warm tortilla, bread buns, croissants, magdalenas (madeleines)… I also had two big bottles (5 liters each) of water.

We agreed to meet on the way out of Lugo, near a gas station by the road, so around 23:40 I put everything in the car and drove there. I parked the car and was sending Dani a message - “I’m at the meeting point, let me know if you prefer to stop somewhere else and I’ll drive there…” - and as soon as I hit the send button, I noticed their head lights coming towards me.

I did step out of the car and wave at them, so they could see me.

To be honest, itt was quite emotional to me to see them coming. I was happy to see them, also a bit sad I couldn’t be just riding with them.

I opened the trunk while they were arriving and parking their bikes. Then it was time to say hello, hug some people… you know, the usual kind of thing.

Then I started to serve coffee while they served food themselves.

When everybody had coffee served, I took a few pictures. It all felt like being in one of the usual quick coffee stops in a Brevet. We did chat for a while, about the adventure the were just beginning, what they will find on their way, then about stories from the previous Brevets we did this year… and about life in general.

A couple of them asked me why wasn’t I doing this Brevet too, “Life, mostly, things got a bit complicated this time” - I replied - “I really wish I’d be on the bike with you on this one”.

I think they were a bit surprised by all the food, I’ve the sensation they were expecting just coffee and some water for refilling the bottles. I’m really happy they enjoyed the food, in the end they ate it (almost) all up!

After a few more jokes. They took a moment to put on some more layers/clothes, then gathered their things and left, leaving me there alone, wishing I could just hop on the synapse and follow them.

“There will be a next time” - I told myself. Then I packed everything and drove all the way back home.

Footnotes

Getting some new gear and stuff

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-07-20 00:00:00

In one month, 20th of August 2023, it will be the day when PBP will start.

With all the work done to be able to participate, the last few days I’ve tried to keep up with training (maybe a bit less than what I’d like to) and to look into the details and needs for riding PBP.

I went through my cycling kit, clothes, tools, lights, spares, everything, trying to find out if I’d need to buy something before it would be too late for things to arrive in time (that meaning being able to put some test rides on any new stuff before departing for Paris).

This time of the year is also when the big brands and online shops have their summer sale offers, so it is usually the time when I buy most of my new stuff. I don’t care buying clothes, etc from previous seasons, so I usually get some nice discounts from brands like Rapha#1 or Isadore#2

First thing I noticed, during the last few Brevets, is that my Castelli#3 knee and arm warmers were really worn. I’ve been using them a lot for maybe five or six years and they have been reliable, comfortable and quite convenient during cold and rainy rides, as their water-repellent coating works quite well.

So I got the same exact model again, the Nano Flex, in black color and size M.

To this order, I added the Endurance gloves also from Castelli, as they had a nice discount, and I’ve heard really good things about them for doing long distance (to avoid hand/fingers numbness).

I also needed some new base layers, as my current ones are starting to fall apart too (even older than the arm/knee warmers). So I added two base layers from a brand I didn’t know before, Finisseur#4, a warm merino short-sleeved one and a light/cool short-sleeved one.

I ordered all these from the online shop deporvillage#5, getting some nice discounts between -25% and -45% (depending on the item).

Next, I needed new cycling shoes. My current Bontrager Velocis had served me well for the last 5 years, but lately I’ve found they get a bit loose while riding and I’ve to adjust the tension of the BOA lacing a lot. I’m not sure if it is a sign of the BOA laces needing replacement or the shoes themselves needing replacement, but I decided that having another pair of shoes would be a good idea anyway.

So I went on and read several “best cycling shoes as of 2023” articles, then some reviews of some models and finally looked at options with nice discounts online.

I’m going to spare you the whole process and the different models I considered. In the end, I decided myself to buy the Pro Team Shoes from Rapha#6, in Grey/Green color, size 41.5.

As I was going to get these shoes, I took a look (for several days) at the offers in Rapha#7’s summer sale. There were lots of tempting stuff there, but in the end I didn’t really needed anything from there except from the shoes and another couple of Merino socks, so I added those to the cart (grey/blue color, size Medium) before making my order.

I got a -40% discount on the shoes, a -35% discount on the socks.

While I got those Finisseur#8 base layers from deporvillage#9, I still needed some new long sleeve base layers. I knew one of my favourite brands, Isadore#10, had a summer sale too, and I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy some merino base layers from them for quite a while now.

So I went to their website to take a look.

They had lots of stuff with huge discounts, as it seemed they had merged their usual garage sale (stuff/leftovers from previous seasons) and the summer sale (stuff from this season). I took my time and, after looked a while at different products, I decided to get a few more stuff from them, clothes I’ll need next autumn/winter, etc.

I got a TherMerino Jersey (Evening Blue, size S), the Signature Thermal Tights (Orion Blue, size S), an Alternative long sleeve base layer (White, size S) and some more Merino socks, Toe covers and a waterproof cycling cap.

Sadly, there were no more stock of their merino base layers in my size, so I couldn’t get any. Also, I tried to get some bibshorts, but no luck with my size neither. In this case, almost all items had a -50% discount.

Finally, I decided to buy another head light. I currently have a Bontrager ION Pro RT which, despite being 4 years old now, works pretty well. By the experiences during the 400 and 600 Brevets this year, I know that this light, fully charged, can last a whole night of riding. Its drawback, though, is that getting it fully charged can take quite some time. And I’m sure that will be a problem during PBP, when we will ride several nights in a row.

I’ve a spare light, an Infini Super Lava, which is good for short rides, or as an spare in case of emergency, but at mid-power setting it won’t last more than 3 hours.

So, I’d like to have a spare light that would last at least like my Bontrager light, so I could swap lights and charge one while the other is in use.

Getting another ION Pro was an option I consireded, but it is a pricey product, and I couldn’t find any good discount/deal for it.

Then, I remembered a suggestion from Sergio Pulido#11 after the 400 brevet we did together. Back then he suggested us to look into the same light he had been using for some time, the SoonFire FD38. Chinese brand, only available through Amazon#12 and cheap (39.99 eur). At that moment I didn’t think really about getting one, but these past few days, it became an interesting option.

I looked for some more info and specs and found out the FD38 model wasn’t available anymore, there was instead a new model, FD39#13. It seems it has a decent battery time and enough light power/beam, there were some reviews reporting problems with its handlebars mount and a few “it stopped working completely after a few months”, but overall the reviews were good.

So I decided to give it a try and got one myself.

Regarding spares, I still have stock at home of tubes, tires, etc. so I don’t need to buy anything there.

I’ve placed these online orders within the last 10 days. Some products have already arrived, some I’m still waiting for. The idea is to test those I’ll bring with me to PBP (warmers, gloves, shoes, base layers…) as much as possible before going to Paris.

Maybe I’ll write a few lines about my impressions (specially regarding new stuff like the shoes or the light) so… stay tuned!

Footnotes

#1

https://www.rapha.cc

#2

https://isadore.com

#3

https://www.castelli-cycling.com

#4

https://www.deporvillage.com/ciclismo/finisseur

#5

https://www.deporvillage.com

#6

https://www.rapha.cc

#7

https://www.rapha.cc

#8

https://www.deporvillage.com/ciclismo/finisseur

#9

https://www.deporvillage.com

#10

https://isadore.com

#11

https://www.youtube.com/@ElViejoPull/videos

#12

https://amazon.es

#13

https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0BY9YY8VW

The Brevet Song

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-07-27 00:00:00

There has been something in common to (almost) all Brevets I’ve done this year (so far). Kind of a habit I developed without even realizing it. Before each Brevet I listened to the same song while driving my car to the start point.

The version Meg Myers#1 did, back in 2019, of Running up that hill#2 (originally by Kate Bush#3).

Some of you will probably recognize the song, as it got quite the attention last year, 2022, because of the TV show Stranger Things#4. Some maybe remember the original one from 1985#5.

So, somehow, before every Brevet I listened to Meg Myers’ version. It definetely helped getting ready.

There is also an official videoclip available in YouTube, which is quite nice, you can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7iVWK2W48o

After all the Brevets I’ve done this year, this song has become my brevet song.

Footnotes

#1

https://www.megmyers.com

#2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7iVWK2W48o

#3

https://www.katebush.com/home

#4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things

#5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp43OdtAAkM

I’ve made some stickers

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-11 00:00:00

I’ve read a lot of articles, blog posts, writings, etc about the previous editions of PBP. Basically everything I could find online. Every single time, I found lots of mentions about the nice people from Bretagne, people waiting by the side of the road to cheer riders up, to offer hot drinks, water and food for free. And what about the stories of whole families, kids and toddlers included, that put tables with everything you may need at their homes’ doors.

Usually, according to what I’ve read, these people won’t ask for anything in return. Some may ask you to send them a postcard once you are back home.

But, I’ve read in a couple of blogs about this idea of bringing with you something, a token, a small present, something you could give them in exchange that won’t mean exactly to pay for it.

And so, I came up with the idea of making some nice stickers to bring with me. Stickers are lightweight and easy to pack, and it should be a cool thing to give, specially to kids.

After thinking a bit about it, I decided to make them using my cycling club logo (which I’m totally in love with).

Without much time to arrange things, I look for local shops that may be able to have the stickers ready in time. Luckily I found one that said they could be ready in a couple of days. I ordered 100 stickers with a vinyl+polished finish, which according to the shopkeeper should last a lifetime, even sticking them in cars, etc. They costed me 25 euros.

Today I picked them up from the shop, and the result couldn’t be better!

They came in a huuuge sheet of plastic paper which was cut at the shop in a few A4-sized sheets. It was my turn then to cut them one by one and pack them into a small plastic zip bag.

I just hope people will like them!

Footnotes

Packing up for PBP

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-17 00:00:00

Tic, tac, tic, tac… Next sunday evening is the start of the 20th edition of PBP. Tomorrow I’ll start the trip to Rambouillet… so today is packing day. Time to sort things out, make a list of everything I’ll pack and carry with me on the bike.

I made a list first, to avoid forgetting anything, and then I went through that list, placing every item on a table.

Let’s make a summary of everything:

Clothes

Ottobosley Moa Race Jersey, size M (Randonneurs Galicia PBP 2023 limited edition)

Gobik Attitude jersey, size M (ribeiras do miño)

2 x Gobik Absolute Bibshorts with K-10 chamois, size M

Craft thin sleeveless summer base layer, size M

Finisseur short sleeve light base layer, size M

Finisseur short sleeve merino warm base layer, size M

Isadore alternative long sleeve warm base layer, size S

Rapha pro team long sleeve training jersey, size M

Rapha pro team long sleeve jersey, size M

Rapha Brevet flyweight wind jacket, size M

Castelli nano flex knee warmers, size M

Castelli nano flex arm warmers, size M

Castelli endurance gloves, size M

Bontrager winter gloves, size M

Bontrager waterproof shoe covers, size M

Isadore waterproof toe covers

Rapha Brevet socks

Rapha Merino socks

Finisseur pro socks

Isadore signature climber’s cap

Isadore signature rain cap

Giro Foray Helmet, size L (yeah, I’ve a big head!)

Tools and spares

2 x continental race 28 tube

2 x tire lever

4 x tube patches + glue, etc

4 x “hard” auto-stick VAR patches (useful if you get an ugly cut on your tires)

6 x small zip ties

Small tube of vax lube

Presta-to-schrader adapter

SKS tomtool

Birzman mini pump

4 x extra spoke from scribe cycling (these do not appear on the picture)

1 gearing cable replacement (this does not appear on the picture neither)

Lights

Bontrager Ion Pro RT (headlight)

Soonfire FD39 (headlight)

Apace Vision (tail light)

Cateye OMNI 3 (tail light, works with AAA batteries)

Devices, power, batteries

Garmin edge 530

GoPro Hero 3+ (yeah, a bit old!)

Motorola Moto g82

TwoNav heart rate monitor

2 x gopro extra battery + charger for three batteries

2 x AAA spare battery (duracell)

Anker 10000 mah power bank

Anker 5000 mah power bank

2 x usb c cable

2 x usb micro b cable

TooQ wall charger (2 USB 3.4 A, 17W ports)

Hygiene and meds

Forclaz reusable emergency blanket

Wet wipes (smallest package I could find)

Tissues

4 Ibuprofen pills

3 Diorren dosis (for gastrointestinal trouble)

3 compeed patches

Small sunscreen bottle

Small travel toothbrush + toothpaste

Assos chamois cream (in a small plastic container)

Food

Isostar hydrate powertabs (10)

3 x Aptonia salts hydration pack

3 x Victory Endurance bar (banana + white chocolate)

3 x Victory Endurance bar (tropical fruits)

3 x Clif bar (different flavors)

4 x multi-nuts bar

4 x oats + raisins + honey bar

1 package of clif bloks (blueberry flavored energy chews with caffeine)

I also packed the prescription glasses I wear when not on the bike. I never did this before for a Brevet. I always wear my spiuk binomial glasses with the small prescription glasses adapter in them. But I don’t want to find myself without any prescription glasses in the middle of PBP (after a crash, for example).

Helmet and one change of clothes (jersey, bibshort, base layer and socks) is what I’ll wear at the start, while the rest of it will be neatly packed into my three bike bags, like in this picture from the 600 - Especial Galaico Asturiano:

It may look like a bit too much, I’ve been checking the weather forecast for days now and it seems that chances of rain are very low, with higher temperatures near 30ºC by day and 13-14ºC at night.

BUT, reading the reports from 2019, back then they were expecting lower temperatures at night around 10ºC, and in the end they had more like 3-5ºC.

That’s the reason for the extra long sleeve warm layers and the waterproof shoe covers and cap. I guess I prefer to be on the safe-but-a-bit-heavier side of things here.

Once everything was ready, and after taking that picture, I packed everything on the bags and put them on the synapse, to be sure everything fit. Then I removed the bags from the bike and packed the rest of my things on a couple of travel bags.

Everything is ready, I am ready, time to rest and sleep a bit before the big traveling day tomorrow.

Footnotes

The trip to Rambouillet (part 1)

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-18 00:00:00

Day 1 of our trip to Rambouillet. This morning I drove from Lugo to A Coruña, with a short stop to pick up my father on the way there (so he can drive my car back home afterwards).

We arrived in Coruña near 10:00 and we meet my friend Dani near his home. A few minutes later Ferreiro and Manolo arrived on the big Mercedes V “Marco Polo” van that would take us to France.

We got to work and we attached Dani’s bike rack (with space for up to 3 bikes) to the van. Manolo and Ferreiro had their bikes already packed inside the van, while the other three bikes were going to travel on the bike rack.

With the bikes in place, and our luggage in the van, we left Dani’s home and went to pick up another member of our expedition, Felipe. A while later, his bike was already loaded on the rack, his bags in the van and we were ready to go.

We left Coruña, taking first the A-6 highway, then the A-8 along the Cantabric coast. We drove for a few hours until we arrived in Unquera (Cantabria), where we did a stop to eat something.

This first stretch passed really fast. We were excited, lots of things to discuss and talk about. We talked about literally everything regarding PBP, our ideas, plans, expectations, etc.

In unquera we had lunch and Dani decided to buy a little thing for dessert (and to carry with us on the van!).

We tried to make the stop as short as possible, so after lunch, pee and a very short walk to/from the road restaurant, we got back on the van and resumed our way to the next stop, Bourdeaux.

The weather was good (maybe a bit too hot for me) and the highway along the Cantabric coast gave us some very cool views a few times. The Mercedes van was amazing, with lots of space for our things and ourselves, super comfortable.

Once we crossed the border, we entered a really big highway. Having 3/4 lanes almost all the way to Bourdeaux, that highway was full of cars. We had several big traffic jams, which were worse and worse as we were getting closer to Bourdeux.

After a while, the sky got covered with dark thick clouds. It looked like it was going to start raining soon. And soon it did, easy at first, then stronger. Our bikes on the rack weren’t covered, but I had brought with me one of those big waterproof covers for bikes, so we did a quick stop in a gas station/rest area. We filled the gas tank of the van, put the cover over our bikes and resumed riding.

Finally we made it to our hotel around 21:30. The hotel was not in Bourdeaux, but in one of the service/parking areas by the highway passing by the big city. We parked the van in the hotel parking lot and did the check-in. A few minutes later we went out looking for a place to have dinner.

First big difference between Spain and France: dinner hours. While in spain we start to have dinner around 21:00 (and that’s early for spanish standards) in France shops/restaurants start closing around 21:30/22:00.

We already knew that, but we tried our luck with a nice small pizzeria near the hotel. When we got there the oven has been already turned off, so no luck. We looked for other options nearby, but all we could find was… McDonalds.

Riiight… not exactly my choice, but there weren’t any other options without driving, so McDonalds it was.

There was actually a lot of people in there, so we had to wait a bit to make our order in one of those automatic ordering machines. Then we looked for a corner a bit separated for the big mass and we waited a bit for our order to be ready.

I don’t like McDonalds (and its sibling franchises) at all. Usually I refuse strongly to eat there, but if there is no other choice, at least I try to avoid their so-called “burgers”. This time I decided to order some pasta salad. It wasn’t good, but it was better than the burgers at least.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and went to bed. We still had another half of the trip to do tomorrow.

Footnotes

The trip to Rambouillet (part 2)

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-19 00:00:00

Day 2 of our trip to Rambouillet. We woke up early in the hotel near Bourdeaux and had a very nice breakfast there. French croissants, pain au chocolat, coffee, juice, toasted bread with honey and jam, fruit… Let’s say we compensate a bit for the failure of a dinner the previous night.

We left the hotel and drove all the way from Bourdeux to Rambouillet.

It was still a long way to go, a tiresome trip, but we were eager to arrive in Rambouillet, we were looking forward to be on our bikes riding PBP.

Once again, we encounter rain on our way. We were going towards Orleans and we had a strong rain shower for quite some time. Luckily our bikes on the rack were already covered.

During this part of the trip, we kept talking about planning and ideas for PBP. This time we focused on the weather reports. A new heat wave (canicule as they called them in France) was expected for the next week (during PBP) with very high temperatures, specially on the south and center of France. The Bretagne was supposed to have milder temperatures, but still unusually high for that area.

Manolo and the others, with more experience and several PBP on their backs, were thinking about not carrying any warm clothes at all with them. “You won’t need winter/warm clothes, not even at night with this temperatures” - Manolo kept saying - “Short sleeve jersey and arm warmers, that should be enough”.

Honestly, I kept thinking about the reports I had read from 2019 and how cold it was at night on those roads in Bretagne…

We passed Orleans and we left the worse of the storm behind. Eventually the sun came out again and the weather improved as we were getting closer and closer to our destination.

Finally, near 13:30 we arrived in Rambouillet.

On our way to the village, we passed by the big gate from where we will leave on sunday afternoon, on our bikes and pedaling. Coincidence, at the gate we found the FECT#1 expedition, so we decided to stop for a moment and say hello to our friends there.

I took a moment to say hello to my brevet group from Astorga (Sergio, Pull, Saúl and Valentín) as well as Yago, who took my place in the FECT expedition.

It was super nice to be with all these people, but it was getting late for lunch (again, restaurant closing times in France…) so we left them there (they had lunch organized at their hotel) and we went to the center of the village of Rambouillet.

We parked the van near one of the entrances to the castle, by a very nice square, and went right away looking for a place to have lunch.

As soon as we left the van, I got completely amazed. All around us were cyclists, randonneurs and bikes, bikes everywhere. Bikes leaning on walls, bikes parked by cafés and restaurants, on verandas… literally everywhere.

There were lots of randonneurs sitting at tables on the terraces. The weather was awesome, very inviting to seat outside and enjoy your time. Everybody was already wearing their cycling kits, bikes parked on sight. And not only bikes, soon we noticed the strange vehicles, the bolidos (as we call them in spanish), where the rider lays down inside a very aero structure. They were catching lots of attention from everybody, their owners trying to answer all the questions from lots of people around them.

After a while, we found a nice restaurant that has a big table available inside. We asked if we could have lunch there and were warmly welcomed by its owner, who invited us to seat at the big table. The table was inside, but had very nice views of what was happening outside. People and bikes kept coming, the square getting more and more crowded.

While we were waiting for lunch to be served, our friend Luis Castro joined us. He also came from Galicia, but he came on a trip with his family one day before us (and he will stay for a few more days in France after PBP).

We enjoyed our lunch, big dessert included (Dame Blanche for me!) and then we decided to go and pick up our things from the organization. On our way there I couldn’t help myself and I had to stop a million times to look at the bikes along the way. And, of course, take lots of pictures.

I saw all kind of bikes. Racing/aero road bikes, endurance bikes, touring bikes, old-style steel bikes, Ti (Titanium frame) bikes, gravel bikes, modern steel bikes… It was quite hard to walk a few meters without stopping again to take a closer look at the next bike we may find.

Finally we entered the area around the castle, passing another big metal fence and getting to the gardens. There were people coming and going on every direction, as well as a few bikes and cyclists seating or laying on the grass.

We passed the Castle and went towards the big area where the ACP#2 had prepared everything for the big departure on sunday (and all main events around PBP departure and arrival). This area wasn’t crowded yet, just a few people hanging around and the ocassional cyclist passing by.

We kept walking and passed the parking area for people that registered their vehicles when they signed up for PBP. Cars, vans, campers and even small motorhomes. The view was quite impressive, rows and rows of vehicles of all sizes.

I must say bringing a camper or motorhome looked like a very good idea at that moment. People had all their belongings there, no need to drive to/from hotels. I saw several people with their bikes on stands, adjusting gears, preparing everything for the big day. They were going to spend the night just a few minutes from the start point. What a luxury.

“¡Hombre! ¡unos gallegos!” - someone shouted to our left. We had been talking quite loudly (as usual) and someone noticed our accent. What a coincidence, we came across Javier López Terrón#3 (born in Galicia, living in Catalunya) and, after presentations, he asked us if we know a guy from Pontevedra called “Alex”. Of course we know him, he was talking about our friend “Alex”, who was supposed to be there with us, but had a bad crash in the 600 “galaico asturiano” back in june that, unfortunately, prevented him from being here with us.

We walked with Javier all the way to the entrance of the area where we should get our stuff from the organization, where we lost him after everybody started to meet other friends and colleagues.

Once we get there, the veterans (Manolo, Felipe, Ferreiro) started to meet more and more people. I guess once you have been in this world for some time, you get to know a lot of people. Dani and I spent some time taking pictures and talking, and saying hello to a few people we know from doing other Brevets as well.

The Bergerie Nationale was indeed full of people, so it took some time to finally get to pick up our documentation and clothes. Honestly, I savored every moment we were there. Not only because I had the chance to meet some really nice people and chat about randonneuring in general and PBP in particular, but because the scenery and environment around us was so beautiful.

We entered the building assigned to our starting time letter (H), which looked like an old barn, with wooden floor and ceiling. There were rows of big tables on both sides, with a line of flags from different countries over them. The bènèvoles (the volunteers) working below a given flag were able to talk in that country language.

I went to a free slot below two flags, the spanish flag and the US flag. An old lady greeted me there - “Bonjour Monsieur!” - I tried my best to reply in french, but soon we switched to a mix of english and spanish.

She asked for my registration number, the printed paper with my registration data and my id (the spanish DNI card). Then she left for a moment, just to came back with a yellow bag with reflective stripes. She opened the bag and went through all the items in the bag, telling me about each of them. The PBP official jersey (size M), the reflective vest (also size M), the plastic bracelet with my registration data (to be wear at all times), the plastic card to be attached to my bike frame (which has an RFID stripe attached to it, which is what they will use for tracking when we pass by the different controls) and, finally, my Brevet booklet (yeah, booklet, not card! PBP has too many controls for a regular/normal Brevet card).

There were a few other items, like the extra plastic card and a sticker with your registration number, to be placed somewhere visible so the official photographers can find you later on, while sorting photos of the participants. There was also a plastic pouch with a long string, that could be used to keep your belongings with you while riding (it was too big/bulky, and I don’t like to keep those things hanging from my neck anyway, so I didn’t use it).

I was the first one from our little group getting his bag, while the others got their bags, I kept myself hanging around, watching, hearing and taking some pictures.

Then we came outside a door opposite the one we came in a bit earlier, there we got a couple of presents. First a nice water bottle from Zefal#4, a 750ml white bottle with the logos of this PBP edition. Then a replica of the arrows that show the way to Brest and then back to Paris along the route.

Note

This was the first edition they give these arrows as gifts, which seems like a good idea, in previous editions some people stopped to remove the arrows on the route, causing lots of trouble to the other participants coming after them).

Did I mention that during time we were doing all this, there were bikes everywhere? Just like it happened earlier on the village streets and squares, here we found all kinds of bikes parked around every corner. Some were really beautiful.

With the swag bags on our backs, we walked around the area a bit more, paying a visit to the “change your clothes sizes department. For me, the reflective vest was a bit too big/loose (size M), but sadly there were no more vests of size S available.

Apart from changing your jersey/vest size, they also had a small shop there, where you could buy some PBP merchandise (t-shirts, jerseys from previous editions, etc). I liked the regular white t-shirts with the PBP logo on them, so I bought one for myself (size S, they were quite large).

Walking around, I listened carefully to conversations all around me. There were so many people from so many different places. I was able to pick up traces of conversations in english, german, french, italian, spanish, portuguese… and others that sound totally strange to me (russian, different asian languages…)

We kept finding amazing and beautiful machines, like a triplet (yeah, a tandem bike for 3 people) being ridden by three guys from germany.

After a while, we decided to go back to the place where all would start on sunday. The start point, where the concours de machines#5 was taking place.

Another PBP tradition, the concours de machines is like a contest for bicycle artisans to show their creations. People then can vote the ones they like the most and there is also a jury that will evaluate them. Then, the bikes have to be ridden during PBP to test them and show how they could perform.

There were also stands from different french bicycle artisans, like Alex Singer#6, or brands like Campagnolo or Zefal.

After hanging around for a while and spent some more money (got myself a PBP buff/scarf, but sadly PBP caps were sold out) we decided it was time to go to our hotel for the night. We had a 20-minute drive to get there + do the check-in + bring our belongings to our rooms.

Then we walked to a nearby italian restaurant to have dinner.

On our way there we met Guillaume Danel, a french guy that was also participating in PBP, who speaks an almost perfect spanish. He was alone and looking for a place to have dinner, so we asked him to join us.

That italian restaurant was a recommendation from the clerk in our hotel, but it was a total disaster. The service was pretty bad and it took ages for them to take our orders and then to serve them. They also served our food in blocks, so we didn’t really have dinner together.

Anyway, we had a great time, talking a bit about everything and getting to know Guillaume a bit better.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and went into our rooms. I shared mine with Dani, and as soon as we were there, we put ourselves to work. Time to re-pack some stuff in our bike bags.

After discussing it all day and double and triple checked the weather report, I decided to remove a few stuff from my bags. It was quite clear I won’t need the extra-warm clothes, as well as the rain stuff, so I removed the shoe and toe covers, the long sleeve jersey and jacket, the merino base layer, the waterproof cap, etc.

Then I double checked the top tube and frame bags, ensuring all I’d need there was in fact there (food, spares, tools, etc).

Finally, I removed everything from my swag bag and spread everything over the bed, to take a picture of all my goodies.

Everything ready, one last night before PBP start. I wasn’t nervous, maybe a bit excited, but it had been a long, long day. I was so tired that in a matter of minutes I was fast asleep.

Footnotes

#1

https://fect.info

#2

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com/en/welcomepage

#3

https://www.instagram.com/javierlopezterron

#4

https://www.zefal.com/en/

#5

https://www.associationartisansducycle.com/concours-2023-english

#6

https://www.cycles-alex-singer.fr

I am a PBP Ancien now

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-25 00:00:00

Yes, I’ve finished PBP

Yes, I’ve done it within the 90 hour limit

That was on Wednesday, 23rd of August 2023, just before midnight. After near 51 hours pushing the pedals, 78 hours total time (with stops), since I left Rambouillet on Sunday, 20th of August 2023, around 17:45 (a bit later than that, really).

I’m writing this lines from home, after the long trip that took me back to Lugo, from Rambouillet. A couple of days have passed already and I’m still overwhelmed.

What I’ve lived, felt, enjoyed… during this incredible experience that was riding - and finishing - PBP for the first time. To be part of something like this in the randonneuring world…

Right now trying to put all that in words looks like a very complex task.

Just trust me when I write this: I’m so terribly, incredibly, amazingly happy.

I’ve met so many nice people, I’ve pushed my limits to a new level, I’ve visited some incredibly beautiful places and I’ve enjoyed every single second of it all.

It will take some time, but I promise I’ll write about it all, trying not to forget anything.

Footnotes

The day PBP started

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-28 00:00:00

There is definetely too much to write, too many things happened between the 20th and 23rd of August, so I’m going to split my story into separate reports (hopefully making it easier to read).

So, let me go back to where I left it on The trip to Rambouillet (part 2) and then tell you what happened on the 20th of August, Sunday, before my PBP departure time.

The plan was to sleep as much as possible, so we didn’t set any early alarms. Even so, I woke up before 7:00. I wasn’t able to sleep anymore (wondering why!). Dani was laying on the bed next to time, still asleep, so I kept myself in bed, trying not to make any noise that may wake him up. I rested a bit more, while reading Six of Crows (by writer Leigh Bardugo) in my Kobo ebook reader.

By 08:40 Manolo sent a message, he was going downstairs to have breakfast. Dani was still sleeping, but I woke up and had a shower, getting myself ready for breakfast.

Breakfast was “ok”, not super-wonderful + the coffee machine got broken before I could have my second coffee… but “ok”. Once we were done with it, we packed up our belongins and left the hotel.

On our way back to Rambouillet, we stopped at a supermarket (Auchan), where we met Luis again (he was staying in a different hotel than us) and we bought bread, cheese, tomatoes and jamon serrano. The plan was to make some bocadillos (if you have been reading my previous Brevet reports, you know already what I am talking about… ;-P) and bring them with us from the start of THE ride.

Note

The idea was to not stop at Mortagne au perche (not a control on the way out) and ride all the way to Villaines La Juhel, first control around km 200. In order to avoid having to get food at Mortagne, we were going to eat (at least) one of the bocadillos there, or somewhere on our way to the first control.

But… plans… you know…

Shopping done, we drove a few more km until we arrive finally in Rambouillet. At the entrance of the village everything seemed quiet, but soon we started to find a few randonneurs along the way.

We went straight to the parking zone reserved for registered vehicles, we look for a nice spot to park the van (trying to get a bit of shade, as the van was going to be parked there for a few days). Once we found something suitable, we parked and started preparing our bikes.

It was hot already, and getting hotter by the minute. Everybody was sweating and cursing the canicule. A few decided to remove their t-shirts to not get them all sweaty.

While we were getting things ready, we had a very nice surprise. Jose Luis, another fellow galician randonneur, member of the same club as Felipe, Manolo and Ferreiro (C.C. Riazor) appeared.

What a lovely surprise! He wasn’t able to come to Rambouillet this time as a participant, so he decided to come with his wife during their holidays.

Note

Little side note on my story here. Jose Luis was the first randonneur I met, back in the day when I was doing my first Brevets (circa 2017), that had already done PBP.

I remember quite well doing my first 300 Brevet and riding a few hours with him, listening carefully to his stories about riding PBP on 2015, and thinking to myself - “What an incredible thing to do… riding 1200 km unsupported, under 90 hours!” - and yet, here I was, a few hours before starting myself such a crazy adventure.

We did chat a bit with them, while we checked that the bikes were ready. Then we rode all the way to the village, where we were going to have lunch. We asked Jose Luis and his wife if they would like to join us, and luckily they said yes.

This short ride served us to test the bikes throughly, ensuring there were no last minute mechanical surprises/problems. Riding through the gardens was nice, refreshing. It felt soooo good to be finally on the bike, pedaling a bit. Once we came out of the castle area and on to the village streets, we found the big party.

Again lots of cyclists going on different directions, and this time mixed with parades and events everywhere. In front of Rambouillet’s city council building someone with a megaphone was announcing something (very loudly).

We went to the same square where we had lunch on Saturday, we parked our bikes and sat for a moment at a table on a nice terrace, to have some drinks.

Sitting there, on a shade in this warm day, having fun with some friends, sharing stories and even plans for the future… it was lovely, but something in me was already focused on what was coming in a few hours. It wasn’t really anxiety and I wasn’t really nervous, but I was looking forward to be on the bike, riding on our way to Brest.

After a while, we went to the same restaurant where we had lunch on Saturday. We had another superb lunch, surrounded by randonneurs already dressed up and ready to start (we still were wearing non-cycling clothes).

Time to discuss one last time the plan, the weather, what is important and what is less important during a 1200 super-brevet like this one.

Our friend Roberto Fernández (whom you should know already, from my report about the BRM 600 - Santiago) came to visit us briefly. He was ready and he was starting earlier than us (going on one of the 80-hours limit groups). It was good to see him, even if it was only for a few minutes.

After lunch we said goodbye to Jose Luis and his wife, picked up our bikes and started the ride back to the van.

The streets were full of people, lots of cyclists and an overall frenziness sensation with everybody rushing to get somewhere in time.

First we walked for a while and when we were about to hop on the bikes and ride the rest of the way, we found our french friend from last night, Guillaume, who was ready for a start earlier than us (in one of the 80-hour limit groups). He was riding a bike from Origine cycles#1, a french brand from his hometown.

After chatting a bit with Guillaume we wished him good luck and said our goodbyes. Then we rode our bikes through the main start area, where lots of cyclists were trying to find their way and a lot of pedestrians were trying to find a good spot for watching the show.

We crossed the river of randonneurs and kept riding towards the van. We still had a couple of hours before our departure time, but time was flying by and we wanted to be in the bike check area with enough time.

We arrived at the place where the van was parked. First we prepared the bocadillos and then, in a matter of minutes, we got dressed and ready. It was really really hot and we were so sweaty that getting our tight cycling clothes on was quite the task.

Both my traditional picture with the synapse and the group picture had to be taken, of course.

Felipe and Luis were going to start later than us (18:30 and 19:30 respectively) but they got ready with us and we rode back to the starting point together.

I remember perfectly well my feelings during that short ride. Still thinking to myself that it was unbelievable that I was there, about to start PBP. Damn, it felt so, so good.

Approaching the starting area I was able to see waves of cyclists moving together, like the tides of the sea. Moving a bit forward, stop, a bit backwards sometimes, then forward again.

Slowly, we look for a place for us in that sea of randonneurs. We found our letter (H) and we merge into the current behind its flag.

I’m not used to participate in races or similar events with so many people involved, so for me this was a bit overwhelming. I was a bit nervous, looking around me all the time, trying not to hit anyone with the bike and trying not to get hit neither.

We moved slowly, carried on the tide of cyclists and sweating a lot under a scorching sun that was cooking us up for good.

Then we arrived at the bike check, which basically consisted on walking by your bike, lights on and with your reflective vest on sight.

Note

reflective vest meaning the vest provided by the organization. I didn’t brought my rapha brevet gillet, as someone already told me it won’t be accepted, and being there I saw how several other riders had problems because their vests were not accepted.

But what I found quite strange was that reflective suspenders were not accepted neither. I still don’t understand why. They provide good visibility and in case of warm temperatures they are just perfect, not getting you boiled like a full vest.

Note

Also, I can’t tell enough times how much I dislike the official vest they gave us. Oversized, way too warm for the temperatures we had during PBP this year and with a cut that wasn’t comfortable (for me) at all (the fabric at its neck rubbing mine all the time). And it was really bulky, when packing it up to put it aside/store it during the day, its volume was more than twice the rapha gillet.

After the bike check, we passed by a few tables where some volunteers were stamping our Brevet booklets for the first time. Then we still had to walk our bikes through the gardens for a while, until we reached the dirt path where the official start point was.

The wait while groups F (special bikes) and G were departing was quite hard. There was no shade to take cover and the sun was hitting us hard. “If it takes any longer to start, I’ll have emptied my bottles before starting to pedal” - I told one guy to my left, a randonneur from Catalunya. We both laughed, but reality was it was too damn hot (the garmin device from Dani was showing 40ºC).

Five minutes later than scheduled, 17:50 the speaker (yeah, there was a speaker giving the start to every group) told us it was our time, everybody started to clap as a countdown was done and then everybody was hopping on their bikes, clipping and pedaling…

Again, I was quite nervous, too many people, too close to me. Luckily I was quick on putting distance with everybody around.

And, just like that, the adventure began… and I was riding PBP.

Footnotes

#1

https://www.origine-cycles.com/en-GB/

From Rambouillet to Brest

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-10 00:00:00

In the last entry of this log, I left my story just when I was starting to pedal into my first PBP. Before moving on with the story, let me go back for a moment to our original plan for the ride.

Basically, the idea was to ride all the way from Rambouillet to Brest (a bit over 600 km) without doing any sleeping stops. Then sleep in Brest for a few hours and do another stretch of near 300 km until Fougerès, sleep there a few more hours and ride the next almost-300 km back to Rambouillet the next day. We even had 2 hotel rooms booked for those sleep stops, one in a hotel on our way out of Brest (in Plougastel) and another one on the way out of Fougerès.

With that plan in mind, we made some numbers, an estimation on how long it would take us to arrive in Brest. We were going to ride Sunday (20th Aug.) evening, all night long until Monday (21st Aug.) morning and then all Monday. We expected to arrive in Brest some time around 22:00 on Monday. That should give us time enough to have some good hours of sleep before starting the comeback.

Now, back to my story…

The departure was a bit chaotic. We were a lot of cyclists, too close to each other, on a dirt path that went slightly uphill. Some clipped in and started pedaling right away, while others kept walking their bikes for a while (and a few of those not even going straight forward).

As I’ve mentioned a few other times, I’m not used to this kind of rides, with so many people and crowded starts. The fact that we were in the middle of the H start group didn’t help. I had a very nervous and anxious start, but luckily I made it out of the Chatèau without trouble.

And as soon as we left the dirt path and took the road… there it was, happiness, filling my lungs with every breath.

We had met our friend Juankar while queued for the start, and we made a little group at the start, with him, his friend David and Manolo, Ferreiro, Dani and me.

Soon we left the area around the Chatèu de Rambouillet, leaving by the big metal fence we visited when we arrived on saturday. We rode on some nice cobblestones and took the turn left, on a nice road with good tarmac.

All the way out, people were lined up on both sides of the road, cheering us up, taking pictures and shouting “Allez! Allez!”, “Courage!” and a few more things in French.

Considering how chaotic everything felt at the start, things went pretty smooth as soon as we were on the road. I was expecting things to be a bit more scary, having on the back of my mind this reminder “be careful with the groups, last thing you want is get into a group crash this early in the ride”. But riders, at least those in my starting group, were behaving quite well.

We wanted to keep our little group together, we are used to ride together and our paces are usually quite alike. After a while we found our pace and started passing other smaller and bigger groups. Some times people joined us and kept back there for a while, some other times we found bigger groups that were riding at a similar pace than ours and we did stay behind their wheels for some time.

This was fast land, almost flat with some gentle hills, once we got some speed, keeping it rolling was easy. Soon we started to catch riders from groups G and F (the special bikes one). We were passing recumbent bikes, velomobiles and even a fat bike.

This also meant catching some big groups, specially up those gentle hills, where they seemed to be slowing down a bit. Instantly, my brain went back into alert mode, trying not to stay for long in the middle of those bigger groups and risk a group crash.

We also found a few riders stopped by the road, trying to sort things out on their bikes (mech issues, etc) as well as the first flat tires. Every time there was some people stopped to help, so I didn’t have to stop myself.

I started to talk to people around me. People from all kind of different places. I met some spanish guys that came with the FECT#1, some of them I knew from a group chat we shared back when I was going to come to PBP with the FECT#2 too. I also talked with people from India, UK, USA, France, Italy…

I was excited, feeling great, and got carried in the fast pace. I also tried to keep myself at the head of any group we catched (probably my brain still alert to any possible group crash) which meant I was pulling someone most of the time.

Then a guy (looked like he was from India) approached me and asked me if we should take turns and speed up a bit. It was tempting and I was about to say “YES!” when I looked back for a moment and noticed none of my friends were there. “Sorry” - I told him instead - “Seems my mates are not there, I’m going to wait a bit for them”. He made a “too bad” gesture and pushed on, while I moved a bit aside and let the group pass.

A few minutes later Dani and the others catched me. It seemed Ferreiro was being a bit slower and they had slowed the pace a bit. Too bad, that bigger group we were riding with had the perfect pace. But, you know, no troll left behind!

We kept riding on easy terrain for some more time. As we slowed down, some riders we have passed earlier started to pass us, as well as some fast riders from groups I and J.

The temperature was nice, the roads were nice, people were super-nice… I was feeling great and it totally felt like living in a dream.

But (there is always a but) our friend Ferreiro was being dropped more regularly now. We were riding just fine, starting to pass some riders again, and then someone would notice he was not there anymore, so we slowed down, being passed again by those same riders, until we see him again.

I started to worry.

At first I was worried about him. I expected we all were going to have our low moments during a super brevet like this one, but someone with his experience (this was his 3rd PBP) having a low moment this early? Weird.

And then I started to worry also about our plans and the schedule for arriving in Brest, the hotel we had booked, etc. I was ok with riding evening, all night long and all day long, but the idea of having to ride into a second night for some more hours without sleep was… frightening.

Even being worried, I tried to enjoy the ride as much as possible. With an eye on Ferreiro, I kept talking with people here and there and we came across more weird bikes and vehicles on our way.

At one point we started to ride through small villages and we came upon the first groups of people that had their stands by the road. Some times they were simple tables, some times bigger fair-style stands, some times vans or cars with the trunk open. Every time people offered water, coffee and even food. If we didn’t stop, they cheered us up at the shouts of “Allez! Allez!”, “Bon Courage!”, etc.

In one of those stops, to refill our water bottles, we waited a bit longer for Ferreiro. Then we resumed the ride, but Manolo, Juankar and David decided they were not going to wait any longer, while Dani and I decided to stay with him.

We took turns riding alongside him, trying to talk him out of that hole and get him on a good mood again, but it was pretty useless.

Soon the night was going to be upon us, we did a short stop to put our reflective vests on (even if it was too hot for it, we didn’t want to risk being sight/caught by one of the ACP motorbikes, which would mean a 1-hour penalty in our times). While we were doing so, another fast group passed by us. We hopped on our bikes, but we knew already we weren’t going to be able to catch them.

Anyway, we weren’t alone. You are never completely alone during PBP.

We kept on riding, forming another little group of riders, while the sun finally went down, leaving us in a very, very dark night.

I had Dani by my side at all times, we rode together, side by side. I was happy to be sharing all this with him, we did a long journey together since the start of the year, and riding this together was amazing.

In the darkness it was much more difficult to keep track of our friend Ferreiro and at some point we lost him. It didn’t make sense to slow down, we were getting closer to the food stop at Mortagne au Perche (which wasn’t a control on the way to Brest, but it was going to be a control on the way back to Paris).

We still had to pass by a few villages before the stop. There had been people by the road since we left the area near Rambouillet all evening, but now it was almost 22:00 and there was still people out there, waiting to see the randonneurs passing by.

In one village, a bunch of kids were waiting for randonneurs to pass just to do the wave. Dani and me noticed them with time enough, so we joined them when they started - “WooooooOOOOOooooooo” - they laughed out loud and one of them shouted - “Viva España!” - with a french accent. I’m still wondering how our wooooing gave us away as spanish…

Around 22:30 we arrived in Mortagne au Perche. It was full of people, vibrant, lots of bikes parked everywhere and lots of cyclists walking here and there. There were also those who were walking their bikes and those that simply passed through without unclipping from their pedals (which was our initial plan).

We found the others, Manolo, Juankar and David and we stopped by them, parking the bikes and bringing out one of our bocadillos. They asked about Ferreiro and we told them that we had lost him in that last part, once it became darker around us.

While eating, we discussed the current status of the situation and what we were going to do about it. They decided they were going to keep on, riding at their own pace. Dani decided he was going to keep himself near Ferreiro and, after some hesitation and thinking things through… I decided to keep myself with them.

Meanwhile Ferreiro arrived and parked his bike by ours, removed his shoes and literally collapsed on the floor. He looked completely destroyed.

Dani went to get him some sugary drinks and meanwhile he tried to eat something. With Dani back, the others left (fast stop, as planned) and the three of us started to talk about the situation, what may be happening, what would be the root cause of all this.

Finally, we decided to keep moving. We had been stopped there too long. We picked our bikes and when we were about to leave, Ferreiro noticed something was not right with his rear wheel. Something was rubbing somwehere. After looking at the wheel for a moment and several attempts of fixing the rim brake, we noticed it was worse than what it looked. The wheel was wobbling side to side.

This didn’t look good, at all. We decided to get the bike to one of the mechanics available in the control.

We walked to the mechanics’ stands, passing by the full party going on in front of the control building. There was a guy giving a concert and lots of Benèvoles cooking, doing what looked like a big barbecue.

When we arrived at the mechanic, he looked into the wheel and said that something was not right with one of the spokes and that the wheel seemed to be out of true#3. Sadly, he didn’t have the tools to fix it. He adjusted the tension of some spokes, including the one he thought was the fault one. He also suggested to check in the next control if the mechanic there may have the tools for truing the wheel.

Note

All this explained in French, as he didn’t speak english or spanish, and considering our level of French…

Finally, around 50 minutes later, we left Mortagne au Perche and got ourselves back into the embrace of the darkness.

Note

One of the things that struck me during PBP night riding was the lack of street lamps light.

I’ve done a lot of night riding during this year, as part of the preparation and qualifiers for PBP, but none of those rides prepared me for what I was going to find in France.

In Spain street lamps are on during all night, specially in villages/towns and roundabouts/crossings. In France, at least on the PBP route, all street lamps were off after midnight.

And we had very dark nights during this edition of PBP, with almost no moonlight and only the light of our head lights to light our way up.

We left as the Three Musketeers, with around 80 km to get to the next (this time for real) control at Villaines La-Juhel, but soon we found some company.

We started to get again on a good pace, passing riders, until we found three randonneurs from USA. Rob and Deirdre Mann and a friend of them which name I have forgotten (sorry!). Rob and Deirdre were doing an amazing work, working like a perfectly greased machine, taking turns and keeping up with a very steady pace.

We joined the american night train and we weren’t the only ones jumping in. Soon we were a bigger group again, which was growing bigger as we were passing other riders and some joined at the back. I was having sooo much fun.

Dani was by my side almost all the time, or at least somewhere where I could find him with a quick look over my shoulder, but I started to get worried about dropping Ferreiro again if we kept up with this fast pace.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, in the middle of the darkness and surrounded by all those powerful head lights, it was very difficult to see if he was or not behind us. So I came up with an idea. Shouting.

Yeah, shouting, you have read it correctly. From time to time me or Dani would shout - “Ferreiroooo??” - and he would reply - “Aquí!” - or - “Siii”.

It worked quite well and I could focus 99% on not crashing into the wheel I had in front of me. That technique also helped making new friends. Shouting a Galician/Spanish surname with a clear galician accent was a good way to tell everybody around you where do you come from.

And so, after some shouting, a guy next to me said - “Hey! un gallego!”. A randonneur from Zaragoza (Aragón, Spain) that was riding PBP with a few friends.

Note

Sadly I don’t remember his name (or any of his friends) but we shared km more than once during the next few days, as well as lots of jokes and laughs in the control stops.

It was 02:20 when we arrived in Villaines La Juhel, the first real control on our way to Brest. And the best of it… we did it, the three of us, together.

It was so good to see our friend recovering, being him again.

We wanted to make this stop as quick as possible, and try to compensate some of the lost time. There were parking places on both sides of the main road entering the village. We parked our bikes on the first place available and then walked a bit to get our booklets stamped.

Then we got coffee and something to eat. Instead of going inside the cafeteria (which was full of people and terribly hot) we sat at one of the big wooden tables outside.

We ate our second bocadillo, then the coffee and pastries we bought in the cafetería. While we were eating, the guy from Zaragoza appeared and we did chat for a while. Some other randonneurs we knew from Spain passed by, either towards the cafetería after getting their stamps or the other way around, about to resume their rides.

Even trying to make this stop quick, we spent 1 hour and 15 minutes in Villaines. When we went to pick up our bikes, we noticed more and more randonneurs were arriving. It seemed we were still ahead of the bulge, the big mass of riders that would fill the controls.

Next control was Fougerès, 90-something km away. Again, The Three Musketeers resumed their ride together, into the night.

As it happened after Mortagne au Perche, we were not really alone, not for long at least. As our pace increased, we started passing riders. This time we were passed a few times by faster riders too, too fast for us to try to stick to their wheels and make another group.

After a while, though, we started to pick up riders, starting to form a group. And just when we were a mid-sized group of randonneurs, the American night train appeared again and sucked us in.

Right. Rob, Deirdre and his friend appeared again, still working as a perfect machine. We hopped on the train and adjusted our pace to theirs, which somehow felt even faster than before the stop at Villaines.

That part of the ride went fast, like in a blur. The pace they had set was really fast. Maybe a bit too fast for riding in the middle of the night, specially when crossing the small villages without any street lights on.

There wasn’t much talking, personally I was 100% focused on not crashing on to anybody (and worried about someone crashing on to me).

We were rolling fast, alternating what seemed like long stretches of road by open fields, with small villages that looked completely empty. Then we crossed several villages where people left old bicycles all lighted up using colorful LED stripes. Too bad we were going so fast I didn’t manage to pick up the GoPro and record them…

We were still playing our little shouting game. A few times, I shouted 2-3 times without an answer, just to get someone else telling me “nooo, not here”. I guess people learnt how the game went and we all made some fun out of it.

Around 05:45, with around 30 km to arrive in Fougerès, we were entering the village of Gorron when we saw lights and a Café open by the road. The Restaurant du Bocage was open and had a nice terrace outside, so we decided to do a quick stop there. The night train was dissolved a while ago anyway and we had been riding with other people, but not really in a group anymore.

The place was nice and the owners, an old couple, were doing their best to get the orders from all the randonneurs that were crowding the place. But the coffee was terrible, very, very terrible. Ferreiro and Dani were luckier than me, the tea seemed to be ok.

17 minutes later we were on our way again. It was still dark, but we knew dawn was just around the corner.

Once again, we left the café without company. Slowly we increased our speed and soon we were passing riders again.

And… guess what? Right, we came upon our American friends once more. This time it was us who caught them, and when we were closer to them, I told Dani that it was time to pay our debts. They had been pulling us most part of the night and I felt like it would be nice to take our turn pulling the group.

So I sped up a bit, passing the group and when I was passing Rob I greeted him (again) and shouted - “It is my turn to pull for a while” - to which he replied - “Sure!”.

I took the lead and started to push the pedals. A bit of light was starting to appear on the horizon, but we still had our head lights on. I kept pushing the pedals, looking over my shoulder from time to time to check if they were there. Every time I looked back, I saw a head light just at my wheel - “Good, they are just right there” - I thought every time.

I kept pulling for a while, until there was enough light to be able to see the fields, houses, etc around us. And then, I looked over my shoulder again and I noticed there was only one guy behind me.

“WTF” - I thought - “It can’t be”, and I slowed down and looked back again.

That head light that was just behind me was this only guy (he looked asian and he didn’t seem to speak english). He looked at me, puzzled, probably wondering why was I slowing down. I asked him about the others, the group, but he only shrugged (not sure if that meant “I don’t know where are they” or “I don’t understand a word”).

I tried to explain I was going to wait for the group, he looked at me puzzled a bit more and then decided to keep on his own.

And I slowed down my pace, looking back from time to time, until I finally saw some lights on the road, coming on my direction.

Luckily those lights were the group I was supposed to be pulling. When they finally arrived by my side, Deirdre got closer - “Wow, having fun?”. I felt totally embarrased. All I was trying to do was to pay back pulling the group as a gesture of gratitude.

I explained that both to her and Rob, as well as Dani. I told them my mistake by noticing that head light behind me. We all laughed and kept riding together for a while more.

With some light around us, we were able to enjoy the beauty of the landscape around us and the villages we were passing through. Like Le Loroux or Laignelet (to mention just a couple of them)

It was very early, so there weren’t many people on the streets. Some of the villages were decorated specially for PBP. Flags, messages on big pieces of fabric, messages painted/written on the road… and here and there, old bikes hanging on windows, trees… wherever. Some of them with colorful led stripes still on.

Villages were very similar to each other. Old 2-story houses, cobblestones and one lovely church. And they all shared the same stone colors on their buildings.

Finally, at 07:22 we arrived at the control in Fougerès. I don’t remember when we parted our ways from our american friends, I guess it was right after arriving, and I’m still a bit sad I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye (we didn’t meet again after this control).

We parked our bikes and went straight to get our stamps. The sight inside that building was amazing. Sun light was coming in from the big windows near the roof, there were huge flags from different countries hanging from the roof and there were people everywhere laying on the floor, which was like a big comfy mat.

Lots of people were coming and going. There was a small cafeteria that was serving coffee, pastries, drinks and snacks, but we decided to go to the other building nearby, where there was a restaurant and we could get some more variety of food.

We got back outside to pick up our bikes. The restaurant building wasn’t that far, but it was on the way out of the control, so better get the bikes with us already than having to walk back up there to pick them up later.

Being so early, I’d expect the temperatures to be lower, but it wasn’t cold at all (at least not for Galician standards). All around us people were arriving or leaving. Some faces were happy, some others looked pretty tired.

We got our bikes and parked them on the other parking, in front of the restaurant, and then we got inside.

It was one of those restaurants that you can find in universities, hospitals, etc. We got on a queue, picked up a tray, glass, fork/spoon/knive, bread… and then we had to choose over a variety of cold or hot dishes, coffee, desserts, fruit, etc.

Ferreiro and Dani picked up a full meal, not a breakfast, but I wasn’t as hungry as them. My body was asking for breakfast, so I picked up cafe au lait, a couple croissants, two pieces of bread, a french omelette and something that looked like cheese cake (and that was indeed delicious!).

I have to admit that we didn’t have to wait for long at the queue, in a matter of minutes we were paying for our food and we sat at a table to eat everything.

We took a moment to check on the others. When we stopped at Villaines La Juhel, they were half an hour ahead of us, and now they were one hour and a half ahead. Luis was one hour behind us and we didn’t have any news about Felipe.

Fully recharged, it was time to get back on the road. We spent 1 hour and 15 minutes in this control (just like in Villaines!).

It was a clear morning, the sun shining already and the mist gone. It looked like it was going to be a hot day, as promised by the weather forecast.

We still had around 320 km to ride before arriving in Brest, a long day on the saddle, and we had assumed already that we won’t arrive there at our scheduled time. I can’t say I was happy about it, but all we could do then was to keep riding, try to get into a good pace, shorten our stops all we could and hope no more issues (either mechanical, physical or mental) would appear.

It felt good to be riding by day again, after that long dark night, and be able to enjoy the scenery around us. Also, as time passed, more and more people started to appear again at the sides of the road, cheering and offering food and drinks.

After a while we joined a small group led by a couple of Italians, which was set on a fast pace. It was a good wake up call. I’m not sure for how long we rode like that, but at that time it felt like a long time. At one point the italians moved aside, stopping by the side of the road and everybody took on their own pace (solo, couples, trios…).

Then we rode a bit scattered for a while. We passed a few riders here and there. Dani and me were a bit faster than Ferreiro, but we knew he was much better now, and that was a relief.

There was still the problem with his rear wheel (we didn’t have a chance to visit a mechanic to get it trued again) but so far it seemed like it didn’t caused too much trouble.

Passing village by village, we were welcomed by the locals. In one of the villages, I noticed there were some kids on the sidewalk. Time to give away some stickers!

Note

As I’ve wrote in a previous entry, I made some stickers with the logo of my cycling club. I brought them with me to give away during PBP.

This was my first attempt on giving some stickers, and I did it quite wrong. I slowed down and stopped by the sidewalk, near the kids. I picked up a few stickers from the top tube bag and gave them to the kids, whom where a bit surprised first, then happy when they realized what was happening.

Suddendly more kids appeared and I gave them a few more stickers… and then I realized I was causing a bottleneck at the entrance of the village. The road got narrower as it was entering the village and I just stopped at a place where cars (and a big truck) weren’t able to pass with me stopped there.

I apologized to the drivers and resumed riding, with all the kids shouting “Merci monsieur!” and “Allez! Allez!”.

I sped up a bit and catched Dani, telling him what happened. “You should be more careful next time” - he told me. He was right, and I thought a bit about how to do it better next time. Also, stopping to give away those stickers could quickly become a black hole eating lots of time.

So, I decided to give it a try to give the stickers on-the-go. Next time I saw some kids by the side of the road, I timed it, picked up a few stickers from the top bag in advance, then slowed down to approach the kids and, with my arm extended, I offered the stickers for grabbing.

It worked just perfect, the kid there got closer as I was passing and grabbed them from my hand and shouted back “Merci!!”.

I did that for the rest of PBP, and worked out quite well. I had brought with me 70 stickers and got back home with 3 ;-D

We won’t ride in a bigger group anymore in this stretch, but before arriving in Tintèniac we formed a small group of just a few riders. One of those riders was Verònique Robert de Massy, from Canada. We rode side by side for a while, chatting, telling each other about our PBP experience so far, plans, expectations… It was super nice to share those km with her.

Dani and I arrived in the control around 10:50, a bit earlier than Ferreiro. We went straight to the parking and parked our bikes. As it happened in the previous controls, there were lots of people around. The sun was shining and there was a big patch of green grass by the parking. The grass looked soooo tempting… in fact there were lots of people laying there, just relaxing or taking a nap.

Again, as it happened in the previous controls, as soon as we arrived in the control area, we lost track of those riders that arrived at the control with us. Somehow once you entered control zone, all that mattered was to go through the control protocol and be done with it, everybody following their own pace for it.

We waited a bit for Ferreiro and then we went together to get our booklets stamped. He told us he was having more problems with his rear wheel, so we went to visit the mechanic. He had the tools for truing the wheel and we just had to wait a bit for it to be ready. While we waited, I had coffee and a croissant (honestly, I can’t remember if I ate anything else at this control).

40 minutes later we left Tintèniac. An improvement over our previous stops… or not, depends on the point of view.

Noon was getting closer and the overall temperature was raising. The sky was mostly cloudless and the sun was hitting hard already.

We did stay together, the three of us, riding with a small group here, a couple of riders there, but not forming any bigger group.

At one point Dani and me lost sight of Ferreiro. It was hot and we were running low on water. But you don’t run out of water during PBP, there is always someone willing to provide you with free water.

We were going up another short hill when I noticed a few people on the right side of the road, beneath some trees. They had a car parked there and a picnic table set by it. We stopped there, in the shade, and got our bottles refilled with fresh water. We did chat for a few moments with them, giving Ferreiro time to catch up with us.

After crossing a few more villages, like Mèdreac and riding up and down hills, we formed again another small group. I noticed that a few of the riders there were wearing the same colors. Their jerseys had the german flag on one arm and I picked up pieces of a conversation in german.

And I decided to give it a try with my almost-forgotten, dusty, german:

“Hallo, wie geht’s?”

They looked back at me, a bit surprised, and replied in german. I tried to follow up in german but at one point I admitted my german was almost forgotten and we switched back to english.

They were really nice and we rode together for a while (sadly, I don’t remember their names or badge numbers :S) talking about our ride so far (as usual). One of them told me this was his second PBP, he had to come back because he had “unfinished business” after finishing over the time limit in 2019. This time things looked much better at that point and he was having a nice time.

They were from a cycling club in Bavaria and he told me about some nice Brevets they organize there (even a beautiful 1200 super-brevet).

Near Quèdillac, where there was a food stop but not a control, that small group got dissolved again. Some riders decided to stop, some others - like us - decided to keep on riding. For a while we were back to riding the three of us alone. We had several others riders on sight, both ahead of us and on our backs, but we didn’t form any group.

We were getting closer to Saint Mèen Le Grand, around 50 km before the next control in Loudèac, when we came upon a level crossing. The railway tracks didn’t look good but there was no way we could avoid them (i.e. jump over them). We crossed carefully… but the luck wasn’t on our side. A few meters after the crossing, Ferreiro told us he had a flat tire (the rear wheel, where else?)

The sun was hitting us really hard, and there weren’t many trees around us. The inner tube on that wheel still had some air (it wasn’t a pinch flat, so it didn’t get totally empty, it was loosing air slowly). We kept on riding for a short while, looking for some shade where we could stop and replace that tube.

A couple km later we found, at the outskirts of Saint Mèen Le Grand, a big supermarket (Lidl). Lucky strike. The building provided us with the much needed shade and, while Ferreiro replaced that inner tube, Dani and I went inside and bought some fruit (peaches), ice cream and drinks.

We weren’t the only randonneurs that decided to stop at this supermarket. Soon a few more riders, including 3 velomobiles, decided to stop there and get some refreshments. Temperature was really hot at that time, everybody was sweating a lot, but nothing like those guys from the velomobiles… they were really cooked inside those things.

I took the opportunity to get closer to the velomobiles and check their inside. I was suprised by how they arranged things in there. All along both sides of the carcass of the vehicle there were spaces where they could pack things up. The randonneuse that was riding the one I was looking at had one side filled with clothes, the other with food and drinks.

When we came out of the supermarket, Ferreiro was still trying to put the new tube in place. It was quite strange it took him so long to fix that flat tire, so we asked him what happened. He had already replaced the punctured tube and put the tire back on and when he went to pump some air into the tube, he used one of those CO2 cartridges… and the new tube got punctured too.

We offered help, but he wanted to fix it by himself, so we sat down and ate the fruits and ice creams.

50 minutes later we resumed our ride, passing finally through Saint Mèen Le Grand, where lots of people were on the streets and terraces, again cheering the riders up (time to give more stickers to the kids!) and then the town of Plèmet.

We were getting closer to the next control, that was just a few km away, when I noticed someone in front of me that looked familiar. What a surprise!, riding in a small group were my friends from Astorga! Sergio, Sergio Pulido, Saúl and Valentín. I sped up a bit and, when I was getting closer, I shouted - “Look who is here!! These are the good wheels!” - They looked back, surprised. We greeted each other and talked for a little while. Not much sadly, as both Dani and Ferreiro passed us fast, riding towards the control. I rode a few minutes with them, asking them how things have been for them so far, if they had a good time, etc.

Then I told them I was going to push it a bit to catch my friends and I wished them good luck for the rest of the journey. Maybe we would meet again later in the ride.

Finally we arrived in the control in Loudèac around 16:00.

We were parking our bikes when Dani checked on the others. Felipe was already ahead of us, as well as Manolo. Luis had sent a message just a few minutes before our arrival, he was having lunch in Loudèac! Dani sent him a message about our arrival, and he replied back asking us to join him at a table in the restaurant.

We got our booklets stamped and went straight to the restaurant area, where we picked up a full meal and went to seat with Luis.

When we arrived at the table, another randonneur was talking with him. Helder, a portuguese randonneur we had met in several Brevets during the past few years. He looked pretty bad. In fact, he was telling Luis that he was going to scratch from PBP right there. He wasn’t feeling any good and he have had a tough time for a lot of hours now. Also, he mentioned something about someone crashing into him while he was stopped on the side of the road.

We tried to cheer him up, to get him out of that bad mood, but he already had make up his mind. So we did the only thing we could do, gave him “courage” and good luck.

Lunch was nice, sharing stories and experiences with Luis. Lots of things to tell, on both sides. Even so, we tried to eat as fast as we could.

Once we were done, we went outside to pick up our bikes. On our way there, we met again my friends from Astorga. This time Ferreiro and Dani took a moment to say hello too.

Sergio told us he was having problems with his bike, and that he left it at the mechanic. They told us about several other mechanical problems they had, which meant several visits to different mechanics in the controls before. We told them about the problems in Ferreiro’s bike, and everybody hoped we won’t have any more serious issues.

We parted ways, they were going to eat something, while we were going to resume riding. But, before going on the road again, I asked Dani, Ferreiro and Luis if they wouldn’t mind doing a short stop at the mechanic. The synapse would do with some fine-tuning of the gears, as they had started to jump a bit and shifting was not working properly.

Note

I know I didn’t mention it until now, mostly because back then, during the ride, I didn’t really think it would be that important, so it wasn’t that relevant neither for the story.

But for the last few hours before this control, it went from something annoying to crackling noises when shifting certain gears, and I didn’t want to risk doing any more serious damage to the drivetrain.

They were ok with it, so I took the bike to the mechanic stands, while they prepared their things and picked up their bikes. They were going to pass by the mechanics on their way out, to leave the control together.

The mechanics were three young guys, with an older lady that was coordinating and supervising them (A.K.A. The Chief). I waited a few minutes until they asked me what did I need. I told them about the shifting problems and that the gears needed some fine-tuning. They told me they would have it ready in 10 minutes, so I agreed on waiting right there.

But minutes passed and they didn’t even touched the bike. The guys arrived and sat on the shade. We waited a few more minutes without much luck, the synapse was still waiting. I noticed my friends wanted to leave and I knew my gears would survive until the next mechanic, no need to keep waiting here forever.

I went to the mechanics again and told them I had to go. They told me it was just “a few more minutes” but I declined, politely, “thanks, but no, thanks” telling them not to worry. I picked the bike and we left.

We left the control with Luis, riding for a while with him, but we all knew he had a different pace than ours. After a while, he told us not to worry if he got dropped, he didn’t want us to slow down and he didn’t want to ride on a pace that wasn’t comfortable for him.

A bit later, we came upon Santy Mozos and the guys from Angel Cycle Works#4 (also from Spain). I hadn’t met Santy until this PBP, but the others already knew him from previous Brevets. Really nice guy. We rode together, with him and his friends for quite a while on our way to Carhaix Plouguer (next control, km 515).

This part of the ride was a bit hillier, with slightly higher gradients (but still not much for galician standards). I took the opportunity to talk a bit more with Santy, share experiences both from PBP so far and the rides we do back home. Santy was saying (as most spanish people I met) that we - galicians - where lucky, because this terrain was very similar to our roads back home, so we should be comfortable riding here.

He was right, at least partially, because back home the hills have higher gradients than in Bretagne.

I was feeling fine myself, even after all these hours riding and the hot weather (which usually affects me a lot) I was able to push it up the hills, so on the next hill that looked a bit more steep and long, I pushed it a bit, leaving them all behind. At the top I did stop, brought the GoPro camera out and recorded them.

A bit later, still riding in the spanish grupeta, we caught another group of 4-5 riders, all wearing the same colors. They were the randonneurs from Alicante (also from Spain). Santy already knew a few of them, old fellows from lots of adventures back home. And just like that, our grupeta grew a bit bigger.

Then, we came upon some other spanish randonneurs (don’t remember from where exactly) and the grupeta got even bigger. We started to look like the Spanish Armada.

I don’t remember where or when exactly, but after some time the armada got dissolved. Dani and me were riding faster and we got together with some other riders, then we had lost the others, including Ferreiro.

We had seen all day people stopped by the road, out of houses, in squares… everywhere. I’ve read lots of reports of previous PBP editions, with everybody telling about this, but it is a lot more impressive when you are actually there.

In one of the villages, we passed by this house where there was a bunch of people sitting outside, having lots of fun. With each group of riders passing by, they were doing the wave.

Exactly as we did with those kids early the previous night, both me and Dani joined them on doing the wave - “WooooooOOOOOooooooo” - raising one of our arms from the handlebars while passing by.

“If we stop there… I bet they would refill our bottles with wine instead of water” - I told Dani. He agreed!

We were riding through the Armorique now. Exactly, the area where the famous Astèrix and Obèlix#5 had their home town and most of their adventures. Passing by villages like Saint Martin des Près or Melèac, everything was sooo beautiful.

The sun was getting lower, sunset was approaching and with it, dread washed over me a bit. The fact that there was no way around riding for hours that night started to stick in my head, bothering me, getting me worried and, inevitably, affecting my mood.

Something inside me wanted to push more, to gain every minute I could gain. But then there was something else pulling me back, telling me I had to stay with my friends. “No troll left behind” I told myself.

I’m not sure if I was aware of it at that moment, but I’m aware of it now. Somehow my mood was indeed changing. Bringing back those memories now, I remember I did talk less from then on, less jokes, and I focused more on get things done. Ride, do the km, stop at the controls more efficiently.

And talking about controls, on our way to Carhaix Plouguer we found the first secret control of this edition. In the village of Canihuel (km 480 aprox.). Dani and me arrived at the control together, at 19:08.

We went inside and got another stamp in our brevet booklets. Then we came outside, making jokes about the control being so secret, and we asked a randonneuse from USA if she could take a photo of us. I don’t remember her name neither, all I can remember is she was wearing a jersey from Seattle Randonneurs and that she was super nice.

When we were about to leave, Ferreiro arrived too. We decided to resume our ride while he was getting his booklet stamped. We reduced the pace a bit, so he could catch up with us. We spent only 6 minutes in this control (great!)

Soon he was with us again and we rode together to the next stop, in the village of Saint Nicolas du Pelem. We entered the village from the west, going up towards the village center and passing a massive church to our right.

This village didn’t have a control, but there was an area with food, drinks and even places to have a rest.

We were late, for our initial plan at least, and Carhaix was just 30-something km away… but we decided to stop for a moment there anyway and eat something.

This stop reminded me of our first stop last night, in Mortagne au Perche. There was a guy playing some kind of old instrument that ressembled like a music box (wooden, with some papers coming in from one side of it and coming out from the other side). There were several stands where food was being cooked (crepes, waffles…) and the area was full of randonneurs and bikes.

I opted for something “light”, as I wasn’t really hungry, so I got a yogourt, a banana and a croissant (always a croissant…! ;-D).

We sat for a moment at one of the big tables and while we were eating, we had several visits.

First our friend from Zaragoza that we met last night on our way to Villaines La Juhel came to say hi. He was doing fine, enjoying the ride a lot, but at one point he decided to go on his own, leaving the company of his other friends. They were riding at a totally different pace, and now he was enjoying the ride a lot more.

Then Santy Mozos came to say hi too. We talked a bit about how was the ride since we split a few hours ago. Everybody made lots of jokes, so we had a good time. He and his friends had a plan very similar to ours and they were going to spend the night also near Brest (and they were also a bit late for their scheduled plan). Before leaving, he told us - “don’t worry, my galician friends, we will warm your beds up for you!” - meaning they were going to arrive earlier than us.

Was it a challenge? a racing proposal? simply a joke?

Whatever the answer may be to those questions, we all laughed at the joke and we saw him leaving, but just a bit before we do the same. We spent less than 20 minutes in this stop, which was also good timing (giving our current situation).

We still had 30-something km to the next control in Carhaix and around 120-125 km to the control in Brest. And, from there to our hotel, there were like 10-15 extra km. It was almost 20:00, which meant barely one and a half hours more of light.

Remember what I said about that dread feeling hanging over my head? From then on it was going in crescendo at a pace much faster than my pedals.

Anyway, we resumed our ride once more (I lost the count of how many stops we did so far!) still riding on hilly terrain (it was going to be like that all the way to the control).

Again, no more bigger groups. We passed some riders here and there, then joined a couple of italians here, a few canadians there. But I had lost all desire to give/maintain any conversation, mood was going down as fast as that dread feeling was rising inside me.

But all that changed, unexpectedly, when I came upon Stuart Blofeld. Stuart, from the UK, was riding an EliptiGO#6 stand-up bike. And I got so amazed by how strong and fast he was going, that I couldn’t help myself and I said - “Hi! nice… mmm… bike? there!”

He replied with a big smile and we kept chatting for a while. The conversation started with the usual “how is it going for you so far?” and a variety of details about how we both have lived this adventure yet, then it moved to our plans for the night and the following days.

Note

It turned out Stuart plans were quite similar to ours. In fact, after PBP, looking at his times and then at his write-up about his PBP experience#7, we passed by the controls almost at the same hours and we even finished almost at the same time too.

Sadly, we would meet again only once more.

Chatting with him was refreshing. He was so gentle as to explain the details of his bike (even if it probably was the Nth time he had to explain them to some random unknown person during the last “few” hours). We made jokes, we laughed, I had a good time again, totally forgetting our plans, schedule, late times… it was just pedal, talk, enjoy…

At one point, we had a few longer downhill parts, and there is were we left him behind. The EliptiGO bike was nice, but it wasn’t very aerodynamic on the downhills.

We pushed it through and we arrived in the control at Carhaix Plouguer at 21:10. Once more, we went inside the designated building to get our stamps and we passed by the cafeteria to grab something, this time we make it super quick and we didn’t seat to eat inside.

On my way out, I noticed Santy Mozos was at the queue for paying, with a tray full of food on his hands. I couldn’t resist myself, I approached silently and when I was just behind him, I told him - “don’t worry, my friend, WE will warm your bed up for you!” - we both laughed and I pretend to hurry outside.

Outside, the sky was soooo beautiful. The sun was gone, but its rays were still lighting up the sky in different colors. A bit of orange, which mixed with the blue of the sky and the white from the clouds made a nice pink color, reflected on the thousand small pieces the clouds seemed to be cut on.

I was taking some pictures when a voice by my side said - “Pretty, uh?” - I turned and I saw a randonneuse there. I recognize her from a few hours ago, we were riding in a group when I slowed down a bit and let everybody pass while I gave some stickers to a few kids that were standing by the road. When I got back to the group, she asked what had I done back there with those kids. I told her about the stickers and my idea of giving them away to the kids and benèvoles and then we did chat for a while until the group got broken.

Note

Sadly, I can’t remember her name or badge number. I seem to recall she was wearing a white jersey with what looked like the german flag on one arm, but I’m not 100% sure.

I’m realizing I’m really, really bad at remembering names!

“Yeah, it looks gorgeous” - I replied. “How are you doing?” - I asked. And she told me she wasn’t sure what to do. Her initial plan was to go all the way to Brest before sleeping (everybody had that same idea or what?) but it was late now and Brest was near 90 km away. On one hand she was feeling good and she would like to give it a try, but staying in Carhaix and sleep for a few hours was tempting.

I explained I was in a similar situation, but I was riding with some friends and we had a room booked in a hotel after Brest, so one way or another we were going to ride all the way there before sleeping.

Then I told her my bigger concern for riding to Brest without sleep. If suddendly you get tired somewhere during those 90 km, finding a place for sleep would basically mean looking for some shelter (bus stop, church entrance, under the trees…). If she wanted to sleep in a warm, cozier place, it was sleeping there in Carhaix or go all the way to Brest, considering that arriving at the control in Brest in the middle of the night was going to mean no bed available and having to sleep laying on the floor of the cafeteria, restaurant or similar.

In different circumstances, I’d tell her to join us, probably we could make a small group with a few other riders and ride together to Brest. But honestly, I wasn’t sure how the ride to Brest was going to be for myself neither.

We said our goodbyes and she did stay in Carhaix, at least for a little while, while I picked up the bike and left with my friends.

The stop in the control took us half an hour and when we left, there was still some light on the sky.

We had a short hill to climb and then a fast descent on the other side, just before starting the longest climb of this edition of PBP, the Roc’h Trevezel. Near 18 km at a 1.4% gradient (according to its segment in strava).

By the numbers (and confirmed by being there) not really a tough climb.

But my mind was already playing tricks, too tired to see things clearly. The darkness finally came to embrace us. Again, no street lamps, no moon light, no houses with the lights on. Total, complete, darkness.

Except for our head and tail lights, that is.

We were a small group again. I knew Dani and Ferreiro were there, but I had no idea who were the others. Nobody was talking, I guess everybody had been riding for too long without any sleep, just like us.

I remember that, at that moment, I was glad everybody was at least able to ride in a straight line, without showing clear signs of fatigue. “Let’s hope nobody will fall asleep on the bike in the middle of the group” - I thought to myself.

There was this part at the start of the climb where my garmin was showing 0-1% gradient, and we were riding around 28 km/h, but when I looked in front of me, I could tell the road was going up all the time. My vision starting to trick me, it totally looked like one of those 8% climbs.

I remember the night was soundless. Some times I could pick up the breathing of the other riders, the ocassional cracking of a bottom bracket when someone was standing on the pedals, and that sound I love so much, of tire rubber rolling on the tarmac.

And then… the zombie apocalypse.

We arrived in the village of Huelgoat and I started to see bodies laying on the floor around us. On both sides of the road, laying on the sidewalks. I’ve this vivid memory of someone (looked like a woman) sitting with her back on the wall of a house, head hanging over her chest, fast asleep, with a bike leaning on the same wall by her side.

The sight of all those bodies, under the only light of our head lights… totally like a post-apocalyptic movie.

We were lucky with the weather, we had very gentle temperatures at night (nothing like those reports from 2019 when temperatures at night dropped below 5ºC) but I could feel it was colder there, even riding the bike and going a bit up all the time. I felt pity for those laying on the sidewalks.

“I don’t want to imagine how they will wake up” - I told Dani, who was by my side again - “laying on concrete, with the temperature getting colder…”.

“Yeah” - He replied - “and then wake up and get on the bike to do 700 km…”

This was exactly my point while talking to that randonneuse back in Carhaix, falling asleep here on the way to Brest and having to sleep on the ground… it could make a big impact on the rest of your ride (and I bet not for the better).

Our little group started to evolve into a line, more than a group. Then it was back on a group, but with people riding without any order, moving to the other lane… Everybody was tired and a bit sleepy, I guess.

Again, the silence. I started to feel a bit more sleepy. I already had eaten a couple of the caffeine gummies I brought with me. You are not supposed to abuse those things (they can have a laxative effect) so I didn’t risk it with a third one.

And I came up with an idea.

I let myself slid a bit to the back of the group, then I picked up my phone, opened youtube and looked for Survivor’s The eye of the tiger#8. Then I clicked the play button, raising the volume all my phone could do, and I put the phone in the top-tube bag, speakers out.

“Rising up, back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet

Just a man and his will to survive

…”

I sped up a bit and got into the group again, at the shout of “VAMOS!” - “Let’s do this!!”.

Honestly, it didn’t have the effect I thought it would. Nobody seemed to join in. Well, at least I tried.

Finally we got to the top of the Roc’h. And what did we find there? exactly, people cheering us!. In the middle of the night, complete darkness, there it was, some people with a van, some tables, food and drinks. They even had a couple of loungers to lay down and have a nap!. Simply amazing.

Sadly, my mood was completely destroyed. I didn’t need drinks or food, so I just waited there while the others refilled their bottles. All I wanted was to arrive in the hotel, have a shower and sleep.

I was like the grumpy dwarf from Snow White’s tale.

Note

Another side-note here. I’m short-sighted. I’ve mentioned this already in several of my previous entries/reports in this log. I do wear glasses at all times while cycling, with an adapter that have prescription glasses.

Short-sighted people usually struggle with the absense of light, having problems to see clearly. Add to this that the adapter with my prescription glasses do not cover all the area from the outer glasses… meaning I always have some area uncovered.

That definetely wasn’t helping, at all.

We started the long, fast, descent on the other side, passing the villages of Commana and Sizun. Everybody got to their own pace here and after a while I was riding alone. Dani was ahead of me, out of sight, while Ferreiro was behind, also out of sight.

I started to feel more and more sleepy, tired. All those stories I’ve read from previous editions, about people falling sleep on the bike without even noticing it, came to mind. And I started to worry… and to be a bit more grumpy. “No way I’ll leave the control and go to the hotel” - I told myself - “fsck everything, I don’t want to have a crash now and screw everything up” - I kept talking to myself.

I was struggling, but then I saw a light ahead. I pushed it a bit, having company would be wonderful. If I’d be lucky, maybe it was a talkative randonneur/randonneuse…

When I finally caught that rider… it was Dani! He had lost sight of us and he was a bit worried, so he slowed down a bit. I was so happy to find him. He looked at me, worried, “Are you ok?” - he asked. I told him that I was destroyed and with all my grumpyness at the time, I told him with a very stubborn tone that I wasn’t going to go to the hotel, no way I was going to ride my bike out of the control in Brest like this.

We waited a few more minutes and then we saw a head light coming on our direction. Luckily it was Ferreiro, and we resumed our ride.

We passed Landerneau and Guipavas. Without doubt, this had been my lowest moment during the whole PBP. After a while, they dropped me, and I was alone and sleepy again.

I struggled, pushing the pedals and trying to keep my eyes open. I entered the town of Brest and, riding on a long avenue, I saw two tail lights ahead of me. “There they are” - I thought, only they weren’t my friends, they were a couple of italian riders.

One was short, the other one was quite tall/big. Could it be… could they be Maximilian and Emanuelle?

Note

side-note here, Maximilian and Emanuelle are two italian randonneurs I met while doing the BRM 600 - Santiago. We had talked prior to PBP and they were coming together to do it too.

I approached and kept myself behind, looking at them. They had to be, the short one definetely looked like Maximilian.

“Maximilian?” - I asked, and the short guy turned and said “noooo”, his face being totally like Maximilian’s. F***!! I was hallucinating already.

Luckily the control was just meters away, and I finally made it there, safe, at 01:50.

Dani and Ferreiro were there already, arrived a few minutes before me. We got our booklets stamped right away, as the benèvoles where right there at the arrival, outside.

Then, we agreed on going inside and eat something, have lots of coffee and talk about how to get to the hotel. But before that, I told them my bike really needed gears adjustment now. The problem had been growing worse and worse since the failed attempt to visit a mechanic in Loudèac. Ferreiro said his rear wheel needed some love too, so we left both our bikes at the mechanics and went inside.

Inside we found more bodies everywhere. There were people sleeping at tables, on benches, on the floor… We found a place that looked like an industrial kitchen the organization wasn’t using… the floor was full of bodies.

I got some coffee, a fromage-et-jambon baguette and a croissant (if I recall it correctly, all regarding that stop is a bit blurry in my memory). We sat at a table to eat and talk about our current status, situation and what to do. I’ll spare you the details of the discussion (just trust me when I tell you I can be a very stubborn s.o.a.b., specially in a grumpy state like that night).

While we were talking, our friend César came to say hello, sitting at our table to share some stories.

Note

If you have read my previous entries about the Brevets I’ve done this year, you already know about César, as I shared lots of km with him this year.

This was his 4th or 5th PBP, he is just “a bit” older than us, but has way more experience riding this kind of Brevet.

His visit definetely cheered us up. César always has the best Brevet stories, mostly because he has this hability of getting lost everywhere, just to find his way back later. Obviously, PBP wasn’t going to be different, and he told us about this moment when he took the wrong turn somewhere, just to realize about it like 10 km later. As if PBP wasn’t long enough!

It was good to be laughing again. It definetely helped me getting out of my grumpyness and dark mood.

If I recall it correctly, he was going to try to sleep for a while in the control, somewhere. There weren’t any beds available, so he would have to become another body on the ground and try to get some sleep.

We finished up our meal and went back outside. We passed by the mechanics to pick up our bikes. The mechanic told me everything looked fine, but the cable was a bit slack, he adjusted it and went through all the gears and it seemed it was better now. I paid him 10 euro and we were ready to go.

I was expecting to leave the control alone, only the three fscking crazy musketeers, but I was wrong. Other riders were leaving too. One here, a couple there, another one a bit behind…

We left the city and went towards the coast, but it was so dark that I couldn’t see the ocean.

At least the coffee and the food woke me up a bit, and riding side-by-side with Dani again helped too. “You should have seen your face back there, before the control, when we meet after the descent” - he told me - “you were totally out of your mind there” - I smiled back, it was true - “I’m sorry” - I replied - “I hope I didn’t say anything stupid”.

We were riding towards the famous Brest bridge, where everybody takes a photo, but no photo for us, it was dark and we weren’t able to see anything. Honestly I had hope the bridge could be a bit illuminated, so maybe we could have a nice night view of it. But nope, not a single light on it.

Approaching the bridge to cross to the other side, we were riding on a two-lane road, when I noticed they were doing some construction work on the left lane. A big pile of sand, used when they do that kind of work on roads, was in the middle of the lane ahead of me. I looked at Dani, riding to my right, and said “Hey! what do you think? should I do some ciclocross?” - he looked back, puzzled - “What?” - he replied - “What do you mean… ciclocross?”. I looked back in front of me… no sand, no construction works.

F***!! I was hallucinating again.

Probably the light playing games on my tired brain. I told Dani what just happened and he laughed out loud - “Man, you really need to get some good sleep!”.

12 km and around 40 minutes later we arrived in the hotel. A cheap room in a Ibis Budget hotel a few meters from the road we would take next morning on our way back.

There was a clerk on the desk, we did the check-in as fast as possible and then left our bikes in a room downstairs, as suggested by the clerk (our room was quite small, no way we could fit three bikes in there). There were other randonneur bikes in that room already. We grabbed a few things from our belongings and went right to the room.

We took turns to have a shower and then went to bed. We had a bigger, double bed, and a small bunk bed over it. Ferreiro and Dani shared the big one, the bunk bed was for me. I was the last one having a shower (big mistake!) and when I finally climbed to my bed, both were fast asleep.

I did lay down, closed my eyes and… Dani started to snore so loud, I wasn’t able to sleep. I waited a bit, but no way I was going to fall asleep like that. I thought about going down the bunk bed and try something (hit him hard on the face? ;-D) and see if he would stop. I considered going downstairs and ask for another bedroom… 30 minutes later, I was going down the bunk bed when he moved a bit and stopped snoring. I hurried up and went back to bed, luckily falling asleep in a few minutes…

Footnotes

#1

https://fect.info

#2

https://fect.info

#3

https://www.parktool.com/en-int/blog/repair-help/wheel-and-rim-truing

#4

https://angelcycleworks.com/en

#5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix

#6

https://www.elliptigo.com

#7

http://ultradiscostu.blogspot.com/2023/09/paris-brest-paris-pbp-2023-elliptigo.html

#8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4

From Brest back to Fougerès

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-10-08 00:00:00

In the last entry of this log, I told you about how we went all the way from Rambouillet to Brest. Leaving the story just when I finally could close my eyes and fall asleep (at some time between 4:30 and 5:00).

Now, it is time to tell you the next part of the story, how we managed to ride from Brest back to Fougerès, sticking to our initial 3-stage plan. According to that plan, we should arrive in Fougerès early on Tuesday night (22th Aug.), in order to get some good sleep in a hotel on our way of town.

Now, back to my story…

A couple of hours after I fell asleep, our alarms started to sound. It was 7:00, one hour later than what we would have waken up if we had arrived at the scheduled time in the hotel last night.

As quick as our sleepy heads managed, we packed up our belongings (we left some devices charging while we were sleeping) and we left the room, heading downstairs to pick up our bikes.

A different clerk was at the desk, we asked her for access to the room where we left our bikes last night and we headed for the door. We didn’t have breakfast included with our room for the night, and a quick look at how it looked in the cafeteria helped us deciding on having breakfast on our way, maybe in some nice boulangerie somewhere.

We also took a moment to check on the others. Manolo slept in this hotel too, but left one hour earlier than us. We had no news from Luis or Felipe.

On our way out I had the first surprise of the day. Having breakfast in the hotel cafeteria was Manuel, a fellow randonneur I met during the BRM 400 - Braganza a few months ago. He was surprised too, seeing me there. We just greeted each other and wished good luck, he got back to his breakfast and I went out, the guys were waiting for me.

Outside there was sun light already and we were welcomed by a thin mist floating on the air. We left the hotel and, two roundabouts later, we were back on track. On the second roundabout we already found company, a small group of randonneurs (maybe 4-5) was coming from the road we took last night from the control to the hotel.

What a coincidence… they were from Spain too! They came from Pais Vasco (the vasque country) and after hearing them talking, we introduced ourselves.

We rode together for a while, on a nice small road, going mostly down.

Finally I was able to get a glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean, feeling a bit sad we missed it, and the view of the bridge, yesterday.

Note

I have to admit that, before leaving the hotel, I considered telling Dani and Ferreiro about going back a bit, get to the bridge, take a couple of pictures and then resume riding…

But it was just for a moment… ;-D

It was nice to ride with company, but we should stop and have breakfast, riding on empty bellies would do us no good. We started to look for options as we were passing villages and, after a while, we spot a boulangerie that looked nice in Daoulas. There was a bar very close to the boulangerie, which even had tables to sit outside. As we stopped, the owner of the bar came out, telling us he had no food, but that we could get whatever we want from the boulangerie and eat seating there.

And so we did. We bought lots of pastries in the boulangerie and then sat outside the bar. We ordered coffee and orange juice. It was a nice spot, from our table we had a good view of a crossing where randonneurs were passing on their way back to Paris.

In fact, a couple of times we noticed a randonneur taking the wrong turn and we shouted, telling that poor, sleepy soul he/she was going on the wrong direction.

Half an hour later we resumed our ride. We wanted to stick to our initial plan, trying to get back to Fougerès as early as possible to get a bit more time to sleep properly. Apart from that, the idea was to have fun and enjoy the ride, trying to be smart and not loose too much time at the controls.

Personally, I decided I was going to find a nice pace and keep up with it. I wasn’t going to slow down and wait. There would be plenty of time to wait at the controls, if needed.

We had to go back to Carhaix Plouguer, a 90-something km stretch on hilly terrain again. This year they changed the route and instead of returning on the same road we took from Carhaix to Brest, we took a road southwest.

Once more, we were not alone. After passing riders here and there we got into a group again, but this time there was no order to it. Everybody was riding erratically, with a couple here, a trio there and lots of solo riders. I kept myself saying “Bonjour”, “Good morning” and even a few “Buenos días” for quite some time.

We came upon this randonneuse, wearing clothes from the Astana cycling team (I thought it wasn’t allowed to ride wearing professional team clothes?). She was going strong and, after a while, we noticed she was wearing plain, normal, converse all-star sneakers. WT…. You really see strange things during PBP.

It was getting hotter already and I wanted to remove some clothes (vest, arm warmers). There was another hill ahead, which seemed a bit longer, so I pushed it a bit. At the top I stopped and removed the clothes, packing them up, and I waited for Dani to pass by, to get him on camera, shouting “Allez! Allez!” when he was passing by.

As I’ve mentioned already, this part of the route was quite hilly. This seemed specially tough for those who were riding velomobiles. Right, when going down they were way faster than us, but as soon as we arrived at the next hill they slowed down a lot. On longer ones, they usually brought their elbows out of the velomobile outer carcass (I’m still wondering why, maybe it was their version of standing on the pedals?)

They rode on very small roads, with open views on both sides to pastures and farmers’ land. It was all very similar to the roads in the Terra Chá, near my hometown.

At 10:15, we arrived in the village of Pleyben, where we found the next Secret Control. These controls are clearly indicated with a sign and then some benèvoles are there waving hands and arms at you so you don’t miss them.

We parked our bikes near the door and got quickly inside to get one more stamp in our booklets. This time I decided to record the whole thing with the GoPro (everybody seemed ok with it, the woman that stamped by booklet even looked happy about it!)

The lady that took care of stamping my booklet pointed to a door behind us, saying “café? croissants?”. I replied “Oui! Merci beaucoup!” and went through the door with Dani. Outside there were a couple of stands with pastries and drinks and lots of plastic chairs on the grass. Some people were sitting on the chairs, some others directly laying on the grass.

There was also an impressive old church behind an old wall. We grabbed some croissants and coffee, having it all as quick as possible (which was hard, because the coffee was sooooo hot).

We spent a bit more than 15 minutes in this stop. Fast, considering that coffee came directly from the inside of a volcano.

I left the control behind that same Velomobile from the previous pictures and a rider that was wearing a jersey that my daughters would love… a Pokèmon Jersey!.

Pleyben was a really beautiful village. On our way out we passed by the old church, just to find a nice open square where more people was waiting to watch us pass and cheer us up.

A lot of the people gathered in the square was pointing their mobile phones at us, I guess some were taking pictures, some recording video. As I was passing by them, I started to think how cool it would be if the ACP could have something where all this people could upload pictures and recordings. A website, an app, a shared space somewhere. That would be definetely cool.

Anyway, after giving away some more stickers, I left that nice village and was back on smaller roads again.

The more we advanced towards Carhaix, the more everything looks like being riding back home. We started to pass by pastures full of cows, all the time going a little bit up, then a little bit down.

Even this early in the morning (between 10:00 and 11:00) it was already hot, around 23-25 ºC. I was drinking regularly, but with that big 750ml bottle from the ACP and my 600ml CamelBack, I had plenty of water.

Even so, when I noticed a family by the side of the road, to the left, on another hill… I couldn’t help myself and I had to stop. The Kockelkorn family had a huge table set by their small motorhome with crepes, waffles, coffee, chocolate, water, coke… and a lot more things. Mom and 2 teenagers were by the table when I stopped there, then Daddy came out of the motorhome.

I was the first one stopping, but soon a wave of riders came and stopped to pick up things from their table.

This family was so nice, asking every rider what they would like to have, asking questions about the ride… I simply refilled my bottles and gave the teens some stickers. One of them realized what I was giving to them and asked me to wait a minute before leaving. She picked up a small box, opened it, and took a small piece of paper from it, handing it to me. “That’s our mail address, please, send us a postcard!” - I smiled back - “Sure! I will once I’m back home”. And off I went.

I’ve talked already about recumbents and velomobiles, but I think I hadn’t mention yet anything about tandems. There were lots of tandems riding PBP, but I have to admit I hadn’t passed many of them so far (at least compared to the number of recumbents and velomobiles). My guess is that those vehicles are too slow while going up the hills, which make it easier to pass them sooner than the tandems.

That morning, though, I encountered several of them, like this one ridden by a couple from Pennsylvania, USA.

I said hi and they greeted back. “C’mon, this hill is almost over!” - I shouted, and they agreed nodding. And it was true, but we would have a few more short hills until the next control.

Every time I came upon a tandem, I got hypnotized by their coordinated pedaling, both riders moving in perfect synchrony. It has a beauty to it.

I don’t remember exactly when, but at one point we met David again. You may remember him from the start of this story. He was a friend of our friend Juankar and we left Rambouillet together at the start of PBP, riding together until our little group got split in two.

He told us Juankar and Manolo were going too strong for him and at a given point he decided to let them go. He had been riding on his own since then, not really alone, but not with the same people for long.

We agreed to keep riding together, but after a while, Dani and I were faster and left him and Ferreiro a bit behind.

At 12:25 we arrived back in Carhaix. Dani and me arrived first and we found a nice surprise there waiting for us. Jose Luis, the galician randonneur from Coruña, and his wife where there. We parked our bikes and went right away to get our stamps and then we took a moment to talk with them while we waited for Ferreiro and David.

When they finally arrived and got their stamps, Dani and I told them that it would be nice if we skip stopping for food at the control this time. The idea was to make things a bit more efficient at the controls today, trying to arrive a bit earlier in Fougerès and get some more sleep time.

I did remember that going out of the control in Carhaix there was a big supermarket, just on the same road. So Dani and I proposed to do a quick stop at the supermarket, grab something to eat fast (fruit, ice cream?) and keep on riding.

And, with Ferreiro not liking our idea very much, we left the control just a few minutes after arriving there.

The problem was… I was wrong. We found no supermarket on our way out of Carhaix, and the first one we found was 16/18 km later. I felt bad, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because this was my idea to begin with and I dragged the others along with me. Specially Ferreiro, who probably would have preferred to stay and eat something at the control.

And to make me even more guilty/bad, soon Dani and I dropped the other two, who were riding much slower than us.

When we finally found a supermarket open, in the village of Glomel, I went inside to get some fruit and whatever I saw fit, while Dani waited outside to tell the others we were there.

The supermarket was small, but nice, and it had a few big wooden tables outside, where we could sit under the shade of a big umbrella and eat. I was getting some stuff when the others came inside. We got fruit, yogourt and drinks and went outside to eat. Then David came outside with 2 big baguettes and some fromage and poulet and prepared himself some bocadillos.

I could not help myself and went inside, bought a big multigrain baguette and some sliced poulet. I asked the owner of the shop if he could slice the baguette in two, and then open both pieces in half. Outside I prepared two nice bocadillos (I put cheese also in them, as David wasn’t going to eat it all), but not to eat at that moment. I packed one over my apidura saddle bag (strapping it with the bungee cords) and put the other one in one of the pockets on my back. Where it could be cooked slowly ;-)

40 minutes later, we finished eating and resumed our ride.

The next 70 km up to Loudèac were super fun again. Lots of ups and downs with a longer (almost 10km) descent before arriving in Pontivy. As it happened through the whole day, we didn’t find any big group and even if we picked up riders along the way, we didn’t form any big group neither.

Temperature wasn’t really high (around 30) but the sun was hitting us hard. Luckily there were some parts where we could get some good speed and that helped to cool down a bit.

During this part of the ride, we got to know David a bit better. We were able to chat a bit with him, taking turns. Nice guy, another friend I’ve made riding Brevets ;-)

A new small group was formed when we met another randonneuse from USA (whom we first mistakenly thought was from some Asian country) and then we picked up some more riders along the way.

And just like that, we were crossing the town of Pontivy.

Passing by Pontivy was a bit special for me. Almost a couple of decades ago, I did a road trip from Paris to Pontivy with my then girlfriend (now wife) and another friend. We rented a car and came to pick up another friend that was living in Pontivy at the time. Then we spent some time together visiting places like Saint Malo, Le Mont-Saint-Michel and a few other in the Bretagne.

So many good memories coming back… but only for a brief moment, there was still much to do for the day, I had to focus.

It didn’t take long until we finally arrived in Loudèac. It was near 17:00, still hot, and we arrived a bit scaterred.

I was approaching the entry to the control, where lots of people were lined up waiting for the riders to pass, when I heard someone shouting my name - “Vamos borjaaaa!” - I looked at the line of people to my left and I found Jose Luis and his wife there. They had come from Carhaix right here to wait for us!

I smiled, a big broad smile. It felt special to have someone there, cheering you up, shouting your name. When we arrived at the parking area, we parked the bikes and went straight to them, to say hi (and thanks).

Somehow, this became a larger stop. We quickly went to get our stamps and then we visited again the same cafeteria/restaurant where we had lunch with Luis the previous day. Today we enjoyed a nice meal in the company of our supporters/followers ;-D

The heat was starting to make things a bit uncomfortable for my feet, so I removed the shoes while we were sitting at the table. I remember clearly how good it felt back then to have my cooked feet on that cold floor.

David sat with us and we shared stories, experiences and feelings over late lunch. We also talked a bit about how the plan of the day was going. We were doing fine, but it was almost 18:00 and we still had near 150km to go before arriving in Fougères (with another control stop in the middle, in Tintèniac).

So far everybody seemed to be fine, no breakdowns, no mechanical trouble. The four of us were in good spirits, a bit tired, but ok.

What was clear at that point was that we were going to ride again a few hours into the night. I must admit that I didn’t like that idea much. The memories from the previous night and the fact that I had barely slept 2 hours out of the last 59… let’s say it didn’t help with my self-confidence.

1 hour and 5 minutes later, we left Loudèac.

To be honest, the part of the ride from that last control to the next one in Tintèniac is a bit blurry in my memories. I do remember we kept riding together, the four of us, having company here and there, but not really riding into any group.

I do remember all the swearing David was doing, just joking about we galicians making him suffer. “A la vuelta voy a bajar 15 kilos, y voy a ir a galicia a machacaros” (literally, “back home I’ll loose 15 kg and then I’ll go visit you in galicia and make you suffer”).

I also remember passing by more and more people laying on the grass by the road. We passed one place, a long straight line of a road, where people were laying on the grass to our left, like if some giant had put them there as if they were toys. Perfectly perpendicular to the road, separated from each other by what seemed like the exact same distance. We even passed by bikes left by the road, alone, the rider nowhere to be seen.

And how could I forget the people from Bretagne, being everywhere, cheering, tirelessly offering food and water. And some times doing it in the most picturesque way.

We came upon a family that had a table outside their house. The kids were there to tend to the riders who would like to stop, while the rest of the family was sitting at a table nearby. They waved on our way when we were getting closer, offering water, tea, coffee. There were no other riders at that moment there and we decided to stop for a moment.

They were sooo nice. We tried several homemade things they offered us and we refilled the bottles with fresh water. They even had fresh water with a pinch of (natural) lemon, which was awesome. It was only a 5 minute stop, but it was awesome. I gave them stickers (obviously!) and we insisted in giving them some cash too (they had a kind of a money pot there in case anybody would like to leave something).

During those 5 minutes, more riders arrived and stopped there. When we resumed riding, we had some more company.

We passed through Quedillac, food stop but not a control, without stopping (thanks to that family by the road, we didn’t need anything else when passing this village).

As it happened the previous day, we put our vests on when the sun was getting lower. It was a few minutes after 21:00. Not strictly needed, but better have it on earlier than risk a penalty from the organization.

Half an hour before arriving in the next control, I decided the baguette on my back would make a wonderful snack. So I picked it up and slowly ate it all.

It was delicious. With the heat from both my body and the sun, the fromage had melted a bit and all of it was pretty warm. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I started eating it, and by the time I had finished, I was tempted to pick up the other half, which was packed over my saddle bag.

A bit later, the sun definetely went down and we were able to enjoy another gorgeous sunset just before arriving in Tinteniac.

It was a few minutes before 22:00 when we finally made it to the control. It was already dark, but the control was completely lighted up and full of people. We spent just 23 minutes in that stop. Get stamp, refill bottles, eat something (me, I opted for having the second baguette that has been riding over my saddle bag).

60 more km to Fougères, to the next control and then to our hotel. Leaving Tinteniac the street lamps were still on, which felt nice, to be honest.

We did those 60 km, without stops, in near 2 hours and a half.

At the start I was feeling better than the previous night on our way to Brest, but then we went back to unlit roads and complete darkness. I tried to keep focus, enjoy the ride and keep on. The control wasn’t that far.

I remember going up another short hill in the darkness, when suddendly cow bells started to sound to our left and people started shouting loudly “Allez! Allez!!”. They startled me big time. They were just there, in the dark, without any lights and decided to shout precisely when we were passing by. Well, they definetely helped keeping me awake!

I am not sure if it was the darkness, being tired, being shortsighted or a combination of all of it, but soon I started to have something like tunnel vision. I wasn’t having any haluccinations at that time, but it was like if my vision were limited to a small, centered, area. The most annoying thing was the feeling that I had something above my eyes, like a baseball cap, that was limiting my vision.

The last part before arriving in Fougères had a couple of fast sections, longer descents where I learnt a new meaning for an old expression we have here, at home. A tumba abierta, literally translated on an open grave. David looked like possesed by some devil and the rest of us were following him blindly.

Finally, we passed by what seemed like big industrial buildings, then a huge McDonald’s and the sign marking the start of the town. Even so, we were still riding in complete darkness.

I remember clearly my feelings at the time, when I saw all the light coming from the arch we had to cross to get into town. They had the street lamps on and it looked half an oasis, half the light at the end of the tunnel. I shouted - “They have the fscking street lamps on here!!! YESSS!!”

It was near 1 in the morning and the streets were empty. In any other place, any other time, that would be no surprise. But I have to admit it surprised me back then, after having met people late in the previous couple of nights in the most unsuspected places, I thought a bigger town like Fougères may have some people on the streets at that time.

I was ahead of the others when we reached a roundabout, the garmin was telling me to keep straight ahead and so I did. Cobblestones, going up, soon the street seemed a dead end. I looked back and told them it looked like a dead end, but our different gps devices were telling us to go there.

“Maybe the official track is wrong?” - someone said. “Over here!” - someone else said. I did stop and looked back, they were going down a parallel street, kind of an avenue. I turned back and went after them, passing by some other randonneurs that were trying to find their way. I told everybody to follow us.

We went down that avenue and then right and up again, arriving at the control a few minutes later, after a short detour.

This was the control with the huge flags hanging from the roof in the area where we got our stamps, on our first visit, the previous day. We went right to get our stamps again. This time, more people were laying on the floor and there was a queue of people waiting to ask for a bed. I also noticed another queue, people waiting in line to visit the physio and doctor. Looked like some riders were a bit worn out by the endless hours of riding.

I’m not 100% sure, but that may be when we split paths with David. If I recall it correctly, he went to check if he could get a bed in the control to sleep a few hours, deciding to sleep there anyway if there wasn’t any available.

With the stamps in our brevet booklets we decided to pay a visit to the restaurant before leaving for the hotel. Honestly, I wasn’t hungry at all, but Ferreiro and Dani insisted on having proper dinner before going to the hotel.

They got lots of food, while I was looking here and there at what to pick up. I was thinking about getting some fruit, maybe bananas to bring with me… when I saw there was pasta with carbonara. I asked the Benévole for a dish of it and I guess my face was telling a different story from what my brain was telling me, because the old man served a big ration of pasta, then put the carbonara over it… and when he looked back at me, he put more pasta and more carbonara again!

When I finally got to the table, Ferreiro and Dani were eating already, and when they saw that huge mountain of pasta they started laughing loudly. “Look who wasn’t hungry!” - Ferreiro said. “It was the volunteer there, I probably look like shit!” - I replied - “But there is no way I’m going to it all this”.

Oh, my friend, how wrong I was. I ate all of it, plus bread and a piece of cheese cake afterwards.

45 minutes later we were on our bikes and ready to leave the control. Our hotel was just a couple of km away and it was all the way down from the control.

This time it was an Ibis Styles (muuuch, much better than the Ibis Budget ones). We did the check-in and this time we brought our bikes with us to the room, which was fun… the room was on the first floor and there was no elevator, so we had to carry our fully-loaded bikes on our shoulders upstairs (now I did some ciclocross, not like the previous night! ;-D).

We had a shower (lesson learnt from the previous night… I had the shower first!) then we checked on the others. Manolo and Felipe were sleeping in this same hotel, Luis was a bit behind us. We discussed the wake-up hour and plans for the next day and went straight to bed.

It was almost 3:00, and I fell asleep in a few seconds.

Footnotes

From Fougères to Rambouillet

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-10-08 00:00:00

This is the third (and last) part of my PBP 2023 ride story. The previous entries told the story of how we went all the way from Rambouillet to Brest and how, afterwards, we got back from Brest to Fougères.

In the last entry, I left the story when I finally went to sleep in the Ibis Styles hotel in Fougères, a few minutes before 3:00 in the morning.

It is time now to finish this story, the story of a dream come true, and tell you about how we got back to the start point in Rambouillet.

The alarm was set for 06:30. I woke up a few minutes before that and started to gather my things, then got dressed. I checked on the others while Dani and Ferreiro were getting ready. Manolo and Felipe were downstairs, finishing breakfast. We told them we were going for breakfast right away and they decided to wait for us.

We also checked on our friend David, who decided to stay last night at the control, trying to get some sleep there. He sent us a message, he was still in the control. He couldn’t sleep well there and had a bad night, and he was about to leave the control. We agreed on meeting him along the way.

With everything ready in the room, we went downstairs. Manolo and Felipe where sitting at a table, extending breakfast a bit more. It was so cool to finally be together again. The breakfast hall was full of other cyclists, including Manuel, who we met also in the hotel in Brest the previous morning, when we were leaving and he was getting breakfast.

We had a huge breakfast, a feast, and meanwhile we updated each other on the events of the last couple of days.

We also talked a bit about the plans for the day. We had almost 300 km to get back to Rambouillet with 3 controls in between. Our time limit to get there was 10:00 the next day (24th), so we had enough time to even do another sleep stop if needed. The idea, though, was to finish PBP before midnight.

I think I had like three times what I usually would have for breakfast… in the time I usually would have one normal breakfast. Then we went upstairs and picked our bikes and did some more ciclocross to get to the exit.

Outside the day was bright and clear, no fog like the previous morning and the temperature felt a bit higher too. We took a moment to take a group picture in front of the hotel main entrance.

We spent 5 hours and 40 minutes in this stop, with a bit over 3 hours of sleep.

During breakfast we asked Manuel if he would like to join us, and he gladly accepted. He came to do PBP with some friends, but it seemed at some point they had some discrepancies and decided to split ways.

One thing I forgot to do before leaving the hotel, was to replace the battery in the GoPro and, as I was going to realize soon, there won’t be many chances to do so on the road for the next few hours…

We left Fougères around 7:40, on a short hill climb, followed by some more rollercoasters. I felt amazingly good, completely recovered from any tiredness I may had at the end of the previous day. It is really incredible what a few hours of good sleep can do to your body.

Personally, as I told my friends during PBP, for me 3 hours of good sleep is (usually) more than enough to recharge completely. I guess that, in this case, the whole I’m riding PBP excitement also helped keeping me UP at all costs.

That morning it also helped to be back with Manolo. A few minutes after we left town, I took a place by him and we talked for a long time, sharing stories of what happened the last couple of days (and nights). He is a very experienced randonneur and I’m always grateful of being able to talk to him and learn from what he has to share.

Even maintaining that conversation, it felt like we were going on a fast pace. A couple of times I looked over my shoulder, but without paying much attention, just checking someone was behind us.

Until Ferreiro shouted… “Keep on like this guys, if we keep picking up people at this pace, soon we will have half the PBP riders on our back”. Manolo and I looked back and… wow… we had a looooong line of randonneurs behind us!.

With the GoPro out of battery, I tried to take a few pictures with my phone, but I’m not used to do that, so the pics (see above) are not really that good.

It was really impressive to look back. We were riding in peloton-style, everybody in line, riding two abreast. And we were going fast, so it was even more impressive. And I was pulling all this with Manolo, which was mind-blowing.

After a while the roads flattened a bit and we increased our speed. We started to pass other riders, some of them hopping on the train. Our peloton started to grow bigger, with Manolo and me being the locomotives.

At one point I looked at Manolo and told him - “You know, you should have warned me that the third day in PBP is the race day!” - we both laughed.

During this stretch, we were riding on the same road we rode the first night, pulled by our friends from the USA. Riding now on those same roads by day, it was like riding a on completely different road. We recognized a few places though, like the café in Gorron where we had that coffee stop, or the smaller villages that were all lighted up at night with those led stripes attached to old bikes and metal structures/sculptures.

We had been riding like that for 2 hours and a half or so, without stops, when I got to the point where I couldn’t hold it anymore, I needed to pee. And that is the not-so-nice moment when you are riding in a big group like ours, going strong… and you have to stop for something like that.

“If you stop now, you won’t be able to catch them, they will be too fast for you” - I thought to myself. But so be it, if I’d have to ride alone up to the next control in Villaines La-Juhel, it won’t be a problem.

I told Manolo about my pee stop and told him not to worry, I’d catch them a bit later. Then I ensured there were no traffic and I moved to the left side of the road, stopping at the entrance of a dirt path there.

The peloton swooshed past me and I did what I had to do.

Quickly I got back on the bike. A few solo riders passed by me during that pit stop, but I overpassed them all a few minutes later. I have to admit that even if I was having lots of fun riding in the peloton, riding solo for a while felt wonderful too.

15 minutes later I caught the peloton again. Still riding in perfect formation, two abreast, and fast. First I got closer to the last two riders and I did stay there for a few minutes and then I decided to give it a try and move to the head of the group.

I started passing them, saying “hi”, “bonjour”, “I’m back!”… what a pity the GoPro was out of battery, passing this big group would have been a very nice video.

Soon I was back at the head and I put myself back at my place by Manolo.

I already had beaten my longest distance (600) the previous day, but at that moment on wednesday morning I was about to break another little record, passing the 1000km mark.

I was talking about this little record with the guys. All of them had done a 1000km ride before (even Dani, who rode a BRM 1000 earlier this year) and Manolo came up with the idea of doing kind of a celebration about it. We were looking at my garmin device and when it showed the 1000km value, I told so and they cheered me up.

The next 24 km to Villaines La-Juhel passed fast, still riding in that perfect formation, and we arrived in the village around 11:15.

And there we found the big party.

I’ve read countless stories from the previous editions of PBP, about Villaines being the village with the biggest party of all of them. With lots of people at all times on the street, specially on the come back from Brest, with music on the streets… This is that control where there are volunteer kids that help tired randonneurs with their food trays and moving around.

We found all that, sure, but just before entering the village, we were able to hear the speaker. Yeah, there was a speaker there that was looking at the riders arriving in the village and trying to make comments about them.

Mostly he was trying to identify the country from where the riders were and then he was announcing “here come the italians!”, “and now… some people from ireland!”, etc.

And someone came up with an idea. We were spanish, famous for being loud and noisy, so let’s make some noise. And what could be better than shouting the name of our friend Manolo! And so we did.

“MANOOOLOOOO! MANOOOOLOOOO! MANOOOOOOOLOOOOOOO!”

The crowd looked on our direction and raised their voices, cheering and clapping. I remember the speaker said something, but we were shouting so loud and the crowd was so noisy, that I didn’t register it ;-P

When we stopped our bikes, we were laughing like little kids. The peloton got dissolved and a few of the riders there came by to say hi and thanks for pulling them all the way from Fougères.

While I was talking to a few people there, surprise! I saw another randonneur arriving, in a very standing position… it was Stuart Blofeld, that guy riding a stand-up bike that we met on our way to Carhaix on Monday evening!

I got closer to say hi and ask how was he doing so far (I’d say quite good). At first he didn’t recognized me (what was I expecting? how many unknown riders may have approached him the last few days because of his EliptiGO bike?) but then he remembered our little ride together a couple days ago.

After a bit of chatting there, I realized all my friends had left to get their booklets stamped, so I said goodbye to Stuart and off I went to get mine too.

Then we went to the bigger restaurant to have an early lunch. At the entrance of the area where the restaurant was, a benèvole approached us, with a group of kids. Each kid was assigned to one of us, with instructions to help us carrying stuff around and with the selection of food available.

We walked together to the restaurant. The kids looked excited to help and we tried to talk a bit with them. Sadly, only one of them was eager to try a bit of english (none knew any spanish). Anyway, we found our way to communicate.

There was plenty of options for food, personally I picked up a full meal and my first Paris-Brest pastry for dessert.

Then the kids brought us to the lunch hall, which was a gymnasium where they had set long tables. The gymnasium was decorated with lots of stuff related to PBP, from maps with the different PBP routes over the years to a world map with marks in countries from where PBP riders came from. There were also lots of old bikes of all types around.

Once we got to our places at one of the big tables, the kids left us there and went back to get assigned to some other randonneur or randonneuse. Before they left, I opened the bag with the stickers and gave the kids lots of them.

I enjoyed the meal a lot. Salad, pasta and chicken, then dessert. But it wasn’t about the food. It was about being there at the moment, with those crazy guys whom I can call friends now, sharing sensations, feelings… it felt so good.

And then, another surprise! We saw David coming into the gymnasium, along the kid assigned to him, who was carrying another tray full of food. We waved at him and he joined us for lunch.

He looked awful. Like totally destroyed. He sat and told us how things went for him since we parted ways the night before and how bad and tired he was at that moment. He was definetely having one of those low moments, and it looked pretty bad. So we started making jokes, trying to cheer him up a bit, telling him that now that he is back with the Galicians, there was nothing to worry about.

After lunch we refilled our bottles and went to our bikes. We said goodbye to the kids and the benèvoles there and resumed our way. We had been in Villaines for 1 hour and 15 minutes, so it was past noon when we left the village.

It was definetely the hottest day since we started. It was hot, the sky was cloudless and the sun was cooking us for good, slowly. For me, the worse of it was that my feet started to hurt. This happened to me before, in a couple of Brevets when I had to ride for hours under temperatures over 30-35 ºC. In such situations my feet start to swell a bit, causing some disconfort first, pain if I keep like that for long.

And that seemed what was happening that day. My right foot was ok, but the left one… it was annoying at best.

Anyway, we left Villaines on our own, the Galicians, Manuel and David. Being race day we quickly went into the same formation as in the morning. Two abreast, Manolo and me on the lead, raising the pace slowly.

And, as it happened that morning, one hour later we were pulling a bigger group, which soon became a peloton again.

It was as if nothing had changed (later, I found out that a lot of the riders in this new group had been, in fact, riding with us that morning too!) Manolo and me were on the front, chatting and pulling the group with nobody taking a turn leading (which, honestly, was perfectly fine with me).

My feet started to hurt a bit more, and a bit more often. On the left foot sometimes it felt like if needles were piercing through my sole. A couple of times I considered letting the big group go and stop for a moment to remove the shoes and let my feet breathe a bit.

We passed several areas with trees and tempting grass patches under their shade… the grass look soooo fresh… I started to imagine my bare feet on the fresh grass…

But I didn’t want to let go of them, we were going fast and the km were passing in a breeze. So I decided to give something a try. On the longer hill descents I unclipped my left foot and did some stretching, moving the foot doing circles. It worked. Those small moments seemed to refresh the foot, keeping the pain away for some time.

The roads in this stretch felt a bit more gentle, easier. With longer flat parts (well, not really flat, but not a rollercoaster neither). This helped a lot to keep both our pace and the big group together.

The downside to it is that the chatting was cut to a minimum. And I have to admit that at the time I missed the chatting, the getting to know new people and friends.

Then, a while after passing again through Alençon we realized Ferreiro, David and Felipe were missing. We were arriving near a small village called Vidai and we noticed that there was someone offering water and drinks to the randonneurs in front of her house, so we decided to stop there for a moment, in the shade, and wait a bit for them to catch up.

The image there was lovely. A woman and her toddler were there, offering water from one of those 8/10 litres bottles/tanks. The bottle had one of those plastic taps/faucets and the toddler was refilling the bottles herself. I won’t forget this one anytime soon.

A few minutes later our friends appeared. Turned out they found someone they knew on the road and they stopped for a moment to say hi and take some pictures.

With that stop, the big peloton was gone, broken and split into groups of different sizes. A few randonneurs stopped with us and they decided to keep riding with us too when we resumed riding.

We still had around 20 km to get to the next control, in Mortagne au Perche (the one that was a food stop only on our way to Brest, where we discovered the problems with Ferreiro’s rear wheel on the first night). We rode them a bit more scattered, not in formation anymore, which felt a bit slower but was much better for the chatting part.

I had the opportunity to talk a bit with a french guy from Paris, very nice guy, who wanted to thank us for all the work we had done since this morning in Fougères. He had been riding with us for most of the day and he was glad he found such a well-behaved group of cyclists.

He was “bigger” than me, so going up the hills he suffered a bit more and some times he did stay a bit behind, but on the descents he was way faster. There was this descent, where I was crouching “all aero” and suddendly I realized he was by my side, with a more relaxed position. He looked at me with a (pretending to be) serious face and simply said “I’m FAT!” and he burst out laughing as he was passing me with little effort.

Soon after that, we were arriving in the village of Mortagne au Perche, with Manolo showing us the way.

I had a vague memory of that first night, leaving this control… I’d swear we left the control going down on what looked like a steep descent. If that was true, we would have to climb it on our way to the control today.

It was indeed a bit steep, but not so steep, and short anyway.

It was 16:10 when we finally arrived in the control. We were cooked in our own sweat. It was really, really hot. We looked for some place with a bit of shade to park our bikes and refresh ourselves a bit.

Dani parked his bike and went straight to the water taps, crouched and opened the faucet over his head.

I refilled one bottle with fresh water and drank half of it in one go. When we finally were all together again, we headed for the building to get our stamps and eat something.

Inside the building it was much better, not so hot at least. As soon as I entered the building, I removed my shoes. Feeling that cold floor on my cooked feet was definetely soothing.

We got our stamps and then went to the cafeteria/restaurant. I didn’t feel like having lunch (again), but having something cold/fresh did sound like a good idea, so I took my time to go through the available food, trying to find something that may fit.

One thing I do when riding Brevets, specially longer ones, regarding food is try to keep eating what I usually eat in my daily diet. That would mean lots of fruit, veggies and yogourt. Veggies, though, are usually hard to find (or ordering them takes longer than other stuff).

Here in Mortagne, I was lucky I could get some nice cold pasta salad, fruit and yogourt (and that delicious cheese cake I’ve been eaten in most of the controls so far!)

While eating, several other randonneurs we knew from previous Brevets passed by or came to say hi. It was nice to see everybody was doing fine so far, being so close to the finish now.

One of those randonneurs was Alfredo, from Alicante, an old friend of Manolo who had shared lots of adventures with him in the past. He looked a bit tired and Manolo asked him if he would like to seat for a while with us. He did and he shared his PBP story so far. When he finished, we asked him to join us for the last stretch. It is always nicer if you can ride with good company.

We had a bit over 120km to do before the finish, back in Rambouillet (the come back would be on a different road, passing by the last control in Dreux).

Considering what we had done so far, that felt like a very short distance, to be honest. But we still had to ride it. We were optimists though, the day has been fine so far, everybody was doing fine and we were riding in a good pace (did someone say race day?).

I don’t remember what happened exactly in this stop, but we spent there 1 hour and 20 minutes (longest stop during PBP). What I can tell you is that, at the time, it didn’t feel like we were stopped so long.

It was time to leave Mortagne and so we did, all together, still with David and now with the company of Alfredo.

Dreux was near 80 km away. We had left Bretagne behind long ago already (a few km after Fougères) and not only the weather was different (hotter), the terrain and the roads were different too. More flat roads, less hills, long straight lines where we could roll faster (if we weren’t a bit tired already).

On our way to the next, and last, control the mechanical trouble came back.

As it had been the usual since we left the Hotel this morning, we left Mortagne on our own and soon we built a small group, that was getting bigger with time. Again, I tried to keep myself up front as much as possible.

And, after 30km or so, Manolo looked back and told me some of our friends were missing. I remember Dani was there with us, but no trace of the others. We slowed down a bit but 10km later there was still no trace of them, so we decided to stop for a moment at the side of the road.

There were a few riders that had been on our wheels for quite a while then, that looked a bit dissapointed we were stopping. They exchanged a few WTF glances and then I told them a few of our friends were missing for too long and that we were going to wait a bit for them. “Sure, ok! thanks for the ride so far anyway!” - one of them replied before they resumed riding.

Alfredo was the first arriving, alone. He told us Ferreiro had another flat tire on the rear wheel. Damn, at that moment Dani and I realized that he had spent all his spare tubes already (after that fiasco tube replacement on the second day, before arriving in Fougères for the first time). We told him to buy some spares in a control, but he didn’t. Luckily, David and Felipe were with him, so he was able to get a new inner tube.

After a while they arrived and we resumed riding together once more. There was a bit more talking about the current status of that rear wheel, ideas and suggestions about what to look for in Dreux, trying to minimize the trouble for those last few km.

A few minutes later, I almost had a crash.

We were riding all together, I wasn’t up front as usual and I had David riding in front of me, a bit to my right, when he suddendly did a turn to his left. I quickly dodged him, going also to my left, towards the other lane on the road… just when another rider was passing me exactly by there.

Luckily this rider’s reacted fast too, otherwise it wouldn’t be fun for any of us (we had several more riders coming behind us).

I apologized to this unknown rider and he replied “don’t worry, not your fault!” and kept on riding.

A few minutes later, I came upon him once more. He was riding up front and I pushed it a bit, leaving my friends a bit behind and matching his pace. “Hey!” - I said - “Sorry about what happened before, really”. “No worries” - he replied - “It wasn’t your fault, the other guy turned carelessly, there was nothing you could do”. We introduced ourselves and Jochen turned out to be a very nice guy.

It was sooo nice to ride with him for a while, sharing our different stories about what PBP has been so far for us. He had this crazy story about sleeping the previous night under a tree, in a bivvy bag, being woken up by some noises near his bike bags… just to find a little fox there, looking back at him! (you can see the fox#1 in his pictures on strava#2).

After a while our paces were different and we split ways, but riding by him and sharing stories brought me back good memories of conversations shared with other strangers the last couple of days. For me, the best part of PBP.

Riders came and went, we passed some and some others passed us. We came upon another spanish randonneur, Rafa from the Vasque Country, another friend of Manolo who decided to join our little group. He blended in perfectly, specially with Dani. Them two making cheap jokes non-stop for a while, everybody around (that did speak/understand spanish) laughing out loud.

Once more, Ferreiro was missing. Someone (don’t remember who) pointed to another flat tire, but it seemed Felipe did stay with him. We discussed what to do for a while, then decided to keep on and wait for them in Dreux.

It was early in the evening, and it felt like it was even hotter than noon. The pain on my left foot was back, the needles piercing through it again. I looked back at my friends’ faces and I could see there how tired everybody started to feel.

This was the moment of the whole ride when I saw more and more people having trouble with keeping their heads up. The feared Shermer’s Neck#3. I’d heard about it, I’d read about it, but I had never seen someone actually suffering it.

I saw 3-4 cases before arriving in Dreux. There was one guy (from Chile, IIRC) who had what looked like a mild case (or the start of it). He couldn’t keep his head up 100%, but let’s say 70% and he could keep his eyes up front by tilting a bit his head to his right. Then there were the others, who couldn’t put their heads up and were looking straight to their front wheels.

Those looked pretty dangerous and scary.

Of course, I did not have the whole story about them. Maybe they were on a tight schedule to finish PBP in time, maybe they were used to ride in such conditions. Whatever their reasons were, back then I thought they were quite irresponsible, riding like that. Why not simply stop for a while, get some rest and try to recover? Riding like that, moving sideways recklessly and not being able to keep your heads up front… it wasn’t only a danger for themselves, they were a danger to every other rider on the road.

The landscape around us was quite different here. Apart from being less hilly, the land around the roads were farm land. Big flat areas prepared for agriculture and planting/growing stuff. There were less green around us, probably because farmers were preparing the soil to plant new stuff on it.

I noticed also another change, drivers. Back in Bretagne everybody was gentle and patient, sometimes even friendly (waving from inside the cars, shouting “Allez! Allez!” from behind open windows…). But here most drivers were agressive, passing you speeding up a lot and some times even honking. One driver even shout some things that sound really angry and ugly at us.

Later I found out that in France it is not allowed to ride 2 abreast (in Spain, for example, it is legal to do so). But that only seemed to be a problem with drivers around this area.

At 20:45 we finally arrived in Dreux.

Night was coming again, but it was still hot, way too hot. There was lots of humidity too, there was a swamp-like atmosfere in the air. And the mosquitoes… there was a horde of mosquitoes feasting on us, poor randonneurs.

We parked our bikes and went inside, in hopes of getting rid of the mosquitoes and to get our stamps and something to eat.

Inside it was almost unbearable, way too hot. The building was like a huge greenhouse, probably gathering heat from the sun all day long, and soon we were completely cooked. At one point we asked one of the benèvoles if we could bring our trays outside, she said it was ok if we bring them back in when finished.

Outside it was much better regarding the heat… but then there were the mosquitoes, waiting for us. I guess you can’t have it all!

We couldn’t find a table where we could sit all together, so we split. I sat at a table with David and a couple from the USA that were riding PBP for the 4th or 5th time. Time to share more experiences and stories! I also took some time to check on David, how was he doing so far, specially after having quite a bad morning that day.

We finished our food, but Ferreiro and Felipe hadn’t arrived yet. We started to worry a bit, lots of “what if…” in the air. One thing was clear, we were going to wait for them so we could do the last stretch together.

A while later they finally arrived. Confirmed another flat tire and some more trouble changing that tube. Also, that was the last inner tube from Felipe too.

Finally, 1 hour and 15 minutes after we arrived in the control, we were ready to leave. We were picking up our bikes when Ferreiro said he was leaving already - “You are faster and will catch me soon”. He left and then we realized David was missing. He told us he was going to the toilet and asked if we could wait for him.

We waited a bit… but no trace of him. He hadn’t park his bike with ours… so no way to check if his bike was still around in the middle of all those bikes, in the dark.

Near 10 minutes later, we tried calling him on the phone, but no luck, so we decided to go.

40-something km to go, to arrive in Rambouillet and to finish PBP.

40-something km to ride in the dark… but this time I wanted no trouble, no tunnel vision, no anxiety. So I came up with an idea before leaving the control. I replaced my cycling glasses with my normal, everyday, glasses.

I had brought them with me just in case something bad happened to my cycling ones (spares!), but while I was there waiting for David, I started to think about replacing the glasses. The normal ones are bigger, wider, so the area covered by the prescription glasses is bigger. Also, the cycling glasses have this special treatment that adapts to light (photochromatic?) which make them very good for changing conditions, but still means having some darker cover on them. The normal glasses don’t have that.

The drawback of wearing normal glasses is that they are a bit more loose, but I hoped that won’t be a problem.

Note

Spoiler alert: it worked wonderfully. Lesson learnt, my cycling glasses are ok for riding at night… for a while or if it is not in complete darkness. Otherwise, they are not so good.

We left Dreux and its city lights behind and soon we were back into the darkness, on a long and fast descent. We were riding with a lot more riders now, as there were lot of people queued for exit in the control.

Dani was a bit ahead, fearless in the dark, with Manolo a bit behind, then me and Alfredo and Felipe a bit behind us. Then I heard Alfredo cursing.

“What happened, are you all right?” - I asked him - “Gearing cable snapped, dammit” - he replied. “Fsck” - I thought - “Ok, let’s see what we can do, I’ve a spare cable here” - I told him. He said thanks, but no thanks, and he asked me not to worry - “Just keep on riding, forget about me and do not tell Manolo about it, I’ll make it on my own, you already have had enough delays due to mechanical trouble”.

Of course I wasn’t ok with it, if he was not going to listen to me… I pushed it a bit and got side-by-side with the others, telling them what happened. We slowed down a bit and quickly discussed what to do. We all agreed on keep on going. The terrain should not be very hilly from now on and Alfredo swear he could make it like this (he even refused to stop for a moment and try to get the chain in a higher gear).

We rode together, trying to keep a steady pace and with Manolo giving us warnings when we were pushing it a bit too much (we didn’t want to burn Alfredo to the ground).

We still hadn’t catch Ferreiro (who left the control almost 10 minutes earlier than us) and every time we saw red lights on the horizon, we were gambling… would it be him? Every time we hunted those riders, trying to finally catch him, but he wasn’t in any of those groups and pairs.

At one point, in a longer flat stretch, I put some distance with the group, riding alone for a while, in the dark. I passed by a big area of farm land where they were working. There were a couple of big tractors with huge front lamps that were casting long and wide beams of light on the land. It felt a bit surreal, like being in a sci-fi movie, in some other planet with a spaceship exploring some unknown land.

Soon I was back with the guys, and we rode together passing a few more hills and some woods, we were almost there. Going down the other side of the woods we saw a few riders ahead, stopped. Ferreiro was there, with David. We didn’t stop and they resumed their ride with us.

The gearing cable in Ferreiro’s bike was damaged. It didn’t snap yet, but he wasn’t changing gears to prevent that. So much for mechanical problems…

A few minutes later, we were entering the area near the Chatèu de Rambouillet. Cobblestones, then the big metal fence, then the dirt path… We crossed the arch where our RFIDs would be read and our final arrival time marked in the ACP database.

My official finish time was 78:09:46, arriving back in Rambouillet at 23:59:32 on Wednesday, 23rd August 2023. According to my Garmin device (and Strava) 51 hours 7 minutes of moving time, 78 hours 14 minutes taking stops in account with an average (moving) speed of 24 km/h.

Arriving at this time, at midnight, things were a bit quiet. There was people of course, lots of noise and movement, but a bit quieter than arriving by day.

We parked our bikes, everybody smiling and happy. I went to Dani and gave him a big hug. Congratulations my friend, you deserved this. Then I went one by one giving hugs and clasping hands with everybody, giving contratulations.

We had done it, I had done it. One could said now the dream finally came true, but for me the dream came true when I left this place on sunday. From that moment on I was living the dream, so sure I was going to finish it.

Time then to get our final stamp, our medal, and lots of congratulations by the benèvoles there.

We were in full-spanish-party mode. I guess it was even more special for Dani, David and me, as this was our first PBP.

Meanwhile more randonneurs and randonneuse were arriving and getting their stamps and medals. Everybody looking tired, a bit trashed, but at the same time radiant and happy.

After stamps, medals and photos, we went to the tent where the organization had prepared a restaurant area, to get our finishers meal. While on the queue to get our food, I came upon Jochen again. He looked good and I was glad to see he finished too.

On my way to our table, with the tray full of food on my hands, I passed by other tables where I could see more faces I’ve met during the day. One of those faces was that big guy from Paris I rode with for a while before Mortagne au Perche. He waved at me, gesturing me to come over. I left my try on our table and went there.

He was sitting there with some friends, dinner half done, drinking some local beer. He offered me a glass of it and we cheered together. He thanked me (our galician group really) again. He was telling his friends there that this morning was the only moment in this whole PBP when we rode in a well-organized group. I did stay with them for a moment, sharing stories and plans, and then I went back to my table, bringing with me one of those big bottles of local beer to share with the others.

Dinner was nice, beer was awesome, company was wonderful.

We did stay for some more time at the “restaurant”, hanging out, chatting. Felipe exchanged his Randonneurs Galicia Jersey with a randonneur from Japan, and Ferreiro did the same with a randonneur from California.

It was getting late and, even if we were having lots of fun, we were tired and we still had to ride our bikes back to the van, then pack everything back (in the dark) and get to our hotel for the night.

After saying goodbye to everybody there, Alfredo, Rafa and David included, we went to the bike parking and hopped on our bikes once more. We rode our bikes back to the van and then packed everything up.

We had finished PBP, but fun wasn’t over yet. We drove 30 minutes to the hotel for that night. A hotel Manolo found on booking.com and looked quite nice. It was nice indeed, but it was kind of a small resort-like hotel, located in the middle of some woods somewhere. Getting there on our huge van was fun, having to drive on some small paths, surrounded by huge trees. I remember making jokes with Manolo, wondering exactly what kind of hotel this was, which surprises did he prepared for us there…

Luckily we found it and the check-in was quite fast. In a few minutes we were in our rooms (I was sharing mine with Dani again). I had a much-needed soothing shower and then went to bed, falling asleep almost instantly, so happy I can’t find the words to describe it.

Footnotes

#1

https://dgtzuqphqg23d.cloudfront.net/gsLWsWVGPfESdBk0iIBCeobTMtwKYBXtopdPewN46C0-1536x2048.jpg

#2

https://www.strava.com/activities/9709077160

#3

https://www.welovecycling.com/wide/2017/08/10/creepiest-cycling-condition-shermers-neck

The day after PBP

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-10-09 00:00:00

We hadn’t set any alarms when we went to bed the previous night. There was no need for that, we could sleep as long as we may need.

I woke up near 09:00, checked the phone and saw that Luis finished around 04:00 that same night. Great news! I had another shower and got ready, putting on my new PBP t-shirt.

We didn’t have the breakfast included with the room, but Ferreiro asked the clerk if he could have something and he got to the breakfast hall just a few minutes before it got closed. I met him there and gave him some company while he finished his (first) breakfast.

Then we met the others in another small hall. There was a coffee machine there, courtesy of the hotel, that all guests could use. We had a quick coffee while waiting for everybody to be ready, chatting about what to do for the day.

The plan was to start the journey back home that day, but we also would like to pass by Rambouillet one more time. This morning was the deadline for a lot of riders (including our group, H) so there was going to be a big party.

We took a moment to re-pack everything in the van. The previous night it was late and we packed things up in the middle of the dark, with the only light of our bike head lights, so things weren’t properly set up.

Then, we left the hotel and drove all the way back to Rambouillet, parking the van in the same place we did a few days ago, when we first arrived in town.

First things first, we needed breakfast!. We walked a bit and found a nice boulangerie in the same square where we had lunch on saturday and sunday.

We bought lots of stuff there and then sat at a table outside the cafe next door (we asked first if it was ok to buy the food at the boulangerie, and they told us it was perfectly fine with them). I had enough coffee and pastries for, in normal conditions, a couple of days. Over breakfast we went again through our little adventure and we used the official tracker#1 to check on some people we know, see who had finished, their official times, etc.

Breakfast done, it was time to walk through town, in direction to the gardens near the Chatêau, to the finish line.

The streets of Rambouillet looked quite different that day, compared to the pre-PBP days when they were full of randonneurs and bicycles. That day we saw a few, but not many.

We met several spanish randonneurs during our walk, stopping with all of them for a moment to check how everybody had been doing. One of those randonneurs were Yago, another galician colleague (the one who took my place in the trip with the FECT).

He finished in 86 hours and was very happy about it, considering he had a crash because of a truck and then a couple more incidents. Luckily he wasn’t injured or damaged in any serious way.

We said goodbye to Yago, and we kept walking towards the gardens.

When we finally got there, we saw a big crowd around the finish line arch between the tent where the benèvoles were stamping the PBP booklets and the tent that was the improvised restaurant.

We walked on the dirt path, then on the grass. Getting closer we could hear people cheering the riders that were arriving, the speaker was also talking, loudly, and there was an overall humming noise when lots of people are together and everybody is talking.

We went inside the tent to the left, where the benèvoles were stamping the PBP booklets. There was definetely way more people now than the previous night when we arrived on our bikes at midnight.

There were randonneurs getting in to get their stamps, randonneurs getting out with their stamps and medals in hand, groups hugging and celebrating, couples hugging and kissing after having done PBP together… and there were lots of people sleeping.

Yeah, you read right, people sleeping in the middle of all that noise and excitement and shouting and frenziness. I saw people sleeping sitting in chairs, people sleeping laying on the wooden floor and people sleeping over clothes, towels, whatever they could find to place between their bodies and the floor.

After walking around those tables for a while, we went outside to see the arrival of more randonneurs. There were lots of people waiting there. Family, friends, colleagues of randonneurs that should arrive any moment now.

There were several randonneurs taking “I did it!” photos. And there was a lot of chatting and congratulating too.

And gorgeous bikes… everywhere. Manolo and Felipe, with experience from previous editions, told me the three bigger changes they noticed in this PBP were:

A lot more Ti (Titanium) frames

Disc brakes everywhere

Handlebar extensions (like those triathletes use)

This was the first edition the extensions were allowed, and a lot of people decided to bring them.

Personally, I considered adding them to the synapse after the second 400 brevet this year. At the cost of adding a bit more weight to your bike (and maybe some adjustments on your saddle/seatpost) you gain a few more positions on the bike (so much needed in long-distance rides) and a very comfortable and aero position for riding on flat areas (which did sound perfect for PBP).

In the end I decided not to get them, but I’m sure I will in the near future.

If you ask me, I think Ti frames are cool and I saw lots of carbon frames too, but the bikes that attracted lots of attention were steel bikes. And it was soooo cool to see new steel bikes made by artisans and l’ateliers…

I was there, hanging around, when I saw Mikko Mäkipää#2. I’ve been following Mikko on social media for quite some time now (first on the already-defunct twitter, now on Mastodon#3). Finisher of all TCR#4 editions (as well as a lot more other adventures, like RUSKA#5 in his home land), I’ve exchanged messages online with him a few times, but we had never met in person before. So I could not help myself and went over to say hi and introduce myself.

It was a pleasure to meet him (as I thought it would). We did chat a bit about this edition of PBP (he did it 3 times already, IIRC) and then about this year’s TCR#6 edition. It was so cool to get comments and oppinions from him directly (specially about that last parkour in greece!).

I was having so much fun. We lived there some memorable arrivals, like the moment when Mick Creati (I330) arrived. Mick, quite an old randonneur, passed the finish line walking, looking like badly injured, while someone was walking his bike by his side. He had to do an enormous effort to walk those last few meters, someone rushed to his side to give him a hand and then everybody was clapping, making a big ovation to him.

Then there were randonneurs that couldn’t help it and started crying out loud as soon as they parked their bikes, part joy, part amusement, some simply started crying whey they saw they beloved ones waiting for them there.

All of it was quite emotional.

At one point, it started to rain. Some people had umbrellas, some others like us decided to go back inside one of the tents.

Riders kept coming and the party went on and on. Of course some rain won’t stop it, as if most of us there weren’t used to spend hours and hours under the rain one way or another.

We waited until the rain became a drizzle, and then I suggested to get some drinks at the restaurant. Manolo joined me and we got one of those nice big bottles of local beer, with a few souvenir PBP 2023 glasses.

The five of us shared the bottle of beer, cheering for a wonderful experience… and for (hopefully) many more PBPs to come.

It was getting late, we still had a long journey back home and our plan was to do a long part of it this day, so we finished up our beers, took one last picture by the Paris-Brest-Paris Rambouillet logo outside one of the tents, and then went back to the van.

I’m going to spare you the details of our trip back. It was quite tiring, a lot more than riding PBP. Lots of driving on the highway, not many stops, and as a consequence of that, very swollen legs, knees, ankles, feet.

We had a good time though. These guys are fantastic. We talked a lot about what this year had been for all of us, we went back to the good and bad moments during the last few days, we checked online the status of friends and colleagues, commenting the results, times and surprises there. We talked also about the plans and dreams for the next year(s).

We shared meals, dinner and one room that night that looked like out of a military movie from the 80s… Or, as they were saying, from the times when they did the military service (I was the only one that didn’t do it).

I got back home on Friday, 25th of August, tired because of all the travelling, but eager to hop again on the synapse and start pedaling again.

Footnotes

#1

https://track.rtrt.me/e/CC-2023#/tracker/

#2

https://mastodon.social/@mkpaa

#3

https://joinmastodon.org

#4

https://www.transcontinental.cc

#5

https://www.randonneurs.fi/ruska-ride-across-finland-2023/

#6

https://www.transcontinental.cc

Index

RSS Feed

Decided to go

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-11 00:00:00

PBP, Paris-Brest-Paris, the mother of all Brevets. 1200Km of unsupported riding across France. The kind of thing that seemed way too much, way too crazy, back when I rode my first 200 Brevet in 2017.

Back then, riding 200 km was an incredible thing to do. I was scared, afraid that maybe I won’t be able to finish it. I wanted to do it, badly, so there was this mix of feelings inside me.

Then I did ride a 300 km Brevet (and several other 200) and I met more experienced randonneurs. I listened carefully to all the stories they wanted to share, experiences of 400 and 600 Brevets, as well as bigger feats like PBP.

And I dreamed. I fell in love with the idea of riding longer distances, pushing myself and doing things that, at that moment, seemed impossible to do.

A few years later, I’ve done more long distance riding, both official Brevets (up to 400) and unofficial long rides. Last year I broke my yearly distance record (almost reaching 10k km) and I gained a lot of confidence in myself.

During the different Brevets I rode last year, talk about PBP started to pop-up here and there. It was a nice little dream, but one that (still) did sound like an impossible thing to do.

It was not only the idea of riding 1200 km, it was about everything it means, like preparations/training, doing the full super-randonneur series 1 and finally the whole trip to Paris before PBP (+ the come back home afterwards). It did sound like way too much again.

And yet… 2023 started, pre-registrations for PBP opened… and I signed up.

Pre-registration opened in blocks 2 based on the longer Brevet you rode the year before PBP. First it was the turn to those who rode a Brevet of 1000 km (or more) in 2022, then the ones that rode a 600 km Brevet, and so on.

Sadly, last year I was not able to ride a 600 Brevet (due to some personal problems) while several of my friends did ride at least one of them. Those did their pre-registration a couple of weeks before me, and I had those 2 extra weeks to think it through, to reconsider everything and make up my mind.

And when the time came (today), I was 100% decided about it.

And so I’ve just pre-registered myself for the 20th edition of Paris-Brest-Paris.

1

Riding 200, 300, 400 and 600 km Brevets in the same year.

2

According to the PBP rules: https://www.paris-brest-paris.org/en/rules

#1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambouillet

#2

https://fect.info

#3

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#4

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com/brevet-200-babia/

#5

https://apidura.com

#6

https://inefg.udc.es

#7

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastiagueiro_(Li%C3%A1ns)

#8

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerceda_(La_Coru%C3%B1a)

#9

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesteda

#10

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trazo_(La_Coru%C3%B1a)

#11

http://arquitecturadegalicia.eu/blog/casa-consistorial-de-trazo/

#12

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portomouro_(Valle_del_Dubra)

#13

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Tambre

#14

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontemaceira_(Espa%C3%B1a)

#15

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negreira

#16

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zas

#17

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coristanco

#18

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carballo_(La_Coru%C3%B1a)

#19

https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cai%C3%B3n,_A_Laracha

#20

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arteixo

#21

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugo

#22

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonsagrada

#23

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegadeo

#24

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#25

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugo

#26

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castroverde

#27

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Eulalia_de_Oscos

#28

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#29

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pontenova_(Lugo)

#30

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meira_(Lugo)

#31

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astorga

#32

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#33

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Justo_de_la_Vega

#34

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_Episcopal_de_Astorga

#35

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_del_Bierzo

#36

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bembibre

#37

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toreno

#38

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabero

#39

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A1ramo_del_Sil

#40

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cangas_del_Narcea

#41

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerredo_(Dega%C3%B1a)

#42

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_de_Leitariegos

#43

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villablino

#44

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villablino

#45

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riello_(Le%C3%B3n)

#46

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuy_(Pontevedra)

#47

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Pontevedra

#48

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayona_(Espa%C3%B1a)

#49

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Guardia_(Pontevedra)

#50

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_de_Santa_Tecla

#51

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Pontevedra

#52

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Ourense

#53

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astorga

#54

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Justo_de_la_Vega

#55

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital_de_%C3%93rbigo

#56

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puebla_de_Sanabria

#57

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puebla_de_Sanabria

#58

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braganza

#59

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braganza

#60

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_de_Duero_(Portugal)

#61

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_de_Duero_(Portugal)

#62

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_de_Duero_(Portugal)

#63

https://my-bike.es

#64

https://www.abciclismo.com

#65

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Compostela

#66

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Ourense

#67

https://ultracycling.com/what-ultracycling/

#68

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalin

#69

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalin

#70

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Crist%C3%B3bal_de_Cea

#71

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Crist%C3%B3bal_de_Cea

#72

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carballino

#73

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orense

#74

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allariz

#75

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba%C3%B1os_de_Molgas

#76

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maceda

#77

https://www.codigobike.com

#78

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantada

#79

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Lugo

#80

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantada

#81

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantada

#82

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betanzos

#83

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboada_(Lugo)

#84

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterroso

#85

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palas_de_Rey

#86

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Lugo

#87

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellid

#88

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis

#89

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_La_Coru%C3%B1a

#90

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellid

#91

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betanzos

#92

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#93

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#94

https://fect.info

#95

https://fect.info

#96

https://fect.info

#97

https://fect.info

#98

https://fect.info

#99

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#100

https://myaccount.audax-club-parisien.com

#101

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#102

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#103

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#104

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#105

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#106

https://rancat.cat/

#107

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#108

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#109

https://my-bike.es

#110

https://scribecycling.com/en-eu

#111

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#112

https://rusa.org/pages/super-randonnees

#113

https://rusa.org/pages/super-randonnees

#114

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Compostela

#115

https://www.clifbar.com

#116

https://www.powerbar.eu

#117

https://www.226ers.com

#118

https://www.isostar.es/powertabs-limon.html

#119

https://eu.restrap.com

#120

https://www.apidura.com

#121

https://decathlon.es

#122

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Justo_de_la_Vega

#123

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foncebad%C3%B3n

#124

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruz_de_Hierro_(Le%C3%B3n)

#125

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruz_de_Hierro_(Le%C3%B3n)

#126

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Way

#127

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponferrada

#128

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponferrada

#129

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molinaseca

#130

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Sil

#131

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_de_Domingo_Fl%C3%B3rez

#132

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castilla_y_Le%C3%B3n

#133

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia

#134

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Ourense

#135

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Barco_de_Valdeorras

#136

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monforte_de_Lemos

#137

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Sil

#138

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Lor

#139

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribeira_Sacra

#140

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia

#141

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Sil

#142

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embalse_de_Los_Peares

#143

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferreira_(Pant%C3%B3n)

#144

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embalse_de_Los_Peares

#145

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribeira_Sacra

#146

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantada

#147

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalin

#148

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantada

#149

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalin

#150

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalin

#151

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Compostela

#152

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arz%C3%BAa

#153

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melide

#154

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melide

#155

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melide

#156

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melide

#157

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palas_de_Rey

#158

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugo

#159

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligonde

#160

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puertomar%C3%ADn

#161

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Mi%C3%B1o

#162

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Loyo

#163

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Loyo

#164

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradela

#165

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarria

#166

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarria

#167

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#168

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#169

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#170

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#171

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#172

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos

#173

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triacastela

#174

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_de_Valcarce

#175

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villafranca_del_Bierzo

#176

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triacastela

#177

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triacastela

#178

https://vivecamino.com/o-cebreiro/alto-san-roque-3223/

#179

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_de_Valcarce

#180

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villafranca_del_Bierzo

#181

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponferrada

#182

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponferrada

#183

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molinaseca

#184

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bembibre

#185

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponferrada

#186

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bembibre

#187

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_del_Bierzo

#188

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_del_Bierzo

#189

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astorga

#190

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astorga

#191

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astorga

#192

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#193

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#194

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#195

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#196

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#197

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#198

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org

#199

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#200

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com

#201

https://www.apidura.com

#202

https://www.apidura.com/shop/racing-frame-pack/

#203

https://www.apidura.com

#204

https://www.apidura.com

#205

https://www.astorgarandonneurs.com

#206

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegadeo

#207

https://www.rapha.cc

#208

https://after.surf

#209

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betanzos

#210

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugo

#211

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

#212

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

#213

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baamonde

#214

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begonte

#215

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

#216

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baamonde

#217

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begonte

#218

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begonte

#219

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begonte

#220

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begonte

#221

https://surlybikes.com

#222

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otero_de_Rey

#223

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastoriza

#224

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastoriza

#225

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastoriza

#226

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riotorto

#227

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pontenova_(Lugo)

#228

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pontenova_(Lugo)

#229

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#230

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bres_(lugar)

#231

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Eulalia_de_Oscos

#232

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanueva_de_Oscos

#233

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#234

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pontenova_(Lugo)

#235

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#236

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#237

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bres_(lugar)

#238

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taramundi

#239

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Eulalia_de_Oscos

#240

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanueva_de_Oscos

#241

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanueva_de_Oscos

#242

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navia_(Asturias)

#243

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navia_(Asturias)

#244

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navia_(Asturias)

#245

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luarca

#246

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luarca

#247

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luarca

#248

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faro_de_Cabo_Busto

#249

https://pasteleriacabobusto.com

#250

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navia_(Asturias)

#251

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapia_de_Casariego

#252

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegadeo

#253

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegadeo

#254

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarius_(beverage)

#255

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Eo

#256

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Eo

#257

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia

#258

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asturias

#259

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribadeo

#260

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burela

#261

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burela

#262

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Cipri%C3%A1n_(Cervo)

#263

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarius_(beverage)

#264

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faro_de_Punta_Roncadoira

#265

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivero

#266

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estaca_de_Bares

#267

https://www.ccaspontes-vilalba.com/el-desafio/

#268

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puentes_de_Garc%C3%ADa_Rodr%C3%ADguez

#269

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

#270

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

#271

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitiriz

#272

https://rusa.org/pages/award-sr

#273

https://www.rapha.cc

#274

https://isadore.com

#275

https://www.castelli-cycling.com

#276

https://www.deporvillage.com/ciclismo/finisseur

#277

https://www.deporvillage.com

#278

https://www.rapha.cc

#279

https://www.rapha.cc

#280

https://www.deporvillage.com/ciclismo/finisseur

#281

https://www.deporvillage.com

#282

https://isadore.com

#283

https://www.youtube.com/@ElViejoPull/videos

#284

https://amazon.es

#285

https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0BY9YY8VW

#286

https://www.megmyers.com

#287

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7iVWK2W48o

#288

https://www.katebush.com/home

#289

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Things

#290

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp43OdtAAkM

#291

https://fect.info

#292

https://www.audax-club-parisien.com/en/welcomepage

#293

https://www.instagram.com/javierlopezterron

#294

https://www.zefal.com/en/

#295

https://www.associationartisansducycle.com/concours-2023-english

#296

https://www.cycles-alex-singer.fr

#297

https://www.origine-cycles.com/en-GB/

#298

https://fect.info

#299

https://fect.info

#300

https://www.parktool.com/en-int/blog/repair-help/wheel-and-rim-truing

#301

https://angelcycleworks.com/en

#302

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix

#303

https://www.elliptigo.com

#304

http://ultradiscostu.blogspot.com/2023/09/paris-brest-paris-pbp-2023-elliptigo.html

#305

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4

#306

https://dgtzuqphqg23d.cloudfront.net/gsLWsWVGPfESdBk0iIBCeobTMtwKYBXtopdPewN46C0-1536x2048.jpg

#307

https://www.strava.com/activities/9709077160

#308

https://www.welovecycling.com/wide/2017/08/10/creepiest-cycling-condition-shermers-neck

#309

https://track.rtrt.me/e/CC-2023#/tracker/

#310

https://mastodon.social/@mkpaa

#311

https://joinmastodon.org

#312

https://www.transcontinental.cc

#313

https://www.randonneurs.fi/ruska-ride-across-finland-2023/

#314

https://www.transcontinental.cc

Signed up for the trip to Paris with the FECT

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-15 00:00:00

In order to be able to participate in PBP, first I’ve to get to the departure place, Rambouillet#1 (a road trip of almost 1400 km from my place).

And I’ve to get there with everything I will need for PBP like clothes, food, spares, tools, bike bags, helmet… and the bike of course.

A few fellow randonneurs that already participated in PBP 4 years ago (2019), suggested me to look into the organized trip by the FECT#2 (the spanish ciclotourism federation). They do an organized trip from Madrid to Paris for FECT members (which I have been for a couple of years now) with some stops along the way to pick up members from several other places in spain.

Members and luggage go in a bus, while the bikes go in a van or small truck.

I already knew about this option before doing the PBP pre-registration, but I didn’t sign up right away with them. Signing up means paying half the money in advance and it is non-refundable, so I guess even with the pre-registration done… I wasn’t 100% sure this was going to happen.

Today I made up my mind and signed up, as there was a limited number of seats and there was the risk of not having that option anymore.

For me, the two big advantages of going to Paris with the FECT are:

Meeting more people that will do PBP too (and hopefully make some new friends ;-D)

Transportation of the bikes, as we won’t have to disassemble and pack the bikes into boxes or transport bags/cases.

The last point is very important for me, as I’m not comfortable at all with disassembling my bike and putting it back together.

There are some other benefits too. First they handle hotel reservations for before and after PBP. Second, volunteers from the FECT will be in 2 control points (one on our way to Brest, the other on the way back to Paris) with our luggage/bags. This means we can leave things like food, clothes, spares, etc ready to be picked up quickly and keep riding.

It will be a hell of a trip though. First I’ll have to get to Madrid myself (4-hour drive from Lugo), then pack my stuff into the bus, van, etc and head off to France.

One more thing decided, one more step forward.

Plans, ideas and thoughts

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-18 00:00:00

A week has passed since I pre-registered, and my head is already full of plans and ideas.

I know there is a long way to go before PBP, but I could not resist to look up on the web for articles, blog posts, etc. I’ve read plenty of blog posts about PBP experiences before and I went through them again, taking notes, learning from valuable hints and advices. I found some more content, as people is writing about their previous experiences during a PBP year like 2023.

With my brain already in full-planning-mode, I talked to those friends of mine that pre-registered a few weeks before I did. Turned out, they had a group in Whatsapp and they added me to it. They already have some plans as a group, and they even booked a hotel for the first longer-sleep stop!

They plan is to do a long initial stretch, near 500 km, then sleep in a hotel for a few hours before arriving in Brest.

That’d be ok with me, but when I looked for accomodation for myself in their hotel… all booked up. Other hotels/hostels in the area? all booked up. The closest room available I could find meant a detour from the main road of near 20km, and then there is the “little detail” of them having their departure time 2 hours before mine.

And there it was, my poor brain, going through options, trying to see how to fit into my friends’ plans, when a couple other randonneur friends got in touch, telling me they had signed up for PBP too… and with the same departure time as me!

Without a plan decided yet and no hotels booked, we chatted for a while about options and ideas, just to decide we should discuss about it in person, during the first Brevet of the year (in a couple of weekends from now).

Meanwhile, my brain don’t stop. Plans, ideas, what to bring, how to package everything on the bike, strategies for stops, when to sleep, and how much, how to keep track of time…

The qualifying starts with bad weather

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-22 00:00:00

The first 200 Brevet in my calendar will take place next Saturday, 25th of February, 2023 - that is, in 3 days from now - and damn, the weather forecast/prognosis looks awful.

We have had a hard autumn, with lots of rain, followed by a hard winter with even more rain and temperatures colder than what we are used to in recent years.

After all that, the last 2 weeks had been like an early spring. Mild temperatures and winter sunny days, simply perfect for a long day on the saddle.

Starting today, temperatures went down again and the rain is back. Forecast says we should expect a wave of cold, polar winds from the north with lots of rain and humidity. Snow is expected near 500m over sea level (here in Lugo - where I live - we are around 440m).

Fun, isn’t it?

I’ve waited until the last moment to sign up for this first 200 Brevet (I’ve just signed up a few minutes ago).

I know there will be more options for riding 200 Brevets, but somehow it did not feel good to skip one, considering something unexpected can happen in the future that may force me to skip one of the other 200s (sickness, family trouble, etc).

Let’s hope the weather won’t be as bad as they say it will…

Installing full fenders/mudguards

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-24 00:00:00

Considering the weather forecast for tomorrow, I’ve decided to install the full fenders again on the synapse.

It has been a while since the last time I used them (IIRC 2020) and when I picked up the little plastic bag where I stored screws and small parts, I noticed that several metal pieces and screws were completely rusted :-(

Luckily I had enough spares, so I didn’t have to use the rusted ones.

Note

These are SKS Chromoplastics mudguards, model from 2017 or 2018 (it seems they have been replaced with some other name models). They are light, long - so they cover a lot - and they fit perfectly with my Cannondale Synapse hidden eyelets and bridges.

Installing this SKS full fenders is easy (the hardest part is to install them for the first time, cutting the metal stays, etc) and all I needed was a bit of time, the bike stand and some basic tools (allen keys).

Once they were in place, I tested everything was ok (no rubbing parts, etc).

Sadly, I won’t be able to do a test ride before the Brevet tomorrow, breaking one of those sacred rules, never go to a Brevet with untested gear.

Well, this is not really untested gear, as I’ve used them in the past… right??

BRM 200 - Polas Terras Altas

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-26 00:00:00

As I wrote in my previous entry in the journal, the weather forecast did not look good for this weekend. Many of my usual colleagues and friends decided to skip the first Brevet of this season in Galicia (can’t blame them, honestly) but I decided to take my chances with the weather.

As I always do, I booked a room in a hotel near the Brevet departure place. This gives me a bit more sleep time the night before the Brevet, and it grants me a good night sleep (sleeping home is a bit of a gamble, my daughters have this “nice” habit of waking me up several times in the middle of the night).

When I got to the hotel the evening before the Brevet it was raining, not very hard, but constantly. I fell asleep with the sound of rain on the windows, just to wake up a few hours later with the sound of some birds singing outside.

“Cool” - I thought - “It stopped raining already!”

After a quick shower, I noticed the sound of rain hitting the windows again, hard. Honestly, it felt like someone pouring a jar of icy water over my head. Images of some of the previous Brevet’s I’ve ridden, when we had to ride under strong rain and wind for hours, started to come to mind.

Not in the best mood, I tried to push down some breakfast (I was able to eat only half the usual mix of cereals, fruits, honey and milk). I got ready and packed my things up, then left the hotel and headed to the starting point.

When I got there, all doubts dissapeared completely. I got the bike out of the car, prepared everything and went to get my Brevet card. At that moment, I did not care anymore about the rain or the weather, all I wanted was to start riding my bike.

Soon the place was full of cyclists. Time to get the Brevet cards, say hello to old and new friends and get ready to go. By that time, it had stopped raining completely.

At 08:00, someone took the usual “departure picture” and we left with lots of cheering, laughing and shouting.

The roads were all wet, with lots of water puddles, so I was happy I decided to mount full fenders/mudguards again on the synapse.

It was colder than usual, but not terribly cold. This Brevet starts at sea level and goes (almost) all the time “up” until km 52 (more or less). That helped keeping the cold at bay.

Usually at the start of a Brevet you pick up a relaxed pace, going a bit slower than usual, still saying hello and talking to people you met in previous Brevets. This time though, I found myself soon at the head of the group and going on a faster pace. I joined one of the friends I made last year, someone that is registered for PBP too. We rode for quite some time together, catching up first, talking a lot about the whole PBP idea afterwards.

We weren’t alone though, after a while I looked back and noticed we were quite the group, riding together.

We passed the dam of Cecebre and took some nice secondary roads with lots of ups and downs, like a rollercoaster. We have lots of those here in Galicia and they are a joy to ride. They are in very good condition and they do not have a lot of traffic on them.

After a while, we joined another bigger road with more traffic. With everything still so wet we had to be very careful, specially on some fast descents in the bigger roads, where it is tempting to push it a bit and feel the speed.

Luckily, there weren’t so many descents (yet) and soon we started the first bigger climb of the day, towards Coirós. This first climb split our bigger group in smaller ones. Me and 5 other cyclists kept on, riding ahead of the rest. A while after the climb to Coirós we left the main road again, taking another secondary road towards Torre Lavandeira.

This is the start of the most beautiful part of this Brevet. The roads from there up to km 120 are really wonderful. You ride fast, passing woods, farms, open fields, livestock… with (almost) no traffic (with the exception of a couple of connections between smaller roads, when you have to take a bigger road to get from one small road to the next).

Yesterday I would say it was also magical. We had thick patches of fog several times, and those gave the whole thing a very nice atmosphere.

The second control (first one is at the start point) was in Teixeiro, a small village where we did a short coffee stop and got our Brevet cards stamped for the first time. Our little group-of-six stopped at the first cafetería we found open, the bigger group arrived at the same time our coffee had been served. I really like these little re-grouping moments at coffee stops.

After getting a bit warmer in the cafetería, we hopped on our bikes and resumed our trip on secondary roads towards the next stop, Corredoiras.

This control is very close to the previous one (just 15 km) but going there means having to do an extra loop to get to the old village of Sobrado dos Monxes on our way to the next control in Friol.

As we had a coffee stop in Teixeiro, the stop in Corredoiras was one of those fast stops. There is a gas station at the entrance of the village, where we did stop to get the stamp on the Brevet cards.

A group of friends (all belonging to the same cycling club in Coruña) packed all their Brevet cards together, giving them all to one of the cyclists. Then, this is the one that puts the stamp on all the cards, writes down the times, etc. They do it like this in all Brevets, and this was no exception. In Corredoiras, only this guy (Edgar) stopped to get the stamps, while the rest of them kept riding. As I had to stop to get my card stamped, I decided to wait for him and help a bit.

I’m not sure I’ll do it again.

We left Corredoiras together but soon he started to push to catch up with the others. For a while I kept up with his pace, but at one point I decided to let him go, no use getting burnt this early in the day.

I’m used to ride alone. Most of my weekly cycling hours are alone and I’ve ridden solo for shorter and longer stretches in Brevets a lot of times. I’m perfectly fine with it and sometimes I really enjoy those times of solitude. And I did enjoy this one.

Letting this guy go didn’t mean going into a slow pace, I kept it allegro. The road to Sobrado dos Monxes is fast, without any big climbs or hills, and the tarmac was perfect. Soon, I was entering Sobrado dos Monxes and I was able to see the group ahead of me.

I wasn’t in a hurry to catch the group and I was running low on water, so I decided to do a quick stop in Sobrado to refill my bottles. There is a good water fountain in the main square, just beside the road I had to follow.

Leaving Sobrado, we took the road to Friol, which meant the start of the second bigger climb of the day, towards Marco das Pías and the line that separates the provinces of A Coruña and Lugo.

I’m no climber, but I was faster than this group on the climbs, so that was the perfect place for catching them. Also, arriving in Sobrado meant entering my territory. From that moment on, we were going to ride in roads I know well from all my training rides. The kind of detail that gives you a bit more confidence while riding.

After the climb came a fast descent, followed by a road mostly flat until we arrived in Friol, next control point. We decided not to do another coffee stop there, instead we got our stamps from a small shop that sells gardening stuff, tools, livestock food, etc.

As it happened in Corredoiras, the group split a bit, as people did not wait to leave as a group and instead they resumed riding by pairs, trios, etc. I left in the middle of some pairs and as soon as I was getting out of the village, I heard a “CLACK” sound and noticed something hitting my right leg. When I looked down I noticed something was wrong with the front derailleur, so I stopped to take a look.

Other cyclists were passing by, some asking if everything was ok - “Not sure - I replied - “I’m still trying to find out”. Something was odd, there was a small plastic piece that got loose and I was trying to find out what happened when another cyclist (Ángel, like in an angel, funny, isn’t it?) stopped to help. We tried to find out how to put the piece back in place, but we were not able to.

Another cyclist from a local cycling club, not participating in the Brevet, stopped too, to ask if we need anything. I asked if his bike had a Shimano Ultegra r8000 (like mine) to take a look, see if we could find out how to put that piece back in place, but no luck.

For a moment I got worried that maybe some other piece may have popped up on the road, but I decided to pick up a small piece of velcro tape I always bring to the Brevets and do a quick-and-dirty fix. We were wasting too much time there.

I did a couple of tests and gearing seemed to work just fine, no parts rubbing, nothing looked life-threatening or dangerous, so we resumed our ride.

I got a bit anxious about all the time we lost there and the fact that our main group must be quite ahead of us at that point, so I decided to push it a bit. As I’ve said, I know this road quite well. It is that kind of road where, once you reach a bit of speed, it is easy to keep rolling fast. So, no more talking, just pushing the pedals and keep a steady pace all the way to the next village, Parga.

Or so I wanted to do.

But when we were a few km from Parga, we noticed a couple of cyclists on the side of the road. When we got closer, we recognized them as two of the members of our little group. Alberto got a flat tire (third one already!). We stopped to ask if they need help. They didn’t need any help… but we decided to stay there and wait for them. It is always nice when you have company in these cases and it would be nicer to resume riding together afterwards.

With a new inner tube in place, we resumed our way to the next control point, in Baamonde, passing first through Parga without stopping, crossing the train railway track and leaving secondary roads again to ride on the bigger Nacional VI road.

When we arrived in Baamonde, the group was waiting for us in a bar by the road. They already had ordered food for us too!. We sat for a moment and told them about the incidents and why it took so long to get there. Food took quite the time to be ready (some simple bocadillos, but maybe too many at once for the poor cook there ;-D). We had time both to catch up about the status of the Brevet so far, and to get very very cold while waiting.

Most of the group went inside for lunch, while me and some others decided to stay outside, on the covered terrace. In cases like this, I prefer not to get too warm or I’d suffer a lot afterwards coming outside and resuming cycling.

While waiting for the food, I started to check all the other bikes, looking for another Ultegra r8000. When I finally found one, I took a closer look at its front derailleur and… BINGO, found out how to put that small piece back in place. I also confirmed that no other small piece was missing, which was a big relief, to be honest.

The food took so long to arrive that, when we finally got the bocadillos we wolfed them down super fast and we hurried to leave. I was still munching the last big piece when I clipped in and started pedaling again (bad idea, as I found out later).

Without digestion even started, we approached the third, final, and harder climb of the day. Going up a hill towards a Wind farm with a couple of steep sections reaching 15/16%.

Everybody took it easy, most of us already knew what was waiting for us, and those who didn’t, listened carefully to our suggestions and comments about it.

Digestion kicked in, not at the best moment, and made things a bit harder. Even so, we chatted a bit, made jokes and kept pushing the pedals all the way to the top.

At the top I did stop for a moment to remove my scarf (I should have done it after lunch, before starting the climb) and then I started another long descent, still on a smaller road which was a bit broken half the way down. I was solo once again.

After the descent, we had to take another bigger road for a few km before turning again into another little nice and quiet road, passing through villages as small as 3-4 houses together, most of them being (cow) farms. Again, lots of going up and down just before arriving at the last control point in A Tolda. There used to be one of those bars by the road here, but it has been closed for several years now, so instead of another stamp in our cards, we took a group picture.

This was the third time I rode this Brevet (I already did it in 2018 and 2019) and every time there is the overall sensation that all work has been done when we arrive at this control point. That is far from true though, as this control is at km 145 (more or less) and there are a couple of hills to climb on our way back.

A little after leaving A Tolda, the Sun came up, warming us up. We rode towards Guitiriz, where we left the secondary roads again and went on the Nacional VI one more time. That was the road that would take us back to A Coruña.

Leaving Guitiriz, we rode for another 20km before starting the last long descent of the day, first on A Costa do Sal and then down from Coirós (which was the first climb of the day, earlier). Those 20km felt like a neverending flat road, with a few “bumps”. I was eager to get to the start of the descent, and it wasn’t only me, everybody was making jokes - “Are we there yet?”, “When did they move A Costa do Sal?”.

At one point we noticed we were heading towards some dark clouds. “It seems we are going to finally get wet” - someone said. And before passing by Montesalgueiro it started to rain. The further we went, the harder it was raining. I was wearing a water resistant (not fully waterproof) winter jacket and my Rapha Brevet Gillet - “This should be enough, it will stop soon anyway” - I told myself. And I was right, after 10, maybe 15 minutes the rain stopped and the Sun came out again, just in time to get dry during the descent.

The last part of the Brevet, as it happens with all the Brevets that start in A Coruña, means having to get back to the big city, that is, having to ride among lots of traffic (cars, trucks, motorbikes, etc). Add the fact that we usually get back at rush hour (when people go back home after work) and things are even uglier. Luckily, we managed to pass that part without trouble and soon we took a turn right towards smaller roads with less traffic (but still traffic, plus lots of roundabouts where we had to be very careful).

We were less than 5km away from the finish line when we did spot another cyclist ahead of us. We recognized him inmediately, he was part of the little group I rode with at the start of the Brevet, when we were going up to Coirós. He was strong, and at one point he pushed it a bit, leaving us all behind. But it seemed like his energy was gone there. He looked tired and he was going slowly.

We decided to make a joke and we pushed it a bit, passing him a bit faster and shouted, trying to cheer him up - “Vamoooossss”, “Venga que ya está hecho!” - He smiled at us, surprised.

And we were almost there. Laughing, everybody telling what a good time we have had for the day. I prepared myself for the last short climb of the day, the arrival in INEFG, a short steep one before the finish line.

Another tradition of mine, when riding Brevets arriving in Bastiagueiro (and if there is anything left in the tank, of course), is to push it - sprint style - up that short steep climb.

I pushed as hard as I could at the turn where the climb starts and I heard Dani laughing behind me - “Are you going to sprint it? Seriously??” - I smiled and then heard him saying - “Wait, here it goes Edgar too!” - and all I could do was watching him passing me at the last turn. That was the icing on the cake ;-D.

After delivering our Brevet cards, we sat down for a while, cooling down and talking about the day, the plans for next Brevets and, of course, Paris-Brest-Paris.

And here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Plans starting to take shape

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-05 00:00:00

It seems that finally a basic sketch of a plan is taking shape. I know riding something the distance of PBP means I’ll have to go solo several times, and I know for sure I’ll have to adapt to the unexpected (TM). But, you know, I really like the idea of having a basic plan in advance, specially if it is a plan shared with friends that will be there too.

So, after talking with these and those, today I booked in advance two hotels for a couple of nights during the ride, with enough room for 3 people (a couple of friends will start almost at the same time as me, so the idea is to try to ride together as much as possible). One booking is for the night of the 21th of August, which will be the second night on the road, and the other is for the night of the 22th of August, the following night.

I pre-registered in the 90-hour group R, with departure scheduled for the 20th of August at 20:15. This means starting late in the evening and ride all night long (which I’ve done several times already, and is perfectly fine with me).

The plan is to ride all the way to Brest (~600 km, ~5700 m) without any big stop for sleeping. Saying it out loud, it sounds quite… let’s say “optimist”, but talking with several fellow randonneurs that did PBP before, they told me it is doable in some time between 23 and 27 hours (depending on lots of factors, of course).

I know from previous experiences that I’m able to ride for 27 hours without any sleep at all (even under very bad weather and having had a crash) so I decided to book the hotel for the second night near Brest. There I’d have the first big stop, sleeping in a proper bed for a few hours.

After that break we will resume riding, this time in direction to Paris, with the idea of riding near 300 km (~3700 m of elevation gain) before the next bigger stop in Fougères. There is where I booked the hotel for the third night.

That means we still will have a final stretch/stage/ call-it-whatever-you-want of around 300 km (~2500 m of elevation gain) before arriving back in Rambouillet.

With this plan, we should be riding only one full night (sunday) with stops for sleeping in proper beds on monday and tuesday nights. Don’t get it wrong, we will ride during those 2 nights too, but not all night long (which can make a big difference).

One thing I like about this plan is that we have secured 2 beds (quality resting) for the whole ride. It may be that I’ll need to sleep a bit more than that but there will be always the chance of sleeping in the control points.

Control points in PBP have places reserved for sleeping. Some will have small beds or mattresses, some will have gym mats, but there is always some chance to get a quick nap there.

The longer stretch between controls is 120km, and that is from the start in Rambouillet to the first control in Mortagne-au-Perche (and hopefully I won’t be falling asleep so early in the ride!). After that, control points are less than 100km apart from each other. The tricky part there will be actually deciding that I have to stop and sleep, specially if I’m riding in a group because then, there is always the temptation of keep on riding to not loose the company.

Finally, I’m still thinking about options to bring with me for sleeping anywhere, like inflatable mat/pillow, packable blanket, etc. But, honestly, I don’t really like that option. First, it means carrying extra weight “just in case”; second I got lot of advice from veteran randonneurs about sleeping on the grass/floor/etc (basically never do it during PBP - no good rest and probably getting really cold and ending with cold-related issues); and third, considering controls, hotels and the help of the villagers along the road I really hope sleeping on the side of the road or the floor of a cafe is not needed at all.

So, with the initial plan for sleep stops decided, I guess I should start thinking about food and drinks… shouldn’t I?

The second brevet of the year

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-07 00:00:00

I know, I know, for the qualifying part (the Super Randonneur series) I only need to do one 200 Brevet, and I already finished one last month.

The plan, though, is to ride as many Brevets as possible before August. Doing so means:

good training

opportunities for testing stuff (gear, clothing, food, etc)

chances to find myself in problems/issues that may appear during PBP, finding out how to overcome them before PBP

spend more time riding with the fellow randonneurs with whom I’ll spend (hopefully) lots of time during PBP (team building! ;-D)

The next one in the list is another 200, this time organized by my friends from Astorga Randonneurs#3, and taking place in Castilla y León.

In their website#4 you can find all kind of details about this Brevet (route, map, elevation, gpx).

The route leaves Astorga and goes for near 215 km on secondary roads passing small villages and towns, the bigger village of Villablino, the Babia Biosphere Reserve (with some interesting wild life, like bears) or the dam of Barrios de Luna, just to mention a few interesting places.

On paper, it definetely looks like a lovely route. With a total elevation gain of 2000 meters it does not seem like a hard one, but looking at the profile chart…

It seems we will have 4 interesting climbs, with a higher point near 1500 m, followed by a long and easier come back to Astorga.

Last year I did a couple of Brevets (200 and 300) in Astorga, but none of them share parts of the route with this one, so it will be the first time for me on these roads.

Can’t wait for Saturday to arrive.

Anger, frustration and dissapointment

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-09 00:00:00

Those words pretty much describe my feelings right now.

I won’t make it to the second 200 of the year, because… reasons.

We have had a couple of rough weeks at home. Everybody got sick, secuentially.

Last week it was my younger daughter, who developed a very ugly coughing, with lots of phlegm and mucus, which meant slepless nights followed by horrible days at home without school.

This week it was my elder daughter, who catched some variety of the Flu. Overall pain, high fever, sleepless nights again.

Yesterday I was so exhausted that I had to put myself to bed and get some rest, as my body started to complain so hard, I thought I also had catched the Flu.

“There it goes the Brevet next saturday” - I thought.

But no, all I needed was some good rest/recovery time.

This morning I woke up feeling much better.

“Great! It seems I’ll be able to be there on saturday!” - I thought.

Wrong again.

My elder daughter still woke up with high fever today (4th day) and it seems my mother got some kind of the same thing too. There it goes all my planning (the girls were going to stay with the grandpas while I was away).

That was the last punch that brought my little cards castle down.

I should be prepared for this. This same thing happens every single year. Brevet weekend? let’s see who gets sick, who needs to be where, who wants to do what. There is always something. And even when there is nothing blocker, there is always some complain about me going away for some time.

And I’m angry, frustrated and dissapointed.

And tired, really tired.

And, sure, I know I should simply accept it and move on. Maybe start thinking on the next Brevet or think about going for some smaller ride this weekend, anything that could help bringing me out of this hole where I’m right now.

But doing so is so g*****, f***** hard.

Finally, the second brevet of the year

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-17 00:00:00

After the fiasco last week, when I had to cancel my trip to Astorga, I had high hopes for the next 200 in my calendar, but the week didn’t start any better than the previous couple of weeks.

Several problems appeared, all at once, including our smaller daughter being sick again. No chance to get any cycling done… ouch.

I had to start considering that, maybe, I would have to cancel this 200 too.

But… here I am, laying on the bed in a Hotel in Coruña, near the starting point for tomorrow. Big surprise, honestly.

I’ve had a big bowl of pasta salad for (early) dinner and a snickers bar as dessert. Then I double checked the weather forecast for tomorrow (rain… let’s see tomorrow how much), the lights, the garmin, prepared the clothes I’ll wear…

While doing all that, I noticed how tired I do feel. It has been a hell of a week. Actually, the last few weeks have been quite rough, with the whole family getting (and passing) the Flu (except me). I didn’t have much time for cycling, with the exception of a few short rides on the trainer.

So, let’s see what will happen tomorrow…

BRM 200 - De Vacas e Peixes

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-19 00:00:00

Second Brevet of the year done. I look happy in that picture, don’t I?

Indeed I was happy at that moment, but this Brevet was a hell of a ride, let’s go back in time a few hours…

6:00, I open my eyes and check the clock, the alarm should sound in 15 minutes but I’m fully awake already so I cancel it. I take a quick shower and put on part of the cycling clothes I’ll be wearing today (just the socks, long pants and the base layer).

I prepare my usual Brevet day breakfast, a big bowl with a mix of muesli, granola, sliced banana, honey and milk and I sit by the window to eat.

It is still dark outside and it is raining. Any other day I’d love the sound of the rain hitting the window. It is raining quite hard now, big drops coming against the window in waves. Nice, wind too.

Last night I prepared everything for the Brevet. Clothes, tools, spares… I usually bring with me a lot more things that what I’ll pack for the Brevet, so I’ve to decide what to leave in the car.

This time, the weather will be a big factor in what to carry with me.

Usually, in 200 Brevets I try to be as minimalistic as possible and pack the minimum amount of things. This means a medium-small saddle bag with tools and spares and a small top tube bag for food.

This time, though, what I see outside the window makes me change plans. I pack some extra clothes (long sleeve jersey, long sleeve base layer, socks and gloves) into a couple of ziploc bags and I put those into my large apidura#5 saddle bag, alongside the medium-small saddle bag with the tools and spares (yeah, I decided to simply throw the smaller bag inside the larger one, lazy, I know).

Then I pick up my things and leave the hotel under even heavier rain and drive my car 10 minutes to the start point in INEFG#6 in Bastiagueiro#7.

Luckily, the rain stops when I arrive there, at least long enough for me to take the bike out of the car, put lights, bags, etc on it and go to the main building to pick up my Brevet card.

Almost everybody is already here and we go through the usual flow of salutations, jokes, small talk… This time we talk even more than usual about the weather. It seems everybody agrees it is going to be a tough day.

Today we have a newbie, someone that is doing a Brevet for the first time. Alejandro, coming from Pontevedra, has already participated in several ultra-cycling races, and he was wondering about this whole randonneuring world.

8:00, we leave Bastiagueiro without rain. I start from the back of the group, as I want to say hello to an old fellow randonneur (Óscar). We chat for a while, catching up a bit.

Less than 10 minutes in the ride and there is already a drizzle floating in the air.

I don’t like riding at the back of the big group, so I push a bit the pedals and start passing other cyclists until I’m at the front. It is starting to rain properly again and the roads are all wet and full of water puddles.

Only a few of us have full fenders on our bikes, which means that being behind someone without fenders is like being in front of someone with a hose watering you. So I simply try to be on the front at all times.

We leave the big city and go into the smaller roads near it while it starts raining even more. I’m wearing my castelli gabba jacket and a rapha brevet gillet over it. Those are simply perfect under light rain, but not enough under this, stronger, rain. I tell the others that I’m stopping to put on a rain jacket and I do stop. While I put the rain jacket on, 2-3 smaller groups pass me fast. It is ok, I’ll catch them.

I pedal alone for just 10 minutes or so, before catching those smaller groups, passing them one by one until I’m back with my group on the lead.

It is raining a bit less now (this will be a constant the whole day, drizzle, light rain, strong rain, light rain, no rain, strong rain… and so on) and we start talking a bit more. The main topic is… right, PBP, what else!.

Dani (who is pre-registered, like me, for the first time) and I listen carefully to the veterans, the ones that had done PBP before (some even several times). We also ask “a few” questions, of course.

We are going up the first bigger climb of the day now, subida a la cantera. I’ve done this climb a lot of times already, as it is one of the usual ones when leaving Coruña during these Brevets. This is the place where usually we split into smaller groups and solo riders, but this time our group sticks together.

The chat and the lack of rain cheers us up a bit, but it does not last long, as it starts raining again.

After the climb we took the first big road of the day, lots of lanes, lots of traffic and still going up (under the rain, of course). This big, open road is fast, with a few short hills and long descents and we push through. We pass small villages, like Cerceda#8 or Xesteda#9, where there is no one to be seen outside.

One bad thing about these long rides with lots of rain is how the rain is able to disrupt your regular eating/drinking habits. Luckily this time I realize I’m not eating as I should before it is too late. But getting food out of pockets, or even the top tube bag, is hard, complicated… I should have brought some protein mix to fill in one of the water bottles, that would be much, much easier.

A bit after Xesteda we leave the main road and take a nice small road towards the second control, the dam of Vilagudin (km 40). I have so many good memories from last year about this part. I’d love to record our arrival at the control point with the gopro, but it rains so much I don’t feel like bringing out the camera from one of my back pockets (this will be also a constant the whole day, passing amazing places but not being able to record them on camera).

9:50. At the dam there is no place for stamping our cards, so we take a group picture instead.

We haven’t lost our good sense of humour though, and we make a few jokes about the weather, the rain and, specially, about what is waiting for us the next few kilometers (hint: very broken roads).

The next 10 km have lots of short, steep climbs and the roads are badly broken most of the time (potholes, loose stones, etc). But, oh my friend, they are beautiful! This is the stretch where we pass by big farms. On a good sunny day you can see lots of cows on the fields and you ride really close to them. Not today. Today the cows must be inside the barns, as the rain refuses to stop and go away.

We start to wonder when (if) will it stop (the rain), when we pass by a sheltered bus stop with the following message wrote on it in big letters:

“E se chove, que chova!”

Which is an old galician saying, literally translated “if it rains… let it rain!”.

Finally we are done with the broken roads and back into bigger ones with good asphalt. The rain is still there, and I’m glad that at least there is not much traffic on these roads today.

We are passing by Trazo#10 now, another small village, and I can’t help noticing its city council building#11. A circular building from 1975 that catched my eye as we pass by.

Just as we are leaving that village, on a short hill, someone has a problem shifting gears and the chain gets loose (and, as we will discover later, stuck between frame and chain rings, which took a huge effort to fix). Someone else stops to help, so the rest of us keep on pedaling, just slower to give them time to catch up.

The guy is lucky, it stopped raining right now and the sun is shining, which is much better than strong rain when you have to deal with mechanical trouble.

It must be 10:30 or so and we pedal slowly while we wait for the others. The sky is finally clear of dark clouds, looks like a blue field with some white/light-grey (big) spots on it. Nice, the weather report was right! We would have some early rain and then sun and some clouds. This definetely cheers everybody up.

There is no trace of those 2 that stopped to fix that chain. Damn, we are going very slowly, they should have catched us already. Could it be the problem was bigger than we thought? Let’s hope not. After a while we decide to stop for a moment in a crossroads. We take a wee and try to reach one of them by phone, no luck. Well, if something bad happend, bad as in scratching, they would have called us, right?

We take a moment to eat something quick and take a couple of photos and then we decide to leave. Those two will have to catch up with us at the next control. Only that, as soon as we start pedaling again, they appear on the horizon behind us. Great, let’s push it again and recover some lost time.

11:07. We arrive in Portomouro#12 (third control, km 67) after another fast (and fun) long descent. It hadn’t rain in a while now and the sky still seems “open”. We get the stamp on our Brevet cards in a gas station, where we meet Alejandro again (he didn’t stop at the crossroads, so he arrived here earlier than us).

Removing the rain jacket is sooo tempting. The sky looks clear, sun trying to make its way through the clouds… what could go wrong?. The others do not see it as clear as I do, so in the end I decide to keep it on, I simply unzip it. I remember we will have to climb our way to the next control point from here.

We cross the big, old, stone bridge over the Tambre#13 river and took the road to the right and… damn, it is raining already! We just have crossed the bridge from the gas station!

Light rain it is, but rain nevertheless. It comes and goes for the next 15/17km, alternating with short periods under the sun. At one point we start seeing rainbows around us. We pass by Ponte Maceira#14 and Negreira#15, where we had a super-nice coffee stop last year, but today we are still all wet and right now the weather is much better (more sun, less rain) so (almost) everybody prefers not to stop. A couple of voices would love to stop at that café again, but the discussion is over as soon as we get there, the café is closed today.

So, we keep on and tackle the second bigger climb of the day, towards the next control point, Portocamiño (km 88). It is a gentle climb, around 9-10 km long without any really steep parts. As the weather improved a bit, I decide to take the gopro out a few times and take some shots.

We ride together, chatting, agreeing on having a coffee stop at the end of the climb, at the control point. I remember from last year that this cafe/hostel there is not open always and I really, really hope, it will be open today.

“It is open!” - someone say when we arrive.

12:20. We park the bikes whenever we can, some leaning on the concrete wall opposite the café, some on the walls on both sides of it. I put the synapse by the front door for a moment to take a picture.

The weather seems to improve a bit, the sun is back and it is warming us up a bit, so everybody decides to remove some of the outer layers and “hang them to dry” on handlebars and seat posts.

Sadly, it is just an illusion. The sun is there only for a few minutes, dark clouds covering everything again. At least it does not rain.

One thing I love about riding Brevets with the guys from this cycling club (Mesoiro), is how well organized they are. They work like an efficient machine on each stop. I’ve already talked about this in my previous Brevet reports. This time it is no exception, in a few minutes drinks are ordered and cards are stamped.

We decide to have our coffees outside, to avoid getting too warm inside and then having a huge temperature drop when coming outside.

I have a big latte, and I eat something too. Meanwhile we talk about how things have been so far and what is waiting for us for the rest of the day. I also take a moment to take some pictures of the bikes (look at alex’s beautiful Giant TCR…)

We finish our drinks quickly, gather our things and off we go again. The next control point is 30 km away. We are getting closer to 13:00 and the weather forecast said the worse weather/stronger rain would happen between 13:00 and 15:00. And it wasn’t (fully) wrong.

It starts raining again, and it increases intensity over time. This stretch feels faster, specially after the longer climb to Alto da Pena. There is more rolling time, longer downhills. Even with all the rain, I decide to use a bit the gopro (also, at the last stop I decided to put the camera in the top-tube bag, instead of one back pocket, which makes things a lot easier when bringing it out, then storing it back again).

14:00, we arrive in Zas#16 (5th control point, km 118) after a fast descent, around 4km, passing by small stone churches, old houses and big green fields.

At the entrance of the village, to the left, a huge stone house catches my eye. It is the city council building, which looks totally like one of those Manor Houses from the movies.

This is the point in the Brevet when we had lunch last year and, honestly, right now I wouldn’t say no to a hot meal and sit inside for a while, avoiding the rain.

We go right away to the same pizzeria where we had lunch one year ago, it looks full, with lots of people having drinks inside. We stop and put the bikes where we can see them and where they do not cause trouble to the pizzeria or its customers. Someone says something about a quick coca-cola and keep on riding and I feel my mood going down fast.

In the end, we decide to sit inside and have some bocadillos and the coca-colas (f*** yeah!). Well, all of us except Alex, who gets his card stamped, drinks something quick and leaves (later on, we discovered that he arrived 20-30 minutes earlier than us to the finish line).

While eating, we discuss the “plan of action” from now on. It is clear that the weather won’t improve anytime soon (a few more rain showers fall while we are inside, poor bikes) so we will keep on with our current plan of reducing stops to a minimum. There is only one more control point left, and then the last one at the arrival, back in Bastiagueiro.

Everybody refills the water bottles and prepare everything. After thinking it through, and discussing it a bit with the others, I decide to use the extra clothes I’ve brought with me. In the bathroom I remove the Gabba and the base layer, then try to get myself a bit dry using some paper (the one you can find in public bathrooms for drying your hands) and I put on another base layer and my Rapha pro winter training jersey.

The change of clothes feel wonderful, to be honest. I feel warm and dry (well, at least the upper part of my body). I pack the wet clothes + the wet merino gloves into the ziploc bag and go outside to join the others.

Before leaving, I put on the brevet gillet and then the rain jacket over it, as (incroyable) it is raining. It feels amazing to not be shivering when I get outside, as it always happens to me after lunch breaks in brevets during winter.

(spoiler alert: all this was a big mistake, as I was going to discover later).

The roads from Zas on are in good condition. Bigger roads with a bit more traffic, but roads where we should be able to roll faster. Also, the wind should be on our backs now, pushing (suuure… LOL).

The road is like a roller coaster. We go up, then down, then up. Not super steep, not super long. What we call here “terreno rompepiernas” (literally translated “a terrain that breaks your legs”).

I don’t feel fine. Something is definetely wrong. I’m suffering.

I already told them earlier this morning, at the start, that I’ve had a rough couple of weeks at home. I couldn’t train properly for this Brevet and I was expecting some “down” moments today. So, this does not catch me by surprise.

Still, something feels odd, very, very odd. I start to stay behind, further and further behind the group. On the climbs I can’t keep up with them and on the descents I push hard to catch them (while they rest by simply coast down the hills).

After a few hills, at some point between Coristanco#17 and Carballo#18 I realize what is happening. It is too damned warm and I’m way over-dressed. Shit.

Note

Let me do a break in my story here, to add a couple of details to it.

Earlier today, when I decided to pack some clothes “just in case”, I packed the Rapha jersey and I had 2 options for the base layer:

A Craft short sleeve one, suitable for not-cold but not-hot days

A Decathlon long sleeve deep winter one, the warmer base layer I have

Which one do you think I packed?

YES the long sleeve one :-(

Now, back to my story…

I’m suffering a lot because I’m totally over-dressed and at this point the rain is not constant anymore. Either it is a hard rain shower or it does not rain at all and the sun comes out.

I’m cooked for good, but I can’t remove the rain jacket (the Rapha jersey is not waterproof at all). I think about stopping for a moment, remove the rain jacket, then the gillet and put the rain jacket back on. But I don’t want to slow them down and I don’t want to loose them neither.

So, another big mistake, I keep pushing myself, I keep cooking myself slowly in my own corporal fluids.

I can’t bare it anymore, I unzip the rain jacket. “E se chove, que chova” - I repeat to myself. It helps a bit, specially on the downhills, but it is not enough.

They realize I’m suffering, so they slow down trying to give me some extra breath.

“I should have put only the jersey on, not the base layer”

“I should not have put the gillet on, how stupid”

“I should… I should not…”

All I can do is think about all the things I should or should not have done. Oh, and look at the Garmin and get crazy as the kms do not move forward. I’m a cooked snail, dammit.

Dani asks if I’m ok, and I told him I’m not. I ask him to keep on without me, no need to slow them down any more. Obviously they refuse “you know how we are and how we do things here” - he said - “we start together, we finish together”. I can’t say I wasn’t happy to hear that.

We talk about yet another big mistake on my side. I should have brought salts and/or protein stuff to put in one of the water bottles. Right, this is a 200 “only” and there is lots of places to stop and refill, drink, eat. But it is a horrible rainy day, stops are better “minimal” in these days and, what is worse, with the rain jacket on at all times, you sweat a lot, so you loose lots of electrolytes and stuff.

We are passing through Carballo now. No need to stop here, the next control point is in Caion#19 and we still have 15-20km to get there. I have to admit that even without a proper stop, the few stops at roundabouts and traffic lights give me a break.

After Carballo, we are going up another short hill and it is not raining. I’m definetely pissed off and I simply remove my gloves, storing them into a pocket on my back. This simply act helps a lot.

I look at the sky. It is grey, there are clouds, but it is not raining and it hadn’t rain in a while so I take the risk and stop for a moment to remove the rain jacket, packing it into a pocket on my back. Meanwhile I see them putting some distance with me.

But now I feel much better, simply removing gloves and rain jacket helped by cooling me down.

One more climb, this one longer, on our way to Caion. I remember last year I was ahead of everybody, doing several turns on the roundabout at the top waiting for them and then stopping to bring the camera out and take pics of everybody as they were passing me. Not today, I do the climb in “reserve mode”. When I get to the top, they are already going down the other side.

We do a short stop at the side of the road to take a group picture with the view of the small sailor village behind us.

To get to Caion, we go all the way down to sea level. It is a wonderful descent with some impressive views of the ocean, the coast, the village itself. But I’m so destroyed that I don’t even consider picking up the gopro.

16:12. Arriving in Caion, it starts raining harder again. We talked earlier about doing a “stamp only” quick stop, but when we get to the main square, we find open a nice, small and quiet restaurant. It is too inviting, so we have a coffee to warm up a bit before starting the climb back up (yeah, from sea level all the way up from the point where we came from).

Dani and me start while the others are still gathering their belongings. We take it easy, talking a bit about everything. At the top we stop at the water fountain to refill our bottles (better here than the tap water at the restaurant), eat something quick and regroup.

I look again at the sky and it does not look very promising. It is a uniform mass of grey clouds and it is raining already, so I replace the gillet with the rain jacket and I put the gloves back on.

Time to start the last part of the Brevet, near 40km to get back to the start point in Bastiagueiro.

A few minutes after resuming riding, I quickly remove my gloves again. I prefer my hands wet from the rain than from my own sweat. This part of the ride pass like in a blur, a cycle of hard rain showers followed by light rain and then more rain showers. Those showers are more intense every time and by the time we pass through Arteixo#20 it rains even harder.

“Of course it has to rain harder when we are so close to the finish” - someone shouts over the rain and the noise of all the traffic in town.

One last real climb, Boedo, we take it easy but the rain is falling hard on us, sucking every last drop of energy left out of me.

20 more km and we will be there. The sun is shining now, the sky is much clearer, someone say we will be lucky and arrive in Bastiagueiro with good weather. “No way” - Dani replies - “There is still more to come”. And he was right. We enjoy the sun while it lasts, speeding up a bit through the sliding road that takes us to O Burgo, but there more hard rain is awaiting us.

This town in the outskirts of Coruña is always full of traffic, which is not nice under all this rain. We are lucky though, and we pass all traffic lights in green while riding through the long avenue that takes us to Puente Pasaje.

We are literally at the finish now. We climb from Santa Cristina, going on Avenida Che Guevara. They are ahead of me and I can’t catch them, I’m too tired, but in the roundabout at the end of the climb (where you can see a big sculpture of the head of Ernesto “Che” Guevara) they have to stop to let some cars pass by… and I push with whatever is left in the tank, arriving at the roundabout when they are going to resume pedaling. I pass them, shouting loudly “nooooow is my turn!!”, leaving them behind, laughing.

Arriving in Bastiagueiro I feel happy, relieved. I push on the last climb to reach the parking lot and then beyond, to the arrival point.

18:05. Unclip, leave the bike, fill in the Brevet card with the arrival time and leave it in the suitcase.

So, here we are, back to the picture at the start of this report:

So, was I happy there? definetely yes. Sure, I’ve had some bad moments in this Brevet, but overall I enjoyed it a lot, and I’ve learnt some valuable lessons that will be useful in the future, I’m sure about it.

Of course we took the usual arrival group picture…

But we cut the “after brevet” chatting short. Everybody is soaked to the bone and we are getting cold fast. We say our goodbyes and agree on meeting next month, in the first of the 300 Brevets in the calendar.

I get to the car, leaning the bike on one side of it, and open the trunk. My car is a Toyota Verso, which has a very nice space on the back (once you pack/lay down the second-row seats). I remove both the overshoes and shoes and I leave them outside, while I seat inside to remove the wet clothes, dry myself a bit and put on dry clothes.

While doing so, it starts raining hard again. I can’t help myself and I start laughing. I wait for a while until it finally slows down a bit. Then I finish packing everything in the car and leave.

And here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

BNO 200 - Montañas, Mar e Navallas

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-03-25 00:00:00

BNO: Brevet Non-Officiel. It is like a real Brevet, only that it is not organized by a club member of the Audax Club Parisien, so you don’t get a valid brevet card and the homologation afterwards. I’ve made up the term anyway ;-D

“The best plans are the improvised plans” - some would say.

And this was completely true in this case. During the last few days all pieces of the puzzle stick together, everything fit in place, and by thursday evening there was a big chance I would have the whole saturday for me.

My wife had plans with a friend, the girls wanted to spend the weekend with their grandparents… which would leave me with a whole saturday for myself.

So, in a few hours - and after a few conversations on the usual messaging apps - I had it arranged to do an unofficial brevet today.

I knew telling everybody about this plan with just a couple of days to arrange everything would mean less people jumping into it, but that is how improvised plans go. Worse case, I’d end up doing it alone (again, I already did it last year).

In the end, only my friend Dani (you already know him from my previous Brevet reports) managed to get the time to come and join me.

We decided to do it as if it was an official 200 Brevet, so we decided to start at 8:00 and we set 5 control points: Lugo#21 (at the start), Fonsagrada#22 (Km 62), Vegadeo#23 (km 113), Taramundi#24 (km 132) and Lugo#25 again (km 202).

A few minutes in, two friends joined us on our way to Castroverde#26. Xurxo and Anton would give us company all the way to Alto da Fontaneira, where they would turn back.

Easy pace, chatting, Brevet style, until Fontaneira we went almost up all the time, with a few short downhills here and there, and climbing also Alto da Baqueriza (836m).

At the top of Alto da Fontaneira (936m) we said goodbye to Xurxo and Antón and we kept on. A lot more climbing to do today, and a lot to do until the second control point.

The road to Fonsagrada is so beautiful, specially on clear days like today, as you have open views of the valleys around, and you can see the mountains on the horizon. After Fontaneira we went down to A Lastra, then a bit up and then a long descend until Paradavella. This descent is on a big, open road with lots of visibility, so we went down fast and we could enjoy the views to our right too.

Then we started the next climb, Alto de Cerredo (835m), which is a long steady climb, perfect for chatting and enjoy the views a bit more.

It was cloudy, but the sun warmed us from time to time too.

After Alto de Cerredo the road became a fast roller-coaster, so less chatting and more pedaling!

One thing I love about this route is that there are lots of fountains. I think there are like 5-6 “on route”, by the road, no need for detours to get fresh water. Before Fonsagrada there is one of those nice fountains, in a place sheltered by trees, which is the perfect stop in summer when it is hot and you need a break.

Today, though, we decided not to stop there, we still had plenty of water and we were going to do a coffee stop in Fonsagrada anyway.

And we did, in Café Bar Demetrio. There I told Dani that my idea was to prepare a couple of Brevet cards, so we could get stamps on them (even if it was not an official thing) but in the end I didn’t have the time to prepare them.

When we got outside again, the sun was shining and that helped a bit preventing the usual shivering I have after stops (a bit, I started shivering anyway, but not that much).

As we didn’t have Brevet cards, we agreed on taking a “proof photo” on each of the control points, so we stopped for a moment at the exit of Fonsagrada to take a couple of pictures there, by the big sign with the name of the village.

After the photos we left Fonsagrada, for good this time, and kept on pedaling on more roller-coaster roads. A big downhill part after Fonsagrada, arriving in Paradanova and then followed by some gentle uphills and more downhills.

From there until Vegadeo the views were amazing. We were high, with views of the valleys around us, either on one side or the other.

A bit up, a bit down, all the way to Santa Eulalia de Oscos#27, leaving Galicia and entering Asturias. After a while we arrived in Santa Eulalia, at the start of the next climb of the day, 14km to get to Alto da Garganta (900m).

On our way to Alto da Garganta we pass so many nice places, lots of amazing views. The higher we were getting, the nicer the views of the valleys to our left or right was. We rode along a few small rivers too, passed another fountain (just a few km from Santa Eulalia) and we looked, curiously, at snakey little roads that went up the other side of the valleys, twisted and with lots of turns, up up up into the mountains and hills.

We also talked a lot. Everything seems (and feels) much easier when you have good company. Soon, we arrived at the top of a Garganta.

Once at the top, we took a few seconds to enjoy the awesome view on the other side, letting the bikes coast for a while, without pushing the pedals.

From there, on a clear day like today, you can see all the valley, villages, houses… and the cantabric sea, far but not far.

Going down from a Garganta to Vegadeo means going down for 18 km, with just a couple of a bit more flat sections (but short ones). As one good friend of mine would say in a case like this:

IT IS PAY DAY!

We started to gain speed, but we had to be careful. This road is not in bad condition, but it is narrow and there are some small pot holes here and there. Also, it has a bit more traffic. Sadly, this meant not being able to fully enjoy the views, as I had to keep my eyes on the road and only take short glimpses at the nice views.

It also meant no recording with the gopro, at least not for a few km.

At one point, where I knew already that the views were going to be gorgeous, I decided to take the camera out of my back pocket. Dani was in front of me, and I had a very good spot for recording him.

I picked up the camera with my right hand, then I switched it to my left hand and…

SHWOOOOPS!!

there it went the camera, flying out of my hand

F***!!! noooo, no no no NO!

I saw the camera flying, like in slow motion and then saw it smashing against the road, PAM, and bouncing from the asphalt, flying again, PAM, another smack, more bouncing…. I counted 5 times.

I was going down fast (maybe 60-65 km/h) so pulling the breaks crazily wasn’t an option. By the time I could stop safely, I looked around ensuring no traffic was approaching and I re-traced my steps back, trying to find the camera (or its pieces).

No luck, the camera was nowhere to be seen.

This was starting to take too long to sort out. I picked up my phone and sent a message to Dani, telling him about the camera falling from my hands and that I was looking for it. I also told him where to wait for me in Vegadeo.

A second pass by the area where the camera fell and bounced several times on the road, still no luck.

I was starting to consider simply leaving it behind, it is an old hero3 gopro after all… but I’d be really, really sad if I’d loose all the footage from today. And while I was thinking about that, I noticed the gopro there, in the middle of some higher grass area by the road. I was lucky after all… or not… It was only the outside carcass. Somehow it opened and the camera wasn’t there.

F******!!! - I thought again. Even if I could find the camera… without the waterproof, hammerproof carcass… no way it would have survived… or maybe… There it was, like a meter and a half back, the camera, in some taller grass too. Incredibly, the camera was intact. I bet the carcass opened when it hit the grass. What a lucky strike.

I double checked the camera and the carcass, except for a few scratches in the latter, everything seemed ok. I packed it up and put the camera back into a back pocket.

And damn, I pushed the pedals like if the devil was chasing me.

I didn’t want to keep Dani waiting for me a lot longer, so I pushed and coasted and pushed. The downhill seemed to have no end.

After a while, I was in a series of turns when I noticed Dani, stopped at one of the turns. I did pull the breaks, gently, and slowed down a bit. He was looking at his phone, probably reading my messages, when I shouted “Here already!” passing him. He got on his bike and soon was pedaling by my side.

We chatted and laughed at the whole thing for the rest of the descent until Vegadeo.

In the third control, we went straight to the place I had in mind for a quick lunch (bocadillos, tortilla…) just to have a big surprise when we found it closed, and a sign at the main door with big letters: “FOR SALE”. Too bad, I really liked that place.

We looked for options around there, but it was 13:15 and all the other bars and cafés were full of people having beers, wine or martinis.

Finally we found a place and we had some coca colas with some pasta salad and a couple bocadillos de jamón con tomate (ham, tomato and olive oil sandwitches with multi-cereal bread) that Dani had brought with him.

After the quick lunch, we refilled our water bottles and stop to take some photos on our way out of town.

On our way out of Vegadeo, we went right into the next climb from sea level to Sela de Entorcisa (432m). Yet another long, steady and gentle climb around 12 km long.

One good thing of not having a proper lunch is that our bellies weren’t full and digestion didn’t kick in during the climb. Another good thing was the weather. At Vegadeo we were around 17ºC but on our way up temperature dropped slowly, being fresh but not cold (and definetely not hot), just the perfect temperature for a long climb.

Once again we had some awesome views, as soon as we were a bit higher we could see valleys, hills, green fields, livestock (cows and sheep mostly). What a wonderful day we had.

As soon as we started the descent on the other side of this climb, the wind started to push us back. Damn, it seems the weather forecast was right, strong gusted wind will be upon us any moment now.

The wind intensity/speed increased slowly, but luckily we had a long descent ahead of us. We pushed our way to the fouth control in Taramundi#28 (km 132), where we did a quick stop to take some pictures and have a quick coffee stop.

We made this stop very short. We already knew what was coming and the sooner we could leave, the better. The wind was stronger and it was blowing from the south-west. Up to A Pontenova#29 we had it mostly on our front, but coming at an angle, left-front. It was tough, but bearable.

Then we arrive in A Pontenova and it started blowing full-force on our faces.

We cursed, but we also laughed, “You know, my friend” - I told Dani - “Last Saturday we had to train riding under the rain, today it is the turn to train riding with strong wind, we have to train for all kind of conditions!” - and we laughed a bit more. You know, laughing makes everything a bit easier.

After A Pontenova we took the main road that would lead us back to Lugo, passing by Meira#30. This is the easiest, faster and more straight way to get to Lugo (or, let’s say, it should be).

The last climb of the day (I’ve lost the count already of how many we did!) started right at the exit of A Pontenova. 9-10km of climbing to Alto de Marco de Álvare (at 603 meters). As I suspected, we were protected from the wind on our way up. This is the kind of climb where you have the side of the hill or mountain on one of your sides at all times. In this case, this meant it was protecting us from the worse part of the wind.

A different story was the approach to the top of the climb. No more shelter there and strong wind gusts pushing us like marionettes. No more gopro recording from then on.

Reaching the top was hard and going down the other side, towards Meira, was even harder. It is a 5-6km descent and we had to push the pedals as if the climb wasn’t finished yet.

We did another short stop in Meira, this time at another fountain to refill our water bottles and get ready for fighting the wind for the last 30-something km.

Since we left Meira, the weather got worse and worse every moment. The wind was terrible, but we were managing the fight against it… when it started raining. At first it was just a drizzle, then it came the light rain and then it started raining more consistently.

And the ghosts from one week ago started to dance in my head. Long hours under the rain, my energy being drained, getting all wet all over again…

But we couldn’t do anything but keep pushing the pedals and move forward.

Both the rain and wind came and went and came back and went away again… meanwhile we were rolling as fast as we could on the flats and slightly downhill parts and we took it easier on the repechos.

Finally we arrived back in Lugo, we took the Ronda Leste and then the main N-VI road around the city, arriving back at the starting point around 18:45.

No suitcase and no Brevet card to be delivered this time, we took a “proof photo” of our arrival and we talked a bit about the awesome day of cycling we just had. Dani changed clothes and got ready to leave to Coruña, and I said goodbye and went back home on the bike.

I got home, had a hot shower and ate something. And now, here I am, writing this report while waiting for my wife to arrive back home too.

Here is some data taken from my activity in Strava, as usual:

One week of the bike (traveling)

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-04-09 00:00:00

I’ve been off the bike for one week.

Me and Dolo had a trip to Morocco scheduled for the 31st of March with another couple, very good friends of us. It all started months ago, when having some drinks on a terrace, Pili told us about the idea of doing an adventure trip without the kids (they have 2 kids too). We totally jumped into it and soon things were arranged.

So, one week ago we drove all the way from Lugo to Porto (in Portugal) and from there we took a flight to Marrakech, to spend one week in the north of Africa (first time for me visiting this continent).

We were not alone there, we met a local guide (Said) and 8 more people from Spain. The plan was to get there with a backpack, a sleeping bag and a few clothes only.

It was quite the adventure indeed, spending some time first in Marrakech and then crossing the Big Atlas Mountains and going into the Desert of Merzouga, where we met a nomad family and slept in their camp, visited small villages learning a bit more of their culture and spent one night under the stars (and a sand storm) in the middle of the desert.

I’ve to admit, I had such a good time that I only thought about cycling a couple of times (in the Atlas… so many beautiful roads there… ;-D).

BRM 300 - Del Urogallo

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-04-16 00:00:00

First 300 Brevet of the year. Like it happened last year, I went to Astorga#31 to do it. Organized by my friends at Astorga Randonneurs#32 I was sure this was going to be another epic ride.

This time I arranged things to go there with my friend Dani “El Gordo” from the Mesoiro cycling club (you already know him from my previous Brevet reports). I booked a room for both of us in a Hotel near Astorga for Friday and Saturday, and he picked me up on his way from Coruña to Astorga on Friday evening. Split expenses and a nicer 2-hour trip to Astorga instead of driving there alone. Some other friends (Manolo, Roberto and Juankar) booked a room in the same hotel too.

Looking at the route profile, we were going to have several long climbs in this Brevet, followed by equally long descents. Niiiice!. I really like long, steady and gentle climbs. You can adjust power/intensity much easier and enjoy the climb a lot more than in those shorter, steeper, climbs with percentages over 12%.

They made a last-minute change to the route. We were supposed to start from San Justo de la Vega#33 (a little quiet village near Astorga) but precisely this weekend they celebrate a big party there, with lots of people, events, music and party all night long. Too many people, too much noise, things could become a bit more complicated, so they decided to move the start point to Astorga, to the square between the Cathedral and the Palacio de Gaudi#34.

We met some people from Astorga Randonneurs there on Friday evening (Salva, Sergio) as well as some other randonneurs, we got our brevet cards and had dinner together.

After that, it was time to double check everything for the brevet (bike, gear, clothes) and go to sleep.

We woke up around 5:30, gather our things and picked the car to go from the hotel to the start point in Astorga (shame on Dani and me! Manolo, Roberto and Juankar did it properly and rode those 10km already on their bikes!).

10-15 minutes before the start time (7:00) we were in front of the palace, ready and saying hello and good morning to everybody.

We left Astorga and took a road that would join, after 4km, the original route coming from San Justo.

As a pack we rode in the dark, on a small road that was a bit broken here and there. Nothing serious but the kind of road that makes me a bit nervous, specially in the middle of a big group at night, specially when going fast. And man, in Astorga all the Brevets start fast.

In Pradorrey we joined the big N-VI road, just a few km before our Hotel, and the big group started to push it a bit. We were expecting some head wind during this initial part of the Brevet and indeed there it was, blowing on our faces.

We noticed Manolo was missing and we did slow down for a moment and check if everybody else in our group was there. That was enough to loose the big group and we went all the way up the first climb of the day on our own.

Cesar and Anselmo joined our little group during this climb. We already knew Cesar from previous Brevets, but it was the first time we met Anselmo, a 76 year old man that proved to be younger than all of us later in the day.

There was no trace of Manolo, but he is a seasoned randonneur with lots of experience, so we didn’t worry about it. We simply kept on (later in the day he told us that he had to stop at the hotel, as he had forgotten his brevet card there).

The road up to this first climb was probably the ugliest part of the route. Not really ugly (I’ve ridden on worse roads) but it has nothing special. Big road, not really nice views, plus the wind blowing on our faces all the time.

The descent on the other side was a different story. We started going down still on the main N-VI road, enjoying some awesome views and crossing high bridges on direction to the North. Around km 32 we left that one to take a smaller road towards Torre del Bierzo#35. As soon as we left the main road, we were protected from the wind by the mountain on our right.

It was also a beautiful descent, with some nice views to our left, time to grab the gopro and start recording.

As usual, this first part of the Brevet has a lot of small talk. We were going fast and passed several villages, Bembibre#36 and Alto de Santa Marina del Sil. We also catched another galician randonneur, a guy from Ourense who was having a bad time because of the cold. He joined our little group.

The first checkpoint/control was going to be in km 116. We decided that was too far for the first stop, so when we arrived in the village of Toreno#37 (km 62), we looked for a place to do a quick coffee stop. We found a small bar open and we had some coffee there. Sadly, it was a bit too early and the guy there did not have any food to give us with the coffee.

This stop felt wonderful, warmed me up a bit. During the stop we tried to re-sync Juankar’s Garmin device, which was not able to load the route/course for navigation and climbs info. We failed miserably ;-D

As soon as we left Toreno, another randonneur catched up with us. Estefanía started like half an hour later than the rest of us, because she had some trouble with her Di2 shifters and it took her some time to sort things out. She had to ride by herself all the way here. We welcomed her into our little group (the more the merrier they say). She told us that she had passed our friend Manolo, which was good news for us, at least we knew then that he was ok and riding.

After Toreno the road had several short climbs, a nice “warm up” for the second big climb of the day, Alto de Valdeprado. Before the descent that led us to Fabero#38 I stopped for a moment to remove some layers and the gloves, it was starting to get a bit hot and I knew that more climbing was waiting for us ahead. These short stops for adding/removing layers would become a habit during the whole ride.

I catched the group at the end of the descent, at the entrance of Fabero, where we took a small road to our right, climbing all the way up to the open sky mine. This climb was soooo beautiful, IMHO the most beautiful one of this Brevet.

We started the climb and I took the lead, getting them on the camera. Estefanía soon started to push it a bit. She is a climber, small and fast, and I kept up by her side during all the climb. I was feeling fine and my HR was showing 145-150 bpm, which is low for climbing (by my standards/numbers).

A few times I looked back and noticed the guys were a bit behind, and at the end of the climb I noticed the group was way behind us. We were about to start the descent on the other side and she was pushing, I guess she wanted to recover some of her lost time. I decided to let her go and turned back, riding back to meet the guys and resume riding with them.

We went together all the way down to Páramo del Sil#39, from where we start the climb to Alto de Valdeprado

The road was a bit broken and Juankar and me were a bit faster than the others. We did chat for a while, enjoying the views, but at one point he started to fall back. I kept on with my steady pace. The HR shows 140-145, easy for a climb like this, so I decided to not slow down any more and wait for them at the top.

I did enjoy the solitude, looking back from time to time to check they were still there. I was so focused on pushed the pedals that I didn’t use the gopro in this climb. Not even a short recording.

When the garmin beeped, showing “the end of the climb” I did stop and waited for them, camera ready, recording them on video when they finally passed. Then we stop at the Mirador de la Corza to take a couple of pics of its impressive view.

Time to put some layers (and gloves) back on, long descent ahead. 47 km going all the way down to Cangas del Narcea#40 (with a small bump in the middle). We also crossed the border between Castilla y León and Asturias.

At km 116 we stop at Cerredo#41, first checkpoint/control. There was an open café, where we met Estefanía again and our friends from Astorga Randonneurs (Sergio(s) - two of them - Valentín and Saul).

We went as quick as possible through the usual checkpoint workflow (grab water bottles, order drinks and food, get our cards stamped) and we took a moment to say hello and ask everybody how was the Brevet for them so far.

We drank our coca colas and ate our pinchos as fast as we could. We were getting too cold and we didn’t want to do a long stop here. We still had a 40-km descent ahead of us, with little chances to warm up again.

Xacobe, Estefanía and the others left a few minutes before us. We refilled our bottles and off we went, cold and shivering, Dani, Ferreiro, Juankar and me.

Down and down we went, with some ocasional flat parts where we were able to pedal and warm up a bit.

We passed villages like Degaña, Fonduveigas or Larón and then we crossed a long tunnel through the mountains, the Túnel de Rañadoiro.

It was past noon already and the temperature was raising, it felt good to have such temperature on the last part of the long descent.

We arrived in Cangas de Narcea (second checkpoint, km 156) at 14:20, so we decided to stop in a cafe and eat something (bocadillo de jamón for everybody). We followed the usual checkpoint workflow (pick up bottles, order drinks and food, get the stamp on our brevet cards) but this time we sat for a while to eat the bocadillos and chat a bit.

Our friend Anselmo was quite the showman and kept us entertained and laughing the whole time.

Once we finished the food, some order some coffee and meanwhile I picked up some more food from my big saddle bag and refilled the top-tube bag with several cereal bars and stuff (at this point, I had eaten everything I had in that bag already + whatever I had in my back pockets).

I refilled my water bottles and packed the light rain jacket and the gillet into the saddle bag. With a 33 km climb ahead of us, starting precisely in this town… no need to get those layers on anytime soon. I even considered changing clothes, replace my rapha winter jacket and the warm base layer with the short sleeve base layer and the rapha long sleeve jersey, but in the end I decided against it (spoiler alert: I did regret it later).

Anselmo started a bit before us, “you are younger and stronger than me, so you will catch me on the climb!” - he said.

When we were ready to leave, Manolo appeared and then Cesar too. Cesar decided to stay for a while, while Manolo decided to keep on riding with us.

33km up to “El puertu” (Leitariegos#42) the longest climb I’ve ever made. Luckily this is one of those gentle and steady climbs, without big percentages.

We left Cangas de Narcea in good spirit, again like a pack, chatting. Half of the Brevet was done at this point and everybody seemed to be doing just fine. Also, the first few km are easy, not really climbing, so we were a bit faster.

This time I did slow down and I kept myself with the group. We enjoyed the views, which became more and more impressive as we slowly climb up the mountain.

At this point the temperature was higher than 20º, and I realized I was overdressed. I started to sweat but unzipping the jacket seemed to improve things.

Note

Later, after the brevet, I realized that all that sweating made my shorts and bottom all wet, too wet, so I had some trouble/pain/reddening at my bottom. Nothing too serious, but if I’d have to ride a 400 or 600, maybe it would grow into some serious trouble.

After a while Dani, Juankar and me were a bit faster, so we left the others behind and went all the way up together.

On our way up we catched Xacobe again (the guy from Ourense that had problems with the cold earlier) and we passed him. During the last few km we were running out of water, so we started talking about how cool it would be to find a nice fountain at the top (we already knew there was one there).

The last part felt a bit steeper for a while, ending with an easier part after the last couple of turns. The temperatures dropped to 10º again, which felt really cold, considering the > 20º we had one hour earlier + the fact that we were all sweaty.

We did a quick stop to take some pictures at the “El Puertu” sign and then at the fountain to refill the bottles and put some layers back on (light rain jacket, gillet and gloves for me). Ferreiro arrived already while we were taking the pictures and the others arrived just when we were about to resume riding.

The descent from Leitariegos was shorter than the climb, but still long. It took near 15 km to get to Villablino#43, the next bigger village. The road was full of 180º turns and the asphalt wasn’t in the best condition in some places.

I was expecting it to be colder, but the lower we were, the higher the temperature was. Also, the sun was shining, which added a bit to the warming sensation.

We weren’t a pack or a group anymore at this point. Ferreiro and Juankar were quite ahead, with Dani following them and me chasing Dani from a distance. The others were behind me, but nowhere to be seen.

I’m still not sure why, but from this point on, I didn’t record anything else with the gopro. On one hand, I spent most of the time chasing someone else, which meant having to be focused on what I was doing and pushing the pedals a bit harder. On the other hand, I was starting to feel tired and the last thing I wanted was to drop the camera (again, as you may remember from the report on the *BNO* to Vegadeo…).

In Villablino#44 I did stop for a moment to remove layers again, remove gloves, and eat something. Some decide to do a quick stop in a bar and have some drinks, some kept on pedaling.

I pushed it once more and caught Dani and Juankar again, time to go up Puerto de la Magdalena. Another long climb (15.6km) but a bit different this time. It has steeper parts/gradients, followed by some rest/easier parts. We started to “suffer” the amount of km and climbing on our legs, but we pushed the pedals all the way up anyway.

During the climb, Juankar asked if we could share something to eat with him. One of the things that amazed me at the start of this Brevet was the fact that he wasn’t carry anything with him on the bike. No big saddle bag, no frame or top-tube bag and what looked like empty pockets on his Castelli winter jacket. Nothing. All he had with him was one bottle for water and one small storage bottle (for tools and spares, I guess).

He managed ok so far, but I think this was the “lowest point” of the day for him. We shared something with him and that seemed to help.

At the top of the climb we stopped for a moment to take some pictures and put some layers back on (yeah, the game of the day!). Another long descent was waiting for us, near 36 km going down with a short bump in the middle again, just before the next (and last) checkpoint in Riello#45.

In that stop I also had to pee, which means they left without me (again) and I had to push it a bit (again) to catch them.

The wind was pushing us a bit harder (from behind) now and I couldn’t see them in front of me. WTF, it did not take that long to resume riding, I should have them just in front of me by then. I grabbed the drops, head down, and pushed. Going mostly down, with such a wind on my back… it felt good, it felt like being flying.

I arrived at a hairpin, a small repecho, and I kept pushing the pedals, standing on the bike, to not loose momentum. And when I got to the top, I could see the road going down on the other side and I saw them, maybe a couple of km ahead of me.

I smiled and pushed it a bit more.

I finally catched them and we were getting closer to the last checkpoint. I started to dream about a big coffee and a sandwich. I’ve been eating a lot today and at this point all that was left in my bags were a couple of cereal bars. It seemed I was burning everything fast.

We arrived in Riello and looked for a café or any place where we could stamp our cards and eat/drink something. We found a nice café, road bikes parked in front of it, and I recognized some of them. When we got inside, Sergio and the others were there, enjoying some drinks and pinchos.

We ordered something too (big café con leche and another bocadillo de jamón for me) and I took a moment to go to the bathroom (later I made some jokes about how fast I’d be in the last part of the brevet, being like half a kilo lighter after this stop ;-D).

While we were waiting for our order to be ready, the rest of our group arrived. First Ferreiro, then Manolo, then Anselmo. We refilled the bottles and packed up quick, time to leave. Just before leaving, our friend Roberto (who already had finished the brevet at that moment) called and told us that, from there on, it is one last climb, 2 repechos and “time to fly”. Liar ;-D

Leaving Riello there was a mistake in the gps track and it sent us on some broken path (path, not road). When we realized about the mistake, we noticed the path should join the main road at some point, so we kept on. In the end we had to jump over some road barriers (with our bikes on our shoulders, CX style) to get to the road again.

Next climb, Alto de Escuredo. Shorter, not a big thing if it wasn’t for the 260km and lots of climbing on our legs already.

The sunset was almost there, but we still would have some more day light time. This time, Dani and me were the ones going a bit faster, so we put some distance between us and the others. We finished the climb and then we pushed it through the following repechos (not 2, obviously, but “a few” more).

When we reached the point that it was getting darker, we did a short stop to put some layers back on, ensure lights were ready, etc. And when we were about to resume riding, our friends appeared on the turn behind us.

“There they are! they were not that fast in the end!” - someone shouted as they passed us. We laughed, we didn’t expect them to be this close.

We resume riding together, fast, downhill and into the night.

Ah, the time in a Brevet when all you want is to arrive, to finish. It was getting late and we had a reservation for dinner with friends at 22:30. No more stops until the end and time to take advantage of the flat/down road and the pushing winds.

What worried me then was… wild life.

This is the same road I rode on last year to finish the 300 in Astorga, and that time a huge deer crossed in front of us (a couple of meters, maybe?) and a bit later, a family of wild boars almost wiped us out of the road.

Going fast means danger in this road.

But we still pushed, with Dani and me taking turns on the lead, no time to look back. Front lights at full power and spending more time looking at both sides of the road ahead of us, than on the road itself.

At least the road condition was perfect (no holes, no broken parts), one less thing to worry about.

We crossed the turn to San Justo de la Vega and we kept straight to Astorga, passing village after village. Honestly, enjoying this fast end a lot.

We shouted and hooted loudly when we finally saw Astorga’s Cathedral from afar. We were almost there!

We looked back, no one there. wtf, Ferreiro was there a moment ago, “where is he?” we asked ourselves.

We waited for a moment in a roundabout and Ferreiro catched us, just in time to get into Astorga, the finish line.

We got to the square by the Cathedral and the Palacio de Gaudi just in time to hear the bells from the Cathedral ringing, it was 22:00. We made it.

My garmin shown 299km, Dani has 1km less than me, so we decided to ride back to the car with a few extra roundabouts to get to 300km and then we went back to the parking lot to pack our things and bikes into Dani’s car and head back to the hotel, where we had our reservation for dinner with friends.

And, as usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

BRM 300 - Percorrendo a Raia

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-04-23 00:00:00

Second 300 of the year, in less than 7 days from the first one.

Organized by CC Riazor, but this time not leaving from Coruña. We were going to leave from the city of Tui#46 (southwest galicia, in the province of Pontevedra#47) and going along the border with Portugal. Our fellow randonneur Javier Costas designed it, and my friend Dani knew beforehand almost all the roads we were going to ride.

As we were leaving from Tui, at home we decided to go all the family together to Vilagacía de Arousa (the town were my wife was born). I left my wife and daughters there, in my mother-in-law’s place, and then drove for one extra hour to Tui. This was quite convenient, as this way my wife was going to have some help with the girls, but also has the drawback of having to pack the bike, my things and their things in the car (a bit more complicated than simply put my things in the car and leave).

There was a big group dinner scheduled for 21:00 on Friday. Almost everybody was there and we had a very good time over a nice meal.

At dinner they introduced me to Graeme, from Scotland, who does not speak Spanish at all. I gave him some company, we chatted over dinner and tried to translate what the others were saying as much as I could. We had a good time at the restaurant, telling stories, catching up and discussing plans for the Brevet. We were having so much fun that we left the restaurant a bit late.

The Mesoiros and me still had a 30-minute drive to Dani’s family house, where we were staying for the night. When we arrived, I went through my checklist, preparing everything for the Brevet, when I realized I had forgotten my water bottles back home :-(

“Fuuuuuck, Fuck, Fuck!” - I said loudly. I felt like being slapped hard. The guys asked me what have happened and I told them, “Well, at least it wasn’t the helmet or the shoes!” - Edgar said, and he was right I guess.

Dani gave Javier a call and asked him if he may have some spare bottles around, luckily he said he had some and that he would bring two 500ml bottles for me the next morning. Lucky strike.

We went to bed a bit late, so I barely slept 4 hours. It did rain too much during the night, and it was so windy that waves of rain were hitting the windows hard, making lots of noise and waking me up several times.

I woke up before the others and went through my usual breakfast-and-get-ready procedures while they started to wake up and get downstairs for breakfast.

When it was time to leave for Tui, it was raining a lot. We drove in 2 cars to the start point under waves and more waves of strong rain. Edgar was in my car, and we both agreed… “WTF are we doing out here right now?!?”

But then, we arrived in Tui and it stopped raining. Unbelievable.

We met the other randonneurs at the start point, a bar called Pura Vida, which was opened this early only for us. There were some people having hot drinks like coffee and tea, but I was still full from my breakfast.

I looked for Javier - and my water bottles - man, what a relieve when I found him and he gave me those two bottles.

We took the usual group picture at the start and hopped on our bikes. When I clipped in and started pedaling… it started raining again, growing in intensity as we left Tui, towards Baiona and the first climb of the day (yeah, we started going up right away from the start!)

We started as a big group, but with the first climb starting right there in Tui, we got scattered early. I rode with several friends from previous Brevets, chatting and catching up (when the rain let us, of course) and moving forward.

After 10 km and almost 40 minutes, we reached the top of the first climb and started the descent to the other side, 10 more km under ocassional showers, some of them quite strong.

Less than 1 hour into the Brevet and I was already all wet, specially my feet as I gambled it a bit and decided to not put the shoe covers on (hint: this time I was right and I would not need them at all).

The first checkpoint was Baiona#48, km 26. We were so wet and cold at this point that we did a quick stop in a gas station to get our cards stamped (and pee).

My plan was to ride as much as possible with Dani and the others from the Mesoiro cycling club. I’ve mention it in previous reports, these guys organize things so one of them is responsible for carrying all the Brevet cards together, getting all the stamps on them at once. I usually keep my card with me, but this time I was so cold and soaked that instead of fighting with my wet gloves, I gave my card to Edgar (thanks, my friend!).

We left Baiona with the sun rising from behind some hills to the west and took the road by the coast, on its huge yellow-colored bike lane. The rain came and went and the wind started to push us back. This road was fantastic, flat and fast. We rode by the atlantic ocean, and today there were big waves crashing against the rocks on the shore. We passed a lighthouse and we kept pushing the pedals. We were quite the group here, a mix of people from different clubs and parts of the country.

A few minutes before 9:30 we arrived at the village of A Guarda#49, and at the second climb of the day, Santa Trega#50, short and steep climb with gorgeous views of the mouth of the Miño River, where it joins the Atlantic ocean.

I did this climb with Alfonso, Ángel and Jose, while the others followed closely behind. The climb goes from sea level to ~300m in 3.65 km, with lots of turns. On each turn, the four of us agreed that the view was even nicer than in the previous turn.

During the climb we noticed someone handling a drone and somebody else taking pictures of us with one of those pro cameras. What a luxury for a Brevet!

At the top, another surprise. Javier was there, with the trunk of his car full of food and drinks. This was the second checkpoint (km 61) and we took a moment to enjoy the views and take some photos. We also formed the little group that would stay together for the rest of the day.

Then we went down the hill. It was steep, so we had to pull the breaks a lot, some times maybe a bit too much, personally I wanted to enjoy the views as much time as possible.

We crossed the other randonneurs that were arriving there later than us, like Carlos and Oscar from Naron and several guys from CC Riazor.

The next 30 km were almost flat and took us back to the start point in Tui. The sun started to shine and it stopped raining, we were getting dry and warm.

The Mesoiros, Graeme and me decided to do a quick coffee stop in Tui, in the café that was our starting point earlier - Pura Vida - before starting the next - and toughest - part of the brevet. We split, as some other randonneurs decided to keep on without stopping.

A quick coffee stop and soon we were on our bikes and back on the road, just in time to get cought by another rain shower. At that moment we thought we weren’t lucky, but it turned out we did the right thing doing such stop. The guys that didn’t stop got caught by a strong storm later in the day, while we avoided such storm because of this stop.

A few km after resuming our ride, we had to stop due to a flat tire (the first of the day, sadly not the only one). We did stop and Oscar replaced the inner tube in his rear wheel quite fast. Off we went again, under some light rain.

This Brevet didn’t have long climbs. Instead, we were going up for a while, then a bit down, then up for a longer while, then down a bit… and so on. What we call around here “terreno rompepiernas” (leg-breaker terrain, literally translated).

We rode for a while more on roads of the province of Pontevedra#51, then we crossed to the province of Ourense#52.

We were having light rain here and there, followed by the ocassional open sky with the sun warming us and then back to dark clouds. The roads were almost empty (we crossed just a few cars) and as soon as we started to go up, we also had nice views around us.

The next checkpoint, Paraños (km 137), was in the middle of one of the shorter/smaller climbs, just before the larger climb of the day. It was around 14:00, so we decided to do a longer stop there and ate something. We had some awesome bocadillos de tortilla, which tasted soooo good. The owners of the restaurant were very nice, and they brought us a lot of pinchos with our drinks, to have while we waited for the bocadillos.

When we arrived in Paraños, Alfonso and Felipe were already there and while we were eating our bocadillos, several randonneurs arrived too.

Bottles refilled, I made some food arrangements (picked up some food from the saddle bag and refilled the top tube bag and the back pockets) and finally off we went, right into more climbing.

For the next few hours, the roads looked familiar to me. Secondary small roads with only the ocassional car passing us, everything so green around us, with certain parts where there are so many tall trees that we are completely covered from the sun and at the next turn, open views to our left or right of valleys below us. It all reminded me clearly of those roads I use to ride near Vilagarcía de Arousa, Caldas de Reis, Moraña, Campo Lameiro or Cotobade. These roads today looked sooo very similar to those a hundred km away.

We went up to Porto de Moncelo, the longest climb of the day, going from 309m to 800m in 17km. The group split after a while, with Graeme, Jose and me leading, followed at some distance by the others.

At this point it had not rain in quite some time, the sun was shining and there was a fresh breeze that felt awesome.

I enjoyed the climb a lot, riding at my own pace, enjoying the views to our left on every turn. There was a point where we did a hard turn to our left and we had a good view of the road behind us, so I was able to see Dani and the others coming up, behind us.

At the top we took a few group photos at the Porto de Moncelo sign, as this was the next checkpoint (km 155) but there was no way to get a stamp in our cards there.

If the climb was nice, the next 23 km going all the way down to Ribadavia were awesome. We started the descent and after a few km we had another shorter climb, near A Cañiza. Then, all the way down and fast.

Ribadavia was our next checkpoint (km 178) and we decided to drink some coca colas in a café and get our cards stamped. Sadly, that café didn’t have anything to stamps our cards with, so Edgar went to look for some other place (and came back a few minutes later, with our cards stamped).

We took a moment to enjoy the short rest and then refilled bottles, did quick visits to the bathroom, etc. The next checkpoint (Celanova) wasn’t that far from us (just 40 km) but the road to get there was going to be tough, with lots of climbing and lots of short, steep repechos (which meant it would take quite some time to ride those 40 km).

Off we went, leaving Ribadavia and into yet another climb, passing small villages like Barral, Foxo or Noallo de Arriba. Going up for while, then a bit down, up again… and so on. Rompepiernas again, making having a conversation quite difficult.

At least the roads were very nice and the scenery around us, magical. The only thing disturbing such a good moment was the noise all our chains were making. All the rain we had so far, plus all the water and spray coming from the road, made our drivetrains quite noisy. At one point we started to talk about looking for some options to oil our groups during the next stop.

Our little group stick together, taking turns pulling or staying behind with whomever was having a tough moment.

And then, it was my moment. That dreaded moment when you feel you are loosing the group, running out of energy and not being able to keep up with their rythm. It didn’t happen suddendly (I didn’t bonk completely), it was just that I was slowly being dropped. They kept on and I was slower and slower until there was quite the distance.

It wasn’t a matter of eating enough, as I had been eaten well and regularly on the bike (+ eating even more during stops). I was simply running out of steam and couldn’t keep up.

So, I switched into maintenance mode. “Keep pushing the pedals, just keep pushing the fscking pedals” - I told myself. I’ve lots of confidence on myself and I’m sooo used to ride alone, that I’m perfectly fine with these situations. No anxiety about being dropped, no need to push my limits.

Just.Keep.Pushing.The.Fscking.Pedals and I’d be fine.

But they noticed I was having this tough moment. And these guys… they are too nice to let me there, miserable and alone and dragging myself like a snail.

So, they took turns to stay with me and ride slowly. First it was Ángel (you probably remember him from the 200 - polas terras altas) and then Dani. They slowed down and rode side by side with me, talking to me, trying to keep my brain busy.

And, in the meantime, we almost arrived in Celanova.

One last push, one last repecho. I looked at the screen of my Garmin and noticed the 8% value of the gradient. “Oh yeah, I noticed it” - I told myself out loud. 9% - “Ok, stop looking at that fscking screen” - I said out loud again.

Luckily we were there already and we found a super nice café/bakery with a terrace where we could seat for a while and eat something.

As Celanova was another checkpoint (actually, last one until the arrival back in Tui for the finish line) we also got a stamp in our cards. This time, I helped Edgar with the whole stamping thing (I was glad to have something to do and keep my mind busy).

I was starving. I didn’t realize about it while riding those 40 km since Ribadavia, but as soon as I stopped, unclipped and left the bike leaning on the wall, an overall sensation of need.food.NOW washed over me.

I ordered a big café con leche and a big cream-and-strawberries cake and I wolfed it down fast. Clearly it wasn’t enough.

While I was making up my mind about ordering something else, and why exactly, the waitress came out of the café carrying 2 huuuuuuge bocadillos. I followed her with my eyes opened like saucers. The bocadillos where going towards Alfonso and Felipe, our fellow randonneurs from Coruña.

I was totally into ordering something like that, but I knew it would take too long to prepare. And just at that moment, Dani came up with two of his famous bocadillos de jamón y tomate and offered me one. He is a life saver, always.

Meanwhile, Edgar had gone to a shop nearby and bought something to oil our chains a bit. All he could find was some sewing machine oil, but it worked just fine on our poor chains.

When we finished, refilled our bottles and packed everything up again, we left Celanova, with 82 km still to ride.

The way out was, of course, more climbing. Again, not a steady climb, but a series of more steep repechos (what else?). It took some time to digest all that food, but I slowly I recovered myself and soon I was out of the hole.

We passed the village of Carracedo and we started a long descent towards the Miño river. The sun was shining, the wind was gentle and the descent felt soooo good. We were riding fast, taking advantage of the descent, when I heard someone shouting.

Another flat tire. This time it was Ángel’s rear tire. We stop and gather around Ángel, trying to help. It took us more than half an hour to fix it, as the first attempt ended with a pinched inner tube (bad luck when putting the tire back on) and then the second attempt proved to be quite challenging, it was really tough to get that tire back on.

Several other randonneurs passed us while we were there, all of them asking if we needed anything or if they could help us somehow. Finally, we were ready and we resumed our ride.

Next we had to cross the Miño river. In order to do so, we pass by the dam of Frieira, crossing a huge/tall bridge to the other river bank. The views were gorgeous all the way down and across the bridge.

Last 50 km. Later than expected, but still doing a good overall time. The toughest parts were history now, only a few more repechos and we would be in Tui.

I was fully recovered already, and it felt wonderful to be able not only to keep up with the group, but to lead the group a few times. We had some head wind ocasionally, but nothing too strong.

One repecho, another one, one more… we were counting them like a countdown. Dani knew this road quite well and it was nice of him to tell us in advance which ones were harder, which ones a bit easier.

During our repechos party the night fell on us. The sun went down and soon it was pitch black around us. The roads had no lighting at all and we crossed just a few villages here and there. There was no full moon today neither, and the sky was covered with thick clouds anyway. I tried not to think too much about the chances of another strong shower while riding in the dark.

Only 20 km to arrive, when I heard someone shouting again. Uh, oh. Right, Ángel’s rear tire again. We stopped and in the dark he pumped some air into it. It was loosing air and pressure slowly, so maybe we would be lucky and we could get to Tui without having to replace the tube again.

While they were pumping some air into that tube, I talked a bit with Graeme in the dark. He was doing fine, actually enjoying the whole thing, but he was hungry and he had no food left with him. I gave him one of my Clif bars and he was so grateful. “That’s what friends are for” after all ;-)

We resumed riding, but after a few km, that rear tube was empty again. It was clear that it needed another inner tube replacement. Thing is, Ángel hadn’t sign-up for the Brevet, he was riding it with us for the joy of doing it, without doing it officially. So, after talking it through, we all agreed he would stay there and someone was coming to pick him up with a car, while the rest of us would keep on to the finish. A quick phone call and Javier was on his way with a car to pick him up.

Once more we resumed riding, last 12/14 km. We were closer to Tui and there was more traffic. We crossed Javier on his way to pick up Ángel, then we passed the place where Óscar had the first flat tire of the day earlier.

We arrived in Tui with some light rain at 23:20 and we went straight to the café, Pura Vida, which was the start point earlier in the morning. Lots of known faces there, plus some people we don’t know (customers of the café) who welcomed us with shouts of “congratulations”, “great job”, “you are too crazy”… Someone even said “Ok, quick coffee and time to do it again!”. We laughed at that, would that be really that crazy?

Brevet cards stamped one last time, then delivered, we ordered some beers. While the beers were coming, I quickly gathered my things and bike and went straight to the car, picked up my bag of clothes and put bike, shoes, helmet, etc into the trunk. I ran back to the cafe to enjoy the beer and chat a bit with everybody.

After a while, I went to the bathroom to change clothes and get ready to drive back to Vilagarcía, where dolo and the girls were waiting for me.

It still took a while to leave, time to say goodbye to everybody. See you in the 400!

As usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

BRM 400 - Braganza

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-04-28 00:00:00

What a month, this april 2023, I won’t forget it anytime soon. After doing two 300 Brevets in 2 weeks, this weekend I did the first 400 Brevet of the season.

Back in Astorga#53 again, this was the first time doing a 400 here for me. This time the start was going to be in San Justo de la Vega#54 but due to some national holidays the prices of the hotels in the area sky-rocketed (doubled prices) so I booked a room in a hotel in the nearby village of Hospital de Órbigo#55 (11km from San Justo).

I drove all the way there from Lugo on Friday afternoon, earlier than usual as the Brevet would start at 06:00 next morning and I wanted to go to sleep as early as possible (I’ve had a very bad week at home, with several slepless nights).

After doing the check-in at the hotel, I left my luggage in the room and took the car to San Justo to meet my friend Sergio and some other randonneurs at the Oasis, the bar that is the usual meeting point in San Justo, and the place marked as the start point for the Brevets there.

I got my Brevet card and had dinner with Sergio and the others. We talked a lot about the 300 we did a couple weeks before, and about what everybody was expecting of the 400 we were about to do the next day.

After dinner I said goodbye and went straight to the hotel, to double check everything for the next day and go to bed. As soon as I did lay my head on the pillow, I fell asleep instantly.

As usual, I woke up before the alarm, 4:40, had a quick shower and full breakfast and left the hotel silently.

When I arrived at the Oasis, there was nobody there. I checked the clock, 5:35, with the start scheduled for 06:00 it felt a bit awkward that there wasn’t anybody around. Anyway, I got things ready and when I was almost done Sergio appeared riding his Trek Émonda.

In a few minutes everybody was there. Some fully ready, some still preparing things. At 06:00 we took a few group photos and we left San Justo, direction to Astorga.

We left San Justo in the dark, as a big group (15-16 maybe), and we took a small broken road on our way to Astorga, as the main road was blocked (a bridge fell down and they were rebuilding it). Once we crossed Astorga we took the bigger road that was going to get us to Puebla de Sanabria#56.

This first stretch of almost 100km to Puebla was smooth and fast. The road tarmac was in perfect condition and there were no climbs. As a group, we rolled fast on the flats and descents (with the occasional repecho).

The temperature was very good, my garming showing 12-13º C for the first few km and then a drop to 7-8º C for a while (which was good anyway, as we were spinning our legs strongly). Only when the temperatures dropped a bit, while going down one of the repechos, I realized I had forgotten my gloves.

“Fuck!” - I thought then, not having my gloves at that point was ok, and I was sure I wasn’t going to need them during all day but when the next night comes… I’ve enough experience already riding in the roads near Astorga to know how cold it gets, with temperature going down 20º C or more.

Ah, well, nothing I could do about it right now. Just enjoy the ride.

At one point the sun came out from the horizon to our left, giving us the chance to enjoy a gorgeous sunrise.

At that moment, I was leading the pack, riding with Alfonso (a fellow galician member of the Riazor Cycling Club and Randonneurs Galicia). We chatted a bit, talking about how different these roads were from the roads we are used to in Galicia, as well as about PBP (of course!). I think PBP is a big topic for everybody this year, and I take every chance I’ve to talk to those randonneurs that had done it in the previous editions.

The sun finally came out completely, and we were able to enjoy the views around us, with long open flats on both sides, covered with bushes and small trees, and the sight of mountains and hills far to both left and right.

At one point, we noticed something moving ahead of us, to the right. It was a small deer, running alongside the road. We slowed down a bit, looking carefully around us, when the deer crossed the road to the other side, followed by a few other deers of different sizes.

I wasn’t able to get them on camera, as they moved fast. It was one of those magical moments in a Brevet.

We arrived in Puebla de Sanabria#57 around 09:30, passed by old town with its cobblestone streets and old houses and castle-like buildings, and decided to do a quick coffee stop.

The stronger/faster riders left a few minutes before our group. We followed them soon, but that difference plus the fact that they were way faster than us meant we won’t meet them again.

The group we had made so far would stay together the rest of the day. Both Sergio(s), Valentín and Saúl have done several Brevets together before, I already knew Estefanía from the 300 a couple of weeks before and it was the first time riding with Manuel, a very tall and thin guy from Alcalá de Henares (Madrid).

Leaving Puebla we had a 9 km climb. It wasn’t hard at all, and we were rested from the recent stop, so we keep on a good rythm. Then we had a long descent (10 km) until the next repecho, which was also the point where we crossed the border into Portugal.

More descents, passing villages like Portelo, França or Rabal and getting closer and closer to the first checkpoint, in Bragança#58.

Temperatures were already over 20ºC and I had already removed the gillet and the arm warmers. Even this early, the sun was starting to hit us hard.

Since we left Puebla, I started to feel a pain on my left knee. Like being stabbed with a needle, repeatedly, a bit below the knee, on its outside part. It was the kind of pain that grows over time, and I started to get worried about it.

Note

I didn’t mention it in my previous brevet reports, as I didn’t consider it may be something serious, but I felt this same pain in the 300 a couple of weeks before (AKA, Del Urogallo).

Back then, I started to feel the same pain with 100 or 100-something km to the end. Then I felt like shit afterwards (couldn’t walk normally up/down stairs) and then it went away after a full night sleep.

I thought it was some problem with my new shoe cleats (I replaced the old, broken ones, the week before that Brevet), so the week between the 2 300 brevets, I double checked the cleats and re-adjusted them. I tried again in a couple of short rides and all seemed to be fine.

Then I did the 300 Percorrendo a Raia and I didn’t have any pain during that hard Brevet, so I thought it was indeed some problem caused by the new cleats position, and that it was fixed.

I was wrong

At one point I told Sergio about my problems with the knee. Luckily he had some painkillers (ibuprofen) and he offered me some. I decided to wait until the stop in Bragança to take it.

Bragança was km 135 of the Brevet. As we already did a coffee stop around km 100, we decided to do a stamp-only quick stop here. No need to waste more time.

We passed a gas station at the entrance of the city and took the road left, which is that kind of outskirts road that let you go around the city without having to get inside the city. The thing with these roads is that sometimes you don’t find cafés or shops (the kind of places where we could get our cards stamped). But then, after yet another roundabout, we noticed there was a bike shop to our right.

It was perfect, the faster guys already had passed and had the same idea, getting their cards stamped at the shop. So, when the owner saw us at the door, he already came out with the shop stamp at hand.

When I said it was perfect, I meant it. Being a bike shop, I bought some gloves to bring with me, as I was 100% sure I was going to need them later during the night. Imagine the face of the shop owner when I asked him about some winter gloves, in april and with 23/24ºC outside. He probably thought I was crazy.

I took the painkiller before leaving the shop and off we went, going up on that steep 4 lane street which was full of traffic lights. Some of them turned red when we were arriving at them, so it was quite an unpleasant ride until we left the city.

We were already in the hardest part of the Brevet. The next 100-something km from Bragança#59 to Miranda de Douro#60 were going to be probably the most beautiful part of the Brevet, but also the toughest. Lots of short climbs, crossing bridges over big rivers, and fast descents with gorgeous views of the valleys we were crossing.

Luckily, the painkiller soon made its effect and the pain on my left knee went away, which helped a lot.

We were riding in Portugal (first time riding my bike here) and soon we noticed how different the car driver’s behaviour was, compared to the drivers back in Spain. Cars were passing us too close, speeding aggresively most of the times. Motorcycles were even worse, speeding up when they were upon us and several times honking when they were passing way too close.

A couple of times a motorbike passed so close that almost made me loose balance, it was scary and dangerous.

It is a bit sad that in a country so beautiful and full of nice roads, like Portugal, there are drivers like those.

On the other hand, the roads were in perfect condition and we were able to roll smoothly on them. Village after village we rode, Santa Comba de Rossas, Chaos, Vila Franca, Vinhas… every one of them having something that catched our eye.

Around km 185 we tackled possibly the longer climb of the day, 10km of going up to the villages of Santulhao and then Carçao. We had decided to stop for a longer lunch stop in the village of Vimioso (we had some good references of a restaurant there) but there was a misunderstanding and we all thought that village was going to be at the end of the climb.

We got to the top in 3 separated groups, but the village was not there, so while we re-grouped, we noticed the village was still a bit far away. “It is not much” - someone said - “it must be around the next turn”.

But it turned out it wasn’t. There were still 10 km to get there, 4 km going down and another 6 km climb afterwards. Nothing too serious, but most of us ran out of water in our bottles during the first climb and the sun was cooking us real good at that moment (my garmin was showing 27-29ºC during that climb).

Again, the group split in 3 and we arrived in turns at the entrance of the village and the restaurant, Vileira, located after the first roundabout.

The restaurant was quite good. At first it felt a bit awkward to sit, all sweaty and smelly, in its dining room, which looked like prepared for some event (like a wedding or similar).

They told us to seat at a big round table, which was perfect for our little group of 7. We sat and ordered drinks first, then food. Instead of simple bocadillos, we ordered some house-made starters (queijo, presunto, chouriço, melao…) and then each one ordered a second dish (bacalhau, vitela, …). Every bit of it was delicious.

Just when we had ordered, another randonneur appeared at the door. Alfonso, who had been on the stronger/faster leading group earlier. He told us that at some point he decided to let the faster group go. They were going too fast and the heat was taking its toll on him. He saw us passing a few km before, and he decided to chase us and try to catch our group. We welcomed him to the group and added another chair to our table.

We had such a good time in the restaurant. It all felt like sharing a meal with old good friends. We made jokes, we laughed, we told stories of previous Brevets and details of the day so far.

When we were done, we refilled our bottles, packed our things and resumed riding. During lunch, I used my external power bank to charge both the garmin and the front light a bit (charging the light was specially important, as I discovered later).

Leaving the restaurant, we had to keep on climbing, passing Caçarelhos and Malhadas where the descent into Miranda de Douro#61 started.

The effect of the painkiller started to go away and the pain on my left knee was back. I started to suffer again.

Sit on the saddle and pedal? -> pain

Stand and push the pedals -> no pain

“Fun” - I told them - “all I had to do is ride the next 200 km, standing”

I tried to make jokes and keep on, but the pain was there and I was getting worried more and more. At one point, Alfonso told me he has some analgesic cream and that I could try and see if it may help.

We arrived in Miranda de Douro#62, next checkpoint at km 235 around 17:15, and we stopped to get our cards stamped in a café, the Vista Bela.

While we drank some coca colas and/or coffee, I put the cream all over my knee. It definetely helped, but only for little while (maybe 1 or 2 hours). It was clear at this point I’d have to “live with it” the rest of the Brevet, so no use keeping my brain focused on it. What I was hoping was that all the stress put on the knee today would not mean some more serious injury afterwards.

I forgot at the stop to replace the batteries of the gopro, which had ran out of juice on our way here. Man, how much I regret forgetting that.

Leaving Miranda we went down towards the Douro river (Duero in spanish) on one of the most beautiful descents I’ve done in a long time. And the camera refused to turn on :-(

“Ah, well…” - I thought - “So be it, let’s enjoy the descent anyway!”

At the bottom of the descent, there is a big dam we had to cross to go back to Spain. We stopped there for a moment to take some pictures, the place really deserved the stop.

We crossed the dam and went back into Spain, just to do another climb into the province of Zamora, followed by a few km of ups and downs and then a nice descent into another dam, Salto de Villalcampo, where we tackled another longer climb, Puerto de Villalcampo.

During that climb, the temperature got up to 30ºC. We had no shades, no protection and the sun was hitting us hard. But we also had some regarding views of the river.

At the end of the climb, just before the village of Villalcampo, we found a fountain by the road. This was a life saver, as everybody needed a refill on their bottles.

After that refill (I took the opportunity to eat something too) we resumed riding by taking a turn left at the entrance of the village and going into secondary roads, the kind of roads that give no break, no resting, lots of ups and downs.

Alfonso and me noticed Sergio was missing, so we did slow down a bit, to give him the chance to catch up again. It took him a while, but in the end he made it. When he was with us, he told us he still had one bottle to refill at the fountain when everybody left.

We kept riding and got to the descent that took us to cross another dam, another river. This time it was the Esla. After crossing the dam, we had to do one more climb and, again, we had such gorgeous views of the river and the sun setting behind it.

The next 30 km were hard. We rode all the way to Tábara (the next checkpoint) while the sun was setting. This is usually a bad/low moment for me while riding Brevets. The moment you realize the night is coming and there is still a long way to get to the finish and, inevitably, you will be riding in the dark, tired. Every time this happens, anxiety starts to grow inside me and it feels like my energy levels go down.

This part of the route was tough, with short steep climbs and broken roads, but it was also beautiful, as secondary roads always are. The thing is, I did not really appreciate such beauty at that moment.

We passed village after village, in some of them, people were seating on benches outside old houses. Some other villages look completely empty. In one of the villages, a group of old ladies were seating outside and they cheered us up as we were passing, one shouted “go, go, go up that tough climb ahead!” and indeed there was yet another steep repecho a few meters after leaving the village.

In another village we did another short stop to refill our bottles in a fountain. It was still hot and we were drinking a lot of water, so fresh water from a fountain felt wonderful.

Finally we arrived in Tábara, checkpoint at km 319, around 21:30. We decided to have something quick for dinner while we got our cards stamped. As soon as we entered the village, we started to look for any bar/cafe/restaurant where we could get some food. We found a square with 2 bars and Sergio, Manuel, Alfonso and me stopped right there. The others kept on and we called them. We saw Estefanía coming back, so we asumed everybody was coming back.

We asked the waitress of the first bar for a table for 8 and soon we were seating and looking at what to order. We ordered some sandwiches and, while they were being prepared, we took turns to go to the bathroom and change clothes. It was getting colder and we all knew it was going to get even colder soon.

When I got out of the bathroom, with my warm clothes on, I realized Valentin, Saul and Sergio Pulido were missing. I asked the others what happened and then everybody realized about it too. We gave them a call and they were in another bar on the next square. Weird. Anyway, we agreed on having our dinner quick and leave as soon as possible.

Problem was, the kitchen in our bar was terrible. Terrible as in really terribly slow. It took ages for them to prepare the sandwiches and soon we got a call back from the others, they were ready to leave.

Panic. Everybody went into panic mode real fast. Some wanted their sandwiches packed to bring with them (as if they would be able to eat them on the bike, in the middle of the night, without any light around), some were even ready to leave without eating anything or carrying anything (crazy as it sounds).

And in the middle of it all, Alfonso, completely astonished, saying he wasn’t going to leave until he had dinner.

I did hesitate for a moment. I didn’t want to leave without having dinner, both the rest having dinner AND the dinner itself were a good thing, considering we still had 90 km ahead of us. Eat the sandwich on the bike wasn’t an option for me, too risky at night, and I didn’t see the point of it. But the worse thing, IMHO, was leaving Alfonso behind, alone, knowing he would have to do the last 90 km riding alone in the dark.

But I also didn’t want to loose the group. Specially not with that pain on my left knee.

So I tried to put some sense in the situation, but I failed. And then Alfonso told me to go. To just go along with the group, “I will be fine” - he said, “don’t worry, really”. I ate my sandwich in 3 big mouthfulls, paid the bill for everyone (didn’t want to even think about how much time it would cost to split the payment), picked my bike and left with the others.

And into the night we rode.

Just before leaving, Estefanía gave me another painkiller, which made effect quite fast. At least I didn’t have to worry about my knee for another while.

All I was worried about was Alfonso, and the fact that we just left him there alone in Tábara. Even now I think we should have waited for him. I should have waited for him.

But soon my worries focused on something else. The night was very dark. No lights, no villages to be crossed and a cloudy sky that was pitch black (no moon to light our way, no stars could be seen).

We were going fast and we started to take turns pulling. One of us would pull while the rest of the pack did stay in line behind. When we reached one of those road signs marking that one km have passed, the one on the front would move aside, letting the whole group pass and staying on the back, in the last position. Then the one that was second would pull until the next sign.

We kept on like this for a while, but pushing this hard was taking its toll on my knee, and the pain came back earlier than I expected.

Anyway, when I was considering not taking any more turns pulling, we changed into smaller roads and the take-turns-pulling game was over. These smaller roads were really, badly, broken. And we were going too fast. At that speed in the night, the guys up front were not able to tell the ones in the back (like me) about potholes, gravel, etc.

It was a total gamble, an act of faith on whoever was in front of you. If the wheel in front of you did a hard turn to the left, you simply and blindly followed, no matter what may happen afterwards.

I trusted them, honestly, but I wasn’t happy about the whole situation.

And then, it happened, they didn’t sign a huge pothole and I smashed both wheels against it. The hit was so hard that one of my bottles (the one that has any water left in it) was sent flying away (and we were going so fast I couldn’t even stop to try to find it). But worse was that just after this one there was a second one, as huge as the first one. Again, no sign from whoever was in front of me and BAM, BAM, both wheels hitting hard.

I did complain loudly, we were going too fast for a road like this, we had been lucky so far that nobody got injured or a flat… And then I heard the long phhhhhhhsssssssssss while my rear tire got completely deflated.

Snake bite (or llantazo as we call them in spanish).

I was angry, very angry, at that moment. Angry at the night, at the broken road, at the pothole, at whoever was in front of me for not giving any sign or advice about the pothole, angry at my bad luck and angry at me, for not being more careful and keeping myself behind that wheel.

Everybody stopped and Valentin did most of the job replacing my pinched inner tube (it is up to this day, that I’m completely amazed about how fast this guy can replace an inner tube). Meanwhile someone told me “I’m so sorry, I could not warn you in time, I’m really sorry”. It didn’t really matter, not anymore. The good thing is, afterwards we slowed down a bit and people started to give advice about holes, etc.

Temperatures dropped a lot, as I was expecting, and this was the moment when having the chance to buy those gloves back in Brangança paid back. My fingers were starting to get numb with the cold, so I put those winter gloves on and told the others “You know, tomorrow I’m going to drive all the way to that shop in Bragança, and I’ll give the guy there a huuuge tip”. We laughed and the mood improved a bit.

Luckily we finished with the broken roads without any other damage. We took the main N-VI towards La Bañeza. I had been riding without any water for quite some time now, as the bottle I lost was the one that has any water still in it, so when we were closer to La Bañeza, I asked them to stop if we could find a 24-hour gas station or similar.

We found one on our way out of La Bañeza and we did stop there, to refill the bottles before tackling the last 15 km.

I got into the 24-hour shop and grabbed a couple of big bottles of water (4 litres total, enough to refill all our bottles) and on my way to the counter to pay for them I passed a shelve full of boxes… filled with doughnuts. I couldn’t help myself and I picked up several boxes of chocolate-covered doughnuts.

When I came out of the shop, eyes opened wide at the sight of those boxes… and in no time all of them were gone.

Time to resume riding and finish this Brevet. The last 15 km were tiring, with another mix of main roads and smaller, broken ones, but we finally arrived in San Justo at 02:30.

One more Brevet done, first 400 of the season. I was tired and my left knee was throbbing. I said goodbye to the group (“see you at the 600!”) and started to pack my things up in the car.

Once I had everything ready, I decided to wait for a while, waiting for Alfonso to arrive. I still was worried about what had happened in Tábara, but I was sure he would arrive shortly after us. It started to get colder, so I sat in the car (parked in front of the Oasis, I had a good view of the entrance) and I ate something.

After a while, I saw him (great! ;-D). I stepped out of the car and said hello, he seemed surprised to see me there. He looked exhausted (but happy), I bet this last part was hard on him too. He chatted a bit but it was late and colder by the moment, so we said goodbye to each other and part our ways.

Then I drove the car to the hotel in Hospital de Órbigo, where a hot shower and a comfortable bed were waiting for me. I was exhausted too and worried about the whole knee issue.

When I got to the hotel, there was still one more surprise waiting for me. I got to the bathroom and started removing layer after layer of clothes, just to find out I was totally sunburnt. I trusted the weather forecast before the Brevet, which was 90% cloud coverage the whole day with chances of storms and some rain here and there (and some big showers from 13:00 to 15:00 in Portugal). I did not put any sunscreen on, and what was worse, I did not bring any with me neither.

And the day was cloudless, with some strong sun most of it. Hot as it was, wearing short summer cycling clothes… I guess this was expected, but I was so busy thinking on everything else that I didn’t realize about being sunburnt until I looked myself in the mirror.

Ahother lesson learnt, I guess.

As usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Worried about injuries

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-03 00:00:00

As I’ve mentioned in my brevet report, during the first 400 of the year, I had some serious pain in my left knee. I had to take some painkillers to make it through the Brevet and afterwards walking and specially going up/down stairs was painful.

My knee got swollen (not a lot, but enough to be noticeable by looking at it) and still today I’m not fully recovered.

So I’m getting worried about it. What if I’ve damaged something there, something that may prevent me from doing the next brevets?

I talked about it with several friends, both cyclists and not-cyclists and I’ve tried to get an appointment with a phisiotherapist/osteopath. The problem is all clinics around here are super busy. I’ve got two recommendations of good clinics. One gave me an appointment for May 30th (bad, this is after both the next 400 - 13th May - and the first 600 - 27th May). The other clinic gave me an appointment for the 11th of May (bad, as I’ll have to wait still one week from now and it is actually the day before the start of the 400).

While I sort out the medical appointments, I’m resting. I’m not doing any cycling at all, to give my knee some time to heal from whatever it is. I’m also trying to find out what may have caused it, but I’ve a strong suspect there.

Yeah, my new shoe cleats.

I’m sure that’s the root cause of all this. I’ve checked again them last night and I re-positioned them, looking carefully at the marks on the shoes and some pictures I’ve from the old cleats before replacing them.

I’ve found out that the left shoe cleat was indeed a bit tilted, causing my heel to point outwards. Which is what every cyclist friend is telling me that cause this kind of pain.

I’m going to rest 1 or 2 days more before going for a test ride, but I really, really hope this is the cause, and not some serious injury there.

Bike fit and phisiotherapy

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-10 00:00:00

After resting for a while and fix the cleats on my shoes again, I’ve done a couple of rides in the synapse, 109 km, +1332 m, 4 hours in total, without having any pain at all. I also did a 1 hour ride on the trainer, 39km +146 m in Zwift.

The knee definetely feels better, which is a relieve, but I still wanted to get to the root of it (if possible) and I’d really like to have some medical oppinion on the status of the knee.

And today, I had both things sorted out.

Last week, during a visit to my local bike shop (MyBike#63), I explained them what happened with my knee and my doubts about the positioning of my shoe cleats. They also pointed to the relation of pain and cleat position and they suggested me to give a call to a friend of them, Anibal Belassi#64, who is a cyclists trainer with lots of experience. He has a studio where I could get some help and even a complete bike-fit service.

I gave him a call last week, explained a bit the reason of my call and got an appointment for today. The idea was to talk a bit, look into my shoe cleats and maybe do the bike fit.

Remember I wrote in my previous entry (worried about injuries) that I had an appointment for the 30th of May with a phisiotherapist? Well, I got a call from that clinic yesterday. They had a slot available today.

So I had a busy morning today. First I took my daughters to school. Then I came back home and picked up the synapse, clothes, cycling shoes (both summer and winter) and packed everything in the car. I drove to one of those car wash stations to wash the synapse (which was completely dirty after a rainy ride yesterday) and then I headed to Anibal’s studio.

I arrived there at 10:00, our scheduled meeting time. I introduced myself and explained him my problem. He listened carefully and patiently and then he told me about his bike fitting and biometric testing procedures. I liked what I heard and saw, but I told him about my big concern regarding doing big changes in the bike fit in the middle of the season.

Finally, we agreed on doing the full bike fit but step by step. We were going to do all the measurements, both on myself and the bike, then move to check sizes and positions of saddle, handlebars, stem, etc and see if there were any adjustments needed to do. Finally, decide IF we should do them and what would that mean.

First he measured me, then he measured the bike and, after that, he put some tiny yellow dot stickers on my feet, leg, hip, etc. After measurements, I got on the bike and we checked my feet position to see if my shoe cleats were correctly set. Interestingly, they were “almost right” after my latest adjustments last week, we just had to do one minor adjustment on the right shoe cleat (my foot was a bit too close to the crank arm).

With the cleats adjusted, he did a few more measures with me sitting on the bike, and finally I started to push the pedals.

I did pedal for a while, with him watching closely, and then we did record a few videos while I was pedaling.

Long story short… My beloved synapse is like a glove for me. All fits perfectly, from frame size to stem length, crack arms length, handlebar width, all of it.

But (there had to be a “but”) he noticed something with the way I pushed the pedals. Not something serious, but a place where we had room for improvement.

Let’s see a capture made while I was pedaling, with the bike as it was when I went to visit Anibal:

Now look at my right foot, specifically at the angle of my heel in relation with the floor. Apparently, that angle was too high/wide, which means I’ve been pedaling like walking on tip toes, which means I don’t transfer full power to the pedals when pushing them.

So, nothing serious that could cause any injuries, but something I could improve to be a better cyclist. Nice!

Based on that little discovery, plus all the measurements we made, Anibal suggested to move my saddle a tiny bit forward and then lower its height another tiny bit. Then he told me some tips on how to improve the way I push the pedals.

We did those small adjustments on the saddle and we repeated the video recording, with me trying to follow his advice to improve my pedaling.

The software he was using for recording the videos has some capabilities for taking measurements too, which helps comparing my position on the bike before and after the adjustments:

Before the adjustments:

After the adjustments:

Looking at the numbers, it seems 31.49 degrees is way too much for that foot-floor angle (based on whatever scientific data they use as a base). Looking at the position… it definetely looks I was indeed pedaling like walking on tip toes.

I did pedal for a while on that trainer, and everything felt ok. I guess I’ll have to wait to do some longer rides to see if there is any significant difference (good or bad) caused by these adjustments.

Around 12:40 we stopped, with just a few things left to do, because I had the appointment at the phisiotherapy clinic at 13:00. I packed up my things and then booked an appointment to come back next week and finish things up.

And off I went, to the clinic. There I met Erik, tall muscled guy, who was going to take a look at my knee. I told him about the kind of cycling I do, long distances, brevets, etc and then I went right into describing the past month of April with those 3 strong brevet weekends, the shoe cleats issue and finally, the pain on my knee.

Based on the info I gave him, and the experience treating other cyclists, he also suspected the cleats could be the root of the problem, but we did an ultrasound scan on both knees to check how things were in there.

In the scan we saw there was a bit of liquid in both knees, but apart from that, all seemed fine. Back to “what happened here, doctor?”, Erik was really nice and took some time to explain his theory. The bad position in the cleats made me pedal in the wrong way for those long efforts, which caused one of the muscles connecting hip and leg to work in a way that made one tendon (called cintilla, in spanish) to suffer/rub/whatever. When that friction and extra work for the tendon was too much, pain appeared and then the body released the liquid in the knee area to compensate and prevent some more damage. (I just hope I’ve explained it with the proper words here).

Now, “should I rest longer, doctor?” (specially considering the next 400 and 600 in my calendar).

The answer was that the knee should be ok, specially I have fixed the shoe cleats problem. Then, Erik suggested to do a treatment to speed up the recovery on the tendon + the removal of that liquid.

Electrolisis Percutánea Intratisular is the name in spanish for that treatment (Percutaneous Electrolysis Therapy). Basically they use a needle to send galvanic micro-currents through you, focused on the area where you have a damaged tendon. Theoretically, this helps rebuilding/fixing tendon tissue, speeding up things.

No side effects and no problems about doing the Brevet this weekend… so I said yes and we did the treatment.

Needle went in without much problem, then we did 3 rounds of micro-currents, 8 seconds per round. The first one was barely noticeable, the second round was “interesting” and the third round… ouch, felt almost like the pain I had on the bike.

After the treatment, Erik gave me another treatment applying heat on both knees and then a full massage on the upper muscles of both legs. Man, that massage was a lot more painful than the micro-currents!

Before leaving, we discussed again the plans for this month. Erik was confident that the knee won’t cause trouble, but he suggested to bring some painkillers with me “just in case”. We decided to book a couple more appointments for the next weeks, he recommended to do another 2 sessions of the EPI treatment, plus he said it would be nice to keep an eye on my legs for some time.

So, I guess I did everything I could to handle this knee problem. I found what seemed to be the root of it, we fixed it, and then I double checked that everything was ok with my knees.

Let’s see how things will go this weekend, in the second 400 Brevet of the season.

BRM 400 - Polas catro provincias

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-14 00:00:00

If I’d have to give you a summary of this Brevet in a few pictures, I think these would be the ones:

In words, that would be something like centenaire, all-night cycling, double pinch flat and friendship.

But let’s go back to the beginning, so you can get the whole picture.

This was the second 400 Brevet this year for me, just a couple of weeks after the first one. This one was organized by my friends from CC Riazor, which means we started again in Bastiagueiro, A Coruña.

This Brevet is called “Polas catro provincias”, which translated from Galician would be something like through the four provinces. Galicia is split into 4 provinces: A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra, and during this Brevet we were going to ride on roads from all of them.

The 400s organized by this club still honor the tradition of having to ride all night long, and so we started on Friday (instead of Saturday), at 22:00.

I arrived in Bastiagueiro around 21:00 and I had a quick dinner sitting in the back of my car, with the trunk open. While eating my pasta salad I watched the other randonneurs arriving, unpacking and getting ready. Once I finished dinner, I hurried up and got ready too, closed the car and got to the start point to get my Brevet card.

As usual, this pre-brevet time is the time to meet friends and colleagues, catch up and talk about what to expect for the Brevet. 20 randonneurs signed up for this Brevet, less than the number of participants in the 300s and a lot less than the ones in the 200s. This time, apart from the usual suspects, I saw a few new faces.

We took a moment to take the usual group picture before departure, as well as our club group picture (which means the picture of the members of the Mesoiro cycling club + myself on it).

Start time was approaching and everybody was ready, time to start another adventure. There was still some light when we left INEFG, but soon the only light was the one from the street lamps and our front/head lights.

We passed Santa Cristina and crossed Puente Pasaje, then turned left towards O Burgo, as we had done in a lot of other Brevets. This is one of the main in/out roads to/from Coruña.

As we left the main city areas and outskirts, there were less and less street lamps, and soon we were riding on our beloved secondary small roads. The temperature was nice (around 13ºC) and we were riding on a good pace. Soon we were on the first climb of the Brevet, La Cantera, a classic already in Riazor Brevets.

We rode all together, as a big group, chatting and making jokes. In a couple of hours we arrived in the first checkpoint, A Pontepedra (km 45). There was a bar open, just by the side of the road, and everybody stopped there to get the first stamp in our Brevet cards. Initial plan was to do a quick coffee stop there, but as we saw everybody getting inside and ordering, Dani and me looked at each other and said at the same time - “maybe it would be better to make that coffee stop in Santiago?”.

We were too many people, so preparing coffee for everybody would take quite some time, and it was a bit early for the coffee stop for me anyway. So Dani, Edgar, Jose, Óscar, Alex and me got our cards stamped and left A Pontepedra in direction to Santiago de Compostela#65. A little while afterwards another randonneur joined our little group, a portuguese called Helder, whom we knew already from previous Brevets.

We had a moderate tail wind on our way there, and the terrain was mostly going down with some flat parts and a couple of light repechos. The road was a secondary one but in very good condition, so we were literally flying and we arrived in Santiago in an hour.

We did the coffee stop in the first bar we found open. It had a nice big terrace, so we could have our bikes on sight at all times. In this stop we put some money into our common pot (which still had 30 eur from our previous Brevets this year).

We made the stop as quick as possible, but when we were about to leave, we saw another group of randonneurs - part of the bigger group that had coffee in A Pontepedra - passing by, while shouting “you are too lazy during stops!!” and laughing.

We left the cafe and took the road that passed by old town and the Alameda, a big green area/park located in the middle of Santiago. There were lots of lights, noise and people around there, as during this time of the year, they do a big local celebration, the Ascensión

I’ve lived in Santiago for a couple of years, back in 1997, and while we were passing through the city a lot of memories from those old times started to come to mind. I also wondered what old 1997 me would say if someone would tell him I’d be riding 400 km a few years in the future…

On our way out of Santiago we had to stop at a traffic light in avenue Romero Donallo. A guy that was walking on the sidewalk came a bit closer and told us another big group of cyclists just passed on the same direction, and then he asked us what was it that we were doing cycling at night like this. We told him about the Brevet, that we were going to ride 400km and a few names of the places we were going to pass by. He seemed a bit impressed before saying something like “you are nuts” and then “hurry up then, the others passed like half an hour ago!” laughing.

We knew it wasn’t that long, he was teasing us a bit.

Finally we left Santiago on the road towards Ourense#66.

We still had that wonderful tail wind and the roads still were fast ones. We rolled fast, passing villages and towns, O Sisto, A Ponte Ulla, A Bandeira, A Cruz… We passed the group that was riding ahead of us, and Helder decided to stay with them. We kept on and soon passed Silleda too.

I rode a long time of this stretch with Alex. This was his first 400, and even having some previous experience riding longer distances (he did several ultracycling#67 races), he was a bit nervous. In the past, when I was in such situations myself, it helped a lot having someone with experience by my side, talking through the whole thing. I tried to be that person for him this time.

The temperature started to drop, slowly, 10, 9, 8ºC. We were expecting some real cold later, after passing the next checkpoint (Lalin#68 at km 121) and it seemed the forecast was going to be right this time.

On our way, we passed more randonneurs and some of them, like Óscar from Naron and Ferreiro, joined our group.

We finally arrived in Lalin#69 at 03:56. Being a big town, we decided to look for something that may be open 24-hours, like a gas station, to get our cards stamped and something to drink. Everybody had brought food enough in their bike bags, so that should not be a problem. In case we could not find anything open, we were going to take a group picture at the sign at the entrance of town, showing its name.

We were talking about options when we spot a big restaurant to our left. All lights on and a big sign by the road Open 24 hours. “Great” - we thought - “we will be able to drink some more coffee!”.

We stopped there, parked our bikes and started to get our things to go inside when someone said “the door is closed!”. WTF, we looked around but the door was indeed closed, no bell to ring, nobody inside (even all lights were on). So much for “Open 24 hours”… Anyway, nothing we could do about it, we got back on our bikes and rolled a bit more, passing through town and finding a gas station that was open.

Everybody rushed inside, I kept myself outside for a moment, taking everything I’d need during the stop (clothes, food, bottles for refilling). I also refilled the top tube bag with more food from the big saddle bag. During the last 5 and a half hours I ate most of what I had there.

Inside, we ordered some coca-colas and ate something from what we had packed in our bags (bocadillo de jamón con tomate for me). More randonneurs arrived while we were eating and chatting.

Temperatures were definetely getting lower and, even inside, being stopped felt really cold. I ordered a big cup of coffee before leaving, to warm me up a bit.

I had brought with me my Rapha thermal jacket, to wear instead the long sleeve jersey I’d wear so far, when temperatures would get lower. But it was so cold, I decided to simply put the jacket over the jersey, and then the brevet gillet over it.

Once we finished and sorted out changes of clothes, we refilled our bottles and left the gas station with me shivering and praying to get some uphill roads soon.

After Lalin, on our way to the next checkpoint in Cea#70 (km 151), we had to tackle the longest, highest climb of the day, Alto de Dozón. Not one of those long, steady climbs, this was more like a series of repechos with very short descents on the other side, with one final stretch of 10 km that were mostly uphill all the time.

It was cold, the garmin showing 4-5ºC but the sensation being much colder (even going uphill most of the time). Most of the time we did ride in complete darkness. The sky was dark too, covered with clouds, no stars could be seen and no trace of the moon.

And then the moon appeared. To our left. Huge, yellow, like a huge cheese that was missing a big chunk on its right. It was beautiful.

We all were amazed by its beauty. It was quite distracting, so distracting that I did not see a hole ahead, in the middle of the road, and I bumped into it hard.

One of the bottles went flying away (right… just like 2 weeks ago after Tábara) and the front tire got deflated instantly. Pinch flat. “Fuck” - I said. I warned them and we all moved to the side of the road.

Edgar had found my bottle and I put it back in place, got off the bike to start replacing the inner tube on the front wheel when I heard a loud sound coming from the rear wheel - HHHHHSSSSSSSHHHHH - “FUCK” - I said again - “I can’t believe it”.

I had a double pinch flat. Both wheels, both tubes at the same time.

We put ourselves to work, quickly, and while I was fixing the front wheel Dani took care of the rear one. It took us 20 minutes to fix everything and start rolling again. 20 minutes of jokes and laughs. Riding with these guys is awesome, even when things get a bit complicated.

We resumed riding and got to the top of the climb, from where we had a 14 km descent to Cea#71. If going up to the top felt cold, imagine how it felt to go downhill fast for so long.

We arrived in Cea at 06:15, we didn’t get our cards stamped and instead we took a group photo at the entrance of the village. As we could not find the sign with the name of the village, we decided to take the picture at one of those signs showing which km of the road you are in.

Picture taken, we left towards the next checkpoint, O Carballiño#72 (km 159). Right, the next checkpoint was merely 8 km away, and it was mostly downhill there. 20 minutes later (06:38) we were there already. We found a bar open but they did not have anything to get our cards stamped with, and nobody needed a coffee stop, so we simply took another group picture at the sign and kept on riding.

We left O Carballiño with the sky changing its colors again. The sun was rising and slowly the sky turned from black to dark grey to a mix of colors. We didn’t enjoy a gorgeous sunrise (like we did 2 weeks ago on our way to Puebla de Sanabria, during the 400 organized in Astorga) instead the sky started to get clearer and the roads and scenery around them visible.

At one point I picked up my water bottle (the one that fell off when I hit the pot hole) and I noticed it was quite light. “Weird” - I thought - “this was the bottle that was full”. I tried to drink anyway and when I squeezed it a bit, my hand and arm got all wet. “WT…” - I put the bottle away from my body and squeezed again and I could see perfectly the water coming out from the bottom of the bottle, which was clearly broken :-(

We had a 24 km descent (with a few bumps in the middle) before arriving in the city of Ourense#73. Luckily we didn’t have to pass through it, we went around it riding on one of those ring roads you can find usually in big cities.

This part was ugly, I’d say the ugliest road of the day. First we rode for a while by the Miño river (that part was ok) and then we crossed it, following the road south. Once we crossed the river, we passed by some industrial area which looked like something out of post-apocaliptic dystopian movie. Ugly scenery around, big main road, lots of traffic. “Wonderful”.

Then the next climb started. Slowly the group split into several pieces, Jose and someone else riding first, followed by Alex, then me a bit behind and Dani, Oscar, Edgar and Manolo at the back. I rode alone most of the climb, finding my rythm there and enjoying every moment of the 18 km climb.

We passed several villages on our way up, O Piñeiral, San Cibrao das Viñas, Noalla, Santa Marta, A Petada. And finally we arrived in the Allariz#74, the next checkpoint at km 208.

It was 09:00 when we arrived there and everybody agree on having some good breakfast. During the climb a few more randonneurs joined our group, so we were quite the sight for the few people walking the streets at that hour, specially on a very cold morning like this one.

We found a café near the main square, parked our bikes and went inside to order breakfast. As I did in Lalin, I did stay for a bit longer outside.

First I rearranged things in my saddle bag, they were a bit moved around and disorganized after the double pinch flat, as the spare inner tubes were at the bottom of the bag and I had to take them from there in the middle of the darkness, in a hurry.

Second, I moved some more food from the saddle bag into the top tube bag.

Finally, I picked up the broken water bottle and threw it into a recycling container nearby. Then I picked up the other water bottle and went inside with the others.

Inside, people were lined up at the counter, ordering. I joined them and ordered coffee and a big piece of tortilla. Then I looked for a table to seat a bit while breakfast was getting ready.

The coffee wasn’t really good and my piece of tortilla had a few pieces of eggshell, so I’m not going to say it was a wonderful breakfast. It helped filling up reserves a bit though.

With our bellies and water bottles refilled, and after a successful visit to the toilet, we left the bar and picked up our bikes again.

It was shivering time again. Outside it was cold (so cold I kept all my night layers on) but at least the sun was out and shining. I was ready, so I moved myself to a nearby spot under the sun, to wait for the others

Soon the others joined me. After a great time riding our bikes in the dark of the night, this sun light was definetely cheering us up even more. We made jokes and we laughed a lot. And someone even found a nice spot for sun bathing!

We left Allariz, taking some secondary small roads without much traffic. The restart was very cold, but luckily we soon started going up towards the next checkpoint, Alto do Couso (km 234). The sun was shining and warming us up a bit, but I still was wearing all my layers.

This part of the Brevet was specially beautiful. The roads were in good condition and we were rolling fast, even going a little bit up all the time. Temperature was rising, slowly, and the scenery and views around us was very nice.

A couple of villages catched our eye, first Baños de Molgas#75, a village from the times of the Roman Empire which is well known by its bridge built by the romans, the roman baths, its natural hot water springs, among some other things. We did not stop there, but what we saw while riding through it was beautiful.

The other village was Maceda#76, with its old castle from the XI century, its cobblestone streets and old stone houses. It was a pity that they were doing some construction works on several streets, which we had to pass on our way through the village. But even with all that work, the village looked nice.

In one of the villages we did a quick stop to remove some layers. I removed the Rapha jacket and packed it in the saddle bag, but I kept the gillet on (it wasn’t that hot yet).

We were reaching the top of Alto do Couso when we spot a nice fountain on the left side of the road. We stopped there to refill our bottles. An old couple was sitting on a bench, outside a house nearby. They said hello and asked “Where are you coming from? Ourense?”. When we told them from where we actually came, they were surprised, but when we told them what we had still ahead of us… I bet they simply thought “This young people is nuts”.

A few meters after the fountain we stop at the top of the climb, at a gas station and got our cards stamped at 10:55. Quick stop to get the stamps and off towards Ourense again, on a 20 km descent with a few flat (and fast) parts.

We literally flew there.

Getting closer to Ourense, we passed by the Encoro de Cachamuiña (the dam of Cachamuiña). The road passed just by the side of the artificial lake made by the dam, and the views were gorgeous. They had one of those parks there with access to the lake, so people can go there for walks, running, swimming or simply spend some time outside.

Half an hour later we were entering the city, again on a ring road, but this time on the east side of the city. We were riding down a long avenue, with lots of traffic lights, when I noticed a Trek bike shop to our left. We stopped for a moment to check if it was open… and it was indeed!

The guys waited outside while I went inside Codigo Bike#77 and bought a water bottle (since Allariz I had only one with me, which wasn’t ideal for a 400 Brevet). I also told the guy there about the Brevet we were doing and my little accident with the pot hole. He offered to check pressure on my wheels and pump some air if needed (great!) and even refilled my bottles with fresh water.

Second time this year that a Trek bike shop saved the day (do you remember about Bragança?)

We resumed riding and passed by Ourense again without entering the city (luckily). On our way to the bridge to cross the Miño river (again), suddendly we had to pull the breaks, completely astonished…

A duck was crossing the road, followed by a few ducklings!!

I tried to take the camera out, everybody tried the same with their phones… but they were too fast and we weren’t able to take a picture. Too bad, it was quite the picture.

We crossed the Miño and took the road right alongside it, towards the climb out of Ourense and towards the next checkpoint, Chantada#78 (km 290), in the province of Lugo#79.

Big main road, lots of motor traffic, going all the way up under a strong mid-day sun that soon started to cook us for good. If only we would have some nice views… but there wasn’t any.

We started with a 10 km climb on the bigger Ourense-Santiago road. At the village of Cambeo we took the road to Chantada#80, still a big main road but with a lot less traffic at least. This was the moment when the wind started to push us back seriously.

We were tired and our mood wasn’t that good anymore, but we pushed through. Time to stay inline and take turns pulling. The road was a series of ups and downs, with the ups being longer than the downs, which meant less recovery time.

We were going up another long repecho, everybody silent, when I saw the sign with the name of the next village, Toldavia, and I couldn’t help myself.

“They should have added a big ‘NO’ at the end!”

It took a second, but then everybody was laughing out loud.

Note

Explanation for non-spanish speakers:

The name of the village was Toldavia

Todavia in spanish means Yet

If we add a No at the end… “Toldavia No”, literally translated… “Not Yet”

Now place all this after a lots of little climbs, one after another… ;-)

It took a few more repechos, but soon we crossed from the province of Ourense into the province of Lugo. Our next stop was getting closer and closer, and we were already dreaming of having lunch, but we still had a few more repechos to climb, a few more villages to cross (like A Barrela, A Estivada, Pradeda or Soilán).

It was a relief when we finally reached the 5 km descent that would get us to Chantada#81. On that descent we catched our friend Manolo again and we arrived in Chantada with him at 13:42.

We rode around some streets for a while, trying to find a good place to eat something, and we finally followed the recommendations of some locals and found a nice little restaurant with enough space to park our bikes outside.

The bar was pretty full, almost all tables already taken, but there was some space at the counter, so we decided to order anyway. I order a bocadillo de calamares (fried squid sandwich) and a beer. I wanted to order some tortilla too, but the waiter said that, sadly, there was no more of it left.

While they prepared lunch, people from a few tables finished and left, and we finally sat for a while. Alex, Óscar and me sat at one table, and the rest of the group sat at another one.

When we finished our food, a few of us still had some free space, so we got some croissants and pastries as a quick dessert. Some others had coffee. We spent a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes during this stop.

Manolo was ready before the rest of us, so he paid for his own food and left, while we were paying ours with the money from the common pot.

Then we went outside and got ready to leave.

We knew the hardest part of the Brevet was history at this point. From then on there should be no more big climbs left to do, but still we would find lots of little climbs. First one right at the exit of Chantada.

The next checkpoint was 102 km away, in the town of Betanzos#82, and on our way there we had to pass by Taboada#83, Monterroso#84 and Palas de Rei#85 (still in the province of Lugo#86) Melide#87 and Curtis#88 (already back in the province of A Coruña#89) among some other smaller villages.

From Chantada to Taboada we rode in parallel to the Miño river, but we didn’t really have a view of it. A bit before arriving in Taboada, we hit the mark of 300 km.

We crossed Taboada without stopping and took the road towards Monterroso. On our way there, while riding on a long straight road, we saw an ambulance on the road, some traffic police and lots of people. There had been a car crash, some car hit a motorcycle hard.

Then we passed Monterroso and Palas de Rei, also without stopping, and we pushed through to Melide#90 (km 340) where we decided to do one last coffee stop.

We were almost there, almost done. The last stretch, usually the one that feels longer, harder, more difficult. Everybody was tired, so we focused a bit more on pushing the pedals and less on talking, with Dani and Edgar doing most of the work, pulling us all the way.

I started to feel a bit strange, like when sleep is coming over you fast. Not dizzy and not really sleepy, but weird. This brought up memories of a similar sensation in the 400 last year, so I decided to apply the same solution that worked fine one year ago. I pushed myself a bit.

I put myself in front of the group and pulled strongly. We were on a road that was going up and down like a rollercoaster, so I pushed hard on the parts where it was going a bit up, and a little easier when it started to go down. I kept an eye on the guys behind, trying to adapt my rythm, not too hard, not too easy.

And it worked. After a while I was fully awake and I let somebody else take over the lead pulling.

Then Alex was by my side, looked at me and asked “what was that? what happened? you started to pull like a maniac!”. I smiled wickedly and explained why.

I really enjoyed this part of the Brevet, between Melide and Betanzos. The roads were in perfect condition, we were rolling fast (we had head wind, but not as bad as the forecast said) and we had some nice views all the way to Betanzos.

At one point dark clouds started to cover the sky, threatening us with some rain. But we were lucky and it didn’t really rain (but we had a few light showers).

After Curtis there was a long descent to Betanzos. 20 km going downhill, with a short stop in the middle to get some water from another fountain (called Fuente del Caballo because there is a big statue of a horse head by the fountain).

We arrived in Betanzos#91 (km 392) at 19:30 and we got our cards stamped in a gas station. We didn’t want to spend too much time there. Everybody was looking forward to finish the Brevet. We still had around 15 km to the finish line, with 3 interesting little climbs on our way.

The thing with those climbs is that they are in the main road to get to coruña from this side. This could mean lots of traffic, specially at certain rush hours, like the time we were going to pass by there today.

The guy at the gas station told us 3 other randonneurs stopped there too to get their cards stamped. Two of them a lot earlier than us, but the other one had passed by not long ago. We recognized our friend Manolo by the description the guy gave us.

We said goodbye to the nice guy at the gas station and off we went, to tackle the last 15 km.

One climb out of Betanzos, then another one at Guisamo and then some descent in the middle of the fast traffic until we took the road right towards Santa Cruz. That little road is a life saver, we were riding in the middle of all that traffic and suddendly, pop, you appear in a smaller, quieter road.

In no time we were on the road from Santa Cruz to Bastiagueiro. Everybody smiling and getting back to making jokes. I was telling Alex about our little tradition of sprinting all the way up the parking lot ramp to the finish line in INEFG, when I noticed someone on a bike in the last roundabout before INEFG.

It was someone on a road bike, but it was a very small person. When we were getting closer, I noticed it was a kid. And when we were really close, he dashed out of the sidewalk, into the roundabout and towards INEFG.

I realized it was the son of one of the Mesoiros, Jose. I was on the lead then, so I pushed the pedals and got side-by-side with him on the ramp. He looked at me, eyes wide open, standing on the pedals and pushing hard.

“HEY!” - I shouted - “Don’t you dare! You can’t win! I’m gonna win!” and I did stand on the pedals, making it as if I was doing a hard effort. He pushed and I kept myself side by side with him, shouting “Oh!, No!, you are too strong! But I’m going to win!”.

I heard the others laughing behind and we kept like that all the way up the ramp. When we were almost at the top, I let him pass, cursing and shouting about my bad luck finding someone so strong at the finish line.

It was a damned fun ending for a Brevet ;-D

20:21. Brevet card delivered, pictures taken, we did stay for a moment there, chatting about the day, the Brevet, everything. It was the first 400 for both Óscar and Alex, and I had the sensation both of them had a good time.

Personally, I had a great time. I started the Brevet worried about my knees, about the change in saddle height/position, about doing a second 400 2 weeks after doing the first one… lots of doubts, but all of them were completely cleared/wiped out during the first part of the Brevet.

It felt so good to see my knees were just fine again, big win there.

After socializing a bit more, some left home, while me and some others went to the parking lot to pack our things up in our cars.

It took some time to pack things up, mostly because we keep chatting and sharing our points of view of the day, then talking about what will be next in our agendas… the 600 Brevet(s).

As usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Change of plans to get to Paris

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-19 00:00:00

As you may remember, back in february I booked a place to go to Paris with the FECT, just after I made up my mind about pre-registering for PBP#92.

Back then it seemed like the best option for all the travelling and accomodation. Even some of my friends from Astorga Randonneurs#93 signed up with the FECT#94 too.

I few weeks later, though, I discovered that a few randonneurs from A Coruña were going directly from there. One of them being my friend Dani (whom you already know, from my brevet reports, as I’ve ridden almost all of them with him). And they offered me a place to go with them.

On one hand, going with the FECT#95, which means driving myself for 4 hours to get to Madrid or Burgos (the two places where they could pick me up with the bus) and then a long trip by bus all the way to Paris.

On the other hand, driving less than an hour to Coruña, then a trip in a couple of big vans with some friends to Burdeaux, sleep there, then get to Rambouillet the next day.

The second option definetely sounded better, specially considering that on the come back from Paris, with the FECT#96 option I still would have to drive my car for 4 hours to get back home…

So I discussed my options with the guys from the FECT#97 and I had two options:

find (by myself) someone that was going to signup for the trip with them, and then pass him/her my reservation.

wait until all the seats have been booked and they open a “waiting queue”, then the first person that gets a place in that queue will get my reservation

Finding someone by myself was going to be difficult, so I simply waited.

Weeks, then months, passed. The more we were getting closer to the date when the final PBP registrations will be open, the clearer it was that there won’t be a “waiting queue”. It did not seem they will fill the bus.

Luckily, I managed to find someone that was interested in going to Paris with them. During one of the Brevets, I heard another randonneur that he was thinking about booking a place for the trip. I got in touch with him a few days ago and told him about my reservation and that I was looking for someone to pass the reservation on.

He was interested and, in a couple of days, everything was arranged. He made me a money transfer of the amount I had paid in avance to the FECT#98 and they arranged internally the transfer of my reservation to him.

So, another step forward towards that crazy idea of riding Paris-Brest-Paris for the first time…

Why your Brevet homologation name is important

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-24 00:00:00

You know, I have this super long and complicated name:

“Francisco de Borja López Río”

With “Francisco de Borja” being my first name and “López Río” my last name (or surname, or family name, whatever).

Using multiple first names was quite common in spain a few years ago, when I was born. As it happens, it has caused me trouble several times through my life. Some times it is simply mispellt (one word or several), some times a mistake is made and they put only “Francisco” as the first name, some other times people think it is not long enough and add some more words to it…

Anyway, trouble one way or the other.

For a long time, I decided to stick with the full thing, as that is how my name appears officially in my ID card (called DNI/NIF in spain), but they are too many words, which raises the probabilities of errors. So in the end I decided to use the simpler version every time I’ve to sign up for anything: “Borja López Río”.

So, in order to pre-register yourself for PBP#99, first you have to open an account in the Audax Club Parisien website#100. There you provide some basic information, like full name, address, etc. I provided “Borja López Río” as my full name.

Then you can proceed with the pre-registration, which I already did back in february

Then you have to do the full Super Randonneur Series before a given date (some day at the start of July) to be able to confirm your registration.

For the ACP#101 to check that you have done the needed Brevets, in order to confirm your registration, you have to look for them in their website, under your account. You can look for them by club or by Brevet homologation number, and once you find the Brevet data, you have to confirm it (clicking on a button).

Easy… isn’t it?

Maybe not so easy. They have some constraint set on the data, so even if you look for a Brevet by its homologation number, if the name in your ACP#102 account does not match the name provided when doing the Brevet homologation, then you cannot confirm it as yours.

On every Brevet I signed up for in 2023, I’ve used the same short version of my name, “Borja López Río”, except in one case, the first 300 brevet of the season, the BRM 300 - Del Urogallo (my mistake there, I should have paid more attention).

And now that brevet is missing from my account data. I can find it by its homologation number, but it appears with first name “Francisco” and last name “de Borja Lopez Rio” (second mistake, last name should have been “López Río”).

Looking into data from previous years in my account at the ACP#103 site, several brevets that appear there with the first name “Francisco de Borja” and the last name “Lopez Rio”, so I guess the constraint there is applied only to the last name.

Being a bit worried about all this, and how it may affect the requirements to finally confirm my registration to PBP#104, I dug a bit about how I could fix this Brevet homologation name, so I could have it under my account.

A few emails later with the representative of the ACP#105 in spain (Randonneurs Catalunya#106) I discovered that I’d have to send by post the Brevet card for that Brevet and some writing in a paper telling what needed to be fixed. Then, this spanish representative would send it to the ACP#107 in Paris and we would have to wait for them to fix it.

In the end, the good news is, I don’t need to do all that (even if I’d like to, really, to have my ACP#108 profile complete) as this year I’ve been a bit ambitious since the start, and I’m aiming at doing 2 full Super-Randonneur series, instead of 1.

This means that even missing that 300 brevet, I’ve enough brevets to confirm my PBP pre-registration. But for someone without the time to do some extra Brevets, this could have caused some serious headaches.

So, remember kids: always, always, double check the name on your Brevet cards when you get them!

Bike problems just before the first 600

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-26 00:00:00

As you may remember, during both 400 brevets this year I hit a pothole hard. Hard enough for the water bottles to fly away from the bike and get some serious pinch flat (rear wheel in the BRM 400 - Braganza and both wheels at the same time in BRM 400 - Polas catro provincias).

After the second 400 I did a few shorter rides, and during the last one, I noticed some slack somewhere on the front part of the bike. I couldn’t tell if it was the steeering, the headset, the fork, the wheel… Also, for a few rides already I noticed an ugly “crack” sound coming from the bottom bracket every time I had to stand on the bike and push the pedals a bit harder.

Add to it all that, during the bike fit, I found out that my pedals were so worn out that they were not retaining the cleats properly in place (so even using the black cleats from look, my feet were too loose and the heal moved a lot sideways).

It was time to get the bike to my favourite LBS, MyBike#109.

I brought the bike to the shop last monday, so my friend Ginés could take a look at it and tell me a diagnostic.

Next morning, he told me it was time to replace the BB30 bottom bracket of my Synapse, and that he had stock of the Keo Blade Carbon pedals, so we could replace the old ones with some new pedals of the same brand/model.

He also told me that the thing with the front part of the bike wasn’t definetely the steering/headset or the fork. It seemed like some problem with the wheel (probably the bearings).

As I ordered those wheels online from Scribe#110, and they were still under warranty, I decided to write them an email before doing anything else about the wheels.

I sent an email to Scribe’s support team on the 23rd, 09:30, explaining the problem in detail, and in less than 2 hours, I already had a reply (excellent support service). They suggested to give it a try replacing the front wheel bearings.

I called back the LBS and asked Ginés to replace the bearings, but he didn’t have stock of the ones needed for my wheel, OUCH. No worries, he told me he was going to get them in time, so the bike could be ready for the 600 Brevet this weekend.

Days passed, and the bike wasn’t ready, and yesterday (thursday) I called the LBS at noon to check the status. At that point, I was already considering replacing that Scribe front wheel with the old DTSwiss I’ve here, somewhere…

In the end I got the bike back yesterday evening, and this morning I went for a quick test ride (1h) to check everything was ok.

And it was, everything in place and perfect, just in time for the 600 Brevet tomorrow…

BRM 600 - Santiago

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-29 00:00:00

My first 600 Brevet ever. As it happened before with the previous distances (200, 300, 400) I won’t forget this one anytime soon. I still have vivid memories of my first brevet on each distance, as each one was special in some unique way. And this wasn’t any different.

An epic 2-day ride along the Camino de Santiago, on nice roads and with good company, awesome climbs and fast rolling parts, as well as the usual galician rollercoasters… we had it all, and everything went by the book, just perfect.

Another brevet organized by my friends at Astorga Randonneurs#111, my idea was to ride as much as possible with the same group of friends I rode the BRM 400 - Braganza with (both Sergios, Saúl, Valentín and Estefanía). They already did a 600 together last year, and they had a few ideas about how to do in this one, including the answer to the big question:

Stop for a few hours of sleep… or not??

This was going to be a tough 600, with around +9400m of climbing, almost an SR#112 600 (which amount of minimum elevation gain is +10000m). But where the time limit for an SR#113 is 60 hours, for a normal 600 Brevet the limit is 40 hours.

I’ve heard a lot of times, while doing other brevets, comments from veteran randonneurs about the 600s being easier than the 400s because “you can do a short stop for sleep a few hours”. But the last couple of weeks, those same randonneurs were giving me advice against a stop for sleeping in this precise 600. “It is too much climbing”, “You won’t make it in time”, “It is a tough and slow one”, and so on.

But this group of friends thought otherwise. They wanted to do a sleep stop no matter what and, honestly, I thought it was a good idea. So a couple of weeks before the brevet, we booked a place to sleep around km 340, just on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela#114. This area had plenty of options that fit well our needs, as El Camino passes by there, so they are used to have lots of pilgrims all year long.

The next big question to solve was, what should I carry with me?.

So far the longest distance I’ve done was 400 km, without any proper sleep stop. This was going to be different, not only the extra 200 km and the stop to get some sleep, the weather was going to be a big factor there too.

The forecast was getting worse day by day, and a couple of days before the Brevet it was clear that we were going to have some interesting spring rain showers and, quite probably, thunderstorms too.

So, apart from what I’d bring to a 400, I’d also need:

More food than usual (more time on the bike)

More clothes (something to wear when sleeping, something to wear on the second day, stuff to protect myself under strong rain)

Bags to carry things comfortably

Regarding food, I packed the usual mix of Clif#115 bars, oats+honey bars, nuts bars and powerbar#116 protein bars. I just threw in a few more than usual. These bars were split between my top-tube bag, my jersey back pockets and a ziploc bag inside my saddle bag (from where I’d refill the top tube bag and my pockets during the Brevet).

Then I prepared a big bocadillo de jamón con tomate using rich multicereal bread with nuts. I sliced the bocadillo in three pieces and then packed them carefully into ziploc bags.

I also packed a bag of 226ers#117 isotonic drink powder and a few isostar powertabs#118 (enough to prepare 3 bottles of salts mix). I usually bring the powertabs with me in 300 and 400 brevets too, but only to prepare 2 bottles.

About clothes, I decided to bring enough for 2 “summer” days (2 short sleeve jerseys, 2 base layers - one a bit warmer than the other -, 2 bib shorts and 2 pairs of socks) plus arm and leg warmers, toe and waterproof shoe covers, my Rapha Brevet gillet with pockets and a light wind/rain jacket.

The idea was to wear one of the kits on saturday, and the other kit on sunday, adding arm/leg warmers, etc as needed during the ride. The waterproof shoe covers where a bit of a gamble… but it turned out it was worth bringing them with me.

With everything I wanted to pack spread over my bed (yeah, shame on me, I did not take the usual “before packing” picture!), it was time to pack everything up. And then I did regret not having bought a frame bag in time for this Brevet.

I thought I could manage with just my small Restrap#119 top-tube bag and my Apidura#120 9L saddle bag… but soon the saddle bag looked really bulky. And then I remembered that I had a small frame bag from decathlon#121. Not ideal, but good enough.

In the top tube bag I packed some bars, the isostar powertabs and the gopro camera.

In the small frame bag I packed one piece of the bocadillo, some more bars, the wind/rain jacket and a small ziploc bag with the key of my car.

In the saddle bag… everything else. Tools, spares, all the clothes, the other two pieces of the bocadillo, the bag with more bars, another ziploc bag with a powerbank and 2 additional batteries for the gopro, etc…

I did a couple of tests at home, to check things were ok once on the bike (with lights and everything), and then I removed the bags from the bike and packed everything in the car.

Time to drive a couple of hours to San Justo de la Vega#122.

I arrived in San Justo just in time to meet a few of the others in the Oasis, the bar which is also the start point of the Brevets there.

I got my Brevet card, we had a couple of beers and dinner (burger!) while chatting about what was waiting for us during the weekend.

As usual, it took some time to finish up dinner, grab my things and go to bed.

I woke up at 04:50, had full breakfast in my room and grabbed my things. I spent the night at the Hostal Juli, which is just the next building to the Oasis (the brevet starting point). This meant being able to sleep a bit more and also meant sleeping in the same place as most of the other randonneurs, so when I left my room, the corridors were full of other people with bags, bikes, etc.

I got to my car (as I left the bike there for the night) and started to get ready. Sadly, I had some issues when attaching the apidura saddle bag (I guess it was so loaded, that it made things harder to set up). I was almost ready when Salva came by to tell me they were leaving now (I missed the start group picture :-( ).

I hurried up and left, at the tail of the 17-randonneurs group, into the night.

We rode for a bit less than an hour in the dark, as a pack, before the sun came up. We were about to start the first climb of the day, Foncebadón#123, passing by Cruz de Ferro#124. 14 km of continuous climbing, easier at the start and getting tougher by the end, after we passed the Cruz de Ferro#125.

The group did stay together for most of the climb, with a few exceptions (a couple of fast riders putting some distance on the group soon, a few stopping to pee…). Overall, time to chat and catch up with friends, as usual.

This road is part of the Camino Francés#126, so we found several pilgrims on our way. Most of them were walking, but we also passed several people riding their bicycles.

Note

I’ve to make a special mention about a man that was riding his bike up to Foncebadón, wearing sandals, regular shorts and a shirt. His bike was a normal city bike and he had only a bag attached to its handlebar.

It was cold and damp so early in the morning and there he was, riding that city bike with a big smile on his face.

And this wasn’t going our only encounter with this man during the weekend, as on sunday, on our way back, we crossed him again on our way to Alto do Poio, from where he was coming down!

Before arriving at the top of Puerto de Foncebadón (1504m) thick fog banks surrounded us, making it hard to see a few meters around. Soon it was difficult even to see who was riding in front of you.

Luckily, the fog went away when we arrived at the top of the climb, where we did a short stop to wait for several members of our group.

It was really nice that the fog went away, as that way we were able to enjoy the gorgeous views before the long descent into Ponferrada#127.

That descent was… fast. At the top we agreed on sticking together and arrive together in Ponferrada#128, but soon Valentín and I were way ahead of the others.

In the middle of the descent, we crossed the village of El Acebo, with its broken cobblestone main street. Let me tell you it is a beautiful village to visit walking, but not really nice to find yourself there in the middle of a super-fast descent and after a 180º turn.

Our little group reassembled there, but after leaving the village, Valentín and I were faster once more, so we put some distance between us and the group again, just to stop after Molinaseca#129 and wait a bit for them.

We resumed riding together, with the addition of Juankar and two italians, Maximilian and Emmanuelle. We were a big group (10 people) and we had the wind on our backs. The road was smooth, fast and we were going a bit down all the time, so things started to go a bit out of hands.

We rode by the Sil#130 river, crossing the tunnel of Peñarrubia and passing the dam with the same name. I don’t know why, but crossing tunnels on the bike always feels… special.

Note

Maximilian and Emmanuelle weren’t the only foreigners in this Brevet. There were also randonneurs from Russia, Argentina and Portugal.

I didn’t met nor the Russian, who was just a red tail light way ahead of us for the first 60 km or so (and we didn’t hear anything about him for the rest of the brevet), neither the Argentinian.

I met the Portuguese several times during the first day, he was riding solo and he always seemed like having a very good time.

People started pushing the pedals and taking turns on the lead. After a while there was no more chatting, no conversation at all. At least for a while, until the complains started to appear. We were going too fast, too early.

At 10:05 we arrived in Puente de Domingo Flórez#131 (km 95), where some of us decided to do a coffee stop. It just felt like the right moment, after the first 4 hours of riding and it was perfect to break a bit that too-fast rythm we were falling into.

Some of us took a moment to rearrange things a bit (clothes mostly) and then we ordered some coffee. Instead of ordering something to eat, I decided to have one of the three pieces of my bocadillo de jamón (and it was just perfect!)

30 minutes later, we resumed riding. Juankar decided to wait for our friend Manolo, he wasn’t enjoying our pace at all. The italians didn’t stop at all, so our little group of friends was going to be on its own from there on.

We crossed from Castilla y León#132 to Galicia#133, directly into the province of Ourense#134, passing the village of O Barco de Valdeorras#135, which is known because of the wine produced there.

On our way to Monforte de Lemos#136 (the first Brevet checkpoint) we passed by Rúa de Valdeorras, Quiroga and San Clodio, among a few more smaller villages.

We were still going fast, on smooth roads. For some time we took turns on the lead, pulling the group. Each one pulled for 1 km, until the next 1-km-sign by the road, then it was turn for the next in the queue and the first one had to go to the last position on the line.

I’m not particulary fond of this game. I’m always too nervous and I spend more time looking at the wheel in front of me (and any pot hole that could slip by that wheel without warning) and less time enjoying the scenery around (which is, for me, the primary reason to do Brevets).

But I’ve to admit that this way km pass by fast.

We crossed the Sil#137 river like 5 times, as many times as the Lor#138 river. Bridges and bridges and more bridges.

The sun was hitting us hard, with temperatures between 25 and 28ºC, there were no clouds to give us some shelter from it and the roads were quite open, without any trees or woods around them to protect us neither.

I didn’t want to end completely sunburnt, like at the end of the BRM 400 - Braganza, so during a quick group pee stop, I put some sunscreen on arms, neck and legs. I also packed my arm/leg warmers in the saddle bag, I wasn’t going to need them for the time being.

Before arriving in Monforte, we had a short climb (5km, 4% average), nothing too serious, but under that strong sun and with our bottles almost empty, it was interesting. At the top we decided to do a quick stop at a gas station to refill our bottles.

Roberto and Estefanía didn’t stop at the gas station and they kept riding towards Monforte, telling us they would find a nice place for lunch and then they would send us the location to one of our mobile phones.

We left the gas station with bottles refilled and we pushed through the remaining 11 km to arrive in town. during that last stretch, we noticed big clouds were gathering in the area towards where we were going.

According to the weather forecast, we should expect rain and/or thunderstorms, and it seemed we were going to have some of those soon.

We arrived in Monterroso, looked at Roberto’s location and headed there. He was waiting for us in a restaurant in downtown, with Estefanía, Juankar and Manolo. We were on our way there, crossing some pedestrian-only area, when it started raining. We were going very carefully, one foot loose from the pedals and using that to push our bikes, the stone streets were wet and full of people, there were lots of terraces and all of them were full. Suddendly, I heard a big CRASH sound, followed by an even bigger THUMBM!! and then I realized Sergio was on the ground.

His bike slipped and he crashed loudly on his right side, falling on a few plastic chairs from a terrace.

We all went there quickly, to check on him. Luckily, he was ok. He smashed one of the chairs (completely broken), but that chair saved him from having a much worse crash.

After double checking him and his bike, we moved a bit forward, on the next turn, there they were, our friends sitting on a covered terrace.

We looked for a place to park our bikes, under some roof, and we sat for lunch. Just after sitting, lighting and thunders started to crack the sky and a huge rain storm fell.

Unfortunately, lunch took a lot longer than expected. The service wasn’t very good and there were several misunderstandings (one being the waitress forgetting to actually order my food to the cook). There were a couple of anxious moments, but in the end all went ok.

Bill paid, bottles refilled and bellies full, we left Monforte without rain but with clouds everywhere.

We were starting probably one of the most beautiful parts of this Brevet, but also probably the toughest. We were going towards the Ribeira Sacra#139, one of the most beautiful places in Galicia#140. Basically we went all the way down from Monforte to one of the biggest dams on the Sil#141, Os Peares#142, and then we had to climb our way up along the river banks.

Right after leaving Monforte, we took a nice small road towards Ferreira de Pantón#143.

This was one of those nice and quiet roads from the rural countryside in Galicia. All the time going a bit up, a bit down, and then a bigger climb passing by the old cistercian monastery and then through the village.

When we were arriving in Ferreira, dark clouds were covering the sky. It seemed quite clear that it was going to start raining any moment now.

We left the village and entered an area completely covered by trees, thick foliage making a natural roof over our heads, making it difficult to know if it was raining outside.

What we were able to notice were the thunders. When we heard the first one, nobody said anything. When we heard the second one, I couldn’t help myself and said loudly - “Man, was that a truck on a big road parallel to this one?”.

Saúl laughed and replied - “Suuuure my friend, there is a huge highway just a few meters to our right” - and another thunder cracked, sounding even louder.

We laughed and we kept pushing the pedals, in hope of avoiding any big thunderstorm coming our way.

As we were leaving the woods, thick rain drops started to fall, just before the long descent along the river banks, towards the dam. Quickly, we decided to push a bit harder, see if we can either leave the storm behind, or cross it quickly.

It worked, we went all the way down to the river fast, and it was worth the effort. We had a bit of rain at the start of the descent, but when we arrived at the Os Peares#144 dam, it had stopped completely.

The dam was the next checkpoint, km 205. We arrived there at 15:54 and we stop to take a proof picture.

On our way down we catched Juankar and Manolo again, and we took a moment to enjoy the gorgeous views of the dam, talk about how lucky we just had been - avoiding the storm - and take a few more pictures.

We crossed the dam and started the climb on the other side of the river, with a hard start, percentages around 14-16% and reaching 21%. At least it wasn’t raining!

The next few km were lovely. Right, it was tough because of those high percentage climbs, but going up there slowly gave us the chance to enjoy the gorgeous views around us. In fact, it was soooo, so, tempting to stop and take pictures… I guess if I wasn’t riding in a group, I’d stop a few more times.

Nobody was talking, you don’t talk a lot when you are panting, you know. And then, Roberto decided to play the DJ role. He attached his phone to an adapter on his handlebar and played some music… Highlights from a different era, from maybe 30 years ago, the spanish classics like Raphael, Nino Bravo, etc (I rolled my eyes and pushed the pedals, I don’t really like that kind of music…).

At one point, in the middle of another tough little climb, he selected a joke of a song from the 70s, La Ramona by comic and singer Fernando Esteso… That made the climb twice as hard, as it caught us by surprise and we started laughing in the middle of it. I was running out of breath and almost had to step down the bike.

The road was ok in those short climbs, but it was quite broken in a few of the descents. Treacherous, dangerous, those descents were full of holes and loose stones. I was being very careful, the last thing I wanted was another pinch flat, like in the previous 2 Brevets (the 400s). Then, in one of the descents, I noticed everybody was stopped a few meters in front of me.

Sergio hit a hole and got a double pinch flat. We quickly put everybody to work and in 15 minutes both tubes had been replaced. While we were replacing them, Manolo and Juankar passed us (we had left them behind a bit earlier) and I shouted - “Manolo! it wasn’t me this time, I promise!” - and he laughed as we remembered the last 2 brevets and my double pinch flat in the last one. “I see, but these things always happens in YOUR group, man!” - he replied.

We resumed riding, more short steep climbs, more broken descents. It seemed like a never-ending road at that point. We were running out of water, Roberto had been without any water for maybe an hour now and we were not able to find any fountains or places to get some.

Finally, we found a fountain and we did a short stop for refilling.

The last stretch, like climbing your way out of hilly hell, gave us probably the best views of the river and the vineyards around its river bank. The Ribeira Sacra#145 is well known by the quality of the wine produced there, and all the way up from Os Peares we passed by so, so many vineyards.

It took us almost 2 hours to ride the 30km from Os Peares to Chantada#146. When we arrived there, the group split again. Roberto and Estefanía were ahead of everybody, me and Valentín a bit behind them and way behind were both Sergios and Saúl.

Valentín and I decided to wait for the others and then stop for a moment in a terrace to have a quick coca-cola together. I had the sensation that Sergio was having a low moment there. Maybe it was just me, but I tried to cheer him up a bit, and he didn’t seem to be in a good mood.

We gave Roberto a call, to tell him we were going to do a quick stop. He and Estefanía were already out of town, going towards the next climb - Alto do Faro - but he told me they would find a place by the road to stop too and wait for us.

The next checkpoint was 35 km away, in Lalin#147, and to get there we still had to climb our way out of Chantada#148, going up for 15Km up to Alto do Faro. We took it easy, finding Roberto and Estefanía a few minutes after leaving town. They already had finished their drinks, so we didn’t even have to stop.

We rode together for a while, then the group turned into a line and eventually we split again. I arrived at the top of Alto do Faro and decided to put some clothes back on (arm warmers, gillet). It was early evening and the temperature had already started to drop. Also, we had a fast descent ahead towards Lalin#149.

It took me a moment to dress up and by the time I was ready, I was alone. Everybody pushed it on the descent, so I did that part alone and I cought them on the next repecho, after the village of Rodeiro.

We arrived in Lalin#150, next checkpoint - km 280, at 20:17 and we were completely soaked. On the last descent we found the road completely wet. It seemed as if a big storm just passed by there before us. The roads were so wet and full of water puddles, that the spray our tires were sending up got us all wet in no time.

I tried to keep myself away from the others, to avoid getting even more wet on my upper body, but it was pretty much useless.

As we were entering Lalin, we met Maximilian and Emmanuelle again, they mentioned something about some gears trouble in Emmanuelle’s bike. Sadly we weren’t able to understand what they were saying, and they didn’t stop with us, so we couldn’t offer any help.

I suggested the others to do a stamp-and-coffee stop at the same gas station I did stop in the BRM 400 - Polas catro provincias Brevet a couple of weeks before. I knew the café there was nice and there was plenty of space to park the bikes on plain sight.

While having that wonderful cup of hot coffee, I ate the second piece of my bocadillo de jamón, which was the perfect companion for the coffee.

As I’ve mentioned already, it was early evening and the temperature was dropping. And at that moment, we were all wet, so things were not going to improve regarding the cold. We all decided to put on some more layers before leaving the gas station.

I put on the leg warmers and the waterproof shoe covers. I did hesitate about putting my warmer gloves on or not. I did, but then just after leaving I decided to remove them again and pack them into my gillet back pockets. It wasn’t THAT cold yet. I also kept my rain jacket at hand, in case I may need it in a hurry.

Putting shoe covers on was the right decission, as for the next few hours we would ride on wet roads and more water puddles. It definetely seemed like we avoided the worse of the storm by a short margin. All the way to Santiago my feet were a bit drier (they were wet already) and warm.

We had 40 km to go until Santiago de Compostela#151 and from there, 20-something more km to O Pedrouzo, where we were going to stop and sleep for a few hours.

The road to Santiago was smooth and fast again. Even on the wet roads and with the ocassional repecho, it was so much fun. I spent a lot of time riding side-by-side with Roberto, talking, making jokes. How nice it is to have good company.

We also rode again with Juankar and Manolo. They were at the gas station in Lalin when we arrived and we left it together. While we had plans to sleep 3 hours after Santiago, they were going to do the Brevet without sleeping.

Hours were passing by, and soon we had a nice view of the sunset. We were riding northwest, so we had a good view of the sun setting over the horizon to our left.

We rode together for a while, but then Manolo and Juankar decided to stop in a village near Santiago to have dinner there, instead of trying to find a place in the big city, where things would be busier on a saturday evening.

We said our goodbyes and Roberto and me pushed on to Santiago, with the rest of the group behind us. After a while, we decided to stop at the top of one of the multiple repechos and wait for the others. It would be nicer to get into the big city together.

As we were approaching Santiago, we started to talk about what to do about dinner. Our idea was to arrive in O Pedrouzo before 23:00, but it was clear at that point that we were going to be late. One idea was to look for a place to eat in Santiago (I was dreaming of a dish full of pasta) but Saúl pointed out that a proper dinner stop would mean arriving way too late at the appartment we have booked.

Santiago was also the next checkpoint, km 320, so we had to get our Brevet cards stamped. We arrived there at 22:45 and we did a quick stop at a gas station at the entrance of the city. The gas station had a a small 24-hour supermarket, so we got in, got our cards stamped and bought whatever food we could find that was easy to carry with us.

I bought several empanadillas (traditional galician cake-like food, that can be filled with almost anything), meat, chicken, tuna fish… and a couple of Snickers chocolate bars. I put everything in my back pockets.

We left the gas station as quickly as possible, with Roberto still trying to finish the food he just bought at the supermarket. That’s why I decided to put everything in my pockets and eat everything later. Eating so fast usually causes me stomach problems later.

As I’ve mentioned already in the report for the BRM 400 - Polas catro provincias Brevet, I’ve lived in Santiago some years ago, and I know the city quite well, so I took the lead and brought them right into the old part of the city, to Plaza del Obradoiro and the well-known Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, where we took a few pictures.

We crossed the square and left the old part of town on a street that I’ve walked thousands of times long ago, when I was a student at the Faculty of Physics. So many memories from old times came at once.

Maximilian and Emmanuelle rode with us for a while, but on one of the traffic lights, or a roundabout, we lost them.

We took the old road that goes from Santiago to Lugo, my home town. Surprisingly there was almost no motor traffic, even for that time on a Saturday night. We passed by the Hotel Santiago Apostol on another little climb out of Santiago, then we took the Avenida de San Marcos avenue.

Suddendly, Roberto’s front light started to behave strangely. It switched to something like a flashing mode, but flashing too fast. Like one of those lights in a rave or some disco-bars. It was really annoying, and for him it was completely useless.

He tried to switch mode without much luck, then he tried to turn it off, but it won’t turn off. In the end, he asked us to stop for a moment so he could check the light more carefully. It seemed that some water got inside the light, probably causing some damage. He had some duct tape, so he covered the light with it, at least protecting us from the constant rapid flashing.

He didn’t have a spare front light, but we were a big group (7 people) so the lights of the rest of us should be enough if he stay in the group.

When he finished and we were about to resume riding, I noticed the rest of the group wasn’t there - “They probably went on slowly, they will be waiting for us a bit ahead” - I said. There were lots of street lamps anyway, so we managed… Until they were no more street lamps.

The rows of street lamps ended abruptly just before the entrance of the airport of Lavacolla. After that, complete darkness.

I was surprised the rest of the group wasn’t there, but all we could do was to keep on riding. I switched my front light into a higher mode, so we could have light enough for both of us. Luckily, my bontrager light has a beam that is quite wide.

I had a spare light with me, but it was packed into my saddle bag, so we decided to keep on like that, sharing my front light.

The night was specially dark, with the sky covered with clouds, the moon nowhere to be seen. It was quite the relief when we finally got near O Pedrouzo, and we found some street lamps again. Finally, we managed to arrive at our destination, the street where our appartment for the night was.

Valentín was waiting for us at the crossing of roads and streets and showed us the way to the entrance of the appartment.

We took the bikes into the appartment, taking turns to take the elevator (only person + 1 bike fit inside). When everybody was there, we choose rooms - I shared one room with Sergio - and then Valentín, Saúl and Sergio Pulido decided to visit a bar around the corner that seemed open, while the rest of us decided to stay.

I ate a couple empanadillas and some fruit and I drank a couple of big glasses of orange juice. The owners of the appartment left lots of fruit for us there (oranges, bananas, apples) as well as muffins, croissants and stuff to prepare breakfast (coffee, milk, juice…). Total luxury.

Then we took turns to have a quick shower, before going to bed. I was the last one having a shower, and while I was waiting for my turn, I re-packed things in my saddle bag. I removed the bags with fresh clothes for the next day, packed the dirty clothes of the day in those same bags, and I picked up a t-shirt and some boxers I brought with me for sleeping.

After the shower (which felt awesomely good) I went to bed and put the alarm for 5:00. I fell asleep instantly.

I woke up a while before the alarm (maybe 20 minutes or so?) feeling completely refreshed and fully awake. I picked up my things and went to the bathroom to get dressed. Then I went downstairs to eat something. I had a banana, an apple and an orange, as well as another big glass of orange juice.

Then I finished packing up my things and I took a moment to clean a bit the chain on the synapse, using some kitchen paper first to remove whatever could be removed, then putting some wax lube on it.

When everybody finished a quick breakfast and got everything ready, we left the appartment. It was around 06:20 and it was still dark outside, but a bit of sun light was visible on the horizon.

I did remember the problems Roberto had with his front light a few hours ago, so I gave him my spare one, which was good enough at that time of day.

Everybody was in good spirits and we were going fast on this rollercoaster of a road. Temperature was around 12ºC the sky was clear and there was no wind. Everything was just perfect!

When we were getting closer to Arzúa#152, thick fog covered everything around us. It was a bit annoying, but not as thick as the banks we had the day before, going up Foncebadón.

We crossed Arzúa fast, at 07:15, the streets were almost empty, with the ocassional pilgrim passing by. We pushed on, with the idea of getting to Melide#153, the next big town on our way, and stop there to have a proper breakfast.

Not that I was really hungry, but the idea of having a hot coffee was… attracting.

The mist we encountered in Arzúa went away after a couple of short climbs on our way to Melide#154. The sun came out, which was a plus to our overall good mood. Roberto started to play the DJ role again… more laughing.

We started to pass by (or cross) more and more pilgrims. Some were walking, some were stopped somewhere, like waiting for someone. Some were entering or leaving some of the sleeping places along the road. Every time we pass or cross one, or a group of them, we shouted “Buen camino!!” - the usual salutation to pilgrims doing El Camino de Santiago - and we always got something in response. Some times a nod with the head, some times a big smile, some others “Buen camino!” back or a simple “Gracias”.

We arrived in Melide#155 at 08:00. I knew a couple of places there where we could have breakfast, but I was not sure if they would be open, so I warn the rest of the pack to look for any place that looked nice. I was sure that at least a couple of options near the big roundabout in the middle of town should be ok. As we were crossing the roundabout, I noticed a Churrería was opened to our left, so I called them to stop.

It even had a nice alley on its side where we could park our bikes and see them from inside.

We got inside and sat in two big tables. The place was full of people already and the waitresses were completely busy. For a moment, I thought stopping there was going to be a very bad idea, that it would take a long time to get breakfast and then another long time to pay for it.

Luckily, soon one of the waitress, an old lady that looked like one of the owners, took notes of what we wanted and delivered everything quite fast.

Big breakfast we had there (we spent a total of 45 minutes on it). We had coffee, churros, croissants, toasted bread… some people even had coffee and a hot chocolate! Everything was delicious and, as someone pointed out, it would be wonderful to stay there and have another round of breakfast, but we had a long distance to go for the day.

And so we left Melide#156…

I’m not sure if it was the 3 hour sleep, the super breakfast, the fact that we were riding roads I know by heart or all the excitement of being riding my first 600 Brevet… but I was feeling great, strong. A few times I had to pull the breaks not to get too far from the others.

At one point the fog was back, this time thicker, more dense, making it more difficult to see not only the scenery around us, but whatever was ahead of us on the road

By the time we arrived in Palas de Rei#157 the fog was starting to go away. To cross the village we had to climb a bit and soon Roberto, Valentín, Estefanía and me were ahead of the others (up to not being able to spot them when we looked back). So at the cross roads between the main road to Lugo#158 and the smaller road towards Ligonde#159 (following el camino) we decided to stop for a moment and wait for them.

Once the group was reassembled, we resumed our journey following el camino backwards.

The next stretch would take us on another small, secondary road, still on the French way (Camino Francés). Another rollercoaster of a road, with a few double-digit percentage ramps on it.

We crossed a lot more pilgrims then. This road has a dirt-path-sidewalk for the pilgrims to walk on, so we passed by people doing el camino alone, couples, small and bigger groups; young people, old people… and people from a lot different countries (judging by the look of them). We were quite impressed with the number of Asian people we crossed.

And every single time, “Buen camino!!”, while waving at them.

We crossed the main national road that goes from Lugo to Santiago and we took the one that was going to get us to Portomarín#160, another of the well known stop places for pilgrims on their way to Santiago.

These were my roads, my terrain, the roads I ride more often during shorter week rides as well as connections to other roads when doing longer rides during the weekends. I felt myself home.

From the roundabout at Alto del Hospital we went down to Portomarin fast. We passed the village without stopping, without even going through its center, which has a nice main square and old church (it wasn’t a checkpoint and we didn’t need to stop for food or water).

We crossed the bridge over the Miño#161 river and kept on riding to tackle the first real climb of the day, Alto de Paradela.

As I told Estefanía and Valentín, this is one of my usual training climbs. A gentle 6-7 km climb with a moderate average gradient, good tarmac and nice views.

After Portomarin, we went up and down for a few km, crossing another bridge, this time over the Loyo#162 river, well known for the eel that live there, and the couple of restaurants that prepare delicious dishes with them.

Just after crossing the Loyo#163, we started the climb. We were all together, but the steepest part of this climb is precisely at the start, and soon our group was split again, with Roberto, Estefanía, Valentín and me ahead of Saúl and both Sergios.

On and on we went, all the way up until we arrived in the village of Paradela#164 at 11:00.

I think I made my slowest time ever on that climb, riding the bike with all the extra bags and weight made a big difference (+ all the km and climbing already on our legs).

We did a short stop at the fountain in the middle of the village, where we waited for the others while refilling our bottles and eating something.

Once everybody was ready, we resumed riding, this time towards Sarria#165. A long and fast descent, with a couple of short climbs in the middle. This should be perfect for a quick recovery.

On the descents, I took advantage of the extra weight on the bike. I knew this road by heart, so I was confident when cornering. I guess that gave me a bit of an advantage, and soon Roberto and I were way ahead of the others.

At one point, a small white car (toyota yaris, maybe?) passed me too close, way too close and then raised its speed dangerously to approach Roberto. The driver pulled the breaks hard being too close to him and then did something very, very, stupid, trying to pass Roberto on a turn, just to pull the breaks in the middle of the maneuver and keep driving on the other lane.

The driver was completely reckless and almost caused a crash when another car was coming in the opposite direction. We were lucky that he/she finally passed Roberto without any other crazy maneuver (and no accident).

When the rest of the group catched us, they told me that the car almost crashed into me, just before doing all those crazy things behind Roberto. We were very lucky there.

Apart from that short moment of danger and tension, I enjoyed that part of the ride a lot. When we reassembled, on the first short climb after the longer part of the descent, we passed by green fields, pastures where cows were having their morning snack

We passed by Sarria#166 - 11:40 - without stopping. As it happened in the previous villages and towns, I didn’t have to look at the gps or map, so we crossed town quickly.

There was no time to waste, but we did a short stop on our way out to change clothes a bit. I finally removed my gillet and replaced the long sleeve jersey with a summer short-sleeved one.

I knew the hardest part of the day was just around the corner. Short climbs again after Sarria, on our way to Samos#167, and then one of the two biggest climbs we still had to do.

The temperature already started to get higher, slowly raising, and before we arrived in Samos#168 it passed the 20ºC mark. After another couple of short climbs the group split in two again, just like it happened at the start of Paradela.

We waited a bit, to check if everything was ok with everybody, and Sergio mentioned he would appreciate a coffee stop, as he was feeling a bit sleepy. I told him Samos would be perfect for a coffee stop, we could stop there by the old monastery, take some pictures and have a coffee.

One more short climb and then we had a long descent into Samos#169. Before starting that descent, I told Roberto about having a quick coffee stop in Samos#170, to which he agreed. On the descent, the group split in two again, and Roberto, Valentín, Estefanía and I arrived in Samos#171 first, at 12:27.

We went all the way to the monastery, where there were several cafés with some nice terraces, and we stop there to wait for the others.

On our way there we passed César, another asturian randonneur doing the Brevet. He was sitting on a terrace, eating something.

We waited for some time but the guys didn’t appear. Estefanía went into one of the cafés, to use the bathroom and we waited a bit more outside, just in case they would pass without noticing us.

After a while, Valentín got a call from Saúl. They were already having coffee somewhere. We told them we were by the monastery, asking them where exactly were they, but they couldn’t say. “Weird” - we thought - “Maybe they did stop at the first bar they saw, at the entrance of the village?” - I pointed out.

We waited for Estefanía to come out of the café and we rode back to the entrance of the village. There they were, in the bar of a hotel. There was some misunderstanding about where/when to have the coffee stop, but things were cleared up over some hot coffee and something to eat.

During the stop, we attempted to talk about when/where/what we should do a proper lunch stop, but it was clear that everybody had a different oppinion about it, so we left Samos without deciding anything.

Before leaving, I took a moment to put some sunscreen on. The sun was shining strongly then, and I didn’t want to get sunburnt. I also repacked things a bit in my bags + refilled the top tube bag and back pockets with more food.

My idea, before arriving in Samos#172, was to take a group picture with the old monastery from the XI century on our backs. Due to that little misunderstanding, it wasn’t possible, but I managed to get them all on camera while we were riding passing it.

The next village was Triacastela#173 and we had to climb our way there again. We tried to keep the group together, talking about options for that lunch stop we would have to do, eventually. Roberto proposed to stop at a place he knows in Vega de Valcarce#174, which was very close to the next checkpoint (Villafranca del Bierzo#175), while Saúl proposed eating something at the top of the next big climb, Alto do Poio.

Personally, I didn’t have an oppinion. I was feeling fine and I’d been eating regularly all day long, going through the stash of food in my bags and pockets, so I was ok with whatever the guys decided.

After passing Triacastela#176, we were already in the first serious long climb of the day. Alto do Poio, 15 km climb with an average gradient of almost 5%, all the way up to 1335m. Just long and steady, without double digit ramps, the way I like climbs to be!.

I was feeling strong, so I looked for a pace that was comfortable for me and started to spin the pedals. In a few minutes, I had left the group behind and I could not see them anymore.

The views were awesome and I was having so much fun, and then, dark clouds quickly covered the sky and a light breeze started to blow. Even the temperature seemed to lower a bit. All of a sudden, I saw a lighting, then another, and then I heard the crack of the thunders.

A broad smile on my face, I couldn’t help it and suddendly I was humming Thunderstruck by AC/DC - I love that song - while thunder started to sound more and more closer to me. Unforgettable Brevet moment right then and there.

After the thunder it came the rain. Thick big drops at first, then transformed into a torrential shower. When it started to rain harder I did a quick stop to put my rain jacket on.

It took me one hour to get from Triacastela#177 to the top. I had to push the pedals under the rain for maybe 20 minutes or so. I can’t complain, I don’t mind riding under the rain - some times I even like it - and the temperature was still “ok” (around 15ºC).

A bit before the end of the climb, it stopped raining and the sun came out briefly, as it fo warm things up a bit. There was also a bit more wind, so both helped getting me dry.

Pilgrims were walking on the other direction (towards Santiago) and most of them were wearing huge rain coats, suits and big plastic hats.

I did another short stop to remove the rain jacket, it was warm and sunny and I wanted to get as much dry as possible.

When I got to the top I saw the bar Saúl mentioned for lunch. I decided to stop there by the sign of Alto do Poio and wait for the others. I had more wonderful views from there, and I could sit on one of those metal barriers by the road. It was warm, as the sun had been warming the metal up for a while.

I put my rain jacket back on to avoid getting cold, and then I decided to treat myself with the last piece of my bocadillo de jamón.

I finished the bocadillo and waited a bit more. Dark clouds started to cover the sky again and it seemed like it would start raining again any moment.

Finally the group appeared and it started to rain. They didn’t stop and I got on the bike and resumed riding with them. We went down Alto do Poio for a moment, just to climb again, this time to Alto de San Roque to pass by the Monumento al peregrino#178, a black statue of a Pilgrim, made in honor of all the pilgrims that pass by there on their way to Santiago.

After we passed the statue, there was another descent, towards O Cebreiro. We didn’t pass by that village though, a few km in the descent we left the main road and took a short and very steep climb to our right. Another smaller road that would take us to A Faba and then Vega de Valcarce#179.

As minutes passed by, the rain was getting stronger. It was a pity that it started raining harder. The next descent ahead of us was really beautiful, but that small road with very sharp turns, and raining hard… it was a bit too dangerous to enjoy it fully.

Roberto and I did the descent passing by A Faba alone, ahead of the others. He was a bit nervous descending on those narrow wet roads, so we took it really easy. He also had a couple of dangerous encounters with cars that were passing too close to us, on the other direction.

It was raining harder and by the look of the darker clouds approaching us, it was going to get worse. So, when we saw a bar open by the road, in the village of Las herrerías de Valcarce, we did stop right away. They even had a small stone porch on the other side of the road, where we could park our bikes and keep them dry.

Roberto went in right away to ask the waitress if we could have something for lunch there, while I waited at the door so the others could see me. A few minutes later I saw them coming and I waved at them. They stopped and parked their bikes too under that porch and we all came inside for lunch.

While we had lunch, the worse of the rain storm passed over us. There was a moment when water was hitting hard the windows of the bar and we were so glad of being inside.

We even had desert and/or coffee, waiting a bit longer before leaving, giving the storm time to pass. In the end, we spent 1 hour and 15 minutes in this stop.

When we went outside, it almost had stopped raining. Luckily, it wasn’t cold, because we still had to go down to Villafranca del Bierzo#180. We rode for bit more on that small road and then we took the bigger main road towards Villafranca. Time to play a bit more the game of taking turns to pull - “el juego de la plaqueta” as they called it.

It stopped raining, but we found lots of water on the road, even a few big water puddles that looked like small lakes. Gladly we didn’t find too much traffic at that time.

We crossed the tunnel that led us into Villafranca, the next control point at km 516. It was 17:15 and we decided not to stop there. We had our Brevet card stamped in the place where we had lunch anyway, so here we did a short stop by the road to rearrange clothes/layers and we resumed riding.

Time to ride on another roller-coaster road. 90 km to go. I thought I’d be more tired by then, that the amount of hours and climbing - with barely 3 hours of sleep - would take its toll on me. But I was feeling good and not tired at all.

After a couple of short climbs, the group was split again in two, as it had been happening all day long. We got back together again at another gas station stop, to do a quick refill of our bottles, a bit before arriving in Ponferrada#181 and with “only” 72 km to go.

We crossed Ponferrada#182 for the second time this weekend (we already crossed it after descending from Foncebadón on saturday morning) but this time instead of taking the road south-east to Molinaseca#183 we took the road north-east towards San Miguel de las Dueñas and Bembibre#184.

That road out of the city was steep and with lots of traffic, but luckily we had a couple of vías de servicio (those service roads that go parallel to main roads that you usually find on the outskirts of big cities and in industrial areas).

I noticed I was putting some distance with the group again, so I tried to slow down a bit, forcing myself to keep riding in the group.

At the end of that short climb out of Ponferrada#185, we had a fast descent on the other side. We were on the bigger national N-VI road, which there is a big and wide main road, so we were going down quite fast. Roberto was leading and I simply followed him, blindly, trusting he knew where he was going. Turned out he missed a right turn and we had to improvise a bit to get back on track and join the others a few km later.

Time to play a bit more “el juego de la plaqueta” and take turns pulling. One km, another km, another one… We passed Bembibre#186 and Las Ventas de Albares and the game stopped there, as we left the faster main road to get into another smaller secondary road.

We were approaching the final climb of the Brevet, Puerto del Manzanal from Torre del Bierzo#187. I already knew this climb, as we did it on the other direction (descending it) in the BRM 300 - Del Urogallo a few weeks ago. Now it was time to climb it.

Somehow I already had put some distance with the group at Torre del Bierzo#188 and, honestly, I didn’t feel like slowing down and making the climb longer than needed. So I did what I had been doing all day long, spin the pedals, find my rythm, and enjoy the climbing.

Another long (14 km) and steady climb, without high gradients but with gorgeous views to my right, which got better and better on every turn as I was getting higher. The first part of the climb goes on a snake of a road that twists itself all the way up until it joins the bigger N-VI. On its right, a cliff that goes down a long distance, offering a superb view of the valley below and the old mines and quarries in it.

I have to admit that I feel a bit of regret now, for not taking the camera out on my way up. The sky was blue, no trace of those dark clouds anymore, and the views were sooo nice. I guess I was having so much fun simply cycling, that I totally forgot about the camera.

When I got to the join with the N-VI I stopped for a moment, to look back (there is a good view of the smaller road from there) trying to see the guys, but I couldn’t see them at all. After a couple of minutes, I decided to keep on going and finish the climb.

The second part of the climb was on the N-VI, bigger road but still nice, as the road there goes on some very high bridges with some incredible views. Soon I passed the village of Manzanal del Puerto and finally I arrived at the sign that marks the end of the climb.

I did stop there to wait for the others. I took some pictures, ate something and then I put some more clothes on. From this point on, it was all the way down to Astorga#189 and then to San Justo and it was getting late and a bit more fresh.

After 10 minutes, anxiety started to grow on me. Up to this very moment, I had been ok, but it was 21:00 already and we still had to get to San Justo before 22:00 (the time limit).

The group hadn’t arrived and I started to worry. “Maybe something happened?”, “Another flat tire?”. And then, something came to mind, a memory from the BRM 400 - Braganza, when Saúl took us on a shortcut road to avoid an extra 4 km in the track we had… What if… what if they took a shortcut and they weren’t going to pass by this sign?

I gave Roberto a phone call, no answer. Couple of minutes later, second call, no answer. “Ok” - I thought - “five more minutes, if they are not here by then, I’ll resume riding alone”.

Just when I made my mind to get on the bike again, I saw Roberto appearing on the last turn before where I was waiting. I was SO relieved. I got on the bike and resumed riding with him. Then he told me they others were coming a bit behind him, but they had stop to put some clothes on before the descent into Astorga#190.

We catched up a bit, I told him I was sorry I dropped them on the climb, but I wasn’t feeling like slowing down on that last climb. I also told him about my worries, about arriving over the time limit. He talked me out of the anxiety, being kind and understanding my worries.

Just before entering Astorga#191, the others joined us. First Valentin and Sergio Pulido, then the others. We crossed Astorga and took a small road towards San Justo, passing by the cemetery.

The sun was setting and the thick clouds were on us again, so we turned on our front and rear lights once more this weekend. Everybody was happy, we shouted and congratulated each other. We did it, we did this beast of a 600 Brevet and we had a great time.

We arrived together in San Justo at 21:45, only 15 minutes before the time limit.

We congratulate each other, we hug, everybody was happy after such a good weekend of cycling, after having finished such a tough challenge.

For me, it was an awesome experience. During the previous days I had been nervous, excited, maybe even a bit worried. The kind of feelings you have when you are about to get yourself into something new, uncharted territory, something you had never done before. But everything went by the book and I had so much fun. I think this has been the best Brevet so far this year.

Sergio left us quick, as he wanted to go back home for dinner with his wife. Me and the others went inside the Oasis to have dinner together.

We had a wonderful Tortilla, with some good bread and some beers. We talked and talked and laughed. I savored the moment, every bit of it. After dinner everybody took their own way, and I went to the Hostal El Juli - next door - and into my booked room, to have a shower and a well-deserved all-night sleep.

As usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

PBP Registration confirmed

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-05-31 00:00:00

Last Saturday (27th May), the ACP#192 opened the procedure to confirm registrations for PBP#193. As you already know, I’ve been a bit busy during the weekend… but this morning I got a message from Salva (the guy behind the brevets organized by Astorga Randonneurs#194), he already had done the homologation of the 600.

After finishing the BRM 600 - Santiago Brevet, I’ve fullfilled the requirement of completing the Super Randonneur Series, and now that its homologation was available under my account at the ACP#195 website, I could confirm my registration for PBP#196.

The procedure is basically to log into your account in the ACP#197 website and fill in a web form. It is the same form I had to fill in for my pre-registration, plus some more fields:

Give the homologation numbers of the brevets that complete your Super Randonneur Series

Answer a few questions (will you have a support vehicle? who would we call in case of accident)

Choose if you want a variety of extra services (like food before departure the first day, parking for your camper van and/or car during PBP, place for sleep the day before departure, etc)

Choose if you want some extra items, like a results brochure or a PBP official jersey (which size and how many you would like), as well as the size of the official PBP vest (this one is included with the registration fee)

Times, basically your departure time for PBP and at which time you will pass on saturday to pick up your “documents” (the package with brevet card, rfid card, vest, jersey, etc).

I left my departure time was it was (20:15 in the 90 hours group) as there were no free slots earlier. And I set the pick up hour on saturday to 16:00 (which is what we decided to set all together, the group of friends that will go there together).

Once you are done with the form, it is time to pay. Depending on the extra items/services you choose, the final amount is different. In my case, I paid 242 euro (190 euro registration cost, 52 euro “extras” - a jersey size M and the results brochure in english). As I had paid already 50 euro when I did my pre-registration back in february, this time I had to pay only 192 euro.

One step closer to achieve this big dream.

Changes in the PBP departure time

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-06-10 00:00:00

Since the procedure to confirm registrations for PBP#198 was opened by the ACP#199, everybody with a pre-registration, or a completed registration, could log into the ACP website and change the departure time to any other slot available.

One could even change group, from 90 hours to 84 or 80 and vice-versa, if there are free slots on a different group.

My friends Dani and Ferreiro pre-registered for the 20:30 slot, while I pre-registered (and then confirmed my registration) for the 20:15 slot. Our friend Manolo was in the 17:45 slot and our friends from Astorga (sergio(s), Valentín and Saúl) were in the 18:30 slot.

We talked about it and our plan was to move as close as possible to the 18:00 slot, so we could start earlier. That would be better for our initial plan of riding the 600 km distance to Brest before having the first proper sleep stop. The earlier we start, the earlier we will arrive in Brest.

Since I confirmed my registration, I’ve been looking periodically at the page where they show information about the available slots, as some times some of them got available. If you are lucky - and quick - enough, you could grab a slot for you.

For example, a few days ago, I was looking at the list, when a slot at 19:15 was available. Quickly I edited my registration and changed the departure time to that slot, which made my previous slot at 20:15 free (and it was picked up by someone else in a few minutes).

Then, the ACP#200 announced that on the 10th of June (today) at noon, they were going to free all the slots from those pre-registrations that hadn’t registered yet.

Discussion in several chats and forums with experienced randonneurs suggested that this would mean lots and lots of slots available, so we should be able to move to an earlier slot without much trouble.

So, at 11:55 this morning, I was sitting in front of my computer, ACP account page loaded in a web browser, waiting.

At 12:00 I reloaded the site, expecting it to take ages to load (how many people would be reloading this same page exactly at the same time). Surprisingly it did load quite fast… but there were no free slots available.

I kept reloading the page for a while, but no free slots.

This weekend, I had to help my wife moving stuff from the old place where her business (language academy) was, to a new place she bought for it. So I brought the laptop with me and kept it open on a table, reloading the ACP website every once in a while.

12:30 - no free slots

12:45 - no free slots

13:00 - no free slots

13:30 - no free slots

14:00 - no free slots

Meanwhile, I was also chatting with Dani and the others, keeping them in the loop. We all were wondering what was happening with those slots.

At 14:30 we went for lunch, to a restaurant nearby, with our daughters and my parents, and at 15:00 I checked one last time, but no luck.

So, I decided to forget about it and check it later in the afternoon.

And then, around 15:30, I got a message on my phone, from one of the multiple randonneuring groups I’m a member of in whatsapp. Someone said that there were lots of slots, he just changed himself into some other slot.

I quickly picked up my laptop and, while it was loading my ACP account page, I sent messages to all the others - “NOW, SLOTS ARE AVAILABLE, QUICK”

A few minutes - and 3 phone calls - later, everybody had moved to the 17:45 slot. The same our friend Manolo was since the beginning.

Well, everybody except our friends from Astorga, who had their departure time already fixed and weren’t able to change it anymore. But it is only a 45 minutes difference, I’m sure we will meet along the way.

Got myself a frame bag

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-06-14 00:00:00

I did learn a lot of things a couple of weeks ago, during the BRM 600 - Santiago. Valuable lessons for future Brevets, Randonees and long distance cycling in general.

One of those lessons was that big saddle bags, like my 9L expedition pack from Apidura#201, are very useful but not for everything (and they have their limits).

They are not very practical for items you may need frequently (i.e. it is no good if you have to get stuff from them on every stop).

The more stuff you pack in there, the bulkier the bag becomes, which ends in the bag moves a lot more, from side to side, specially on the climbs if you have to stand on your pedals.

This is not a problem in my case, it is not annoying or affects my pedalling at all, but I bet all that extra friction against the saddle rails is no good for the bag straps.

The attachments for lights are not very useful once the bag is completely full, as the light ends pointing to the sky. Right, I know, It probably depends on the light, how you attach it there, etc. I’ve tried 3 different rear lights and all of them ended pointing towards the sky

So, here is a picture of the synapse, during that 600 Brevet:

See the light attached at the end of the bag? Exactly, that’s what I meant.

For that Brevet, in the saddle bag I put:

spares and tools (multi-tool, 2 x inner tubes, 3 x patches, 2 x adhesive strong patches, 2 x tire levers, presta adapter for gas stations)

clothes (separated in several ziploc bags, t-shirt and shorts for sleeping, socks, short sleeve jersey, long sleeve jersey, bibshorts, summer base layer, waterproof overshoes and light wind/rain jacket)

batteries (10000 mah power bank + two small batteries for the gopro)

food (another ziploc bag full of a variety of bars, a bag of 226ers electrolytes power)

small sunscreen bottle + couple of ibuprofen pills

And then, during the Brevet, I threw in several more things, like leg and arm warmers, toe covers and whatever I wouldn’t need for a while during the ride.

I think I’ve opened that saddle bag on every single stop. All of them. And repacking things into those saddle bags while you are in a hurry is no good, trust me. Things won’t get optimally placed and the bag will look bigger and larger every time.

True, I had a small top-tube bag and a very small frame bag with me, but they weren’t enough.

So, after thinking a bit about it, I decided to buy a proper frame bag.

I looked at different brands and models available out there, checking dimensions, placement, attachment/straps methods, price…

In the end, I decided myself to buy the Racing Frame Pack#202 from Apidura#203, more precisely, the 4L model.

I have to admit I may be a bit biased here, and even if I like some other brands too, the products from Apidura#204 are top-quality. Durable, light and with an awesome finish touch to them. So it was an easy decision (even if the price is a bit high).

The final push to decide myself to buy this model was that it fits (theoretically, in paper and measurements) my synapse frame size, leaving enough room for easy access to the second bottle. This would let me use a larger bottle there, which is perfect for longer rides in summer or when you ride in places without chance to refill bottles oftenly.

I ordered the bag on the 2nd of June and it arrived at my place on the 5th (quite fast!).

At first sight, it looked larger than what I expected. I took a scale and weighted it, as I usually do with these kind of products. It gave me a weight of 201g.

Then I installed it on the synapse, to see how it fit there. The installation was quite easy. It was three velcro straps to attach to the top tube, and 2 more straps to attach to the down tube, these 2 without velcro, but using a small plastic piece to keep them secure.

As you can see in the pictures, the pack fits perfectly well on the synapse, leaving enough room for a larger bottle on the second/rear bottle cage in the seat tube. Just as I hoped it would be.

You can also notice that the bottle in the front bottle cage, in the down tube, is very close to the bag. I did try to remove the bottle and put it back, and that could get definetely messy while riding, specially when the pack is full of stuff.

I already knew about this, the other randonneurs I know that have this kind of frame bags told me about this already. So I got in advance some bottle side cages.

These side cages are designed so you can remove and put back your bottles from the side of the cage, not from the top.

Yeah, I got them green… what else?!?

Again, I used the scale to measure the weight of both the old bottle cage and the new one. Turned out the new one weights 1g more.

I replaced the bottle cage in the down tube with the right-handed side cage, but I decided to keep for now the old bottle cage in the seat tube. I’d like to give a try to those side cages before replacing both of the old ones.

Finally, today I prepared everything and went for a test ride. 65 km, +800m I tried to do a bit of everything, roll a bit on some flat roads, then hit a couple of steep short climbs and a few descents with interesting turns.

For the test I loaded the pack with a wind/rain jacket, a gillet, 4-5 cereal bars of different sizes, the 10000 mah power bank and a banana. I also put the arm warmers in there in the middle of the ride.

It was as if there was not any bag there at all. A couple of times, standing on the pedals and moving the bike a lot side-to-side, it rubbed on my left leg but it was almost nothing.

Of course, handling the bottle from the side cage was more complicated than it used to be without the pack there, but it was ok, and I’ll get more practice soon…

Overall, happy about getting this frame pack, I’ll tell you more on the next, more serious, test.

BRM 600 - Especial Galaico Asturiano

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-06-19 00:00:00

Three weeks ago I finished my first 600 brevet ever. It was quite the experience, shared with a few members of Astorga Randonneurs#205 and a couple other randonneurs I’ve ridden several other Brevets with.

This past weekend it was time to ride another 600 Brevet, this time with my friends from A Coruña.

Pre-brevet, this one has been as exciting as the first one. The numbers were quite similar on both Brevets, but I had the feeling this one was going to be a bit tougher, considering the kind of climbs we were going to deal with (shorter, steeper) and the lack of flat parts to recover (replaced instead with the usual saw of the asturian and galician roads, rompepiernas terrain).

There was another big change planned for this 600, which was adding a bit more of anxiety to it. We were going to do it without sleeping. Sounds crazy, right?. We discussed doing a short stop around km 350 (in the village of Vegadeo#206) and sleep 2-3 hours, but in the end we voted and sleepless won.

I must admit that I didn’t like the idea, at all. I considered it an unnecesary risk, dangerous, and I had serious doubts about how I’d perform on sunday, after being riding all day long on saturday and then all night long (spoiler alert: I was wrong).

Anyway, I prepared once again my now-famous bocadillo de jamón con tomate, split into 3 pieces.

And then packed up everything I’d carry with me. Spares, tools, clothes, food, sunscreen… pretty much the same things I had carry with me in the previous 600. This time I took a picture of everything before packing it into the bike bags.

The weather forecast promised some strong rain showers during the weekend, specially on sunday afternoon, so I decided to pack the waterproof shoe covers, as well as my water resistant arm and leg warmers, and the Rapha#207 light wind/rain jacket.

This time, I split my things among the top tube, frame and saddle bags. Having my new apidura frame bag meant I could pack things more evenly, keeping things I won’t need often in my saddle bag which, btw, didn’t seem as full as in the previous 600.

Early friday evening I packed everything and drove for 1 hour to Bastiagueiro, the usual start point for Brevets in Coruña. As usual, I had a room booked in advance in a hotel nearby. This time I spent the night at the wonderful After Surf#208. A bit more expensive than other options in the area, but worth the money because their rooms are wonderful, the views are super-nice, their restaurant is very very good, and it is around the corner from the start point of the Brevets.

I wanted to go to bed as early as possible, so this time I brought my dinner with me, instead of going to their restaurant. A big bowl of pasta salad and then a banana and a big piece of chocolate cake for desert.

Soon, I was in bed, fast asleep.

I woke up 20 minutes before the alarm, had my usual feast of a breakfast before Brevets, gathered my things and went to the start point. I arrived in INEFG and this time there were no delays. In a few minutes I was ready and gathering my brevet card.

While getting ready, another guy came and asked me if I would have an extra pair of cycling shoes, as he had forgotten his back home. He wasn’t lucky and could not find any shoes… so he decided to do the Brevet wearing normal shoes. Right… 600km on normal shoes with clip-on pedals… what could go wrong?.

I took a moment to take a picture of the synapse before starting the Brevet, fully loaded and ready

We also took the usual group picture at the start. 17 randonneurs ready for another weekend of good time, cycling and suffering.

At 06:00 our adventure began. It was still dark, but we knew the sun was going to come out soon. We left A Coruña on (almost) the same road we took during the first Brevet of the year, the BRM 200 - Polas Terras Altas. All the group together, chatting and catching up. I spent quite some time telling my friends stories and impressions from my first 600.

Near Betanzos#209 we left those nice secondary roads, to take the bigger N-VI on direction to Lugo#210. It was time to do the first climbs of the day. First Coirós and then A Costa do Sal. As usual, this was the moment the group split into smaller groups and pairs.

I went ahead with Alfonso, chatting a bit about my first 600 and then again about PBP details (I’ve asked him already soooo many questions…), but my group was just behind us, we didn’t drop/left them behind.

Note

I know there are no rules regarding the kind of bike you can bring to a Brevet. All it matters is that it is something you can ride and that it has the needed lights/visibility (and maybe that it conforms to the road regulations/laws of the country the brevet is taking place on).

In fact, one of the things people mention most often about PBP is all the kind of crazy bikes you can see there.

I’ve seen in the past people doing shorter (200) brevets in city bikes, mountain bikes and even I saw once a fat bike, but I had never ever saw something like this before:

That guy on the picture is the guy that was looking for a pair of road shoes earlier, before starting the Brevet. He had this road bike with a custom cockpit. Basically he added some extensions to the steering tube, raising the position of the handlebars a lot.

All of it looked weird, the bike, his position on it and the way he was pedaling (very upright).

We did the second climb, A Costa do Sal, together and then we gather some speed on the rollercoaster towards Guitiriz#211. A town I know well, as I’ve some family living there, we crossed it fast. No time to loose this early in the day.

We kept riding on the N-VI for a while longer, leaving Guitiriz#212 towards Baamonde#213 and then Begonte#214, where I knew my parents would be waiting for us by the road, with my daughters, to say hello. Before leaving Guitiriz#215 I sent them a message, telling them we were there so they could organize themselves. I also sent them my live location on Whatsapp.

We were going fast in this stretch, on good tarmac and mostly going down with short flat parts. We were almost in Baamonde#216 and I was telling my friend Dani, while we were leading the pack, that I was going to stop for a moment in Begonte#217 with my family… when I did hear it.

A strange crashing noise, someone shouting… I looked over my shoulder just in time to see one of the bikes on the back of the group falling, its front wheel turning right like a scythe, cutting through everything on its way, including the front wheel of our friend Alex.

Alex couldn’t do anything about it, his bike tripped off and he was sent flying head-first to the ground, smashing his head and helmet hard against it.

And he did stay there, on the ground, completely frozen.

Panic. I shouted everybody to stop and then “Call emergencies, NOW!”, but Dani had already his phone out, calling 112.

I parked my bike against one of those metal rails/barrriers/protections on the side of the road and hurried towards Alex. Someone was already crouched by his side - I can’t remember who exactly - talking to him. No response. “Fuck, fuck, fuck…”.

We didn’t want to move him, too risky, too dangerous. Suddendly some blood started to appear from below his head, on the tarmac. More panic.

Then I saw a car coming on our direction. Alex was partially laying on the lane, so I quickly went on direction to the car, waving my arms and trying to get the car to slow down. It worked.

Meanwhile Alex woke up, clearly disoriented, and tried to actually got himself up. We didn’t let him. We started to ask him questions - “Do you remember your name?”, “Do you know where are you?”. At first he didn’t answer, he simply looked at us with a wondering look in his eyes. After a few minutes, he started answering and he even made a joke about his name. That was a big relief.

I called my father, explained everything, and asked him to bring the car and pick up Alex’s bike (as he could not get it with him to the hospital). Then, Manolo and me took a moment to look at the bike. All seemed ok, chain out of place, that was all. We put it back into place and tried the shifters, all working ok. We took a quick look but nothing seemed broken or severely scratched.

Alex face, on the right side, started to look really bad. It was getting swollen and some parts looked quite damaged. We kept asking him questions and we asked him to please remain there, laying, while we waited for the ambulance to arrive.

The ambulance arrived a few minutes later, it was quite fast. Nice surprise, the two guys in the ambulance were people I knew. One being a cousin of my mother, the other being a cyclist I knew for a long time now, founder member of the cycling club I’m member of. Second relief moment, alex was going to be in good hands.

While they were taking care of Alex, my father arrived. We talked for a moment and he told me they were already waiting for us by the road, in Begonte#218, when I called him. At that very moment I realized we still had a long 600 Brevet to do. Honestly, right then and there, it felt like an impossible thing to do. I was completely shaken, seeing the crash in my mind over and over again.

Finally the Ambulance left for the hospital and we forced ourselves to resume riding.

Note

What happened exactly?, What caused the crash?

I’m not going to point fingers. In the end, all I saw with my own eyes was a bike falling and, in the process, hitting Alex’s front wheel, sending him to the ground.

Some time later, after talking about it among the people that was in the group, it seems that the guy with the weird bike went to pick up one of his bottles and, while doing so, one of his feet slip off the pedal. And he lost balance and fell.

His was the bike I saw falling, hitting Alex, sending him to the ground.

Accidents like this, crashes like this, they happen. When you ride your bike in a group, you are aware these things can happen to anybody. But, IMHO, this accident could have been avoided.

I think riding a road bike with clip-in pedals on normal shoes is very irresponsible, specially if you are riding in a group and you are going fast.

We remained silent for a while. Quite a while. My father passed us on his car, Alex’s bike in the trunk, visible from behind.

Arriving in Begonte#219, the village where I spent my summer vacation when I was a kid, I saw my daughters by the side of the road, waiting to see their daddy passing by on the bike. I stopped there to say hello (and get some loving hugs) while the others kept on riding. I did stay with them for a few minutes, before resuming riding myself.

The first control point wasn’t far from Begonte#220, so even if I couldn’t catch my group before it, I knew I was going to join them there. But I wanted to hunt them down, so I pushed myself a bit, trying to keep my brain focused more on the pedals, less on everything else.

Soon I passed a couple of riders, the one with the weird bike and another guy riding a gravel bike. Then I catched a small group of randonneurs from the Riazor Cycling Club, the club organizing the Brevet. Emilio, Fran and Alfonso. I decided to slow down and join them, and chat a bit with Emilio, a veteran randonneur with whom I’ve ridden a few of my first Brevets a few years ago. He is always good company and this time I took the opportunity to ask him about his latest adventure, doing El Camino de Santiago from France on his Surly#221 steel road bike.

We arrived in Outeiro de Rei#222, km 85 and first control point, at 10:03. This was 30-40 minutes later than expected and in a mood considerable worse than expected. The fact that we didn’t find any place to have some coffee (at least not without doing a detour) didn’t help. When I arrived with Emilio, Fran and Alfonso, the others were stopped near a 24h pharmacy.

Manolo went in and asked if they could stamp our cards. They could, but wearing a mask was required in order to go inside. They gave Manolo one mask, so we gave him all our Brevet cards and he got the stamps for us. Meanwhile, I removed my arm warmers and packed the gillet into the frame bag. Then I checked my phone and I sent Alex a few messages, in hope he would be ok enough to reply.

Off we went, towards the next control point at A Pastoriza#223. We were riding on the part of Galicia know as A Terra Cha (literally translated, The Flat Land). For the next 40-50 km we rolled fast on flat roads.

We passed through Castro Riberas de Lea, where some decided to do that late-breakfast stop. The mesoiros, Cesar and me decided to push it a bit more and do the coffee stop in A Pastoriza#224. Two more people were with us, one being the guy with the weird bike. We did a quick stop to get some water though, and I checked again my phone, still no news.

Maybe I was being childish at that time, but I wasn’t happy at all having that guy with the weird bike around. I felt anxious, alert, and I didn’t trust him. I tried to keep myself separated from him as much as possible, keeping him always behind me.

Turned out I wasn’t the only one feeling like that and soon some others shared the same concern.

It was a pity the situation was like that, as the roads after Castro Riberas de Lea where fast and beautiful. The kind of small rural one-lane-only roads with perfect tarmac where you roll fast. Those roads are fun to ride and the scenery around with green fields, pastures, livestock and farms is lovely.

Dani started to talk with Cesar, another veteran randonneur, about PBP. Cesar had done PBP four times already and he had lots of stories to share, as well as recommendations, suggestions, etc. It was good distraction, helping switching our focus for a while.

We arrived in A Pastoriza, second control point at km 121, at 11:54. My body was craving for some coffee. First we did a short stop in front of the square where the village city council building was, to take a group picture.

Lots of people were gathering at the square, before going into the building. We have had local elections a couple of weeks ago, and it seems today was the day the new local government was “taking over” here. One woman asked us if we would like to join them, as it was going to be “an entertaining/fun session this morning”.

We declined, of course, and went on looking for a cafe. We found one just crossing the street, but as soon as we got inside, I noticed the old guy behind the counter didn’t like the idea of working too much this morning.

No coffee, I ordered a coke and picked up the first piece of my bocadillo de jamón.

We tried to keep the stop as short as possible. I did a quick visit to the bathroom and wolfed down fast both the bocadillo and the coke (spoiler alert: this was a very bad mistake). I also sent some messages both to alex and my family, sending them each other’s phone numbers, so they can get in touch, in case Alex may need anything while being in the hospital.

I picked up my bike and took one last glance at the phone and I noticed I had some audio messages from Alex! I called everybody and played them. He was fine, they made several tests, scans, etc on him and they found no broken bones, no severe internal damage. Of course he was going to need time to heal and recover, it was a big crash after all, but these were good news indeed.

It was like if a new Brevet started right there. Everybody’s mood improved a lot. It was a mixture of being happy, relieve and grateful at the same time.

We left A Pastoriza#225 still on nice secondary roads, passing more farms and fields with lots of livestock on them.

We crossed several smaller villages, O Teixeiro, As Rodrigas or Riotorto#226, which is famous for its blacksmiths and their iron craftmanship.

Temperatures were already around 28ºC, luckily there were a few clouds here and there, protecting us from the sun at intervals.

Soon we were in A Pontenova#227, which was an important mining town from the XVIII century to the XX century. Proof of that past are the big chimneys that remain in one of the now main squares of the town. In that square there is a nice fountain, so we did a short stop there to refill our bottles.

This town was also the start of the hardest part of the day. From there we were going to climb the Alto da Garganta, first from A Pontenova#228, Taramundi#229 and Bres#230 (riiight, missing a “t” at the end!) and then from Santa Eulalia de Oscos#231 and Villanueva de Oscos#232.

I already rode on part of these roads earlier this year, while riding the BNO 200 - Montañas, Mar e Navallas with Dani in march. Riding on them again today brought back some good memories from that day to both of us.

We started the climb towards Taramundi#233 on an easy pace. With our mood definetely recovered and our group established (César, the mesoiros and me at that moment) we tried to enjoy that part as much as possible.

It was tough, specially because the temperature kept raising, but it was also sooo beautiful. We passed through some woods and then we had some gorgeous views to our right, of the valley we were leaving below.

It took us half an hour to get from A Pontenova#234 to Taramundi#235. It was 13:25 when we entered this Asturian town, well known for the quality of their hand-made knives. Our mood was definetely better at this point. Personally I was having a good time.

It was a bit early for lunch. We considered doing a stop to eat something there (later we found out that most of the others had lunch there) but we decided to push it a bit and do the first serious climb before having lunch.

And so we passed by Taramundi#236 and kept on riding, passing Bres#237 and taking the road to our right and into the more serious part of the climb, to Alto da Garganta.

It took us almost an hour to climb the next 12 km, enjoying the open views of the valleys below to our left, as well as the long stretches at 9-10% gradient.

As we were going up, temperature started to drop and darker clouds started to cover the sky. It was perfect, as the near-30-degrees temperature we have had before Taramundi would be a bit too much for me on the climb.

I tried to keep hydrated, alternating sips of water with sips of a mixed drink of salts, carbs and electrolytes. I also tried to force myself to eat regularly, having small pieces of different bars.

Note

The last 3-4 km of this climb was on the road Dani and me took down to Vegadeo a few months ago (on the unnoficial Brevet BNO 200 - Montañas, Mar e Navallas) as well as the long descent into Santa Eulalia, which we do on the opposite direction then, climbing all the way up from Santa Eulalia.

One hour after we left Taramundi#238, we arrived at the roundabout at the top of the climb. Then we still went a bit more up to the point where the sign of Alto da Garganta is, before taking the long, fast, descent (10 km) to Santa Eulalia de Oscos#239.

During the descent, I confirmed that my stomach was a bit upset. Since we left A Pastoriza earlier I felt a bit weird down there, but I tried to keep myself focused on the ride, not worrying too much about it. But when we were maybe a couple of km before Santa Eulalia, something exploded in there and I felt I needed to go to a toilet urgently.

I arrived first in Santa Eulalia, followed by Oscar and Jose, but there was no trace of Dani and Cesar. We did stop for a moment at the entrance of the village and waited a bit. Santa Eulalia was the next control point of the Brevet, km 178, it was 14:55 when we arrived there.

I was feeling like a big balloon about to explode, but I was sure I could not simply let go of the gas… and we were still waiting for the others :-(

I told Oscar and Jose that I needed a bathroom urgently, and when I was about to leave them there waiting and search for options, we saw Cesar. He arrived and told us that Dani stopped for a moment in a fountain maybe 1 km behind, but he was on his way already.

A few minutes later Dani arrived too and we looked for a place to have lunch. We found a restaurant on our way through the village. A couple of cyclists were arriving there too, from a different road than us. We did stop, greeted them and then asked if they know Santa Eulalia and if they could recommend us a place for eating something. They both suggested precisely that restaurant, Casa Diego.

We parked our bikes and I hurried up inside, to the Toilet (spoiler alert: this was only the beginning of a series of gastric problems through the weekend that made me suffer a bit more than expected).

When I finally came out, Dani told me a couple of “bad” news. First, the restaurant was full, with a family doing some event there, which meant food availability was a bit limited and that cooking stuff would take some time. Second, they didn’t have a stamp to put on our brevet cards.

Even so, we decided to stay. They prepared a couple of tables outside and we sat to enjoy some coca colas and a few raciones (tortilla, croquetas, calamares, whatever they say would take less to cook).

While the food was being cooked, I walked to a nearby hotel (Casa Pedro los Oscos) and got our Brevet cards stamped.

When I got back to Casa Diego, the guys were talking with those 2 cyclists that recommended us that place for lunch. They were doing a tough and nice route in the area, and when we told them about the Brevet (route, distance, etc) they were impressed. One of them looked really interested in the whole Brevet idea (who knows, maybe we will meet him next season?)

Finally our lunch was served and we wolfed it down quick. We were hungry, and thirsty. The clouds were gone then and temperature was back to 29ºC. Luckily we were seating under the shade of the building and a fresh breeze was passing by us to cool things down.

Bellies full, one more visit to the toilet, bottles refilled and off we went, towards the next control point, Villanueva de Oscos#240.

We had a 22 km climb waiting for us as we left Santa Eulalia, with a stop in Villanueva a few km into the climb. In Santa Eulalia we decided to not have desert and/or coffee, and have that in Villanueva, as we would have to stop there and stamp our Brevet cards anyway.

At 16:40, 40 minutes after we left Santa Eulalia, we arrived in the next control point, Villanueva de Oscos#241, km 187. We found a nice café+hotel+shop by the road and we stop there to get our cards stamped and some coffee. We parked the bikes and took some seats outside. I went inside to get the brevet cards stamped.

I was talking to someone while coming in, when I heard “Well, well, well, look who is here! what a nice surprise!!”, I turned and, what a surprise indeed, my friend Estefanía was there!. She is one of the members of my group in the Brevets organized in Astorga, and she was in Villanueva to participate in a couple of races during the weekend. What a coincidence.

She asked me if I was doing another Brevet and I told her about the 600 (We did the previous 600 together). She told me about her racing plans for the weekend and that she was really looking forward doing the next Brevet.

She insisted on paying coffee for all of us (thanks Any!).

While we were stopped there, several other randonneurs arrived, like Alfonso, Manolo and Ferreiro. The time we gained while they were having lunch in Taramundi was spent in our 2 stops in Santa Eulalia and here, in Villanueva. When we left, Manolo and Ferreiro joined our group (and we remained together for the rest of the Brevet).

More climbing ahead, starting with a very steep section on our way out of the village. Lots of “mmmffff” and “ufffffmmm” and cursing until the road flattened a bit.

During the stop, the guys that did the climb to La Garganta after having lunch, told us that they had thick banks of fog on their way up. It seemed we missed the fog by doing the climb before lunch (good!). Thing is, we were going up there from another different side now.

We expected fog, and fog we had. Going up to the roundabout at the top of A Garganta it got thicker and thicker, slowly at first, then making things difficult to see around us and, what was more dangerous, ahead of us. We were literally riding through the clouds.

I started to struggle.

The road was narrow and the fog so thick we weren’t able to see clearly where its sides were. As you probably know already, I’m nearsighted and I wear prescription glasses (without them, I see objects/things far from me “blurry”) and I do wear them even when cycling (can’t stand contact lenses). This means I’ve to wear my glasses at all times on the bike.

With all that fog, the outer part of my glasses started to get more and more wet. I was riding without gloves (too hot) so cleaning them wasn’t an option. At one point, I decided to put my gloves on, at least that way I would be able to use them to remove the water from the glasses. Oscar captured it on camera.

In situations like this, I use the softer part of the gloves from their palm/inner side, which works quite well to remove water from the glasses, kind of a manual wiper washer.

We kept on like this, passing the roundabout at the top of A Garganta and taking the road that passed by Serra da Bobia. We still had a few more km of climbing ahead of us, but at least we left the fog behind and the clouds below us…

But it was all an illusion, a mirage. Soon we were surrounded by thick fog again, riding through dense clouds. This time, things were even more dangerous, as the road was narrower, with sharp turns… and we were descending!

I tried to keep up with them, but they were going too fast for me, given the circumstances. If riding fast down on that snake of a road, through the clouds, wasn’t hard enough, wiping the water from my glasses was useless. The second after wiping them, they were totally foggy and watery, making it even harder to see the road.

I kept like that for a while, moving very slowly, until I realized I couldn’t see anybody else. Then I saw a tail light, Cesar, who was going down as slowly as me. I told him about my trouble with the glasses, he told me we should be very careful on this road with this fog, as in these hills there were wild horses, foals and probably cows wandering around.

We kept riding together for a while, but I was going slower and slower because I wasn’t able to see the road clearly. I got so fed up about the whole thing that at one point I decided to remove the glasses completely.

I packed them into one of the pockets on my back and kept on. Big surprise, it turned out I was able to ride the bike without the glasses!. Ok, I must admit I was very lucky the road was in perfect conditions. One pot hole and I would smash the bike against it without any doubt (no chance I’d be able to see it in time without the glasses).

Thing improved a bit and I was able to go a bit faster… until I noticed something moving across the road a few meters in front of me. A group of horses was in the middle of the road!. Foals and huge horses, some at both sides of the road, some in the middle, some more crossing it.

I slowed down and waved one hand slowly so Cesar, who was coming a bit behind me, could see it and slow down.

We passed through the group of horses, really close to a few of them, while some of them looked at us passing by. Magic Brevet Moment right there. The whole thing with the thick fog, the huge horses… something that will stay in the back of my mind forever.

After a while riding without the glasses I gained a lot of confidence, so I went back to my normal speed. I kept an eye Cesar (as much as I could, without the glasses) as I didn’t want to drop him. Finally, we catched the others, just before arriving at the top of Alto de Penouta.

We regrouped there, sharing a few experiences we just had on that difficult part of the ride. Some took a moment to eat something, some (like me) decided to put on some more clothes. We had a long descent ahead (near 30 km) all the way to the town of Navia#242, on the Cantabric coast, and temperature had dropped down to 15ºC.

The descent was fast. We still have some nice views of the valleys to our right and soon we were able to see the Cantabric sea. The clouds we have literally passed through a while before were now above our heads, but the road we were riding on was wet, looking as if those thick clouds had been there just a moment ago.

During that fast, long descent, we lost Cesar. We slowed down a bit for a while, in hopes he would catch us before getting to Navia#243, but he didn’t.

It was early evening when we arrived in Navia#244 and we crossed the big bridge over the river that gives the name to the town, the Navia, taking then the road east, towards Luarca#245.

We did a short stop at a gas station in Navia, to refill our bottles and eat something quick. We still had around 37 km to the next control point, which was going to be in a lighthouse, without many options nearby for having dinner. So, conversation started about when and where should we stop for have proper dinner, considering we were going to keep on riding all night long.

We all agreed to keep on riding to Luarca#246 (next bigger town before the control point, 20 km away) and reconsider things there.

Riding along the Cantabric coast, on the usual roller-coaster road, soon we were in Luarca#247, one of those beautiful coastal towns/villages you can find in Asturias, with its old squares and buildings and its beautiful small fishing port.

We didn’t stop there though, as we wanted to arrive in the next control point at the lighthouse in Cabo Busto#248 with daylight. We pushed on and in less than 45 minutes we had covered the 16 km to the lighthouse.

On our way to the lighthouse, we passed by a big restaurant that was just by the road and we stopped for a moment to reserve a table for dinner. The idea was to stop on our way back from the control point, have a full dinner and get ready for the night.

From the restaurant to the control point in the lighthouse the road was sooo beautiful and quiet. Smaller road that twisted itself towards the sea, with a last couple of km of an almost straight line to the lighthouse.

We crossed the small village of Bustos, which is famous because of its cake/sweets shop pastelería cabo busto#249 (take a look at their website and you will see why it is famous, then come and visit it, and you will understand why ;-D).

Without a way to get our cards stamped at the lighthouse, we took a few proof pictures. Arriving earlier, I would have proposed to get a stamp at the cake shop, but at 21:15 it was too late for that.

After enjoying the scenery around and the views for a moment, we took the road back to the main road, through the village of Bustos again. The others left, but it took a moment for Dani to be ready. I waited with him and we resumed riding together, talking for a while about how the Brevet has been going so far.

Almost half Brevet done, still another half to do, including a full night of cycling.

On our way back, we did stop at the restaurant to have dinner. They let us park the bikes on a covered terrace, near the entrance, and we went inside to seat at a big table. It felt good to seat there for a while.

We opted for the house menu (starter, main dish, drink, desert and coffee) as usually that’s a good option if you want a full meal without having to wait too long for it to be cooked/ready (usually they are dishes they have already cooked and only need some warming).

One hour and a half later, we left the restaurant. The dinner stop was reinvigorating. Having some proper food helped a lot, but even better was to sit at the table with these guys, chatting, making jokes, sharing experiences.

During dinner we make lots of jokes about sleeping a few hours that night. Everybody agreed to ride through the night, but making a few jokes wouldn’t hurt. The first joke was that the restaurant has a sign offering rooms, but the look of the building wasn’t really inviting to do so. We kept doing jokes until dawn, every time we passed by some road hotel or hostel, or the hotels in bigger towns.

It was night when we resumed riding, and half a km after leaving the restaurant we were riding in complete darkness (no street lamps, no big moon to light our way, nothing). Soon we hit the 300 km mark.

We went back along the coast, on the same road we had been earlier that evening. We crossed Navia#250 again, crossing the bridge over the Navia river, but this time keeping ourselves on the coastal road, instead of the road from the mountains we had came from earlier today.

This road by the coast, full of small vacation villages and kind-of resorts for tourists, had lots of street lamps, which meant lots of light, which meant being able to run our head lights in less-powerful modes (hence, saving some battery life).

To be honest, riding that night was a much better experience than expected. I was expecting to feel tired, dizzy and sleepy, but instead I was quite awake and I didn’t feel tired or like if I was dragging along.

And then, my stomach turned upside-down again.

It started like a balloon getting filled up again, just like it happened before Santa Eulalia de Oscos a few hours before, and as it happened back then, soon I realized I couldn’t simply let go of the gas. I needed to go to the toilet.

Now try to find anything open, past-midnight, on these roads. Mission: Impossible. All we could found were small villages where everything was closed, road side cafés: closed, gas stations: closed.

There was a time when gas stations used to be open until late in the night, with some of them open even 24 hours. A few years ago that changed, and gas stations are now open only up to 23:00, with a few exceptions (like that wonderful place in Lalin where we stopped both at the BRM 400 - Polas Catro Provincias and the BRM 600 - Santiago) and the gas stations located in the highways, those are usually open 24-hours.

I kept on riding, keeping an eye on any possibility of a toilet I could find. At one point, I told the others about my needs. We looked for options near the bigger villages, but without any luck.

“There is a gas station that seems to be open” - Shouted Oscar, just before the turn to the village of Tapia de Casariego#251. A quick look from afar and we weren’t 100% sure it may be open, but I decided to give it a try. I went there and it was one of those self-service gas stations. There as a bathroom, but locked, available only by day. “Dammit” - I thought, while unzipping the left side of the frame bag and picking up a pack of paper handkerchiefs, I was going to need them soon. And off I went to look for a nature toilet spot.

The mesoiros had waited for me, while Manolo and Ferreiro kept on riding. We resumed riding, but I wasn’t feeling good. Something was definetely wrong down there and it didn’t feel like it was recovering.

We passed Tapia, then Serantes and then we kept on riding on the old coastal road towards Vegadeo#252, the next control point, instead of crossing the big bridge over the Eo bay.

Soon we catched Manolo and Ferreiro again. This part of the road was darker, there were fewer street lamps near the villages, and no lights at all between them. Soon I started to feel like I’d need another toilet stop. It was bothering me so much, I didn’t really enjoyed this part of the ride. All I could do was to focus on not lettting go.

We arrived in Vegadeo#253, control point at km 332, at 01:57. Obviously there was nothing open (even if I’ve had hope of finding a pub or night club open at that time on a saturday night…). We took some proof pictures in the main square, near the iconic cows sculpture (those letters behind us… they used to say “VEGADEO”, but some where missing that night!).

I had to look for another nature toilet spot. Meanwhile they waited for me by a set of self-service machines that offered almost everything (chocolates, salty treats, all kind of drinks…).

I grabbed myself a couple of Aquarius#254 (lemon flavored) and some chocolates, hoping both may help a bit with my current situation. I filled one of my bottles with aquarius, drinking there whatever was left after filling the bottle, and ate one of the chocolates. At least I wasn’t feeling weak or tired, the main problem was that those “explosions” in my bowels happened unexpectedly, and when they happened… well, I had to stop.

Psychologically, I started to get worried about causing trouble to the others, making them stop without need, making them slower. So I did all I could do in a situation like this. I told them to just keep on if I had to stop again. No need to stop with me every time. Of course, they nicely told me to STFU and keep going, they weren’t going to drop me.

Half an hour after our arrival, we resumed our ride, crossed the Eo#255 river and went into Galicia. The Eo#256 river is like a natural border between Galicia#257 and Asturias#258 at its mouth, where it joins the Cantabric sea. There are two towns there, one on each side of the river. One is Vegadeo, east riverbank in Asturias, the other is Ribadeo, west riverbank in Galicia. Both towns names mention the river (eo) and have a word meaning “riverbank”, “vega” in Asturias and “riba” in Galicia.

We were going towards some places I know quite well. A Mariña Lucense, the coast of the province of Lugo, where I spent a few summers with my parents while I was a teenager (and then by myself a few years later). Such a beautiful coast, full of tall hills, sharp cliffs, beautiful beaches and small fishing villages.

Thing was, we were riding there on a very dark night, so we missed all that. That is one of the drawbacks of riding through the night, you miss all the nice views, the daily life in small villages… You can’t have it all, I guess.

All the way to Ribadeo#259 we were riding on a small road that was really close to the river. Then we crossed the big town of Ribadeo (where I asked them “Are you sure you don’t want to stop and sleep for a bit on a comfy bed?” when we passed a nice, big, 24-hour-open hotel ;-D) and took the main road that went parallel to the coast.

The next stretch of 35-37km was fast. With a couple more serious bumps on the road, but overall almost flat with some gentle, short, repechos.

We were passing village after village, chatting, enjoying the night, when suddendly Dani shouted loudly - “CUIDADO! CUIDADO!!” - and then the rest of us saw the big wild boar in front of us, crossing the road from left (the hills) to right (the beaches and the sea). We were lucky that Dani did spot it in time, specially Jose, who was riding a bit ahead of us, rolling faster.

After the boar crossed the road, it left us wondering “where the h*** is that boar going?” - “Maybe for a night swim?” - I said, and we all laughed at the idea.

San Miguel de Reinante, San Pedro de Benquerencia, San Cosme de Barreiros… All the villages before the next bigger town (Foz) had the name of a saint on their own names. We passed through them all and we reached the crossing over the Masma river. As it happened with the Eo, we crossed the river where it joins the Cantabric sea.

On the other side we had one of those a bit more serious bumps. Nothing really hard, but enough to slow us down a bit. Someone (IIRC Ferreiro) was a bit behind, so we used this little climb to take it easy and wait a bit for him. With day light, we would have enjoyed the nice views on our right, the bay of Foz. Instead, we enjoyed the views to our left, another couple of wild boars going the opposite direction from us, all the way down the repecho.

We passed by Foz (without entering town), Fazouro, Nois, Cangas de foz… again crossing village after village in the quiet of the night. No cars, nobody on the street. We were approaching Burela#260, the next bigger town on our way, when another little explosion shaked my bowels.

With Burela#261 being a bigger town, I was expecting something to be open at that time of the night (around 4:00). Instead of that, what we found were several pairs and groups of drunken people on the streets. It seemed the saturday night parties were all over.

When we entered the main street into town, it started to rain. Lightly at first, a few drops here and there, by the time we left that main street towards a smaller road by the coast it was raining with more intensity.

The next control point, in the village of San Cibrao#262, was just 14 km away. It was really close, so we pushed through the rain, deciding to not stop to put our rain jackets and gear on. It was a big mistake. Suddendly the rain was really strong, summer storm rain, lots of thick drops falling on us There were no street lamps on this smaller road by the coast, so soon things started to be quite interesting…

It was raining more and more, stronger every minute, but at that moment all we could do was to push and try to arrive as soon as possible in San Cibrao and look for some shelter there.

It was 04:46 when we finally entered town. We knew finding something open (like a bar, cafe or gas station) was practically impossible, so we just looked for something with a roof, where we could shelter from the rain.

We spot a few places, but in the end we decided to stop in a big bus stop. There was some good sheltered places for the bikes, plus big long benches for us. Just as we stopped and parked the bikes, another explosion took place you-already-know-where, and I had to rush and look for another nature toilet spot. Right, under the heavy rain…

Back with the guys, we tried to get as comfy as possible. It seemed like we were going to be there for a while. We checked several weather apps on our phones and none of them showed any promising forecasts. We removed the wet outer layers, as well as helmets, gloves, etc. Some changed socks and base layers. Personally I put my arm and leg warmers on, as well as the waterproof shoe covers and the rain jacket. It wasn’t that cold, but I knew being there and stopped, I was going to get cold fast.

We took the opportunity to eat something. There it went the second piece of my bocadillo de jamón. Even with all my gastric problems, I forced myself to eat. If not all I should have, at least keep on eating regularly.

We did chat for a while, considering which options we had. It didn’t seem like it was going to stop anytime soon. It wasn’t really cold, but it wasn’t warm either. We considered looking for one of those banks that have ATM machines inside, in closed rooms (as there we would be warmer). Dani and Ferreiro took the chance to doze for a while. I tried to do the same, but I wasn’t so lucky. I guess I was too excited about the whole 600-without-sleep adventure.

At one point, Ferreiro tried to get us back on the road, but it was still raining too much. We discussed it for a while and in the end he decided to resume riding alone. The rest of us decided to stay until rain slowed down a bit or dawm arrived, whatever happened first.

A bit later, while still waiting, Manolo got a phone call. It was Ferreiro, he found a bar opened a few km later, back on the main coastal road!. We didn’t hesitate, packed everything and got back on the road, under the rain. Lucky bastards… on our way out of San Cibrao it stopped raining ;-)

We had been there, sheltered by that bus stop, for one hour and a half.

Less than 15 minutes later, we arrived at that roadside bar, left our bikes under a small canopy outside and hurried up inside. The guy there didn’t have much food to offer, but the warm drinks were more important that food at that moment. I didn’t want to risk it by drinking milk, so instead of coffee I ordered some red tea and went straight to the bathroom (finally… a fscking toilet!!).

I removed my wet, damp, filthy clothes and washed myself as much as I could. They I tried to dry up a bit using some drying paper and, finally, I put some dry clothes on. I packed the wet clothes into the ziploc bags.

The dry clothes and the hot tea felt wonderful. Still, when I tried to eat something, my body simply refused to. I forced myself to eat my last oats+hazelnuts+raisins bar and ordered a big muffin, which I put in the top tube bag before leaving the bar. I also ordered a couple of cans of Aquarius#263, to put into one of the bottles, refilling the other one with water.

45 minutes later, we left the bar, again under the rain.

Thing is, we didn’t expect rain that early on Sunday. We expected the rain to appear some time after noon, light rain at first and then a few summer storm showers. But this wasn’t light, and it was no summer shower neither.

We had constant strong rain for a good part of the rest of the morning.

Nothing we do about it, so we do what we were supposed to do. Keep on pushing the pedals. We left again the main coastal road, taking another smaller road towards the next control point, Faro de Punta Roncadoira#264 at km 427. We were tired, wet and without sleep, but this little road was so nice that we enjoyed it a lot (or at least, I did).

The thing with the roads that go to these lighthouses in the Galician coast is, they are usually tough. They used to build the lighthouses in parts of the coast that are higher, way above everything else, so they could be easily spotted/view from the sea. This, for cyclists, translates into “short steep ramps with double-digit gradients”. It was time to stand on the pedals and move slooooowly.

The other thing with such roads is, once you get to a point high enough, they are very rewarding, with breath-taking views of the sea, the cliffs and the lighthouses themselves.

This last stretch to the lighthouse confirmed something I’ve had in my mind for some time now. My gastric problems appeared every time I had to step down the bike. All the time I spent on the bike, pedaling, I was ok. As soon as we had to stop… BAM, explosion.

So, when we were a couple of km from the lighthouse and Oscar said - “Shit! guys, I left my glasses at the lighthouse!” - and turned back to get them… instead of wait for him like the others, I came upon kind of a big parking place for a house nearby and kept riding in circles while waiting.

Once Oscar was back, we kept riding on that small road towards Celeiro. Beautiful road, but quite hilly. As soon as we left it and joined the main coastal road towards the town of Viveiro#265 we had a long descent ahead of us.

I hadn’t eaten anything in the last hour and a half, and finally I was feeling hungry, so I picked up the muffin from the top tube bag, unwrapped it, and wolfed it down during the descent.

We passed the town of Viveiro without stopping, not even slowing down. It was raining, so it wasn’t too inviting to slow down and enjoy the views anyway. We crossed the bridge over the mouth of the river Sor and then we climbed our way to the village of Mañón, taking then the road to the next control point, in another lighthouse, in Estaca de Bares#266.

In other circumstances, I’d have enjoyed this part of the Brevet a lot. I’ve ridden on this road a few times before this one, doing a couple of 300 Brevets, and it is a beautiful road that goes along the bay of Viveiro all the way to the lighthouse. It is tough, with lots of ups and downs, but it has the kind of tarmac where you can roll fast.

But, this time, the rain was torrential.

And what was worse, I felt the need of another toilet stop. This was around 09:00, so I was hoping to find something open. A bar by the road, a gas station… anything. But nope, no luck, not a single gas station, no road side bars. So I hold it and pushed the pedals. But my humour was getting worse and worse.

On the last repecho, before going down all the way to the village of Estaca de Bares, I saw a small bus stop by the side of the road and I couldn’t resist it anymore. I was a bit ahead of the others, I pulled over and when they were passing I shouted - “Don’t worry, keep on, I’ll catch you up in a moment”.

I parked the bike in the bus stop, went behind it and… well, no need for more details, I guess. Done with it, I resumed riding. The guys were nowhere to be seen, but I knew they would have to come back from the lighthouse on the same road, so I just kept on riding.

The road went down for a while, until I arrived in the small village before the lighthouse, then I had to climb up to the lighthouse where they were waiting for me. I finally arrived there, km 466 and next control point, at 09:45.

Since my quick toilet stop, rain had stopped gradually, which was quite nice as that way I was able to enjoy that little climb a bit more. This lighthouse is at the far point of a piece of land that goes into the sea. As it is in a higher point than the land around it, on your way up you can see the sea to both sides, and you have nice views of the rocky cliffs too. Soooo beautiful.

When I got to the lighthouse Manolo took a proof picture of me in front of it, as there was no way to get our cards stamped here neither.

Everybody was getting hungry, so we decided to stop at the first place we could find open on our way back.

We left the lighthouse, going back on the same road we took to get there, all the way to Mañón again. The road looked much nicer now, without the strong rain falling on us. Even the sun came out a bit to warm us up.

Just after Mañón we found a bar by the road, open, and we stopped there in hopes to get some breakfast. Everybody was dreaming about hot coffee and big toasts of bread and tomatoes… just to be slapped by reality. It was too early and the owner of the bar didn’t have any bread yet. All he could offer was lots of industrial-made croissants, muffins and pastries.

Ah well, that would do. We had coffee and we mostly ate everything he had. I have to say that the coffee was delicious (be it really delicious or simply that I really, really, really wanted it… I don’t know).

Once again, I took a moment to go to the toilet (and turned out, this was the last time I had to go to the toilet like that, for the rest of the brevet… yeah!!).

I also removed the shoe covers and the rain jacket, it didn’t seem like I’d need them anymore (or, for a while at least).

20-25 minutes later, we left the bar and took the road that would get us to Alto do Caxado, the biggest climb of the day.

The rain was definetely gone. The sun started to shine more and more and things were getting warmer. A few km later the real climb started. Oscar, Jose and me went on a bit ahead of the others - “We are the climbers!” - as Oscar would say.

They had been telling me stories and details about this climb during the weekend, about how tough it was going to be, quite the long climb. Honestly, it felt good. I rode with Oscar and Jose for a while at the start and then waited for a moment so Dani could catch me and we could ride together for a while.

We were arriving at the end of the first section of the climb, when we noticed some signs on the road and a guy on a motorbike. The signs said something about some “sport event” so we asked the guy on the motorbike. There was some cycling race going on that road at that moment.

What a coincidence… right? We asked him if we could go on anyway, and he said we could.

A while later, while riding on a flat-descent part before the next section of the climb, a single cyclist passed us so fast it looked like a motorbike.

“wow!” - I shouted - “That one is fast!”. The guy was clearly pushing it, possibly trying to put some distance between him and whoever was chasing him.

And then, we heard a swwoooossshhh sound coming from behind, just in time to be passed by a medium-sized peloton (maybe 10-12 cyclists?) going almost as fast as the previous solo rider.

We were talking about the whole racing thing and how fast these guys were when we started going up another little repecho and we noticed that, at the top of it, there was one of those canopies they use in these events to put a place with food and drinks by the road.

Yes, of course we did stop there!

The race was the XXIII Desafío Vila de As Pontes#267, an amateur event organized by a cycling club from the town of As Pontes de García Rodriguez#268. The guys from the organization that were there under the canopy were so nice that they offered us food and drinks.

We did stay there for 10-15 minutes, eating some fruit (I had a couple bananas) and some refilled their bottles too. When we told them what we were doing exactly (the Brevet, the distance, etc) they were quite surprised.

Note

Fun fact: during the 10-15 minutes we did stay there, several groups of participants on that race passed by. Only a couple of riders stopped to eat/drink something.

I guess in these races… food stops are not that important.

Off we went again, on our way to As Pontes. We were riding the same route as the racers, so some more groups passed us. Some of them cheering us and waving as they dissapeared on the next turn.

During this stretch, we passed the 500 km mark, we were getting closer and closer to the finish line, back in Bastiagueiro.

We also passed by some of the people from the organization, who were in places like crossings and turns that may be a bit more dangerous. They all cheered us like if we were participating in their race. We even came across one of their official photographers, who took a picture of us!

After passing the finish line of the race, where they had a photocall for riders to stop and get themselves some nice finish-line photos, we got to the long descent that took us to the town of As Pontes.

It was a bit before 13:00 when we arrived in town, and we decided to have an early lunch there. We found a nice restaurant were we had some bocadillos.

We ordered and while the food was being prepared, Dani went to a bakery next door and bought some desert. Homemade pastries for everybody!

While waiting, I went outside to re-pack some things in my bags. While I was there, a couple sitting on a terrace asked me if I wouldn’t mind telling them what was it that we were doing on the bikes, with all that extra luggage we were carrying. I tried to summarize it as best as I could, the further I went with my summary, the wider they eyes opened in disbelief.

In the end they wished me good luck and bon voyage.

One hour later we left As Pontes, with near 40 km to the next control point in Guitiriz#269 and less than 100 km to the finish line in Bastiagueiro. We had done the hardest part of the day already, but we still had to get out of As Pontes, which meant a couple of short, tough climbs.

We managed, and soon we were back on roller-coaster roads towards Momán. These up-and-down roads let us gain some speed which, added to the idea of being closer and closer to the finish, cheered us up a bit.

It didn’t last long though, dark clouds started to cover the sky again, and it was clear that sooner or later it was going to start raining. The question floating in the air was… how much was it going to rain?

After another repecho, everybody agreed on a quick stop to put on some rain gear. I put on my rain jacket. A few moments later, we realized it had been a good idea. Water started to fall from the sky like if some giant was throwing big buckets of water over us. The hardest rain storm I’ve ever had on the bike, in my entire life! (spoiler alert: “YET”).

As it happened earlier this morning, there was nothing we could do about it. There was no place to get some shelter from the rain, nowhere we could stop and wait for the storm to pass, so we just kept pushing the pedals.

Luckily this road was fast, roller-coaster like but without hard gradients on the “ups”. I can’t tell for sure for how long it was like that, maybe 20-30 minutes? It stopped as soon as we left the main road from Momán and took the smaller road that would get us to Guitiriz#270, passing by Os Villares.

Something happened then, someone started to push it a bit more, pulling the whole group with him. I tried to keep up but the increasing rythm was a bit too much. Suddendly I looked back and noticed Ferreiro was missing, I did hesitate for a second and the gap between me and the group was too big. I pushed, trying to get back into the group, trying to tell them about Ferreiro being dropped, but it was useless, they had a fast pace now, too fast. The effort I would have to make to catch them was too much to do at this point in the Brevet, so I let go of them.

I looked for a fast pace I could sustain and kept there myself all the way to Guitiriz#271. Just as I was entering the village, I catched them. It was 15:40 and we were at the last control point, km 551, before the finish line.

We had a quick stop to drink something in a bar, while we waited for Ferreiro. We got our cards stamped and off we went again, taking the main N-VI that would take us back to Coruña, to our starting point in Bastiagueiro.

Everybody was excited at this point. We were so close to finish. Just a couple more short climbs, the rest of the near-50 km we had still to cover were quite favorable, with a few longer descents (the same we climbed on saturday morning).

We set to a nice pace and we chat, made jokes, enjoyed the last hours of this wonderful Brevet.

And then the sky fell on us. Remember what I wrote a few paragraphs above, about the hardest strong rain ever? That was light rain compared with what fell on us near Betanzos afterwards!

It was so much rain, falling hard, that at one point it started to hurt on my arms and legs. Again, no place to get shelter, and this time in the main road to get in and out of Coruña, the big city. The cars, both passing us and driving on the opposite direction, created waves with the water that was on the road, which at that time looked more like a river than a road. Our wheels were inches into the water, it was like crossing a not-so-deep river.

Now, this truly was the hardest rain storm I’ve ever had on the bike, in my entire life!

Anyway, we did endure it. We kept on, head down and handlebars firmly grabbed (which after a while was quite the task, as everything got super slippery) and pushed the pedals.

With maybe 12-15 km to go, it stopped raining again, the clouds were gone and the sun started to shine a bit. It all felt like having a bad nightmare. All we wanted at that point was for the next rain storm/shower to hold on until we had arrived back in INEFG.

We hurried up, as much as we could, and we finally arrived in Bastiagueiro at 18:00.

Everybody was soaked to the bone, but we took a moment to congratulate each other, take a group picture and talk a bit about this crazy weekend of cycling and adventures.

I also picked up the brevet cards of everybody, writing the passing times on each control point. I had been writing them in my phone during the Brevet, instead of writing on each brevet card, to save some time. On every stop we made, I sent a message to my wife (so she could follow our progress and know I was all right), and those messages kept recorded the date and time.

All that done, I said goodbye and packed my things in the car and went straight to the same hotel I had stayed on friday evening. Arriving this early on Sunday, driving for 1 hour and go back home was tempting, but I did not even consider that option, after having two very bad experiences after 400 Brevets, when I almost fell asleep at the wheel. Imagine after riding a 600 without any sleep at all.

I turned the car on and then I realized how tired I really was. It was like if my body was saying “ok, done, no need to keep things running anymore at this point”. I got to the hotel, had a shower, had a quick dinner and fell asleep instantly as soon as I touched the bed.

As usual, here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:

Note

The photos you saw in this report were made by Me and my friends Óscar, Ferreiro and Manolo.. Thanks for sharing them, guys.

Super Randonneur… twice!

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-06-21 00:00:00

One of the targets for this year was to complete the Super Randonneur#272 series (do 200, 300, 400 and 600 Brevets in the same year) as that was one of the requirements to be able to participate in PBP.

It did sound like something I could do, but I had never done a 600 Brevet before, so it was a bit of a challenge.

Last weekend I finished the second 600 Brevet of this year, which means I’ve not only done the complete series… I’ve done it twice, riding 2 Brevets of each of the required distances.

The 200s

We started the season with low temperatures and lots of rain. I did both 200 Brevets in Galicia, missing one in Astorga because of some family trouble.

The first one, Polas Terras Altas went much better than expected. It was the first Brevet of the season, time to meet old friends again and make new ones. This year it was also the time to talk about our common dream, the goal of the year, participating in PBP. And all that with temperatures near 0ºC.

The second one, Vacas e Peixes, was probably one of the toughest 200s I’ve ever done. We had very bad weather, with lots of rain and humidity, which broke me after a while (preventing me from eating and drinking properly while on the bike). It was one of the few Brevets in my life where I ran out of steam at one point, having to readjust my pace and adapt in order to be able to finish.

The 300s

For the 300s, I finally managed to go to Astorga again to do a Brevet, after having so much fun last year on both a 200 and a 300 there. The first 300, del Urogallo was perfect. We had a few long and steady climbs mixed with roads where we were able to roll fast. Nice scenery and views from quiet secondary roads and good company.

The second one, Percorrendo a Raia was a bit special. Organized by the guys from the Riazor Cycling Club and Galicia Randonneurs, this one didn’t start in Bastiagueiro. Instead we started from Tui, a small village in the province of Pontevedra, in the south of Galicia. The weather wasn’t perfect and we had again lots of rain, but that didn’t prevent us from having a great time riding along the invisible border between Spain and Portugal, enjoying our usual Galician roller-coaster roads and a few tougher climbs.

I made both 300 within the same week, followed by the first 400 the next week, another challenge for me, as I had never done so much km in 3 weekends.

The 400s

For the 400s I did also the first one in Astorga and the second one in Galicia.

During the BRM 400 - Braganza we left Spain and went into Portugal for a while, including the longest lunch stop in a Brevet ever, to enjoy some Portuguese specialities. I rode this one with a group that somehow is now my group for Brevets in Astorga, friends from a variety of places (Astorga, Leon, Asturias, Madrid). This was also the first time in a Brevet when I had physical problems that almost made me scratch. In the end everything went well and I did finish it in time.

Back in Galicia, in Bastiagueiro, it was time for the BRM 400 - Polas Catro Provincias. I started that one with lots of doubts after my left knee problems, but everything went perfectly fine. For this Brevet I was back into my galician group, the Mesoiros, plus the addition of our new friend Álex. We rode on roads from the four different Galician provinces (A Coruña, Pontevedra, Ourense and Lugo - in that order). Once again, roller-coaster roads and a few longer climbs, without much time for resting or rolling on flat roads.

The 600s

The 600s. The distance I had never done before… and yet I did it twice this year. Two brevets, so different to each other like day and night.

The first one, the BRM 600 - Santiago, started in Astorga and went all the way to Santiago de Compostela, following the French Way (El Camino Francés). Riding with my astorgan-brevets group, plus our friend Roberto, we did a short stop for sleeping in the middle of the Brevet. We booked in advance an apartment in a village near km 340, and we had a 3-hour sleep there before resuming our ride. This was my first 600 ever, an experience I’ll never forget.

The other one, the BRM 600 - Galaico Asturiano started again in Bastiagueiro and went through the northern part of Galicia and into Asturias. Marked by an early crash that sent our friend Alex to the hospital, things were a bit shaken for a while. This time we decided to do the whole Brevet without a sleep stop, and it worked out quite well. I didn’t miss the sleep stop at all. I learned a few valuable things, like the fact that - if needed - I’m able to ride my bike without the prescription glasses, and how important it is to bring some meds to fix gastric problems during long distance riding.

Looking back, riding all these brevets have been an awesome experience. Lots of good moments, a few not-so-good moments, and a lots of things I’ve learnt one way or the other.

Definetely the year I’ve ridden the most (time, km, elevation gain) in my life. It feels like a mark in my randonneour life, a point of no return.

And now, what? PBP will take place in a bit less than two months from now, so I should keep on riding my bike, training, keeping myself fit for it. There are still two more Brevets in my calendar before PBP, a BRM 1000 in Galicia and another BRM 600 in Astorga. Thing is, I’m not sure I’ll be able to do those, somehow it feels like adding too much stress to my family life.

But, one way or the other, I’ll have to keep on riding my bike, combining short training sessions with long days on the saddle. I don’t want to throw off the window all the effort done up to today.

Another week off the bike

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-02-07 00:00:00

This week has been tough, getting more and more complicated as days passed by.

First my daughters were home, as school time ended the previous week (on the 22nd of June). This always means a change in habits and time availability at home, both for my wife and me. I knew I’d have even less time than usual to split between work and training, but I was more or less ready to deal with that.

But then the virus came.

On Tuesday, Lara (my older daughter) started to feel strange and by early evening she developed some high fever. Soon I followed her (luckily, my wife and Emma, our younger daughter, didn’t seem to be affected by it).

What came next was a combination of fever, sore throat, a lump in my throat, strong headaches, slepless nights and an overall sensation of feeling like shit.

It wasn’t COVID (or so the tests said) but whatever it was, it brought me down for a week (and both of us are still recovering).

Hopefully it has passed now and I’ll be back on the bike soon.

Trying to help a bit with the BRM 1000

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-07-14 00:00:00

Yesterday evening, a few friends of mine and several other randonneurs left the usual Brevet start point at INEFG in Bastiagueiro. It was 20:00 and they were starting the last Brevet in Galicia for 2023, the BRM 1000 - Reviravolta a Castela.

Sadly I wasn’t there. The plan was to be there and do my first 1000 km Brevet, but things didn’t work out in the end.

But… I wanted to do something for them.

So, knowing they will have to pass by my home town, Lugo, near midnight, I did prepare a little something.

The idea came to mind a couple of days ago. I knew Lugo was going to be km 90-something and I thought that, after 4-5 hours of riding, maybe they would like to have a coffee stop and eat something. I told Dani about it, he discussed with a few of the others and soon all was settled.

So yesterday I did some calculations and, around 30-40 minutes before the time I was expecting them to be passing Lugo, I prepared lots of coffee and put it in one of those (big) insulated flasks to keep it warm. I also put some warm milk in a couple smaller insulated flasks and I packed up some food: a warm tortilla, bread buns, croissants, magdalenas (madeleines)… I also had two big bottles (5 liters each) of water.

We agreed to meet on the way out of Lugo, near a gas station by the road, so around 23:40 I put everything in the car and drove there. I parked the car and was sending Dani a message - “I’m at the meeting point, let me know if you prefer to stop somewhere else and I’ll drive there…” - and as soon as I hit the send button, I noticed their head lights coming towards me.

I did step out of the car and wave at them, so they could see me.

To be honest, itt was quite emotional to me to see them coming. I was happy to see them, also a bit sad I couldn’t be just riding with them.

I opened the trunk while they were arriving and parking their bikes. Then it was time to say hello, hug some people… you know, the usual kind of thing.

Then I started to serve coffee while they served food themselves.

When everybody had coffee served, I took a few pictures. It all felt like being in one of the usual quick coffee stops in a Brevet. We did chat for a while, about the adventure the were just beginning, what they will find on their way, then about stories from the previous Brevets we did this year… and about life in general.

A couple of them asked me why wasn’t I doing this Brevet too, “Life, mostly, things got a bit complicated this time” - I replied - “I really wish I’d be on the bike with you on this one”.

I think they were a bit surprised by all the food, I’ve the sensation they were expecting just coffee and some water for refilling the bottles. I’m really happy they enjoyed the food, in the end they ate it (almost) all up!

After a few more jokes. They took a moment to put on some more layers/clothes, then gathered their things and left, leaving me there alone, wishing I could just hop on the synapse and follow them.

“There will be a next time” - I told myself. Then I packed everything and drove all the way back home.

Getting some new gear and stuff

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-07-20 00:00:00

In one month, 20th of August 2023, it will be the day when PBP will start.

With all the work done to be able to participate, the last few days I’ve tried to keep up with training (maybe a bit less than what I’d like to) and to look into the details and needs for riding PBP.

I went through my cycling kit, clothes, tools, lights, spares, everything, trying to find out if I’d need to buy something before it would be too late for things to arrive in time (that meaning being able to put some test rides on any new stuff before departing for Paris).

This time of the year is also when the big brands and online shops have their summer sale offers, so it is usually the time when I buy most of my new stuff. I don’t care buying clothes, etc from previous seasons, so I usually get some nice discounts from brands like Rapha#273 or Isadore#274

First thing I noticed, during the last few Brevets, is that my Castelli#275 knee and arm warmers were really worn. I’ve been using them a lot for maybe five or six years and they have been reliable, comfortable and quite convenient during cold and rainy rides, as their water-repellent coating works quite well.

So I got the same exact model again, the Nano Flex, in black color and size M.

To this order, I added the Endurance gloves also from Castelli, as they had a nice discount, and I’ve heard really good things about them for doing long distance (to avoid hand/fingers numbness).

I also needed some new base layers, as my current ones are starting to fall apart too (even older than the arm/knee warmers). So I added two base layers from a brand I didn’t know before, Finisseur#276, a warm merino short-sleeved one and a light/cool short-sleeved one.

I ordered all these from the online shop deporvillage#277, getting some nice discounts between -25% and -45% (depending on the item).

Next, I needed new cycling shoes. My current Bontrager Velocis had served me well for the last 5 years, but lately I’ve found they get a bit loose while riding and I’ve to adjust the tension of the BOA lacing a lot. I’m not sure if it is a sign of the BOA laces needing replacement or the shoes themselves needing replacement, but I decided that having another pair of shoes would be a good idea anyway.

So I went on and read several “best cycling shoes as of 2023” articles, then some reviews of some models and finally looked at options with nice discounts online.

I’m going to spare you the whole process and the different models I considered. In the end, I decided myself to buy the Pro Team Shoes from Rapha#278, in Grey/Green color, size 41.5.

As I was going to get these shoes, I took a look (for several days) at the offers in Rapha#279’s summer sale. There were lots of tempting stuff there, but in the end I didn’t really needed anything from there except from the shoes and another couple of Merino socks, so I added those to the cart (grey/blue color, size Medium) before making my order.

I got a -40% discount on the shoes, a -35% discount on the socks.

While I got those Finisseur#280 base layers from deporvillage#281, I still needed some new long sleeve base layers. I knew one of my favourite brands, Isadore#282, had a summer sale too, and I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy some merino base layers from them for quite a while now.

So I went to their website to take a look.

They had lots of stuff with huge discounts, as it seemed they had merged their usual garage sale (stuff/leftovers from previous seasons) and the summer sale (stuff from this season). I took my time and, after looked a while at different products, I decided to get a few more stuff from them, clothes I’ll need next autumn/winter, etc.

I got a TherMerino Jersey (Evening Blue, size S), the Signature Thermal Tights (Orion Blue, size S), an Alternative long sleeve base layer (White, size S) and some more Merino socks, Toe covers and a waterproof cycling cap.

Sadly, there were no more stock of their merino base layers in my size, so I couldn’t get any. Also, I tried to get some bibshorts, but no luck with my size neither. In this case, almost all items had a -50% discount.

Finally, I decided to buy another head light. I currently have a Bontrager ION Pro RT which, despite being 4 years old now, works pretty well. By the experiences during the 400 and 600 Brevets this year, I know that this light, fully charged, can last a whole night of riding. Its drawback, though, is that getting it fully charged can take quite some time. And I’m sure that will be a problem during PBP, when we will ride several nights in a row.

I’ve a spare light, an Infini Super Lava, which is good for short rides, or as an spare in case of emergency, but at mid-power setting it won’t last more than 3 hours.

So, I’d like to have a spare light that would last at least like my Bontrager light, so I could swap lights and charge one while the other is in use.

Getting another ION Pro was an option I consireded, but it is a pricey product, and I couldn’t find any good discount/deal for it.

Then, I remembered a suggestion from Sergio Pulido#283 after the 400 brevet we did together. Back then he suggested us to look into the same light he had been using for some time, the SoonFire FD38. Chinese brand, only available through Amazon#284 and cheap (39.99 eur). At that moment I didn’t think really about getting one, but these past few days, it became an interesting option.

I looked for some more info and specs and found out the FD38 model wasn’t available anymore, there was instead a new model, FD39#285. It seems it has a decent battery time and enough light power/beam, there were some reviews reporting problems with its handlebars mount and a few “it stopped working completely after a few months”, but overall the reviews were good.

So I decided to give it a try and got one myself.

Regarding spares, I still have stock at home of tubes, tires, etc. so I don’t need to buy anything there.

I’ve placed these online orders within the last 10 days. Some products have already arrived, some I’m still waiting for. The idea is to test those I’ll bring with me to PBP (warmers, gloves, shoes, base layers…) as much as possible before going to Paris.

Maybe I’ll write a few lines about my impressions (specially regarding new stuff like the shoes or the light) so… stay tuned!

The Brevet Song

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-07-27 00:00:00

There has been something in common to (almost) all Brevets I’ve done this year (so far). Kind of a habit I developed without even realizing it. Before each Brevet I listened to the same song while driving my car to the start point.

The version Meg Myers#286 did, back in 2019, of Running up that hill#287 (originally by Kate Bush#288).

Some of you will probably recognize the song, as it got quite the attention last year, 2022, because of the TV show Stranger Things#289. Some maybe remember the original one from 1985#290.

So, somehow, before every Brevet I listened to Meg Myers’ version. It definetely helped getting ready.

There is also an official videoclip available in YouTube, which is quite nice, you can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7iVWK2W48o

After all the Brevets I’ve done this year, this song has become my brevet song.

I’ve made some stickers

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-11 00:00:00

I’ve read a lot of articles, blog posts, writings, etc about the previous editions of PBP. Basically everything I could find online. Every single time, I found lots of mentions about the nice people from Bretagne, people waiting by the side of the road to cheer riders up, to offer hot drinks, water and food for free. And what about the stories of whole families, kids and toddlers included, that put tables with everything you may need at their homes’ doors.

Usually, according to what I’ve read, these people won’t ask for anything in return. Some may ask you to send them a postcard once you are back home.

But, I’ve read in a couple of blogs about this idea of bringing with you something, a token, a small present, something you could give them in exchange that won’t mean exactly to pay for it.

And so, I came up with the idea of making some nice stickers to bring with me. Stickers are lightweight and easy to pack, and it should be a cool thing to give, specially to kids.

After thinking a bit about it, I decided to make them using my cycling club logo (which I’m totally in love with).

Without much time to arrange things, I look for local shops that may be able to have the stickers ready in time. Luckily I found one that said they could be ready in a couple of days. I ordered 100 stickers with a vinyl+polished finish, which according to the shopkeeper should last a lifetime, even sticking them in cars, etc. They costed me 25 euros.

Today I picked them up from the shop, and the result couldn’t be better!

They came in a huuuge sheet of plastic paper which was cut at the shop in a few A4-sized sheets. It was my turn then to cut them one by one and pack them into a small plastic zip bag.

I just hope people will like them!

Packing up for PBP

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-17 00:00:00

Tic, tac, tic, tac… Next sunday evening is the start of the 20th edition of PBP. Tomorrow I’ll start the trip to Rambouillet… so today is packing day. Time to sort things out, make a list of everything I’ll pack and carry with me on the bike.

I made a list first, to avoid forgetting anything, and then I went through that list, placing every item on a table.

Let’s make a summary of everything:

Clothes

Ottobosley Moa Race Jersey, size M (Randonneurs Galicia PBP 2023 limited edition)

Gobik Attitude jersey, size M (ribeiras do miño)

2 x Gobik Absolute Bibshorts with K-10 chamois, size M

Craft thin sleeveless summer base layer, size M

Finisseur short sleeve light base layer, size M

Finisseur short sleeve merino warm base layer, size M

Isadore alternative long sleeve warm base layer, size S

Rapha pro team long sleeve training jersey, size M

Rapha pro team long sleeve jersey, size M

Rapha Brevet flyweight wind jacket, size M

Castelli nano flex knee warmers, size M

Castelli nano flex arm warmers, size M

Castelli endurance gloves, size M

Bontrager winter gloves, size M

Bontrager waterproof shoe covers, size M

Isadore waterproof toe covers

Rapha Brevet socks

Rapha Merino socks

Finisseur pro socks

Isadore signature climber’s cap

Isadore signature rain cap

Giro Foray Helmet, size L (yeah, I’ve a big head!)

Tools and spares

2 x continental race 28 tube

2 x tire lever

4 x tube patches + glue, etc

4 x “hard” auto-stick VAR patches (useful if you get an ugly cut on your tires)

6 x small zip ties

Small tube of vax lube

Presta-to-schrader adapter

SKS tomtool

Birzman mini pump

4 x extra spoke from scribe cycling (these do not appear on the picture)

1 gearing cable replacement (this does not appear on the picture neither)

Lights

Bontrager Ion Pro RT (headlight)

Soonfire FD39 (headlight)

Apace Vision (tail light)

Cateye OMNI 3 (tail light, works with AAA batteries)

Devices, power, batteries

Garmin edge 530

GoPro Hero 3+ (yeah, a bit old!)

Motorola Moto g82

TwoNav heart rate monitor

2 x gopro extra battery + charger for three batteries

2 x AAA spare battery (duracell)

Anker 10000 mah power bank

Anker 5000 mah power bank

2 x usb c cable

2 x usb micro b cable

TooQ wall charger (2 USB 3.4 A, 17W ports)

Hygiene and meds

Forclaz reusable emergency blanket

Wet wipes (smallest package I could find)

Tissues

4 Ibuprofen pills

3 Diorren dosis (for gastrointestinal trouble)

3 compeed patches

Small sunscreen bottle

Small travel toothbrush + toothpaste

Assos chamois cream (in a small plastic container)

Food

Isostar hydrate powertabs (10)

3 x Aptonia salts hydration pack

3 x Victory Endurance bar (banana + white chocolate)

3 x Victory Endurance bar (tropical fruits)

3 x Clif bar (different flavors)

4 x multi-nuts bar

4 x oats + raisins + honey bar

1 package of clif bloks (blueberry flavored energy chews with caffeine)

I also packed the prescription glasses I wear when not on the bike. I never did this before for a Brevet. I always wear my spiuk binomial glasses with the small prescription glasses adapter in them. But I don’t want to find myself without any prescription glasses in the middle of PBP (after a crash, for example).

Helmet and one change of clothes (jersey, bibshort, base layer and socks) is what I’ll wear at the start, while the rest of it will be neatly packed into my three bike bags, like in this picture from the 600 - Especial Galaico Asturiano:

It may look like a bit too much, I’ve been checking the weather forecast for days now and it seems that chances of rain are very low, with higher temperatures near 30ºC by day and 13-14ºC at night.

BUT, reading the reports from 2019, back then they were expecting lower temperatures at night around 10ºC, and in the end they had more like 3-5ºC.

That’s the reason for the extra long sleeve warm layers and the waterproof shoe covers and cap. I guess I prefer to be on the safe-but-a-bit-heavier side of things here.

Once everything was ready, and after taking that picture, I packed everything on the bags and put them on the synapse, to be sure everything fit. Then I removed the bags from the bike and packed the rest of my things on a couple of travel bags.

Everything is ready, I am ready, time to rest and sleep a bit before the big traveling day tomorrow.

The trip to Rambouillet (part 1)

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-18 00:00:00

Day 1 of our trip to Rambouillet. This morning I drove from Lugo to A Coruña, with a short stop to pick up my father on the way there (so he can drive my car back home afterwards).

We arrived in Coruña near 10:00 and we meet my friend Dani near his home. A few minutes later Ferreiro and Manolo arrived on the big Mercedes V “Marco Polo” van that would take us to France.

We got to work and we attached Dani’s bike rack (with space for up to 3 bikes) to the van. Manolo and Ferreiro had their bikes already packed inside the van, while the other three bikes were going to travel on the bike rack.

With the bikes in place, and our luggage in the van, we left Dani’s home and went to pick up another member of our expedition, Felipe. A while later, his bike was already loaded on the rack, his bags in the van and we were ready to go.

We left Coruña, taking first the A-6 highway, then the A-8 along the Cantabric coast. We drove for a few hours until we arrived in Unquera (Cantabria), where we did a stop to eat something.

This first stretch passed really fast. We were excited, lots of things to discuss and talk about. We talked about literally everything regarding PBP, our ideas, plans, expectations, etc.

In unquera we had lunch and Dani decided to buy a little thing for dessert (and to carry with us on the van!).

We tried to make the stop as short as possible, so after lunch, pee and a very short walk to/from the road restaurant, we got back on the van and resumed our way to the next stop, Bourdeaux.

The weather was good (maybe a bit too hot for me) and the highway along the Cantabric coast gave us some very cool views a few times. The Mercedes van was amazing, with lots of space for our things and ourselves, super comfortable.

Once we crossed the border, we entered a really big highway. Having 3/4 lanes almost all the way to Bourdeaux, that highway was full of cars. We had several big traffic jams, which were worse and worse as we were getting closer to Bourdeux.

After a while, the sky got covered with dark thick clouds. It looked like it was going to start raining soon. And soon it did, easy at first, then stronger. Our bikes on the rack weren’t covered, but I had brought with me one of those big waterproof covers for bikes, so we did a quick stop in a gas station/rest area. We filled the gas tank of the van, put the cover over our bikes and resumed riding.

Finally we made it to our hotel around 21:30. The hotel was not in Bourdeaux, but in one of the service/parking areas by the highway passing by the big city. We parked the van in the hotel parking lot and did the check-in. A few minutes later we went out looking for a place to have dinner.

First big difference between Spain and France: dinner hours. While in spain we start to have dinner around 21:00 (and that’s early for spanish standards) in France shops/restaurants start closing around 21:30/22:00.

We already knew that, but we tried our luck with a nice small pizzeria near the hotel. When we got there the oven has been already turned off, so no luck. We looked for other options nearby, but all we could find was… McDonalds.

Riiight… not exactly my choice, but there weren’t any other options without driving, so McDonalds it was.

There was actually a lot of people in there, so we had to wait a bit to make our order in one of those automatic ordering machines. Then we looked for a corner a bit separated for the big mass and we waited a bit for our order to be ready.

I don’t like McDonalds (and its sibling franchises) at all. Usually I refuse strongly to eat there, but if there is no other choice, at least I try to avoid their so-called “burgers”. This time I decided to order some pasta salad. It wasn’t good, but it was better than the burgers at least.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and went to bed. We still had another half of the trip to do tomorrow.

The trip to Rambouillet (part 2)

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-19 00:00:00

Day 2 of our trip to Rambouillet. We woke up early in the hotel near Bourdeaux and had a very nice breakfast there. French croissants, pain au chocolat, coffee, juice, toasted bread with honey and jam, fruit… Let’s say we compensate a bit for the failure of a dinner the previous night.

We left the hotel and drove all the way from Bourdeux to Rambouillet.

It was still a long way to go, a tiresome trip, but we were eager to arrive in Rambouillet, we were looking forward to be on our bikes riding PBP.

Once again, we encounter rain on our way. We were going towards Orleans and we had a strong rain shower for quite some time. Luckily our bikes on the rack were already covered.

During this part of the trip, we kept talking about planning and ideas for PBP. This time we focused on the weather reports. A new heat wave (canicule as they called them in France) was expected for the next week (during PBP) with very high temperatures, specially on the south and center of France. The Bretagne was supposed to have milder temperatures, but still unusually high for that area.

Manolo and the others, with more experience and several PBP on their backs, were thinking about not carrying any warm clothes at all with them. “You won’t need winter/warm clothes, not even at night with this temperatures” - Manolo kept saying - “Short sleeve jersey and arm warmers, that should be enough”.

Honestly, I kept thinking about the reports I had read from 2019 and how cold it was at night on those roads in Bretagne…

We passed Orleans and we left the worse of the storm behind. Eventually the sun came out again and the weather improved as we were getting closer and closer to our destination.

Finally, near 13:30 we arrived in Rambouillet.

On our way to the village, we passed by the big gate from where we will leave on sunday afternoon, on our bikes and pedaling. Coincidence, at the gate we found the FECT#291 expedition, so we decided to stop for a moment and say hello to our friends there.

I took a moment to say hello to my brevet group from Astorga (Sergio, Pull, Saúl and Valentín) as well as Yago, who took my place in the FECT expedition.

It was super nice to be with all these people, but it was getting late for lunch (again, restaurant closing times in France…) so we left them there (they had lunch organized at their hotel) and we went to the center of the village of Rambouillet.

We parked the van near one of the entrances to the castle, by a very nice square, and went right away looking for a place to have lunch.

As soon as we left the van, I got completely amazed. All around us were cyclists, randonneurs and bikes, bikes everywhere. Bikes leaning on walls, bikes parked by cafés and restaurants, on verandas… literally everywhere.

There were lots of randonneurs sitting at tables on the terraces. The weather was awesome, very inviting to seat outside and enjoy your time. Everybody was already wearing their cycling kits, bikes parked on sight. And not only bikes, soon we noticed the strange vehicles, the bolidos (as we call them in spanish), where the rider lays down inside a very aero structure. They were catching lots of attention from everybody, their owners trying to answer all the questions from lots of people around them.

After a while, we found a nice restaurant that has a big table available inside. We asked if we could have lunch there and were warmly welcomed by its owner, who invited us to seat at the big table. The table was inside, but had very nice views of what was happening outside. People and bikes kept coming, the square getting more and more crowded.

While we were waiting for lunch to be served, our friend Luis Castro joined us. He also came from Galicia, but he came on a trip with his family one day before us (and he will stay for a few more days in France after PBP).

We enjoyed our lunch, big dessert included (Dame Blanche for me!) and then we decided to go and pick up our things from the organization. On our way there I couldn’t help myself and I had to stop a million times to look at the bikes along the way. And, of course, take lots of pictures.

I saw all kind of bikes. Racing/aero road bikes, endurance bikes, touring bikes, old-style steel bikes, Ti (Titanium frame) bikes, gravel bikes, modern steel bikes… It was quite hard to walk a few meters without stopping again to take a closer look at the next bike we may find.

Finally we entered the area around the castle, passing another big metal fence and getting to the gardens. There were people coming and going on every direction, as well as a few bikes and cyclists seating or laying on the grass.

We passed the Castle and went towards the big area where the ACP#292 had prepared everything for the big departure on sunday (and all main events around PBP departure and arrival). This area wasn’t crowded yet, just a few people hanging around and the ocassional cyclist passing by.

We kept walking and passed the parking area for people that registered their vehicles when they signed up for PBP. Cars, vans, campers and even small motorhomes. The view was quite impressive, rows and rows of vehicles of all sizes.

I must say bringing a camper or motorhome looked like a very good idea at that moment. People had all their belongings there, no need to drive to/from hotels. I saw several people with their bikes on stands, adjusting gears, preparing everything for the big day. They were going to spend the night just a few minutes from the start point. What a luxury.

“¡Hombre! ¡unos gallegos!” - someone shouted to our left. We had been talking quite loudly (as usual) and someone noticed our accent. What a coincidence, we came across Javier López Terrón#293 (born in Galicia, living in Catalunya) and, after presentations, he asked us if we know a guy from Pontevedra called “Alex”. Of course we know him, he was talking about our friend “Alex”, who was supposed to be there with us, but had a bad crash in the 600 “galaico asturiano” back in june that, unfortunately, prevented him from being here with us.

We walked with Javier all the way to the entrance of the area where we should get our stuff from the organization, where we lost him after everybody started to meet other friends and colleagues.

Once we get there, the veterans (Manolo, Felipe, Ferreiro) started to meet more and more people. I guess once you have been in this world for some time, you get to know a lot of people. Dani and I spent some time taking pictures and talking, and saying hello to a few people we know from doing other Brevets as well.

The Bergerie Nationale was indeed full of people, so it took some time to finally get to pick up our documentation and clothes. Honestly, I savored every moment we were there. Not only because I had the chance to meet some really nice people and chat about randonneuring in general and PBP in particular, but because the scenery and environment around us was so beautiful.

We entered the building assigned to our starting time letter (H), which looked like an old barn, with wooden floor and ceiling. There were rows of big tables on both sides, with a line of flags from different countries over them. The bènèvoles (the volunteers) working below a given flag were able to talk in that country language.

I went to a free slot below two flags, the spanish flag and the US flag. An old lady greeted me there - “Bonjour Monsieur!” - I tried my best to reply in french, but soon we switched to a mix of english and spanish.

She asked for my registration number, the printed paper with my registration data and my id (the spanish DNI card). Then she left for a moment, just to came back with a yellow bag with reflective stripes. She opened the bag and went through all the items in the bag, telling me about each of them. The PBP official jersey (size M), the reflective vest (also size M), the plastic bracelet with my registration data (to be wear at all times), the plastic card to be attached to my bike frame (which has an RFID stripe attached to it, which is what they will use for tracking when we pass by the different controls) and, finally, my Brevet booklet (yeah, booklet, not card! PBP has too many controls for a regular/normal Brevet card).

There were a few other items, like the extra plastic card and a sticker with your registration number, to be placed somewhere visible so the official photographers can find you later on, while sorting photos of the participants. There was also a plastic pouch with a long string, that could be used to keep your belongings with you while riding (it was too big/bulky, and I don’t like to keep those things hanging from my neck anyway, so I didn’t use it).

I was the first one from our little group getting his bag, while the others got their bags, I kept myself hanging around, watching, hearing and taking some pictures.

Then we came outside a door opposite the one we came in a bit earlier, there we got a couple of presents. First a nice water bottle from Zefal#294, a 750ml white bottle with the logos of this PBP edition. Then a replica of the arrows that show the way to Brest and then back to Paris along the route.

Note

This was the first edition they give these arrows as gifts, which seems like a good idea, in previous editions some people stopped to remove the arrows on the route, causing lots of trouble to the other participants coming after them).

Did I mention that during time we were doing all this, there were bikes everywhere? Just like it happened earlier on the village streets and squares, here we found all kinds of bikes parked around every corner. Some were really beautiful.

With the swag bags on our backs, we walked around the area a bit more, paying a visit to the “change your clothes sizes department. For me, the reflective vest was a bit too big/loose (size M), but sadly there were no more vests of size S available.

Apart from changing your jersey/vest size, they also had a small shop there, where you could buy some PBP merchandise (t-shirts, jerseys from previous editions, etc). I liked the regular white t-shirts with the PBP logo on them, so I bought one for myself (size S, they were quite large).

Walking around, I listened carefully to conversations all around me. There were so many people from so many different places. I was able to pick up traces of conversations in english, german, french, italian, spanish, portuguese… and others that sound totally strange to me (russian, different asian languages…)

We kept finding amazing and beautiful machines, like a triplet (yeah, a tandem bike for 3 people) being ridden by three guys from germany.

After a while, we decided to go back to the place where all would start on sunday. The start point, where the concours de machines#295 was taking place.

Another PBP tradition, the concours de machines is like a contest for bicycle artisans to show their creations. People then can vote the ones they like the most and there is also a jury that will evaluate them. Then, the bikes have to be ridden during PBP to test them and show how they could perform.

There were also stands from different french bicycle artisans, like Alex Singer#296, or brands like Campagnolo or Zefal.

After hanging around for a while and spent some more money (got myself a PBP buff/scarf, but sadly PBP caps were sold out) we decided it was time to go to our hotel for the night. We had a 20-minute drive to get there + do the check-in + bring our belongings to our rooms.

Then we walked to a nearby italian restaurant to have dinner.

On our way there we met Guillaume Danel, a french guy that was also participating in PBP, who speaks an almost perfect spanish. He was alone and looking for a place to have dinner, so we asked him to join us.

That italian restaurant was a recommendation from the clerk in our hotel, but it was a total disaster. The service was pretty bad and it took ages for them to take our orders and then to serve them. They also served our food in blocks, so we didn’t really have dinner together.

Anyway, we had a great time, talking a bit about everything and getting to know Guillaume a bit better.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and went into our rooms. I shared mine with Dani, and as soon as we were there, we put ourselves to work. Time to re-pack some stuff in our bike bags.

After discussing it all day and double and triple checked the weather report, I decided to remove a few stuff from my bags. It was quite clear I won’t need the extra-warm clothes, as well as the rain stuff, so I removed the shoe and toe covers, the long sleeve jersey and jacket, the merino base layer, the waterproof cap, etc.

Then I double checked the top tube and frame bags, ensuring all I’d need there was in fact there (food, spares, tools, etc).

Finally, I removed everything from my swag bag and spread everything over the bed, to take a picture of all my goodies.

Everything ready, one last night before PBP start. I wasn’t nervous, maybe a bit excited, but it had been a long, long day. I was so tired that in a matter of minutes I was fast asleep.

I am a PBP Ancien now

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-25 00:00:00

Yes, I’ve finished PBP

Yes, I’ve done it within the 90 hour limit

That was on Wednesday, 23rd of August 2023, just before midnight. After near 51 hours pushing the pedals, 78 hours total time (with stops), since I left Rambouillet on Sunday, 20th of August 2023, around 17:45 (a bit later than that, really).

I’m writing this lines from home, after the long trip that took me back to Lugo, from Rambouillet. A couple of days have passed already and I’m still overwhelmed.

What I’ve lived, felt, enjoyed… during this incredible experience that was riding - and finishing - PBP for the first time. To be part of something like this in the randonneuring world…

Right now trying to put all that in words looks like a very complex task.

Just trust me when I write this: I’m so terribly, incredibly, amazingly happy.

I’ve met so many nice people, I’ve pushed my limits to a new level, I’ve visited some incredibly beautiful places and I’ve enjoyed every single second of it all.

It will take some time, but I promise I’ll write about it all, trying not to forget anything.

The day PBP started

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-28 00:00:00

There is definetely too much to write, too many things happened between the 20th and 23rd of August, so I’m going to split my story into separate reports (hopefully making it easier to read).

So, let me go back to where I left it on The trip to Rambouillet (part 2) and then tell you what happened on the 20th of August, Sunday, before my PBP departure time.

The plan was to sleep as much as possible, so we didn’t set any early alarms. Even so, I woke up before 7:00. I wasn’t able to sleep anymore (wondering why!). Dani was laying on the bed next to time, still asleep, so I kept myself in bed, trying not to make any noise that may wake him up. I rested a bit more, while reading Six of Crows (by writer Leigh Bardugo) in my Kobo ebook reader.

By 08:40 Manolo sent a message, he was going downstairs to have breakfast. Dani was still sleeping, but I woke up and had a shower, getting myself ready for breakfast.

Breakfast was “ok”, not super-wonderful + the coffee machine got broken before I could have my second coffee… but “ok”. Once we were done with it, we packed up our belongins and left the hotel.

On our way back to Rambouillet, we stopped at a supermarket (Auchan), where we met Luis again (he was staying in a different hotel than us) and we bought bread, cheese, tomatoes and jamon serrano. The plan was to make some bocadillos (if you have been reading my previous Brevet reports, you know already what I am talking about… ;-P) and bring them with us from the start of THE ride.

Note

The idea was to not stop at Mortagne au perche (not a control on the way out) and ride all the way to Villaines La Juhel, first control around km 200. In order to avoid having to get food at Mortagne, we were going to eat (at least) one of the bocadillos there, or somewhere on our way to the first control.

But… plans… you know…

Shopping done, we drove a few more km until we arrive finally in Rambouillet. At the entrance of the village everything seemed quiet, but soon we started to find a few randonneurs along the way.

We went straight to the parking zone reserved for registered vehicles, we look for a nice spot to park the van (trying to get a bit of shade, as the van was going to be parked there for a few days). Once we found something suitable, we parked and started preparing our bikes.

It was hot already, and getting hotter by the minute. Everybody was sweating and cursing the canicule. A few decided to remove their t-shirts to not get them all sweaty.

While we were getting things ready, we had a very nice surprise. Jose Luis, another fellow galician randonneur, member of the same club as Felipe, Manolo and Ferreiro (C.C. Riazor) appeared.

What a lovely surprise! He wasn’t able to come to Rambouillet this time as a participant, so he decided to come with his wife during their holidays.

Note

Little side note on my story here. Jose Luis was the first randonneur I met, back in the day when I was doing my first Brevets (circa 2017), that had already done PBP.

I remember quite well doing my first 300 Brevet and riding a few hours with him, listening carefully to his stories about riding PBP on 2015, and thinking to myself - “What an incredible thing to do… riding 1200 km unsupported, under 90 hours!” - and yet, here I was, a few hours before starting myself such a crazy adventure.

We did chat a bit with them, while we checked that the bikes were ready. Then we rode all the way to the village, where we were going to have lunch. We asked Jose Luis and his wife if they would like to join us, and luckily they said yes.

This short ride served us to test the bikes throughly, ensuring there were no last minute mechanical surprises/problems. Riding through the gardens was nice, refreshing. It felt soooo good to be finally on the bike, pedaling a bit. Once we came out of the castle area and on to the village streets, we found the big party.

Again lots of cyclists going on different directions, and this time mixed with parades and events everywhere. In front of Rambouillet’s city council building someone with a megaphone was announcing something (very loudly).

We went to the same square where we had lunch on Saturday, we parked our bikes and sat for a moment at a table on a nice terrace, to have some drinks.

Sitting there, on a shade in this warm day, having fun with some friends, sharing stories and even plans for the future… it was lovely, but something in me was already focused on what was coming in a few hours. It wasn’t really anxiety and I wasn’t really nervous, but I was looking forward to be on the bike, riding on our way to Brest.

After a while, we went to the same restaurant where we had lunch on Saturday. We had another superb lunch, surrounded by randonneurs already dressed up and ready to start (we still were wearing non-cycling clothes).

Time to discuss one last time the plan, the weather, what is important and what is less important during a 1200 super-brevet like this one.

Our friend Roberto Fernández (whom you should know already, from my report about the BRM 600 - Santiago) came to visit us briefly. He was ready and he was starting earlier than us (going on one of the 80-hours limit groups). It was good to see him, even if it was only for a few minutes.

After lunch we said goodbye to Jose Luis and his wife, picked up our bikes and started the ride back to the van.

The streets were full of people, lots of cyclists and an overall frenziness sensation with everybody rushing to get somewhere in time.

First we walked for a while and when we were about to hop on the bikes and ride the rest of the way, we found our french friend from last night, Guillaume, who was ready for a start earlier than us (in one of the 80-hour limit groups). He was riding a bike from Origine cycles#297, a french brand from his hometown.

After chatting a bit with Guillaume we wished him good luck and said our goodbyes. Then we rode our bikes through the main start area, where lots of cyclists were trying to find their way and a lot of pedestrians were trying to find a good spot for watching the show.

We crossed the river of randonneurs and kept riding towards the van. We still had a couple of hours before our departure time, but time was flying by and we wanted to be in the bike check area with enough time.

We arrived at the place where the van was parked. First we prepared the bocadillos and then, in a matter of minutes, we got dressed and ready. It was really really hot and we were so sweaty that getting our tight cycling clothes on was quite the task.

Both my traditional picture with the synapse and the group picture had to be taken, of course.

Felipe and Luis were going to start later than us (18:30 and 19:30 respectively) but they got ready with us and we rode back to the starting point together.

I remember perfectly well my feelings during that short ride. Still thinking to myself that it was unbelievable that I was there, about to start PBP. Damn, it felt so, so good.

Approaching the starting area I was able to see waves of cyclists moving together, like the tides of the sea. Moving a bit forward, stop, a bit backwards sometimes, then forward again.

Slowly, we look for a place for us in that sea of randonneurs. We found our letter (H) and we merge into the current behind its flag.

I’m not used to participate in races or similar events with so many people involved, so for me this was a bit overwhelming. I was a bit nervous, looking around me all the time, trying not to hit anyone with the bike and trying not to get hit neither.

We moved slowly, carried on the tide of cyclists and sweating a lot under a scorching sun that was cooking us up for good.

Then we arrived at the bike check, which basically consisted on walking by your bike, lights on and with your reflective vest on sight.

Note

reflective vest meaning the vest provided by the organization. I didn’t brought my rapha brevet gillet, as someone already told me it won’t be accepted, and being there I saw how several other riders had problems because their vests were not accepted.

But what I found quite strange was that reflective suspenders were not accepted neither. I still don’t understand why. They provide good visibility and in case of warm temperatures they are just perfect, not getting you boiled like a full vest.

Note

Also, I can’t tell enough times how much I dislike the official vest they gave us. Oversized, way too warm for the temperatures we had during PBP this year and with a cut that wasn’t comfortable (for me) at all (the fabric at its neck rubbing mine all the time). And it was really bulky, when packing it up to put it aside/store it during the day, its volume was more than twice the rapha gillet.

After the bike check, we passed by a few tables where some volunteers were stamping our Brevet booklets for the first time. Then we still had to walk our bikes through the gardens for a while, until we reached the dirt path where the official start point was.

The wait while groups F (special bikes) and G were departing was quite hard. There was no shade to take cover and the sun was hitting us hard. “If it takes any longer to start, I’ll have emptied my bottles before starting to pedal” - I told one guy to my left, a randonneur from Catalunya. We both laughed, but reality was it was too damn hot (the garmin device from Dani was showing 40ºC).

Five minutes later than scheduled, 17:50 the speaker (yeah, there was a speaker giving the start to every group) told us it was our time, everybody started to clap as a countdown was done and then everybody was hopping on their bikes, clipping and pedaling…

Again, I was quite nervous, too many people, too close to me. Luckily I was quick on putting distance with everybody around.

And, just like that, the adventure began… and I was riding PBP.

From Rambouillet to Brest

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-08-10 00:00:00

In the last entry of this log, I left my story just when I was starting to pedal into my first PBP. Before moving on with the story, let me go back for a moment to our original plan for the ride.

Basically, the idea was to ride all the way from Rambouillet to Brest (a bit over 600 km) without doing any sleeping stops. Then sleep in Brest for a few hours and do another stretch of near 300 km until Fougerès, sleep there a few more hours and ride the next almost-300 km back to Rambouillet the next day. We even had 2 hotel rooms booked for those sleep stops, one in a hotel on our way out of Brest (in Plougastel) and another one on the way out of Fougerès.

With that plan in mind, we made some numbers, an estimation on how long it would take us to arrive in Brest. We were going to ride Sunday (20th Aug.) evening, all night long until Monday (21st Aug.) morning and then all Monday. We expected to arrive in Brest some time around 22:00 on Monday. That should give us time enough to have some good hours of sleep before starting the comeback.

Now, back to my story…

The departure was a bit chaotic. We were a lot of cyclists, too close to each other, on a dirt path that went slightly uphill. Some clipped in and started pedaling right away, while others kept walking their bikes for a while (and a few of those not even going straight forward).

As I’ve mentioned a few other times, I’m not used to this kind of rides, with so many people and crowded starts. The fact that we were in the middle of the H start group didn’t help. I had a very nervous and anxious start, but luckily I made it out of the Chatèau without trouble.

And as soon as we left the dirt path and took the road… there it was, happiness, filling my lungs with every breath.

We had met our friend Juankar while queued for the start, and we made a little group at the start, with him, his friend David and Manolo, Ferreiro, Dani and me.

Soon we left the area around the Chatèu de Rambouillet, leaving by the big metal fence we visited when we arrived on saturday. We rode on some nice cobblestones and took the turn left, on a nice road with good tarmac.

All the way out, people were lined up on both sides of the road, cheering us up, taking pictures and shouting “Allez! Allez!”, “Courage!” and a few more things in French.

Considering how chaotic everything felt at the start, things went pretty smooth as soon as we were on the road. I was expecting things to be a bit more scary, having on the back of my mind this reminder “be careful with the groups, last thing you want is get into a group crash this early in the ride”. But riders, at least those in my starting group, were behaving quite well.

We wanted to keep our little group together, we are used to ride together and our paces are usually quite alike. After a while we found our pace and started passing other smaller and bigger groups. Some times people joined us and kept back there for a while, some other times we found bigger groups that were riding at a similar pace than ours and we did stay behind their wheels for some time.

This was fast land, almost flat with some gentle hills, once we got some speed, keeping it rolling was easy. Soon we started to catch riders from groups G and F (the special bikes one). We were passing recumbent bikes, velomobiles and even a fat bike.

This also meant catching some big groups, specially up those gentle hills, where they seemed to be slowing down a bit. Instantly, my brain went back into alert mode, trying not to stay for long in the middle of those bigger groups and risk a group crash.

We also found a few riders stopped by the road, trying to sort things out on their bikes (mech issues, etc) as well as the first flat tires. Every time there was some people stopped to help, so I didn’t have to stop myself.

I started to talk to people around me. People from all kind of different places. I met some spanish guys that came with the FECT#298, some of them I knew from a group chat we shared back when I was going to come to PBP with the FECT#299 too. I also talked with people from India, UK, USA, France, Italy…

I was excited, feeling great, and got carried in the fast pace. I also tried to keep myself at the head of any group we catched (probably my brain still alert to any possible group crash) which meant I was pulling someone most of the time.

Then a guy (looked like he was from India) approached me and asked me if we should take turns and speed up a bit. It was tempting and I was about to say “YES!” when I looked back for a moment and noticed none of my friends were there. “Sorry” - I told him instead - “Seems my mates are not there, I’m going to wait a bit for them”. He made a “too bad” gesture and pushed on, while I moved a bit aside and let the group pass.

A few minutes later Dani and the others catched me. It seemed Ferreiro was being a bit slower and they had slowed the pace a bit. Too bad, that bigger group we were riding with had the perfect pace. But, you know, no troll left behind!

We kept riding on easy terrain for some more time. As we slowed down, some riders we have passed earlier started to pass us, as well as some fast riders from groups I and J.

The temperature was nice, the roads were nice, people were super-nice… I was feeling great and it totally felt like living in a dream.

But (there is always a but) our friend Ferreiro was being dropped more regularly now. We were riding just fine, starting to pass some riders again, and then someone would notice he was not there anymore, so we slowed down, being passed again by those same riders, until we see him again.

I started to worry.

At first I was worried about him. I expected we all were going to have our low moments during a super brevet like this one, but someone with his experience (this was his 3rd PBP) having a low moment this early? Weird.

And then I started to worry also about our plans and the schedule for arriving in Brest, the hotel we had booked, etc. I was ok with riding evening, all night long and all day long, but the idea of having to ride into a second night for some more hours without sleep was… frightening.

Even being worried, I tried to enjoy the ride as much as possible. With an eye on Ferreiro, I kept talking with people here and there and we came across more weird bikes and vehicles on our way.

At one point we started to ride through small villages and we came upon the first groups of people that had their stands by the road. Some times they were simple tables, some times bigger fair-style stands, some times vans or cars with the trunk open. Every time people offered water, coffee and even food. If we didn’t stop, they cheered us up at the shouts of “Allez! Allez!”, “Bon Courage!”, etc.

In one of those stops, to refill our water bottles, we waited a bit longer for Ferreiro. Then we resumed the ride, but Manolo, Juankar and David decided they were not going to wait any longer, while Dani and I decided to stay with him.

We took turns riding alongside him, trying to talk him out of that hole and get him on a good mood again, but it was pretty useless.

Soon the night was going to be upon us, we did a short stop to put our reflective vests on (even if it was too hot for it, we didn’t want to risk being sight/caught by one of the ACP motorbikes, which would mean a 1-hour penalty in our times). While we were doing so, another fast group passed by us. We hopped on our bikes, but we knew already we weren’t going to be able to catch them.

Anyway, we weren’t alone. You are never completely alone during PBP.

We kept on riding, forming another little group of riders, while the sun finally went down, leaving us in a very, very dark night.

I had Dani by my side at all times, we rode together, side by side. I was happy to be sharing all this with him, we did a long journey together since the start of the year, and riding this together was amazing.

In the darkness it was much more difficult to keep track of our friend Ferreiro and at some point we lost him. It didn’t make sense to slow down, we were getting closer to the food stop at Mortagne au Perche (which wasn’t a control on the way to Brest, but it was going to be a control on the way back to Paris).

We still had to pass by a few villages before the stop. There had been people by the road since we left the area near Rambouillet all evening, but now it was almost 22:00 and there was still people out there, waiting to see the randonneurs passing by.

In one village, a bunch of kids were waiting for randonneurs to pass just to do the wave. Dani and me noticed them with time enough, so we joined them when they started - “WooooooOOOOOooooooo” - they laughed out loud and one of them shouted - “Viva España!” - with a french accent. I’m still wondering how our wooooing gave us away as spanish…

Around 22:30 we arrived in Mortagne au Perche. It was full of people, vibrant, lots of bikes parked everywhere and lots of cyclists walking here and there. There were also those who were walking their bikes and those that simply passed through without unclipping from their pedals (which was our initial plan).

We found the others, Manolo, Juankar and David and we stopped by them, parking the bikes and bringing out one of our bocadillos. They asked about Ferreiro and we told them that we had lost him in that last part, once it became darker around us.

While eating, we discussed the current status of the situation and what we were going to do about it. They decided they were going to keep on, riding at their own pace. Dani decided he was going to keep himself near Ferreiro and, after some hesitation and thinking things through… I decided to keep myself with them.

Meanwhile Ferreiro arrived and parked his bike by ours, removed his shoes and literally collapsed on the floor. He looked completely destroyed.

Dani went to get him some sugary drinks and meanwhile he tried to eat something. With Dani back, the others left (fast stop, as planned) and the three of us started to talk about the situation, what may be happening, what would be the root cause of all this.

Finally, we decided to keep moving. We had been stopped there too long. We picked our bikes and when we were about to leave, Ferreiro noticed something was not right with his rear wheel. Something was rubbing somwehere. After looking at the wheel for a moment and several attempts of fixing the rim brake, we noticed it was worse than what it looked. The wheel was wobbling side to side.

This didn’t look good, at all. We decided to get the bike to one of the mechanics available in the control.

We walked to the mechanics’ stands, passing by the full party going on in front of the control building. There was a guy giving a concert and lots of Benèvoles cooking, doing what looked like a big barbecue.

When we arrived at the mechanic, he looked into the wheel and said that something was not right with one of the spokes and that the wheel seemed to be out of true#300. Sadly, he didn’t have the tools to fix it. He adjusted the tension of some spokes, including the one he thought was the fault one. He also suggested to check in the next control if the mechanic there may have the tools for truing the wheel.

Note

All this explained in French, as he didn’t speak english or spanish, and considering our level of French…

Finally, around 50 minutes later, we left Mortagne au Perche and got ourselves back into the embrace of the darkness.

Note

One of the things that struck me during PBP night riding was the lack of street lamps light.

I’ve done a lot of night riding during this year, as part of the preparation and qualifiers for PBP, but none of those rides prepared me for what I was going to find in France.

In Spain street lamps are on during all night, specially in villages/towns and roundabouts/crossings. In France, at least on the PBP route, all street lamps were off after midnight.

And we had very dark nights during this edition of PBP, with almost no moonlight and only the light of our head lights to light our way up.

We left as the Three Musketeers, with around 80 km to get to the next (this time for real) control at Villaines La-Juhel, but soon we found some company.

We started to get again on a good pace, passing riders, until we found three randonneurs from USA. Rob and Deirdre Mann and a friend of them which name I have forgotten (sorry!). Rob and Deirdre were doing an amazing work, working like a perfectly greased machine, taking turns and keeping up with a very steady pace.

We joined the american night train and we weren’t the only ones jumping in. Soon we were a bigger group again, which was growing bigger as we were passing other riders and some joined at the back. I was having sooo much fun.

Dani was by my side almost all the time, or at least somewhere where I could find him with a quick look over my shoulder, but I started to get worried about dropping Ferreiro again if we kept up with this fast pace.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, in the middle of the darkness and surrounded by all those powerful head lights, it was very difficult to see if he was or not behind us. So I came up with an idea. Shouting.

Yeah, shouting, you have read it correctly. From time to time me or Dani would shout - “Ferreiroooo??” - and he would reply - “Aquí!” - or - “Siii”.

It worked quite well and I could focus 99% on not crashing into the wheel I had in front of me. That technique also helped making new friends. Shouting a Galician/Spanish surname with a clear galician accent was a good way to tell everybody around you where do you come from.

And so, after some shouting, a guy next to me said - “Hey! un gallego!”. A randonneur from Zaragoza (Aragón, Spain) that was riding PBP with a few friends.

Note

Sadly I don’t remember his name (or any of his friends) but we shared km more than once during the next few days, as well as lots of jokes and laughs in the control stops.

It was 02:20 when we arrived in Villaines La Juhel, the first real control on our way to Brest. And the best of it… we did it, the three of us, together.

It was so good to see our friend recovering, being him again.

We wanted to make this stop as quick as possible, and try to compensate some of the lost time. There were parking places on both sides of the main road entering the village. We parked our bikes on the first place available and then walked a bit to get our booklets stamped.

Then we got coffee and something to eat. Instead of going inside the cafeteria (which was full of people and terribly hot) we sat at one of the big wooden tables outside.

We ate our second bocadillo, then the coffee and pastries we bought in the cafetería. While we were eating, the guy from Zaragoza appeared and we did chat for a while. Some other randonneurs we knew from Spain passed by, either towards the cafetería after getting their stamps or the other way around, about to resume their rides.

Even trying to make this stop quick, we spent 1 hour and 15 minutes in Villaines. When we went to pick up our bikes, we noticed more and more randonneurs were arriving. It seemed we were still ahead of the bulge, the big mass of riders that would fill the controls.

Next control was Fougerès, 90-something km away. Again, The Three Musketeers resumed their ride together, into the night.

As it happened after Mortagne au Perche, we were not really alone, not for long at least. As our pace increased, we started passing riders. This time we were passed a few times by faster riders too, too fast for us to try to stick to their wheels and make another group.

After a while, though, we started to pick up riders, starting to form a group. And just when we were a mid-sized group of randonneurs, the American night train appeared again and sucked us in.

Right. Rob, Deirdre and his friend appeared again, still working as a perfect machine. We hopped on the train and adjusted our pace to theirs, which somehow felt even faster than before the stop at Villaines.

That part of the ride went fast, like in a blur. The pace they had set was really fast. Maybe a bit too fast for riding in the middle of the night, specially when crossing the small villages without any street lights on.

There wasn’t much talking, personally I was 100% focused on not crashing on to anybody (and worried about someone crashing on to me).

We were rolling fast, alternating what seemed like long stretches of road by open fields, with small villages that looked completely empty. Then we crossed several villages where people left old bicycles all lighted up using colorful LED stripes. Too bad we were going so fast I didn’t manage to pick up the GoPro and record them…

We were still playing our little shouting game. A few times, I shouted 2-3 times without an answer, just to get someone else telling me “nooo, not here”. I guess people learnt how the game went and we all made some fun out of it.

Around 05:45, with around 30 km to arrive in Fougerès, we were entering the village of Gorron when we saw lights and a Café open by the road. The Restaurant du Bocage was open and had a nice terrace outside, so we decided to do a quick stop there. The night train was dissolved a while ago anyway and we had been riding with other people, but not really in a group anymore.

The place was nice and the owners, an old couple, were doing their best to get the orders from all the randonneurs that were crowding the place. But the coffee was terrible, very, very terrible. Ferreiro and Dani were luckier than me, the tea seemed to be ok.

17 minutes later we were on our way again. It was still dark, but we knew dawn was just around the corner.

Once again, we left the café without company. Slowly we increased our speed and soon we were passing riders again.

And… guess what? Right, we came upon our American friends once more. This time it was us who caught them, and when we were closer to them, I told Dani that it was time to pay our debts. They had been pulling us most part of the night and I felt like it would be nice to take our turn pulling the group.

So I sped up a bit, passing the group and when I was passing Rob I greeted him (again) and shouted - “It is my turn to pull for a while” - to which he replied - “Sure!”.

I took the lead and started to push the pedals. A bit of light was starting to appear on the horizon, but we still had our head lights on. I kept pushing the pedals, looking over my shoulder from time to time to check if they were there. Every time I looked back, I saw a head light just at my wheel - “Good, they are just right there” - I thought every time.

I kept pulling for a while, until there was enough light to be able to see the fields, houses, etc around us. And then, I looked over my shoulder again and I noticed there was only one guy behind me.

“WTF” - I thought - “It can’t be”, and I slowed down and looked back again.

That head light that was just behind me was this only guy (he looked asian and he didn’t seem to speak english). He looked at me, puzzled, probably wondering why was I slowing down. I asked him about the others, the group, but he only shrugged (not sure if that meant “I don’t know where are they” or “I don’t understand a word”).

I tried to explain I was going to wait for the group, he looked at me puzzled a bit more and then decided to keep on his own.

And I slowed down my pace, looking back from time to time, until I finally saw some lights on the road, coming on my direction.

Luckily those lights were the group I was supposed to be pulling. When they finally arrived by my side, Deirdre got closer - “Wow, having fun?”. I felt totally embarrased. All I was trying to do was to pay back pulling the group as a gesture of gratitude.

I explained that both to her and Rob, as well as Dani. I told them my mistake by noticing that head light behind me. We all laughed and kept riding together for a while more.

With some light around us, we were able to enjoy the beauty of the landscape around us and the villages we were passing through. Like Le Loroux or Laignelet (to mention just a couple of them)

It was very early, so there weren’t many people on the streets. Some of the villages were decorated specially for PBP. Flags, messages on big pieces of fabric, messages painted/written on the road… and here and there, old bikes hanging on windows, trees… wherever. Some of them with colorful led stripes still on.

Villages were very similar to each other. Old 2-story houses, cobblestones and one lovely church. And they all shared the same stone colors on their buildings.

Finally, at 07:22 we arrived at the control in Fougerès. I don’t remember when we parted our ways from our american friends, I guess it was right after arriving, and I’m still a bit sad I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye (we didn’t meet again after this control).

We parked our bikes and went straight to get our stamps. The sight inside that building was amazing. Sun light was coming in from the big windows near the roof, there were huge flags from different countries hanging from the roof and there were people everywhere laying on the floor, which was like a big comfy mat.

Lots of people were coming and going. There was a small cafeteria that was serving coffee, pastries, drinks and snacks, but we decided to go to the other building nearby, where there was a restaurant and we could get some more variety of food.

We got back outside to pick up our bikes. The restaurant building wasn’t that far, but it was on the way out of the control, so better get the bikes with us already than having to walk back up there to pick them up later.

Being so early, I’d expect the temperatures to be lower, but it wasn’t cold at all (at least not for Galician standards). All around us people were arriving or leaving. Some faces were happy, some others looked pretty tired.

We got our bikes and parked them on the other parking, in front of the restaurant, and then we got inside.

It was one of those restaurants that you can find in universities, hospitals, etc. We got on a queue, picked up a tray, glass, fork/spoon/knive, bread… and then we had to choose over a variety of cold or hot dishes, coffee, desserts, fruit, etc.

Ferreiro and Dani picked up a full meal, not a breakfast, but I wasn’t as hungry as them. My body was asking for breakfast, so I picked up cafe au lait, a couple croissants, two pieces of bread, a french omelette and something that looked like cheese cake (and that was indeed delicious!).

I have to admit that we didn’t have to wait for long at the queue, in a matter of minutes we were paying for our food and we sat at a table to eat everything.

We took a moment to check on the others. When we stopped at Villaines La Juhel, they were half an hour ahead of us, and now they were one hour and a half ahead. Luis was one hour behind us and we didn’t have any news about Felipe.

Fully recharged, it was time to get back on the road. We spent 1 hour and 15 minutes in this control (just like in Villaines!).

It was a clear morning, the sun shining already and the mist gone. It looked like it was going to be a hot day, as promised by the weather forecast.

We still had around 320 km to ride before arriving in Brest, a long day on the saddle, and we had assumed already that we won’t arrive there at our scheduled time. I can’t say I was happy about it, but all we could do then was to keep riding, try to get into a good pace, shorten our stops all we could and hope no more issues (either mechanical, physical or mental) would appear.

It felt good to be riding by day again, after that long dark night, and be able to enjoy the scenery around us. Also, as time passed, more and more people started to appear again at the sides of the road, cheering and offering food and drinks.

After a while we joined a small group led by a couple of Italians, which was set on a fast pace. It was a good wake up call. I’m not sure for how long we rode like that, but at that time it felt like a long time. At one point the italians moved aside, stopping by the side of the road and everybody took on their own pace (solo, couples, trios…).

Then we rode a bit scattered for a while. We passed a few riders here and there. Dani and me were a bit faster than Ferreiro, but we knew he was much better now, and that was a relief.

There was still the problem with his rear wheel (we didn’t have a chance to visit a mechanic to get it trued again) but so far it seemed like it didn’t caused too much trouble.

Passing village by village, we were welcomed by the locals. In one of the villages, I noticed there were some kids on the sidewalk. Time to give away some stickers!

Note

As I’ve wrote in a previous entry, I made some stickers with the logo of my cycling club. I brought them with me to give away during PBP.

This was my first attempt on giving some stickers, and I did it quite wrong. I slowed down and stopped by the sidewalk, near the kids. I picked up a few stickers from the top tube bag and gave them to the kids, whom where a bit surprised first, then happy when they realized what was happening.

Suddendly more kids appeared and I gave them a few more stickers… and then I realized I was causing a bottleneck at the entrance of the village. The road got narrower as it was entering the village and I just stopped at a place where cars (and a big truck) weren’t able to pass with me stopped there.

I apologized to the drivers and resumed riding, with all the kids shouting “Merci monsieur!” and “Allez! Allez!”.

I sped up a bit and catched Dani, telling him what happened. “You should be more careful next time” - he told me. He was right, and I thought a bit about how to do it better next time. Also, stopping to give away those stickers could quickly become a black hole eating lots of time.

So, I decided to give it a try to give the stickers on-the-go. Next time I saw some kids by the side of the road, I timed it, picked up a few stickers from the top bag in advance, then slowed down to approach the kids and, with my arm extended, I offered the stickers for grabbing.

It worked just perfect, the kid there got closer as I was passing and grabbed them from my hand and shouted back “Merci!!”.

I did that for the rest of PBP, and worked out quite well. I had brought with me 70 stickers and got back home with 3 ;-D

We won’t ride in a bigger group anymore in this stretch, but before arriving in Tintèniac we formed a small group of just a few riders. One of those riders was Verònique Robert de Massy, from Canada. We rode side by side for a while, chatting, telling each other about our PBP experience so far, plans, expectations… It was super nice to share those km with her.

Dani and I arrived in the control around 10:50, a bit earlier than Ferreiro. We went straight to the parking and parked our bikes. As it happened in the previous controls, there were lots of people around. The sun was shining and there was a big patch of green grass by the parking. The grass looked soooo tempting… in fact there were lots of people laying there, just relaxing or taking a nap.

Again, as it happened in the previous controls, as soon as we arrived in the control area, we lost track of those riders that arrived at the control with us. Somehow once you entered control zone, all that mattered was to go through the control protocol and be done with it, everybody following their own pace for it.

We waited a bit for Ferreiro and then we went together to get our booklets stamped. He told us he was having more problems with his rear wheel, so we went to visit the mechanic. He had the tools for truing the wheel and we just had to wait a bit for it to be ready. While we waited, I had coffee and a croissant (honestly, I can’t remember if I ate anything else at this control).

40 minutes later we left Tintèniac. An improvement over our previous stops… or not, depends on the point of view.

Noon was getting closer and the overall temperature was raising. The sky was mostly cloudless and the sun was hitting hard already.

We did stay together, the three of us, riding with a small group here, a couple of riders there, but not forming any bigger group.

At one point Dani and me lost sight of Ferreiro. It was hot and we were running low on water. But you don’t run out of water during PBP, there is always someone willing to provide you with free water.

We were going up another short hill when I noticed a few people on the right side of the road, beneath some trees. They had a car parked there and a picnic table set by it. We stopped there, in the shade, and got our bottles refilled with fresh water. We did chat for a few moments with them, giving Ferreiro time to catch up with us.

After crossing a few more villages, like Mèdreac and riding up and down hills, we formed again another small group. I noticed that a few of the riders there were wearing the same colors. Their jerseys had the german flag on one arm and I picked up pieces of a conversation in german.

And I decided to give it a try with my almost-forgotten, dusty, german:

“Hallo, wie geht’s?”

They looked back at me, a bit surprised, and replied in german. I tried to follow up in german but at one point I admitted my german was almost forgotten and we switched back to english.

They were really nice and we rode together for a while (sadly, I don’t remember their names or badge numbers :S) talking about our ride so far (as usual). One of them told me this was his second PBP, he had to come back because he had “unfinished business” after finishing over the time limit in 2019. This time things looked much better at that point and he was having a nice time.

They were from a cycling club in Bavaria and he told me about some nice Brevets they organize there (even a beautiful 1200 super-brevet).

Near Quèdillac, where there was a food stop but not a control, that small group got dissolved again. Some riders decided to stop, some others - like us - decided to keep on riding. For a while we were back to riding the three of us alone. We had several others riders on sight, both ahead of us and on our backs, but we didn’t form any group.

We were getting closer to Saint Mèen Le Grand, around 50 km before the next control in Loudèac, when we came upon a level crossing. The railway tracks didn’t look good but there was no way we could avoid them (i.e. jump over them). We crossed carefully… but the luck wasn’t on our side. A few meters after the crossing, Ferreiro told us he had a flat tire (the rear wheel, where else?)

The sun was hitting us really hard, and there weren’t many trees around us. The inner tube on that wheel still had some air (it wasn’t a pinch flat, so it didn’t get totally empty, it was loosing air slowly). We kept on riding for a short while, looking for some shade where we could stop and replace that tube.

A couple km later we found, at the outskirts of Saint Mèen Le Grand, a big supermarket (Lidl). Lucky strike. The building provided us with the much needed shade and, while Ferreiro replaced that inner tube, Dani and I went inside and bought some fruit (peaches), ice cream and drinks.

We weren’t the only randonneurs that decided to stop at this supermarket. Soon a few more riders, including 3 velomobiles, decided to stop there and get some refreshments. Temperature was really hot at that time, everybody was sweating a lot, but nothing like those guys from the velomobiles… they were really cooked inside those things.

I took the opportunity to get closer to the velomobiles and check their inside. I was suprised by how they arranged things in there. All along both sides of the carcass of the vehicle there were spaces where they could pack things up. The randonneuse that was riding the one I was looking at had one side filled with clothes, the other with food and drinks.

When we came out of the supermarket, Ferreiro was still trying to put the new tube in place. It was quite strange it took him so long to fix that flat tire, so we asked him what happened. He had already replaced the punctured tube and put the tire back on and when he went to pump some air into the tube, he used one of those CO2 cartridges… and the new tube got punctured too.

We offered help, but he wanted to fix it by himself, so we sat down and ate the fruits and ice creams.

50 minutes later we resumed our ride, passing finally through Saint Mèen Le Grand, where lots of people were on the streets and terraces, again cheering the riders up (time to give more stickers to the kids!) and then the town of Plèmet.

We were getting closer to the next control, that was just a few km away, when I noticed someone in front of me that looked familiar. What a surprise!, riding in a small group were my friends from Astorga! Sergio, Sergio Pulido, Saúl and Valentín. I sped up a bit and, when I was getting closer, I shouted - “Look who is here!! These are the good wheels!” - They looked back, surprised. We greeted each other and talked for a little while. Not much sadly, as both Dani and Ferreiro passed us fast, riding towards the control. I rode a few minutes with them, asking them how things have been for them so far, if they had a good time, etc.

Then I told them I was going to push it a bit to catch my friends and I wished them good luck for the rest of the journey. Maybe we would meet again later in the ride.

Finally we arrived in the control in Loudèac around 16:00.

We were parking our bikes when Dani checked on the others. Felipe was already ahead of us, as well as Manolo. Luis had sent a message just a few minutes before our arrival, he was having lunch in Loudèac! Dani sent him a message about our arrival, and he replied back asking us to join him at a table in the restaurant.

We got our booklets stamped and went straight to the restaurant area, where we picked up a full meal and went to seat with Luis.

When we arrived at the table, another randonneur was talking with him. Helder, a portuguese randonneur we had met in several Brevets during the past few years. He looked pretty bad. In fact, he was telling Luis that he was going to scratch from PBP right there. He wasn’t feeling any good and he have had a tough time for a lot of hours now. Also, he mentioned something about someone crashing into him while he was stopped on the side of the road.

We tried to cheer him up, to get him out of that bad mood, but he already had make up his mind. So we did the only thing we could do, gave him “courage” and good luck.

Lunch was nice, sharing stories and experiences with Luis. Lots of things to tell, on both sides. Even so, we tried to eat as fast as we could.

Once we were done, we went outside to pick up our bikes. On our way there, we met again my friends from Astorga. This time Ferreiro and Dani took a moment to say hello too.

Sergio told us he was having problems with his bike, and that he left it at the mechanic. They told us about several other mechanical problems they had, which meant several visits to different mechanics in the controls before. We told them about the problems in Ferreiro’s bike, and everybody hoped we won’t have any more serious issues.

We parted ways, they were going to eat something, while we were going to resume riding. But, before going on the road again, I asked Dani, Ferreiro and Luis if they wouldn’t mind doing a short stop at the mechanic. The synapse would do with some fine-tuning of the gears, as they had started to jump a bit and shifting was not working properly.

Note

I know I didn’t mention it until now, mostly because back then, during the ride, I didn’t really think it would be that important, so it wasn’t that relevant neither for the story.

But for the last few hours before this control, it went from something annoying to crackling noises when shifting certain gears, and I didn’t want to risk doing any more serious damage to the drivetrain.

They were ok with it, so I took the bike to the mechanic stands, while they prepared their things and picked up their bikes. They were going to pass by the mechanics on their way out, to leave the control together.

The mechanics were three young guys, with an older lady that was coordinating and supervising them (A.K.A. The Chief). I waited a few minutes until they asked me what did I need. I told them about the shifting problems and that the gears needed some fine-tuning. They told me they would have it ready in 10 minutes, so I agreed on waiting right there.

But minutes passed and they didn’t even touched the bike. The guys arrived and sat on the shade. We waited a few more minutes without much luck, the synapse was still waiting. I noticed my friends wanted to leave and I knew my gears would survive until the next mechanic, no need to keep waiting here forever.

I went to the mechanics again and told them I had to go. They told me it was just “a few more minutes” but I declined, politely, “thanks, but no, thanks” telling them not to worry. I picked the bike and we left.

We left the control with Luis, riding for a while with him, but we all knew he had a different pace than ours. After a while, he told us not to worry if he got dropped, he didn’t want us to slow down and he didn’t want to ride on a pace that wasn’t comfortable for him.

A bit later, we came upon Santy Mozos and the guys from Angel Cycle Works#301 (also from Spain). I hadn’t met Santy until this PBP, but the others already knew him from previous Brevets. Really nice guy. We rode together, with him and his friends for quite a while on our way to Carhaix Plouguer (next control, km 515).

This part of the ride was a bit hillier, with slightly higher gradients (but still not much for galician standards). I took the opportunity to talk a bit more with Santy, share experiences both from PBP so far and the rides we do back home. Santy was saying (as most spanish people I met) that we - galicians - where lucky, because this terrain was very similar to our roads back home, so we should be comfortable riding here.

He was right, at least partially, because back home the hills have higher gradients than in Bretagne.

I was feeling fine myself, even after all these hours riding and the hot weather (which usually affects me a lot) I was able to push it up the hills, so on the next hill that looked a bit more steep and long, I pushed it a bit, leaving them all behind. At the top I did stop, brought the GoPro camera out and recorded them.

A bit later, still riding in the spanish grupeta, we caught another group of 4-5 riders, all wearing the same colors. They were the randonneurs from Alicante (also from Spain). Santy already knew a few of them, old fellows from lots of adventures back home. And just like that, our grupeta grew a bit bigger.

Then, we came upon some other spanish randonneurs (don’t remember from where exactly) and the grupeta got even bigger. We started to look like the Spanish Armada.

I don’t remember where or when exactly, but after some time the armada got dissolved. Dani and me were riding faster and we got together with some other riders, then we had lost the others, including Ferreiro.

We had seen all day people stopped by the road, out of houses, in squares… everywhere. I’ve read lots of reports of previous PBP editions, with everybody telling about this, but it is a lot more impressive when you are actually there.

In one of the villages, we passed by this house where there was a bunch of people sitting outside, having lots of fun. With each group of riders passing by, they were doing the wave.

Exactly as we did with those kids early the previous night, both me and Dani joined them on doing the wave - “WooooooOOOOOooooooo” - raising one of our arms from the handlebars while passing by.

“If we stop there… I bet they would refill our bottles with wine instead of water” - I told Dani. He agreed!

We were riding through the Armorique now. Exactly, the area where the famous Astèrix and Obèlix#302 had their home town and most of their adventures. Passing by villages like Saint Martin des Près or Melèac, everything was sooo beautiful.

The sun was getting lower, sunset was approaching and with it, dread washed over me a bit. The fact that there was no way around riding for hours that night started to stick in my head, bothering me, getting me worried and, inevitably, affecting my mood.

Something inside me wanted to push more, to gain every minute I could gain. But then there was something else pulling me back, telling me I had to stay with my friends. “No troll left behind” I told myself.

I’m not sure if I was aware of it at that moment, but I’m aware of it now. Somehow my mood was indeed changing. Bringing back those memories now, I remember I did talk less from then on, less jokes, and I focused more on get things done. Ride, do the km, stop at the controls more efficiently.

And talking about controls, on our way to Carhaix Plouguer we found the first secret control of this edition. In the village of Canihuel (km 480 aprox.). Dani and me arrived at the control together, at 19:08.

We went inside and got another stamp in our brevet booklets. Then we came outside, making jokes about the control being so secret, and we asked a randonneuse from USA if she could take a photo of us. I don’t remember her name neither, all I can remember is she was wearing a jersey from Seattle Randonneurs and that she was super nice.

When we were about to leave, Ferreiro arrived too. We decided to resume our ride while he was getting his booklet stamped. We reduced the pace a bit, so he could catch up with us. We spent only 6 minutes in this control (great!)

Soon he was with us again and we rode together to the next stop, in the village of Saint Nicolas du Pelem. We entered the village from the west, going up towards the village center and passing a massive church to our right.

This village didn’t have a control, but there was an area with food, drinks and even places to have a rest.

We were late, for our initial plan at least, and Carhaix was just 30-something km away… but we decided to stop for a moment there anyway and eat something.

This stop reminded me of our first stop last night, in Mortagne au Perche. There was a guy playing some kind of old instrument that ressembled like a music box (wooden, with some papers coming in from one side of it and coming out from the other side). There were several stands where food was being cooked (crepes, waffles…) and the area was full of randonneurs and bikes.

I opted for something “light”, as I wasn’t really hungry, so I got a yogourt, a banana and a croissant (always a croissant…! ;-D).

We sat for a moment at one of the big tables and while we were eating, we had several visits.

First our friend from Zaragoza that we met last night on our way to Villaines La Juhel came to say hi. He was doing fine, enjoying the ride a lot, but at one point he decided to go on his own, leaving the company of his other friends. They were riding at a totally different pace, and now he was enjoying the ride a lot more.

Then Santy Mozos came to say hi too. We talked a bit about how was the ride since we split a few hours ago. Everybody made lots of jokes, so we had a good time. He and his friends had a plan very similar to ours and they were going to spend the night also near Brest (and they were also a bit late for their scheduled plan). Before leaving, he told us - “don’t worry, my galician friends, we will warm your beds up for you!” - meaning they were going to arrive earlier than us.

Was it a challenge? a racing proposal? simply a joke?

Whatever the answer may be to those questions, we all laughed at the joke and we saw him leaving, but just a bit before we do the same. We spent less than 20 minutes in this stop, which was also good timing (giving our current situation).

We still had 30-something km to the next control in Carhaix and around 120-125 km to the control in Brest. And, from there to our hotel, there were like 10-15 extra km. It was almost 20:00, which meant barely one and a half hours more of light.

Remember what I said about that dread feeling hanging over my head? From then on it was going in crescendo at a pace much faster than my pedals.

Anyway, we resumed our ride once more (I lost the count of how many stops we did so far!) still riding on hilly terrain (it was going to be like that all the way to the control).

Again, no more bigger groups. We passed some riders here and there, then joined a couple of italians here, a few canadians there. But I had lost all desire to give/maintain any conversation, mood was going down as fast as that dread feeling was rising inside me.

But all that changed, unexpectedly, when I came upon Stuart Blofeld. Stuart, from the UK, was riding an EliptiGO#303 stand-up bike. And I got so amazed by how strong and fast he was going, that I couldn’t help myself and I said - “Hi! nice… mmm… bike? there!”

He replied with a big smile and we kept chatting for a while. The conversation started with the usual “how is it going for you so far?” and a variety of details about how we both have lived this adventure yet, then it moved to our plans for the night and the following days.

Note

It turned out Stuart plans were quite similar to ours. In fact, after PBP, looking at his times and then at his write-up about his PBP experience#304, we passed by the controls almost at the same hours and we even finished almost at the same time too.

Sadly, we would meet again only once more.

Chatting with him was refreshing. He was so gentle as to explain the details of his bike (even if it probably was the Nth time he had to explain them to some random unknown person during the last “few” hours). We made jokes, we laughed, I had a good time again, totally forgetting our plans, schedule, late times… it was just pedal, talk, enjoy…

At one point, we had a few longer downhill parts, and there is were we left him behind. The EliptiGO bike was nice, but it wasn’t very aerodynamic on the downhills.

We pushed it through and we arrived in the control at Carhaix Plouguer at 21:10. Once more, we went inside the designated building to get our stamps and we passed by the cafeteria to grab something, this time we make it super quick and we didn’t seat to eat inside.

On my way out, I noticed Santy Mozos was at the queue for paying, with a tray full of food on his hands. I couldn’t resist myself, I approached silently and when I was just behind him, I told him - “don’t worry, my friend, WE will warm your bed up for you!” - we both laughed and I pretend to hurry outside.

Outside, the sky was soooo beautiful. The sun was gone, but its rays were still lighting up the sky in different colors. A bit of orange, which mixed with the blue of the sky and the white from the clouds made a nice pink color, reflected on the thousand small pieces the clouds seemed to be cut on.

I was taking some pictures when a voice by my side said - “Pretty, uh?” - I turned and I saw a randonneuse there. I recognize her from a few hours ago, we were riding in a group when I slowed down a bit and let everybody pass while I gave some stickers to a few kids that were standing by the road. When I got back to the group, she asked what had I done back there with those kids. I told her about the stickers and my idea of giving them away to the kids and benèvoles and then we did chat for a while until the group got broken.

Note

Sadly, I can’t remember her name or badge number. I seem to recall she was wearing a white jersey with what looked like the german flag on one arm, but I’m not 100% sure.

I’m realizing I’m really, really bad at remembering names!

“Yeah, it looks gorgeous” - I replied. “How are you doing?” - I asked. And she told me she wasn’t sure what to do. Her initial plan was to go all the way to Brest before sleeping (everybody had that same idea or what?) but it was late now and Brest was near 90 km away. On one hand she was feeling good and she would like to give it a try, but staying in Carhaix and sleep for a few hours was tempting.

I explained I was in a similar situation, but I was riding with some friends and we had a room booked in a hotel after Brest, so one way or another we were going to ride all the way there before sleeping.

Then I told her my bigger concern for riding to Brest without sleep. If suddendly you get tired somewhere during those 90 km, finding a place for sleep would basically mean looking for some shelter (bus stop, church entrance, under the trees…). If she wanted to sleep in a warm, cozier place, it was sleeping there in Carhaix or go all the way to Brest, considering that arriving at the control in Brest in the middle of the night was going to mean no bed available and having to sleep laying on the floor of the cafeteria, restaurant or similar.

In different circumstances, I’d tell her to join us, probably we could make a small group with a few other riders and ride together to Brest. But honestly, I wasn’t sure how the ride to Brest was going to be for myself neither.

We said our goodbyes and she did stay in Carhaix, at least for a little while, while I picked up the bike and left with my friends.

The stop in the control took us half an hour and when we left, there was still some light on the sky.

We had a short hill to climb and then a fast descent on the other side, just before starting the longest climb of this edition of PBP, the Roc’h Trevezel. Near 18 km at a 1.4% gradient (according to its segment in strava).

By the numbers (and confirmed by being there) not really a tough climb.

But my mind was already playing tricks, too tired to see things clearly. The darkness finally came to embrace us. Again, no street lamps, no moon light, no houses with the lights on. Total, complete, darkness.

Except for our head and tail lights, that is.

We were a small group again. I knew Dani and Ferreiro were there, but I had no idea who were the others. Nobody was talking, I guess everybody had been riding for too long without any sleep, just like us.

I remember that, at that moment, I was glad everybody was at least able to ride in a straight line, without showing clear signs of fatigue. “Let’s hope nobody will fall asleep on the bike in the middle of the group” - I thought to myself.

There was this part at the start of the climb where my garmin was showing 0-1% gradient, and we were riding around 28 km/h, but when I looked in front of me, I could tell the road was going up all the time. My vision starting to trick me, it totally looked like one of those 8% climbs.

I remember the night was soundless. Some times I could pick up the breathing of the other riders, the ocassional cracking of a bottom bracket when someone was standing on the pedals, and that sound I love so much, of tire rubber rolling on the tarmac.

And then… the zombie apocalypse.

We arrived in the village of Huelgoat and I started to see bodies laying on the floor around us. On both sides of the road, laying on the sidewalks. I’ve this vivid memory of someone (looked like a woman) sitting with her back on the wall of a house, head hanging over her chest, fast asleep, with a bike leaning on the same wall by her side.

The sight of all those bodies, under the only light of our head lights… totally like a post-apocalyptic movie.

We were lucky with the weather, we had very gentle temperatures at night (nothing like those reports from 2019 when temperatures at night dropped below 5ºC) but I could feel it was colder there, even riding the bike and going a bit up all the time. I felt pity for those laying on the sidewalks.

“I don’t want to imagine how they will wake up” - I told Dani, who was by my side again - “laying on concrete, with the temperature getting colder…”.

“Yeah” - He replied - “and then wake up and get on the bike to do 700 km…”

This was exactly my point while talking to that randonneuse back in Carhaix, falling asleep here on the way to Brest and having to sleep on the ground… it could make a big impact on the rest of your ride (and I bet not for the better).

Our little group started to evolve into a line, more than a group. Then it was back on a group, but with people riding without any order, moving to the other lane… Everybody was tired and a bit sleepy, I guess.

Again, the silence. I started to feel a bit more sleepy. I already had eaten a couple of the caffeine gummies I brought with me. You are not supposed to abuse those things (they can have a laxative effect) so I didn’t risk it with a third one.

And I came up with an idea.

I let myself slid a bit to the back of the group, then I picked up my phone, opened youtube and looked for Survivor’s The eye of the tiger#305. Then I clicked the play button, raising the volume all my phone could do, and I put the phone in the top-tube bag, speakers out.

“Rising up, back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet

Just a man and his will to survive

…”

I sped up a bit and got into the group again, at the shout of “VAMOS!” - “Let’s do this!!”.

Honestly, it didn’t have the effect I thought it would. Nobody seemed to join in. Well, at least I tried.

Finally we got to the top of the Roc’h. And what did we find there? exactly, people cheering us!. In the middle of the night, complete darkness, there it was, some people with a van, some tables, food and drinks. They even had a couple of loungers to lay down and have a nap!. Simply amazing.

Sadly, my mood was completely destroyed. I didn’t need drinks or food, so I just waited there while the others refilled their bottles. All I wanted was to arrive in the hotel, have a shower and sleep.

I was like the grumpy dwarf from Snow White’s tale.

Note

Another side-note here. I’m short-sighted. I’ve mentioned this already in several of my previous entries/reports in this log. I do wear glasses at all times while cycling, with an adapter that have prescription glasses.

Short-sighted people usually struggle with the absense of light, having problems to see clearly. Add to this that the adapter with my prescription glasses do not cover all the area from the outer glasses… meaning I always have some area uncovered.

That definetely wasn’t helping, at all.

We started the long, fast, descent on the other side, passing the villages of Commana and Sizun. Everybody got to their own pace here and after a while I was riding alone. Dani was ahead of me, out of sight, while Ferreiro was behind, also out of sight.

I started to feel more and more sleepy, tired. All those stories I’ve read from previous editions, about people falling sleep on the bike without even noticing it, came to mind. And I started to worry… and to be a bit more grumpy. “No way I’ll leave the control and go to the hotel” - I told myself - “fsck everything, I don’t want to have a crash now and screw everything up” - I kept talking to myself.

I was struggling, but then I saw a light ahead. I pushed it a bit, having company would be wonderful. If I’d be lucky, maybe it was a talkative randonneur/randonneuse…

When I finally caught that rider… it was Dani! He had lost sight of us and he was a bit worried, so he slowed down a bit. I was so happy to find him. He looked at me, worried, “Are you ok?” - he asked. I told him that I was destroyed and with all my grumpyness at the time, I told him with a very stubborn tone that I wasn’t going to go to the hotel, no way I was going to ride my bike out of the control in Brest like this.

We waited a few more minutes and then we saw a head light coming on our direction. Luckily it was Ferreiro, and we resumed our ride.

We passed Landerneau and Guipavas. Without doubt, this had been my lowest moment during the whole PBP. After a while, they dropped me, and I was alone and sleepy again.

I struggled, pushing the pedals and trying to keep my eyes open. I entered the town of Brest and, riding on a long avenue, I saw two tail lights ahead of me. “There they are” - I thought, only they weren’t my friends, they were a couple of italian riders.

One was short, the other one was quite tall/big. Could it be… could they be Maximilian and Emanuelle?

Note

side-note here, Maximilian and Emanuelle are two italian randonneurs I met while doing the BRM 600 - Santiago. We had talked prior to PBP and they were coming together to do it too.

I approached and kept myself behind, looking at them. They had to be, the short one definetely looked like Maximilian.

“Maximilian?” - I asked, and the short guy turned and said “noooo”, his face being totally like Maximilian’s. F***!! I was hallucinating already.

Luckily the control was just meters away, and I finally made it there, safe, at 01:50.

Dani and Ferreiro were there already, arrived a few minutes before me. We got our booklets stamped right away, as the benèvoles where right there at the arrival, outside.

Then, we agreed on going inside and eat something, have lots of coffee and talk about how to get to the hotel. But before that, I told them my bike really needed gears adjustment now. The problem had been growing worse and worse since the failed attempt to visit a mechanic in Loudèac. Ferreiro said his rear wheel needed some love too, so we left both our bikes at the mechanics and went inside.

Inside we found more bodies everywhere. There were people sleeping at tables, on benches, on the floor… We found a place that looked like an industrial kitchen the organization wasn’t using… the floor was full of bodies.

I got some coffee, a fromage-et-jambon baguette and a croissant (if I recall it correctly, all regarding that stop is a bit blurry in my memory). We sat at a table to eat and talk about our current status, situation and what to do. I’ll spare you the details of the discussion (just trust me when I tell you I can be a very stubborn s.o.a.b., specially in a grumpy state like that night).

While we were talking, our friend César came to say hello, sitting at our table to share some stories.

Note

If you have read my previous entries about the Brevets I’ve done this year, you already know about César, as I shared lots of km with him this year.

This was his 4th or 5th PBP, he is just “a bit” older than us, but has way more experience riding this kind of Brevet.

His visit definetely cheered us up. César always has the best Brevet stories, mostly because he has this hability of getting lost everywhere, just to find his way back later. Obviously, PBP wasn’t going to be different, and he told us about this moment when he took the wrong turn somewhere, just to realize about it like 10 km later. As if PBP wasn’t long enough!

It was good to be laughing again. It definetely helped me getting out of my grumpyness and dark mood.

If I recall it correctly, he was going to try to sleep for a while in the control, somewhere. There weren’t any beds available, so he would have to become another body on the ground and try to get some sleep.

We finished up our meal and went back outside. We passed by the mechanics to pick up our bikes. The mechanic told me everything looked fine, but the cable was a bit slack, he adjusted it and went through all the gears and it seemed it was better now. I paid him 10 euro and we were ready to go.

I was expecting to leave the control alone, only the three fscking crazy musketeers, but I was wrong. Other riders were leaving too. One here, a couple there, another one a bit behind…

We left the city and went towards the coast, but it was so dark that I couldn’t see the ocean.

At least the coffee and the food woke me up a bit, and riding side-by-side with Dani again helped too. “You should have seen your face back there, before the control, when we meet after the descent” - he told me - “you were totally out of your mind there” - I smiled back, it was true - “I’m sorry” - I replied - “I hope I didn’t say anything stupid”.

We were riding towards the famous Brest bridge, where everybody takes a photo, but no photo for us, it was dark and we weren’t able to see anything. Honestly I had hope the bridge could be a bit illuminated, so maybe we could have a nice night view of it. But nope, not a single light on it.

Approaching the bridge to cross to the other side, we were riding on a two-lane road, when I noticed they were doing some construction work on the left lane. A big pile of sand, used when they do that kind of work on roads, was in the middle of the lane ahead of me. I looked at Dani, riding to my right, and said “Hey! what do you think? should I do some ciclocross?” - he looked back, puzzled - “What?” - he replied - “What do you mean… ciclocross?”. I looked back in front of me… no sand, no construction works.

F***!! I was hallucinating again.

Probably the light playing games on my tired brain. I told Dani what just happened and he laughed out loud - “Man, you really need to get some good sleep!”.

12 km and around 40 minutes later we arrived in the hotel. A cheap room in a Ibis Budget hotel a few meters from the road we would take next morning on our way back.

There was a clerk on the desk, we did the check-in as fast as possible and then left our bikes in a room downstairs, as suggested by the clerk (our room was quite small, no way we could fit three bikes in there). There were other randonneur bikes in that room already. We grabbed a few things from our belongings and went right to the room.

We took turns to have a shower and then went to bed. We had a bigger, double bed, and a small bunk bed over it. Ferreiro and Dani shared the big one, the bunk bed was for me. I was the last one having a shower (big mistake!) and when I finally climbed to my bed, both were fast asleep.

I did lay down, closed my eyes and… Dani started to snore so loud, I wasn’t able to sleep. I waited a bit, but no way I was going to fall asleep like that. I thought about going down the bunk bed and try something (hit him hard on the face? ;-D) and see if he would stop. I considered going downstairs and ask for another bedroom… 30 minutes later, I was going down the bunk bed when he moved a bit and stopped snoring. I hurried up and went back to bed, luckily falling asleep in a few minutes…

From Brest back to Fougerès

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-10-08 00:00:00

In the last entry of this log, I told you about how we went all the way from Rambouillet to Brest. Leaving the story just when I finally could close my eyes and fall asleep (at some time between 4:30 and 5:00).

Now, it is time to tell you the next part of the story, how we managed to ride from Brest back to Fougerès, sticking to our initial 3-stage plan. According to that plan, we should arrive in Fougerès early on Tuesday night (22th Aug.), in order to get some good sleep in a hotel on our way of town.

Now, back to my story…

A couple of hours after I fell asleep, our alarms started to sound. It was 7:00, one hour later than what we would have waken up if we had arrived at the scheduled time in the hotel last night.

As quick as our sleepy heads managed, we packed up our belongings (we left some devices charging while we were sleeping) and we left the room, heading downstairs to pick up our bikes.

A different clerk was at the desk, we asked her for access to the room where we left our bikes last night and we headed for the door. We didn’t have breakfast included with our room for the night, and a quick look at how it looked in the cafeteria helped us deciding on having breakfast on our way, maybe in some nice boulangerie somewhere.

We also took a moment to check on the others. Manolo slept in this hotel too, but left one hour earlier than us. We had no news from Luis or Felipe.

On our way out I had the first surprise of the day. Having breakfast in the hotel cafeteria was Manuel, a fellow randonneur I met during the BRM 400 - Braganza a few months ago. He was surprised too, seeing me there. We just greeted each other and wished good luck, he got back to his breakfast and I went out, the guys were waiting for me.

Outside there was sun light already and we were welcomed by a thin mist floating on the air. We left the hotel and, two roundabouts later, we were back on track. On the second roundabout we already found company, a small group of randonneurs (maybe 4-5) was coming from the road we took last night from the control to the hotel.

What a coincidence… they were from Spain too! They came from Pais Vasco (the vasque country) and after hearing them talking, we introduced ourselves.

We rode together for a while, on a nice small road, going mostly down.

Finally I was able to get a glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean, feeling a bit sad we missed it, and the view of the bridge, yesterday.

Note

I have to admit that, before leaving the hotel, I considered telling Dani and Ferreiro about going back a bit, get to the bridge, take a couple of pictures and then resume riding…

But it was just for a moment… ;-D

It was nice to ride with company, but we should stop and have breakfast, riding on empty bellies would do us no good. We started to look for options as we were passing villages and, after a while, we spot a boulangerie that looked nice in Daoulas. There was a bar very close to the boulangerie, which even had tables to sit outside. As we stopped, the owner of the bar came out, telling us he had no food, but that we could get whatever we want from the boulangerie and eat seating there.

And so we did. We bought lots of pastries in the boulangerie and then sat outside the bar. We ordered coffee and orange juice. It was a nice spot, from our table we had a good view of a crossing where randonneurs were passing on their way back to Paris.

In fact, a couple of times we noticed a randonneur taking the wrong turn and we shouted, telling that poor, sleepy soul he/she was going on the wrong direction.

Half an hour later we resumed our ride. We wanted to stick to our initial plan, trying to get back to Fougerès as early as possible to get a bit more time to sleep properly. Apart from that, the idea was to have fun and enjoy the ride, trying to be smart and not loose too much time at the controls.

Personally, I decided I was going to find a nice pace and keep up with it. I wasn’t going to slow down and wait. There would be plenty of time to wait at the controls, if needed.

We had to go back to Carhaix Plouguer, a 90-something km stretch on hilly terrain again. This year they changed the route and instead of returning on the same road we took from Carhaix to Brest, we took a road southwest.

Once more, we were not alone. After passing riders here and there we got into a group again, but this time there was no order to it. Everybody was riding erratically, with a couple here, a trio there and lots of solo riders. I kept myself saying “Bonjour”, “Good morning” and even a few “Buenos días” for quite some time.

We came upon this randonneuse, wearing clothes from the Astana cycling team (I thought it wasn’t allowed to ride wearing professional team clothes?). She was going strong and, after a while, we noticed she was wearing plain, normal, converse all-star sneakers. WT…. You really see strange things during PBP.

It was getting hotter already and I wanted to remove some clothes (vest, arm warmers). There was another hill ahead, which seemed a bit longer, so I pushed it a bit. At the top I stopped and removed the clothes, packing them up, and I waited for Dani to pass by, to get him on camera, shouting “Allez! Allez!” when he was passing by.

As I’ve mentioned already, this part of the route was quite hilly. This seemed specially tough for those who were riding velomobiles. Right, when going down they were way faster than us, but as soon as we arrived at the next hill they slowed down a lot. On longer ones, they usually brought their elbows out of the velomobile outer carcass (I’m still wondering why, maybe it was their version of standing on the pedals?)

They rode on very small roads, with open views on both sides to pastures and farmers’ land. It was all very similar to the roads in the Terra Chá, near my hometown.

At 10:15, we arrived in the village of Pleyben, where we found the next Secret Control. These controls are clearly indicated with a sign and then some benèvoles are there waving hands and arms at you so you don’t miss them.

We parked our bikes near the door and got quickly inside to get one more stamp in our booklets. This time I decided to record the whole thing with the GoPro (everybody seemed ok with it, the woman that stamped by booklet even looked happy about it!)

The lady that took care of stamping my booklet pointed to a door behind us, saying “café? croissants?”. I replied “Oui! Merci beaucoup!” and went through the door with Dani. Outside there were a couple of stands with pastries and drinks and lots of plastic chairs on the grass. Some people were sitting on the chairs, some others directly laying on the grass.

There was also an impressive old church behind an old wall. We grabbed some croissants and coffee, having it all as quick as possible (which was hard, because the coffee was sooooo hot).

We spent a bit more than 15 minutes in this stop. Fast, considering that coffee came directly from the inside of a volcano.

I left the control behind that same Velomobile from the previous pictures and a rider that was wearing a jersey that my daughters would love… a Pokèmon Jersey!.

Pleyben was a really beautiful village. On our way out we passed by the old church, just to find a nice open square where more people was waiting to watch us pass and cheer us up.

A lot of the people gathered in the square was pointing their mobile phones at us, I guess some were taking pictures, some recording video. As I was passing by them, I started to think how cool it would be if the ACP could have something where all this people could upload pictures and recordings. A website, an app, a shared space somewhere. That would be definetely cool.

Anyway, after giving away some more stickers, I left that nice village and was back on smaller roads again.

The more we advanced towards Carhaix, the more everything looks like being riding back home. We started to pass by pastures full of cows, all the time going a little bit up, then a little bit down.

Even this early in the morning (between 10:00 and 11:00) it was already hot, around 23-25 ºC. I was drinking regularly, but with that big 750ml bottle from the ACP and my 600ml CamelBack, I had plenty of water.

Even so, when I noticed a family by the side of the road, to the left, on another hill… I couldn’t help myself and I had to stop. The Kockelkorn family had a huge table set by their small motorhome with crepes, waffles, coffee, chocolate, water, coke… and a lot more things. Mom and 2 teenagers were by the table when I stopped there, then Daddy came out of the motorhome.

I was the first one stopping, but soon a wave of riders came and stopped to pick up things from their table.

This family was so nice, asking every rider what they would like to have, asking questions about the ride… I simply refilled my bottles and gave the teens some stickers. One of them realized what I was giving to them and asked me to wait a minute before leaving. She picked up a small box, opened it, and took a small piece of paper from it, handing it to me. “That’s our mail address, please, send us a postcard!” - I smiled back - “Sure! I will once I’m back home”. And off I went.

I’ve talked already about recumbents and velomobiles, but I think I hadn’t mention yet anything about tandems. There were lots of tandems riding PBP, but I have to admit I hadn’t passed many of them so far (at least compared to the number of recumbents and velomobiles). My guess is that those vehicles are too slow while going up the hills, which make it easier to pass them sooner than the tandems.

That morning, though, I encountered several of them, like this one ridden by a couple from Pennsylvania, USA.

I said hi and they greeted back. “C’mon, this hill is almost over!” - I shouted, and they agreed nodding. And it was true, but we would have a few more short hills until the next control.

Every time I came upon a tandem, I got hypnotized by their coordinated pedaling, both riders moving in perfect synchrony. It has a beauty to it.

I don’t remember exactly when, but at one point we met David again. You may remember him from the start of this story. He was a friend of our friend Juankar and we left Rambouillet together at the start of PBP, riding together until our little group got split in two.

He told us Juankar and Manolo were going too strong for him and at a given point he decided to let them go. He had been riding on his own since then, not really alone, but not with the same people for long.

We agreed to keep riding together, but after a while, Dani and I were faster and left him and Ferreiro a bit behind.

At 12:25 we arrived back in Carhaix. Dani and me arrived first and we found a nice surprise there waiting for us. Jose Luis, the galician randonneur from Coruña, and his wife where there. We parked our bikes and went right away to get our stamps and then we took a moment to talk with them while we waited for Ferreiro and David.

When they finally arrived and got their stamps, Dani and I told them that it would be nice if we skip stopping for food at the control this time. The idea was to make things a bit more efficient at the controls today, trying to arrive a bit earlier in Fougerès and get some more sleep time.

I did remember that going out of the control in Carhaix there was a big supermarket, just on the same road. So Dani and I proposed to do a quick stop at the supermarket, grab something to eat fast (fruit, ice cream?) and keep on riding.

And, with Ferreiro not liking our idea very much, we left the control just a few minutes after arriving there.

The problem was… I was wrong. We found no supermarket on our way out of Carhaix, and the first one we found was 16/18 km later. I felt bad, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because this was my idea to begin with and I dragged the others along with me. Specially Ferreiro, who probably would have preferred to stay and eat something at the control.

And to make me even more guilty/bad, soon Dani and I dropped the other two, who were riding much slower than us.

When we finally found a supermarket open, in the village of Glomel, I went inside to get some fruit and whatever I saw fit, while Dani waited outside to tell the others we were there.

The supermarket was small, but nice, and it had a few big wooden tables outside, where we could sit under the shade of a big umbrella and eat. I was getting some stuff when the others came inside. We got fruit, yogourt and drinks and went outside to eat. Then David came outside with 2 big baguettes and some fromage and poulet and prepared himself some bocadillos.

I could not help myself and went inside, bought a big multigrain baguette and some sliced poulet. I asked the owner of the shop if he could slice the baguette in two, and then open both pieces in half. Outside I prepared two nice bocadillos (I put cheese also in them, as David wasn’t going to eat it all), but not to eat at that moment. I packed one over my apidura saddle bag (strapping it with the bungee cords) and put the other one in one of the pockets on my back. Where it could be cooked slowly ;-)

40 minutes later, we finished eating and resumed our ride.

The next 70 km up to Loudèac were super fun again. Lots of ups and downs with a longer (almost 10km) descent before arriving in Pontivy. As it happened through the whole day, we didn’t find any big group and even if we picked up riders along the way, we didn’t form any big group neither.

Temperature wasn’t really high (around 30) but the sun was hitting us hard. Luckily there were some parts where we could get some good speed and that helped to cool down a bit.

During this part of the ride, we got to know David a bit better. We were able to chat a bit with him, taking turns. Nice guy, another friend I’ve made riding Brevets ;-)

A new small group was formed when we met another randonneuse from USA (whom we first mistakenly thought was from some Asian country) and then we picked up some more riders along the way.

And just like that, we were crossing the town of Pontivy.

Passing by Pontivy was a bit special for me. Almost a couple of decades ago, I did a road trip from Paris to Pontivy with my then girlfriend (now wife) and another friend. We rented a car and came to pick up another friend that was living in Pontivy at the time. Then we spent some time together visiting places like Saint Malo, Le Mont-Saint-Michel and a few other in the Bretagne.

So many good memories coming back… but only for a brief moment, there was still much to do for the day, I had to focus.

It didn’t take long until we finally arrived in Loudèac. It was near 17:00, still hot, and we arrived a bit scaterred.

I was approaching the entry to the control, where lots of people were lined up waiting for the riders to pass, when I heard someone shouting my name - “Vamos borjaaaa!” - I looked at the line of people to my left and I found Jose Luis and his wife there. They had come from Carhaix right here to wait for us!

I smiled, a big broad smile. It felt special to have someone there, cheering you up, shouting your name. When we arrived at the parking area, we parked the bikes and went straight to them, to say hi (and thanks).

Somehow, this became a larger stop. We quickly went to get our stamps and then we visited again the same cafeteria/restaurant where we had lunch with Luis the previous day. Today we enjoyed a nice meal in the company of our supporters/followers ;-D

The heat was starting to make things a bit uncomfortable for my feet, so I removed the shoes while we were sitting at the table. I remember clearly how good it felt back then to have my cooked feet on that cold floor.

David sat with us and we shared stories, experiences and feelings over late lunch. We also talked a bit about how the plan of the day was going. We were doing fine, but it was almost 18:00 and we still had near 150km to go before arriving in Fougères (with another control stop in the middle, in Tintèniac).

So far everybody seemed to be fine, no breakdowns, no mechanical trouble. The four of us were in good spirits, a bit tired, but ok.

What was clear at that point was that we were going to ride again a few hours into the night. I must admit that I didn’t like that idea much. The memories from the previous night and the fact that I had barely slept 2 hours out of the last 59… let’s say it didn’t help with my self-confidence.

1 hour and 5 minutes later, we left Loudèac.

To be honest, the part of the ride from that last control to the next one in Tintèniac is a bit blurry in my memories. I do remember we kept riding together, the four of us, having company here and there, but not really riding into any group.

I do remember all the swearing David was doing, just joking about we galicians making him suffer. “A la vuelta voy a bajar 15 kilos, y voy a ir a galicia a machacaros” (literally, “back home I’ll loose 15 kg and then I’ll go visit you in galicia and make you suffer”).

I also remember passing by more and more people laying on the grass by the road. We passed one place, a long straight line of a road, where people were laying on the grass to our left, like if some giant had put them there as if they were toys. Perfectly perpendicular to the road, separated from each other by what seemed like the exact same distance. We even passed by bikes left by the road, alone, the rider nowhere to be seen.

And how could I forget the people from Bretagne, being everywhere, cheering, tirelessly offering food and water. And some times doing it in the most picturesque way.

We came upon a family that had a table outside their house. The kids were there to tend to the riders who would like to stop, while the rest of the family was sitting at a table nearby. They waved on our way when we were getting closer, offering water, tea, coffee. There were no other riders at that moment there and we decided to stop for a moment.

They were sooo nice. We tried several homemade things they offered us and we refilled the bottles with fresh water. They even had fresh water with a pinch of (natural) lemon, which was awesome. It was only a 5 minute stop, but it was awesome. I gave them stickers (obviously!) and we insisted in giving them some cash too (they had a kind of a money pot there in case anybody would like to leave something).

During those 5 minutes, more riders arrived and stopped there. When we resumed riding, we had some more company.

We passed through Quedillac, food stop but not a control, without stopping (thanks to that family by the road, we didn’t need anything else when passing this village).

As it happened the previous day, we put our vests on when the sun was getting lower. It was a few minutes after 21:00. Not strictly needed, but better have it on earlier than risk a penalty from the organization.

Half an hour before arriving in the next control, I decided the baguette on my back would make a wonderful snack. So I picked it up and slowly ate it all.

It was delicious. With the heat from both my body and the sun, the fromage had melted a bit and all of it was pretty warm. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I started eating it, and by the time I had finished, I was tempted to pick up the other half, which was packed over my saddle bag.

A bit later, the sun definetely went down and we were able to enjoy another gorgeous sunset just before arriving in Tinteniac.

It was a few minutes before 22:00 when we finally made it to the control. It was already dark, but the control was completely lighted up and full of people. We spent just 23 minutes in that stop. Get stamp, refill bottles, eat something (me, I opted for having the second baguette that has been riding over my saddle bag).

60 more km to Fougères, to the next control and then to our hotel. Leaving Tinteniac the street lamps were still on, which felt nice, to be honest.

We did those 60 km, without stops, in near 2 hours and a half.

At the start I was feeling better than the previous night on our way to Brest, but then we went back to unlit roads and complete darkness. I tried to keep focus, enjoy the ride and keep on. The control wasn’t that far.

I remember going up another short hill in the darkness, when suddendly cow bells started to sound to our left and people started shouting loudly “Allez! Allez!!”. They startled me big time. They were just there, in the dark, without any lights and decided to shout precisely when we were passing by. Well, they definetely helped keeping me awake!

I am not sure if it was the darkness, being tired, being shortsighted or a combination of all of it, but soon I started to have something like tunnel vision. I wasn’t having any haluccinations at that time, but it was like if my vision were limited to a small, centered, area. The most annoying thing was the feeling that I had something above my eyes, like a baseball cap, that was limiting my vision.

The last part before arriving in Fougères had a couple of fast sections, longer descents where I learnt a new meaning for an old expression we have here, at home. A tumba abierta, literally translated on an open grave. David looked like possesed by some devil and the rest of us were following him blindly.

Finally, we passed by what seemed like big industrial buildings, then a huge McDonald’s and the sign marking the start of the town. Even so, we were still riding in complete darkness.

I remember clearly my feelings at the time, when I saw all the light coming from the arch we had to cross to get into town. They had the street lamps on and it looked half an oasis, half the light at the end of the tunnel. I shouted - “They have the fscking street lamps on here!!! YESSS!!”

It was near 1 in the morning and the streets were empty. In any other place, any other time, that would be no surprise. But I have to admit it surprised me back then, after having met people late in the previous couple of nights in the most unsuspected places, I thought a bigger town like Fougères may have some people on the streets at that time.

I was ahead of the others when we reached a roundabout, the garmin was telling me to keep straight ahead and so I did. Cobblestones, going up, soon the street seemed a dead end. I looked back and told them it looked like a dead end, but our different gps devices were telling us to go there.

“Maybe the official track is wrong?” - someone said. “Over here!” - someone else said. I did stop and looked back, they were going down a parallel street, kind of an avenue. I turned back and went after them, passing by some other randonneurs that were trying to find their way. I told everybody to follow us.

We went down that avenue and then right and up again, arriving at the control a few minutes later, after a short detour.

This was the control with the huge flags hanging from the roof in the area where we got our stamps, on our first visit, the previous day. We went right to get our stamps again. This time, more people were laying on the floor and there was a queue of people waiting to ask for a bed. I also noticed another queue, people waiting in line to visit the physio and doctor. Looked like some riders were a bit worn out by the endless hours of riding.

I’m not 100% sure, but that may be when we split paths with David. If I recall it correctly, he went to check if he could get a bed in the control to sleep a few hours, deciding to sleep there anyway if there wasn’t any available.

With the stamps in our brevet booklets we decided to pay a visit to the restaurant before leaving for the hotel. Honestly, I wasn’t hungry at all, but Ferreiro and Dani insisted on having proper dinner before going to the hotel.

They got lots of food, while I was looking here and there at what to pick up. I was thinking about getting some fruit, maybe bananas to bring with me… when I saw there was pasta with carbonara. I asked the Benévole for a dish of it and I guess my face was telling a different story from what my brain was telling me, because the old man served a big ration of pasta, then put the carbonara over it… and when he looked back at me, he put more pasta and more carbonara again!

When I finally got to the table, Ferreiro and Dani were eating already, and when they saw that huge mountain of pasta they started laughing loudly. “Look who wasn’t hungry!” - Ferreiro said. “It was the volunteer there, I probably look like shit!” - I replied - “But there is no way I’m going to it all this”.

Oh, my friend, how wrong I was. I ate all of it, plus bread and a piece of cheese cake afterwards.

45 minutes later we were on our bikes and ready to leave the control. Our hotel was just a couple of km away and it was all the way down from the control.

This time it was an Ibis Styles (muuuch, much better than the Ibis Budget ones). We did the check-in and this time we brought our bikes with us to the room, which was fun… the room was on the first floor and there was no elevator, so we had to carry our fully-loaded bikes on our shoulders upstairs (now I did some ciclocross, not like the previous night! ;-D).

We had a shower (lesson learnt from the previous night… I had the shower first!) then we checked on the others. Manolo and Felipe were sleeping in this same hotel, Luis was a bit behind us. We discussed the wake-up hour and plans for the next day and went straight to bed.

It was almost 3:00, and I fell asleep in a few seconds.

From Fougères to Rambouillet

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-10-08 00:00:00

This is the third (and last) part of my PBP 2023 ride story. The previous entries told the story of how we went all the way from Rambouillet to Brest and how, afterwards, we got back from Brest to Fougères.

In the last entry, I left the story when I finally went to sleep in the Ibis Styles hotel in Fougères, a few minutes before 3:00 in the morning.

It is time now to finish this story, the story of a dream come true, and tell you about how we got back to the start point in Rambouillet.

The alarm was set for 06:30. I woke up a few minutes before that and started to gather my things, then got dressed. I checked on the others while Dani and Ferreiro were getting ready. Manolo and Felipe were downstairs, finishing breakfast. We told them we were going for breakfast right away and they decided to wait for us.

We also checked on our friend David, who decided to stay last night at the control, trying to get some sleep there. He sent us a message, he was still in the control. He couldn’t sleep well there and had a bad night, and he was about to leave the control. We agreed on meeting him along the way.

With everything ready in the room, we went downstairs. Manolo and Felipe where sitting at a table, extending breakfast a bit more. It was so cool to finally be together again. The breakfast hall was full of other cyclists, including Manuel, who we met also in the hotel in Brest the previous morning, when we were leaving and he was getting breakfast.

We had a huge breakfast, a feast, and meanwhile we updated each other on the events of the last couple of days.

We also talked a bit about the plans for the day. We had almost 300 km to get back to Rambouillet with 3 controls in between. Our time limit to get there was 10:00 the next day (24th), so we had enough time to even do another sleep stop if needed. The idea, though, was to finish PBP before midnight.

I think I had like three times what I usually would have for breakfast… in the time I usually would have one normal breakfast. Then we went upstairs and picked our bikes and did some more ciclocross to get to the exit.

Outside the day was bright and clear, no fog like the previous morning and the temperature felt a bit higher too. We took a moment to take a group picture in front of the hotel main entrance.

We spent 5 hours and 40 minutes in this stop, with a bit over 3 hours of sleep.

During breakfast we asked Manuel if he would like to join us, and he gladly accepted. He came to do PBP with some friends, but it seemed at some point they had some discrepancies and decided to split ways.

One thing I forgot to do before leaving the hotel, was to replace the battery in the GoPro and, as I was going to realize soon, there won’t be many chances to do so on the road for the next few hours…

We left Fougères around 7:40, on a short hill climb, followed by some more rollercoasters. I felt amazingly good, completely recovered from any tiredness I may had at the end of the previous day. It is really incredible what a few hours of good sleep can do to your body.

Personally, as I told my friends during PBP, for me 3 hours of good sleep is (usually) more than enough to recharge completely. I guess that, in this case, the whole I’m riding PBP excitement also helped keeping me UP at all costs.

That morning it also helped to be back with Manolo. A few minutes after we left town, I took a place by him and we talked for a long time, sharing stories of what happened the last couple of days (and nights). He is a very experienced randonneur and I’m always grateful of being able to talk to him and learn from what he has to share.

Even maintaining that conversation, it felt like we were going on a fast pace. A couple of times I looked over my shoulder, but without paying much attention, just checking someone was behind us.

Until Ferreiro shouted… “Keep on like this guys, if we keep picking up people at this pace, soon we will have half the PBP riders on our back”. Manolo and I looked back and… wow… we had a looooong line of randonneurs behind us!.

With the GoPro out of battery, I tried to take a few pictures with my phone, but I’m not used to do that, so the pics (see above) are not really that good.

It was really impressive to look back. We were riding in peloton-style, everybody in line, riding two abreast. And we were going fast, so it was even more impressive. And I was pulling all this with Manolo, which was mind-blowing.

After a while the roads flattened a bit and we increased our speed. We started to pass other riders, some of them hopping on the train. Our peloton started to grow bigger, with Manolo and me being the locomotives.

At one point I looked at Manolo and told him - “You know, you should have warned me that the third day in PBP is the race day!” - we both laughed.

During this stretch, we were riding on the same road we rode the first night, pulled by our friends from the USA. Riding now on those same roads by day, it was like riding a on completely different road. We recognized a few places though, like the café in Gorron where we had that coffee stop, or the smaller villages that were all lighted up at night with those led stripes attached to old bikes and metal structures/sculptures.

We had been riding like that for 2 hours and a half or so, without stops, when I got to the point where I couldn’t hold it anymore, I needed to pee. And that is the not-so-nice moment when you are riding in a big group like ours, going strong… and you have to stop for something like that.

“If you stop now, you won’t be able to catch them, they will be too fast for you” - I thought to myself. But so be it, if I’d have to ride alone up to the next control in Villaines La-Juhel, it won’t be a problem.

I told Manolo about my pee stop and told him not to worry, I’d catch them a bit later. Then I ensured there were no traffic and I moved to the left side of the road, stopping at the entrance of a dirt path there.

The peloton swooshed past me and I did what I had to do.

Quickly I got back on the bike. A few solo riders passed by me during that pit stop, but I overpassed them all a few minutes later. I have to admit that even if I was having lots of fun riding in the peloton, riding solo for a while felt wonderful too.

15 minutes later I caught the peloton again. Still riding in perfect formation, two abreast, and fast. First I got closer to the last two riders and I did stay there for a few minutes and then I decided to give it a try and move to the head of the group.

I started passing them, saying “hi”, “bonjour”, “I’m back!”… what a pity the GoPro was out of battery, passing this big group would have been a very nice video.

Soon I was back at the head and I put myself back at my place by Manolo.

I already had beaten my longest distance (600) the previous day, but at that moment on wednesday morning I was about to break another little record, passing the 1000km mark.

I was talking about this little record with the guys. All of them had done a 1000km ride before (even Dani, who rode a BRM 1000 earlier this year) and Manolo came up with the idea of doing kind of a celebration about it. We were looking at my garmin device and when it showed the 1000km value, I told so and they cheered me up.

The next 24 km to Villaines La-Juhel passed fast, still riding in that perfect formation, and we arrived in the village around 11:15.

And there we found the big party.

I’ve read countless stories from the previous editions of PBP, about Villaines being the village with the biggest party of all of them. With lots of people at all times on the street, specially on the come back from Brest, with music on the streets… This is that control where there are volunteer kids that help tired randonneurs with their food trays and moving around.

We found all that, sure, but just before entering the village, we were able to hear the speaker. Yeah, there was a speaker there that was looking at the riders arriving in the village and trying to make comments about them.

Mostly he was trying to identify the country from where the riders were and then he was announcing “here come the italians!”, “and now… some people from ireland!”, etc.

And someone came up with an idea. We were spanish, famous for being loud and noisy, so let’s make some noise. And what could be better than shouting the name of our friend Manolo! And so we did.

“MANOOOLOOOO! MANOOOOLOOOO! MANOOOOOOOLOOOOOOO!”

The crowd looked on our direction and raised their voices, cheering and clapping. I remember the speaker said something, but we were shouting so loud and the crowd was so noisy, that I didn’t register it ;-P

When we stopped our bikes, we were laughing like little kids. The peloton got dissolved and a few of the riders there came by to say hi and thanks for pulling them all the way from Fougères.

While I was talking to a few people there, surprise! I saw another randonneur arriving, in a very standing position… it was Stuart Blofeld, that guy riding a stand-up bike that we met on our way to Carhaix on Monday evening!

I got closer to say hi and ask how was he doing so far (I’d say quite good). At first he didn’t recognized me (what was I expecting? how many unknown riders may have approached him the last few days because of his EliptiGO bike?) but then he remembered our little ride together a couple days ago.

After a bit of chatting there, I realized all my friends had left to get their booklets stamped, so I said goodbye to Stuart and off I went to get mine too.

Then we went to the bigger restaurant to have an early lunch. At the entrance of the area where the restaurant was, a benèvole approached us, with a group of kids. Each kid was assigned to one of us, with instructions to help us carrying stuff around and with the selection of food available.

We walked together to the restaurant. The kids looked excited to help and we tried to talk a bit with them. Sadly, only one of them was eager to try a bit of english (none knew any spanish). Anyway, we found our way to communicate.

There was plenty of options for food, personally I picked up a full meal and my first Paris-Brest pastry for dessert.

Then the kids brought us to the lunch hall, which was a gymnasium where they had set long tables. The gymnasium was decorated with lots of stuff related to PBP, from maps with the different PBP routes over the years to a world map with marks in countries from where PBP riders came from. There were also lots of old bikes of all types around.

Once we got to our places at one of the big tables, the kids left us there and went back to get assigned to some other randonneur or randonneuse. Before they left, I opened the bag with the stickers and gave the kids lots of them.

I enjoyed the meal a lot. Salad, pasta and chicken, then dessert. But it wasn’t about the food. It was about being there at the moment, with those crazy guys whom I can call friends now, sharing sensations, feelings… it felt so good.

And then, another surprise! We saw David coming into the gymnasium, along the kid assigned to him, who was carrying another tray full of food. We waved at him and he joined us for lunch.

He looked awful. Like totally destroyed. He sat and told us how things went for him since we parted ways the night before and how bad and tired he was at that moment. He was definetely having one of those low moments, and it looked pretty bad. So we started making jokes, trying to cheer him up a bit, telling him that now that he is back with the Galicians, there was nothing to worry about.

After lunch we refilled our bottles and went to our bikes. We said goodbye to the kids and the benèvoles there and resumed our way. We had been in Villaines for 1 hour and 15 minutes, so it was past noon when we left the village.

It was definetely the hottest day since we started. It was hot, the sky was cloudless and the sun was cooking us for good, slowly. For me, the worse of it was that my feet started to hurt. This happened to me before, in a couple of Brevets when I had to ride for hours under temperatures over 30-35 ºC. In such situations my feet start to swell a bit, causing some disconfort first, pain if I keep like that for long.

And that seemed what was happening that day. My right foot was ok, but the left one… it was annoying at best.

Anyway, we left Villaines on our own, the Galicians, Manuel and David. Being race day we quickly went into the same formation as in the morning. Two abreast, Manolo and me on the lead, raising the pace slowly.

And, as it happened that morning, one hour later we were pulling a bigger group, which soon became a peloton again.

It was as if nothing had changed (later, I found out that a lot of the riders in this new group had been, in fact, riding with us that morning too!) Manolo and me were on the front, chatting and pulling the group with nobody taking a turn leading (which, honestly, was perfectly fine with me).

My feet started to hurt a bit more, and a bit more often. On the left foot sometimes it felt like if needles were piercing through my sole. A couple of times I considered letting the big group go and stop for a moment to remove the shoes and let my feet breathe a bit.

We passed several areas with trees and tempting grass patches under their shade… the grass look soooo fresh… I started to imagine my bare feet on the fresh grass…

But I didn’t want to let go of them, we were going fast and the km were passing in a breeze. So I decided to give something a try. On the longer hill descents I unclipped my left foot and did some stretching, moving the foot doing circles. It worked. Those small moments seemed to refresh the foot, keeping the pain away for some time.

The roads in this stretch felt a bit more gentle, easier. With longer flat parts (well, not really flat, but not a rollercoaster neither). This helped a lot to keep both our pace and the big group together.

The downside to it is that the chatting was cut to a minimum. And I have to admit that at the time I missed the chatting, the getting to know new people and friends.

Then, a while after passing again through Alençon we realized Ferreiro, David and Felipe were missing. We were arriving near a small village called Vidai and we noticed that there was someone offering water and drinks to the randonneurs in front of her house, so we decided to stop there for a moment, in the shade, and wait a bit for them to catch up.

The image there was lovely. A woman and her toddler were there, offering water from one of those 8/10 litres bottles/tanks. The bottle had one of those plastic taps/faucets and the toddler was refilling the bottles herself. I won’t forget this one anytime soon.

A few minutes later our friends appeared. Turned out they found someone they knew on the road and they stopped for a moment to say hi and take some pictures.

With that stop, the big peloton was gone, broken and split into groups of different sizes. A few randonneurs stopped with us and they decided to keep riding with us too when we resumed riding.

We still had around 20 km to get to the next control, in Mortagne au Perche (the one that was a food stop only on our way to Brest, where we discovered the problems with Ferreiro’s rear wheel on the first night). We rode them a bit more scattered, not in formation anymore, which felt a bit slower but was much better for the chatting part.

I had the opportunity to talk a bit with a french guy from Paris, very nice guy, who wanted to thank us for all the work we had done since this morning in Fougères. He had been riding with us for most of the day and he was glad he found such a well-behaved group of cyclists.

He was “bigger” than me, so going up the hills he suffered a bit more and some times he did stay a bit behind, but on the descents he was way faster. There was this descent, where I was crouching “all aero” and suddendly I realized he was by my side, with a more relaxed position. He looked at me with a (pretending to be) serious face and simply said “I’m FAT!” and he burst out laughing as he was passing me with little effort.

Soon after that, we were arriving in the village of Mortagne au Perche, with Manolo showing us the way.

I had a vague memory of that first night, leaving this control… I’d swear we left the control going down on what looked like a steep descent. If that was true, we would have to climb it on our way to the control today.

It was indeed a bit steep, but not so steep, and short anyway.

It was 16:10 when we finally arrived in the control. We were cooked in our own sweat. It was really, really hot. We looked for some place with a bit of shade to park our bikes and refresh ourselves a bit.

Dani parked his bike and went straight to the water taps, crouched and opened the faucet over his head.

I refilled one bottle with fresh water and drank half of it in one go. When we finally were all together again, we headed for the building to get our stamps and eat something.

Inside the building it was much better, not so hot at least. As soon as I entered the building, I removed my shoes. Feeling that cold floor on my cooked feet was definetely soothing.

We got our stamps and then went to the cafeteria/restaurant. I didn’t feel like having lunch (again), but having something cold/fresh did sound like a good idea, so I took my time to go through the available food, trying to find something that may fit.

One thing I do when riding Brevets, specially longer ones, regarding food is try to keep eating what I usually eat in my daily diet. That would mean lots of fruit, veggies and yogourt. Veggies, though, are usually hard to find (or ordering them takes longer than other stuff).

Here in Mortagne, I was lucky I could get some nice cold pasta salad, fruit and yogourt (and that delicious cheese cake I’ve been eaten in most of the controls so far!)

While eating, several other randonneurs we knew from previous Brevets passed by or came to say hi. It was nice to see everybody was doing fine so far, being so close to the finish now.

One of those randonneurs was Alfredo, from Alicante, an old friend of Manolo who had shared lots of adventures with him in the past. He looked a bit tired and Manolo asked him if he would like to seat for a while with us. He did and he shared his PBP story so far. When he finished, we asked him to join us for the last stretch. It is always nicer if you can ride with good company.

We had a bit over 120km to do before the finish, back in Rambouillet (the come back would be on a different road, passing by the last control in Dreux).

Considering what we had done so far, that felt like a very short distance, to be honest. But we still had to ride it. We were optimists though, the day has been fine so far, everybody was doing fine and we were riding in a good pace (did someone say race day?).

I don’t remember what happened exactly in this stop, but we spent there 1 hour and 20 minutes (longest stop during PBP). What I can tell you is that, at the time, it didn’t feel like we were stopped so long.

It was time to leave Mortagne and so we did, all together, still with David and now with the company of Alfredo.

Dreux was near 80 km away. We had left Bretagne behind long ago already (a few km after Fougères) and not only the weather was different (hotter), the terrain and the roads were different too. More flat roads, less hills, long straight lines where we could roll faster (if we weren’t a bit tired already).

On our way to the next, and last, control the mechanical trouble came back.

As it had been the usual since we left the Hotel this morning, we left Mortagne on our own and soon we built a small group, that was getting bigger with time. Again, I tried to keep myself up front as much as possible.

And, after 30km or so, Manolo looked back and told me some of our friends were missing. I remember Dani was there with us, but no trace of the others. We slowed down a bit but 10km later there was still no trace of them, so we decided to stop for a moment at the side of the road.

There were a few riders that had been on our wheels for quite a while then, that looked a bit dissapointed we were stopping. They exchanged a few WTF glances and then I told them a few of our friends were missing for too long and that we were going to wait a bit for them. “Sure, ok! thanks for the ride so far anyway!” - one of them replied before they resumed riding.

Alfredo was the first arriving, alone. He told us Ferreiro had another flat tire on the rear wheel. Damn, at that moment Dani and I realized that he had spent all his spare tubes already (after that fiasco tube replacement on the second day, before arriving in Fougères for the first time). We told him to buy some spares in a control, but he didn’t. Luckily, David and Felipe were with him, so he was able to get a new inner tube.

After a while they arrived and we resumed riding together once more. There was a bit more talking about the current status of that rear wheel, ideas and suggestions about what to look for in Dreux, trying to minimize the trouble for those last few km.

A few minutes later, I almost had a crash.

We were riding all together, I wasn’t up front as usual and I had David riding in front of me, a bit to my right, when he suddendly did a turn to his left. I quickly dodged him, going also to my left, towards the other lane on the road… just when another rider was passing me exactly by there.

Luckily this rider’s reacted fast too, otherwise it wouldn’t be fun for any of us (we had several more riders coming behind us).

I apologized to this unknown rider and he replied “don’t worry, not your fault!” and kept on riding.

A few minutes later, I came upon him once more. He was riding up front and I pushed it a bit, leaving my friends a bit behind and matching his pace. “Hey!” - I said - “Sorry about what happened before, really”. “No worries” - he replied - “It wasn’t your fault, the other guy turned carelessly, there was nothing you could do”. We introduced ourselves and Jochen turned out to be a very nice guy.

It was sooo nice to ride with him for a while, sharing our different stories about what PBP has been so far for us. He had this crazy story about sleeping the previous night under a tree, in a bivvy bag, being woken up by some noises near his bike bags… just to find a little fox there, looking back at him! (you can see the fox#306 in his pictures on strava#307).

After a while our paces were different and we split ways, but riding by him and sharing stories brought me back good memories of conversations shared with other strangers the last couple of days. For me, the best part of PBP.

Riders came and went, we passed some and some others passed us. We came upon another spanish randonneur, Rafa from the Vasque Country, another friend of Manolo who decided to join our little group. He blended in perfectly, specially with Dani. Them two making cheap jokes non-stop for a while, everybody around (that did speak/understand spanish) laughing out loud.

Once more, Ferreiro was missing. Someone (don’t remember who) pointed to another flat tire, but it seemed Felipe did stay with him. We discussed what to do for a while, then decided to keep on and wait for them in Dreux.

It was early in the evening, and it felt like it was even hotter than noon. The pain on my left foot was back, the needles piercing through it again. I looked back at my friends’ faces and I could see there how tired everybody started to feel.

This was the moment of the whole ride when I saw more and more people having trouble with keeping their heads up. The feared Shermer’s Neck#308. I’d heard about it, I’d read about it, but I had never seen someone actually suffering it.

I saw 3-4 cases before arriving in Dreux. There was one guy (from Chile, IIRC) who had what looked like a mild case (or the start of it). He couldn’t keep his head up 100%, but let’s say 70% and he could keep his eyes up front by tilting a bit his head to his right. Then there were the others, who couldn’t put their heads up and were looking straight to their front wheels.

Those looked pretty dangerous and scary.

Of course, I did not have the whole story about them. Maybe they were on a tight schedule to finish PBP in time, maybe they were used to ride in such conditions. Whatever their reasons were, back then I thought they were quite irresponsible, riding like that. Why not simply stop for a while, get some rest and try to recover? Riding like that, moving sideways recklessly and not being able to keep your heads up front… it wasn’t only a danger for themselves, they were a danger to every other rider on the road.

The landscape around us was quite different here. Apart from being less hilly, the land around the roads were farm land. Big flat areas prepared for agriculture and planting/growing stuff. There were less green around us, probably because farmers were preparing the soil to plant new stuff on it.

I noticed also another change, drivers. Back in Bretagne everybody was gentle and patient, sometimes even friendly (waving from inside the cars, shouting “Allez! Allez!” from behind open windows…). But here most drivers were agressive, passing you speeding up a lot and some times even honking. One driver even shout some things that sound really angry and ugly at us.

Later I found out that in France it is not allowed to ride 2 abreast (in Spain, for example, it is legal to do so). But that only seemed to be a problem with drivers around this area.

At 20:45 we finally arrived in Dreux.

Night was coming again, but it was still hot, way too hot. There was lots of humidity too, there was a swamp-like atmosfere in the air. And the mosquitoes… there was a horde of mosquitoes feasting on us, poor randonneurs.

We parked our bikes and went inside, in hopes of getting rid of the mosquitoes and to get our stamps and something to eat.

Inside it was almost unbearable, way too hot. The building was like a huge greenhouse, probably gathering heat from the sun all day long, and soon we were completely cooked. At one point we asked one of the benèvoles if we could bring our trays outside, she said it was ok if we bring them back in when finished.

Outside it was much better regarding the heat… but then there were the mosquitoes, waiting for us. I guess you can’t have it all!

We couldn’t find a table where we could sit all together, so we split. I sat at a table with David and a couple from the USA that were riding PBP for the 4th or 5th time. Time to share more experiences and stories! I also took some time to check on David, how was he doing so far, specially after having quite a bad morning that day.

We finished our food, but Ferreiro and Felipe hadn’t arrived yet. We started to worry a bit, lots of “what if…” in the air. One thing was clear, we were going to wait for them so we could do the last stretch together.

A while later they finally arrived. Confirmed another flat tire and some more trouble changing that tube. Also, that was the last inner tube from Felipe too.

Finally, 1 hour and 15 minutes after we arrived in the control, we were ready to leave. We were picking up our bikes when Ferreiro said he was leaving already - “You are faster and will catch me soon”. He left and then we realized David was missing. He told us he was going to the toilet and asked if we could wait for him.

We waited a bit… but no trace of him. He hadn’t park his bike with ours… so no way to check if his bike was still around in the middle of all those bikes, in the dark.

Near 10 minutes later, we tried calling him on the phone, but no luck, so we decided to go.

40-something km to go, to arrive in Rambouillet and to finish PBP.

40-something km to ride in the dark… but this time I wanted no trouble, no tunnel vision, no anxiety. So I came up with an idea before leaving the control. I replaced my cycling glasses with my normal, everyday, glasses.

I had brought them with me just in case something bad happened to my cycling ones (spares!), but while I was there waiting for David, I started to think about replacing the glasses. The normal ones are bigger, wider, so the area covered by the prescription glasses is bigger. Also, the cycling glasses have this special treatment that adapts to light (photochromatic?) which make them very good for changing conditions, but still means having some darker cover on them. The normal glasses don’t have that.

The drawback of wearing normal glasses is that they are a bit more loose, but I hoped that won’t be a problem.

Note

Spoiler alert: it worked wonderfully. Lesson learnt, my cycling glasses are ok for riding at night… for a while or if it is not in complete darkness. Otherwise, they are not so good.

We left Dreux and its city lights behind and soon we were back into the darkness, on a long and fast descent. We were riding with a lot more riders now, as there were lot of people queued for exit in the control.

Dani was a bit ahead, fearless in the dark, with Manolo a bit behind, then me and Alfredo and Felipe a bit behind us. Then I heard Alfredo cursing.

“What happened, are you all right?” - I asked him - “Gearing cable snapped, dammit” - he replied. “Fsck” - I thought - “Ok, let’s see what we can do, I’ve a spare cable here” - I told him. He said thanks, but no thanks, and he asked me not to worry - “Just keep on riding, forget about me and do not tell Manolo about it, I’ll make it on my own, you already have had enough delays due to mechanical trouble”.

Of course I wasn’t ok with it, if he was not going to listen to me… I pushed it a bit and got side-by-side with the others, telling them what happened. We slowed down a bit and quickly discussed what to do. We all agreed on keep on going. The terrain should not be very hilly from now on and Alfredo swear he could make it like this (he even refused to stop for a moment and try to get the chain in a higher gear).

We rode together, trying to keep a steady pace and with Manolo giving us warnings when we were pushing it a bit too much (we didn’t want to burn Alfredo to the ground).

We still hadn’t catch Ferreiro (who left the control almost 10 minutes earlier than us) and every time we saw red lights on the horizon, we were gambling… would it be him? Every time we hunted those riders, trying to finally catch him, but he wasn’t in any of those groups and pairs.

At one point, in a longer flat stretch, I put some distance with the group, riding alone for a while, in the dark. I passed by a big area of farm land where they were working. There were a couple of big tractors with huge front lamps that were casting long and wide beams of light on the land. It felt a bit surreal, like being in a sci-fi movie, in some other planet with a spaceship exploring some unknown land.

Soon I was back with the guys, and we rode together passing a few more hills and some woods, we were almost there. Going down the other side of the woods we saw a few riders ahead, stopped. Ferreiro was there, with David. We didn’t stop and they resumed their ride with us.

The gearing cable in Ferreiro’s bike was damaged. It didn’t snap yet, but he wasn’t changing gears to prevent that. So much for mechanical problems…

A few minutes later, we were entering the area near the Chatèu de Rambouillet. Cobblestones, then the big metal fence, then the dirt path… We crossed the arch where our RFIDs would be read and our final arrival time marked in the ACP database.

My official finish time was 78:09:46, arriving back in Rambouillet at 23:59:32 on Wednesday, 23rd August 2023. According to my Garmin device (and Strava) 51 hours 7 minutes of moving time, 78 hours 14 minutes taking stops in account with an average (moving) speed of 24 km/h.

Arriving at this time, at midnight, things were a bit quiet. There was people of course, lots of noise and movement, but a bit quieter than arriving by day.

We parked our bikes, everybody smiling and happy. I went to Dani and gave him a big hug. Congratulations my friend, you deserved this. Then I went one by one giving hugs and clasping hands with everybody, giving contratulations.

We had done it, I had done it. One could said now the dream finally came true, but for me the dream came true when I left this place on sunday. From that moment on I was living the dream, so sure I was going to finish it.

Time then to get our final stamp, our medal, and lots of congratulations by the benèvoles there.

We were in full-spanish-party mode. I guess it was even more special for Dani, David and me, as this was our first PBP.

Meanwhile more randonneurs and randonneuse were arriving and getting their stamps and medals. Everybody looking tired, a bit trashed, but at the same time radiant and happy.

After stamps, medals and photos, we went to the tent where the organization had prepared a restaurant area, to get our finishers meal. While on the queue to get our food, I came upon Jochen again. He looked good and I was glad to see he finished too.

On my way to our table, with the tray full of food on my hands, I passed by other tables where I could see more faces I’ve met during the day. One of those faces was that big guy from Paris I rode with for a while before Mortagne au Perche. He waved at me, gesturing me to come over. I left my try on our table and went there.

He was sitting there with some friends, dinner half done, drinking some local beer. He offered me a glass of it and we cheered together. He thanked me (our galician group really) again. He was telling his friends there that this morning was the only moment in this whole PBP when we rode in a well-organized group. I did stay with them for a moment, sharing stories and plans, and then I went back to my table, bringing with me one of those big bottles of local beer to share with the others.

Dinner was nice, beer was awesome, company was wonderful.

We did stay for some more time at the “restaurant”, hanging out, chatting. Felipe exchanged his Randonneurs Galicia Jersey with a randonneur from Japan, and Ferreiro did the same with a randonneur from California.

It was getting late and, even if we were having lots of fun, we were tired and we still had to ride our bikes back to the van, then pack everything back (in the dark) and get to our hotel for the night.

After saying goodbye to everybody there, Alfredo, Rafa and David included, we went to the bike parking and hopped on our bikes once more. We rode our bikes back to the van and then packed everything up.

We had finished PBP, but fun wasn’t over yet. We drove 30 minutes to the hotel for that night. A hotel Manolo found on booking.com and looked quite nice. It was nice indeed, but it was kind of a small resort-like hotel, located in the middle of some woods somewhere. Getting there on our huge van was fun, having to drive on some small paths, surrounded by huge trees. I remember making jokes with Manolo, wondering exactly what kind of hotel this was, which surprises did he prepared for us there…

Luckily we found it and the check-in was quite fast. In a few minutes we were in our rooms (I was sharing mine with Dani again). I had a much-needed soothing shower and then went to bed, falling asleep almost instantly, so happy I can’t find the words to describe it.

The day after PBP

Published by Borja Lopez Rio on 2023-10-09 00:00:00

We hadn’t set any alarms when we went to bed the previous night. There was no need for that, we could sleep as long as we may need.

I woke up near 09:00, checked the phone and saw that Luis finished around 04:00 that same night. Great news! I had another shower and got ready, putting on my new PBP t-shirt.

We didn’t have the breakfast included with the room, but Ferreiro asked the clerk if he could have something and he got to the breakfast hall just a few minutes before it got closed. I met him there and gave him some company while he finished his (first) breakfast.

Then we met the others in another small hall. There was a coffee machine there, courtesy of the hotel, that all guests could use. We had a quick coffee while waiting for everybody to be ready, chatting about what to do for the day.

The plan was to start the journey back home that day, but we also would like to pass by Rambouillet one more time. This morning was the deadline for a lot of riders (including our group, H) so there was going to be a big party.

We took a moment to re-pack everything in the van. The previous night it was late and we packed things up in the middle of the dark, with the only light of our bike head lights, so things weren’t properly set up.

Then, we left the hotel and drove all the way back to Rambouillet, parking the van in the same place we did a few days ago, when we first arrived in town.

First things first, we needed breakfast!. We walked a bit and found a nice boulangerie in the same square where we had lunch on saturday and sunday.

We bought lots of stuff there and then sat at a table outside the cafe next door (we asked first if it was ok to buy the food at the boulangerie, and they told us it was perfectly fine with them). I had enough coffee and pastries for, in normal conditions, a couple of days. Over breakfast we went again through our little adventure and we used the official tracker#309 to check on some people we know, see who had finished, their official times, etc.

Breakfast done, it was time to walk through town, in direction to the gardens near the Chatêau, to the finish line.

The streets of Rambouillet looked quite different that day, compared to the pre-PBP days when they were full of randonneurs and bicycles. That day we saw a few, but not many.

We met several spanish randonneurs during our walk, stopping with all of them for a moment to check how everybody had been doing. One of those randonneurs were Yago, another galician colleague (the one who took my place in the trip with the FECT).

He finished in 86 hours and was very happy about it, considering he had a crash because of a truck and then a couple more incidents. Luckily he wasn’t injured or damaged in any serious way.

We said goodbye to Yago, and we kept walking towards the gardens.

When we finally got there, we saw a big crowd around the finish line arch between the tent where the benèvoles were stamping the PBP booklets and the tent that was the improvised restaurant.

We walked on the dirt path, then on the grass. Getting closer we could hear people cheering the riders that were arriving, the speaker was also talking, loudly, and there was an overall humming noise when lots of people are together and everybody is talking.

We went inside the tent to the left, where the benèvoles were stamping the PBP booklets. There was definetely way more people now than the previous night when we arrived on our bikes at midnight.

There were randonneurs getting in to get their stamps, randonneurs getting out with their stamps and medals in hand, groups hugging and celebrating, couples hugging and kissing after having done PBP together… and there were lots of people sleeping.

Yeah, you read right, people sleeping in the middle of all that noise and excitement and shouting and frenziness. I saw people sleeping sitting in chairs, people sleeping laying on the wooden floor and people sleeping over clothes, towels, whatever they could find to place between their bodies and the floor.

After walking around those tables for a while, we went outside to see the arrival of more randonneurs. There were lots of people waiting there. Family, friends, colleagues of randonneurs that should arrive any moment now.

There were several randonneurs taking “I did it!” photos. And there was a lot of chatting and congratulating too.

And gorgeous bikes… everywhere. Manolo and Felipe, with experience from previous editions, told me the three bigger changes they noticed in this PBP were:

A lot more Ti (Titanium) frames

Disc brakes everywhere

Handlebar extensions (like those triathletes use)

This was the first edition the extensions were allowed, and a lot of people decided to bring them.

Personally, I considered adding them to the synapse after the second 400 brevet this year. At the cost of adding a bit more weight to your bike (and maybe some adjustments on your saddle/seatpost) you gain a few more positions on the bike (so much needed in long-distance rides) and a very comfortable and aero position for riding on flat areas (which did sound perfect for PBP).

In the end I decided not to get them, but I’m sure I will in the near future.

If you ask me, I think Ti frames are cool and I saw lots of carbon frames too, but the bikes that attracted lots of attention were steel bikes. And it was soooo cool to see new steel bikes made by artisans and l’ateliers…

I was there, hanging around, when I saw Mikko Mäkipää#310. I’ve been following Mikko on social media for quite some time now (first on the already-defunct twitter, now on Mastodon#311). Finisher of all TCR#312 editions (as well as a lot more other adventures, like RUSKA#313 in his home land), I’ve exchanged messages online with him a few times, but we had never met in person before. So I could not help myself and went over to say hi and introduce myself.

It was a pleasure to meet him (as I thought it would). We did chat a bit about this edition of PBP (he did it 3 times already, IIRC) and then about this year’s TCR#314 edition. It was so cool to get comments and oppinions from him directly (specially about that last parkour in greece!).

I was having so much fun. We lived there some memorable arrivals, like the moment when Mick Creati (I330) arrived. Mick, quite an old randonneur, passed the finish line walking, looking like badly injured, while someone was walking his bike by his side. He had to do an enormous effort to walk those last few meters, someone rushed to his side to give him a hand and then everybody was clapping, making a big ovation to him.

Then there were randonneurs that couldn’t help it and started crying out loud as soon as they parked their bikes, part joy, part amusement, some simply started crying whey they saw they beloved ones waiting for them there.

All of it was quite emotional.

At one point, it started to rain. Some people had umbrellas, some others like us decided to go back inside one of the tents.

Riders kept coming and the party went on and on. Of course some rain won’t stop it, as if most of us there weren’t used to spend hours and hours under the rain one way or another.

We waited until the rain became a drizzle, and then I suggested to get some drinks at the restaurant. Manolo joined me and we got one of those nice big bottles of local beer, with a few souvenir PBP 2023 glasses.

The five of us shared the bottle of beer, cheering for a wonderful experience… and for (hopefully) many more PBPs to come.

It was getting late, we still had a long journey back home and our plan was to do a long part of it this day, so we finished up our beers, took one last picture by the Paris-Brest-Paris Rambouillet logo outside one of the tents, and then went back to the van.

I’m going to spare you the details of our trip back. It was quite tiring, a lot more than riding PBP. Lots of driving on the highway, not many stops, and as a consequence of that, very swollen legs, knees, ankles, feet.

We had a good time though. These guys are fantastic. We talked a lot about what this year had been for all of us, we went back to the good and bad moments during the last few days, we checked online the status of friends and colleagues, commenting the results, times and surprises there. We talked also about the plans and dreams for the next year(s).

We shared meals, dinner and one room that night that looked like out of a military movie from the 80s… Or, as they were saying, from the times when they did the military service (I was the only one that didn’t do it).

I got back home on Friday, 25th of August, tired because of all the travelling, but eager to hop again on the synapse and start pedaling again.