The day after PBP#
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 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. I’ve been following Mikko on social media for quite some time now (first on the already-defunct twitter, now on Mastodon). Finisher of all TCR editions (as well as a lot more other adventures, like RUSKA 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 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.