The trip to Rambouillet (part 2)#
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 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 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 (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, 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 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, 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.