DooBlood
New Member
- Location
- Warwickshire
Does anyone have a game plan? How far to cycle before sleep? Ideas? Hmmmm 
Battle plans for pbp
- Thread starter DooBlood
- Start date
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frank9755
Cyclist
- Location
- West London
I don't have a set plan. I've not done it before so I don't know how I will go. I want to keep riding until I feel I need to stop and I don't know when that will be so I've not booked hotels or anything. If you've done it before, it's easier to make those sorts of plans.
amaferanga
Veteran
- Location
- Bolton
Does anyone have a game plan? How far to cycle before sleep? Ideas? Hmmmm
Depends how fast/slow you ride. I did PBP 2007 with the intention of not stopping until Brest, but the weather conspired against me and I was riding well with a couple of Austrians who decided to stop earlier so I stopped as well. Probably the right decision. I guess it depends which start you opt for as well....
I am in the 90 hour group start. This means I will start sometime between 6pm and 8:30pm. Brest is 616km. At 25kph average that is just over 24 hours riding time. Loose 1 hour per 100km for controlling and eating, call it 30 hours. Coming back will be much slower, I intend to use the entire 90 hours allowed.
Some ifs and buts....
I hope that I will get off before 7pm. 7pm Sunday + 30 hours = 1am Tuesday
I hope that there is no headwind.
I hope that I will be able to hook up with groups going at a perfect speed quite often.
If these conditions are fulfilled then I should be able to make Brest before I turn into a pumpkin. If not then it's Carhaix. If I can leave Carhaix before 9pm Monday then the 93km to Brest should be possible. If not I stop at Carhaix for sleepage. If I have to stop at Carhaix I will have to play it by ear when I leave but it will probably be far too early tuesday AM.
Last time I started at 10:30pm, as noted above the weather was not great and I lost 3 hours due to dropping my brevet card.. But I still made Loudeac. When you make a mistake / have a mechanical early on then it's a double problem as there are no fast groups on the road to get a tow from.
So plan part 1 is to make Brest in 30 hours and then have 4 or 5 hour sleep. Next morning ( that will be Tuesday morning ) I will start to trundle slowly back. For the return, if the first bit of the plan works, I will have a total of 55 hours-ish. So I should have time for another 4 or 5 hours sleep and stopping at Tabacs for the occasional coffee
Some ifs and buts....
I hope that I will get off before 7pm. 7pm Sunday + 30 hours = 1am Tuesday
I hope that there is no headwind.
I hope that I will be able to hook up with groups going at a perfect speed quite often.
If these conditions are fulfilled then I should be able to make Brest before I turn into a pumpkin. If not then it's Carhaix. If I can leave Carhaix before 9pm Monday then the 93km to Brest should be possible. If not I stop at Carhaix for sleepage. If I have to stop at Carhaix I will have to play it by ear when I leave but it will probably be far too early tuesday AM.
Last time I started at 10:30pm, as noted above the weather was not great and I lost 3 hours due to dropping my brevet card.. But I still made Loudeac. When you make a mistake / have a mechanical early on then it's a double problem as there are no fast groups on the road to get a tow from.
So plan part 1 is to make Brest in 30 hours and then have 4 or 5 hour sleep. Next morning ( that will be Tuesday morning ) I will start to trundle slowly back. For the return, if the first bit of the plan works, I will have a total of 55 hours-ish. So I should have time for another 4 or 5 hours sleep and stopping at Tabacs for the occasional coffee
