Support package for PBP 2015 - thoughts

[mattc]

In light of the Baxters thread, and having read about various folks supported by their friends/families, I thought we might 'blue-sky' how riders could be supported economically next time.
Clearly nothing would be perfect for everyone, but we need to trim down the parameters a bit.

First Q: Baxters seem to do a pickup service from across the UK. This sounds like a lot of work for anyone outside the travel industry. Is it a deal-breaker? Would riders be happy with:
- making their own way to Paris, or
- getting to a single pickup (e.g. Portsmouth/Newhaven/Dover or Gatwick/Ashford/ XXX)?
- finding their own hotel after a central SQY drop-off?

What do we want during the ride?
- Quick basic 'British food' outside of the control hurly-burly.
- A guaranteed - if basic - warm bed. And plentiful wet-wipes.
- Bag drop (for clean clothes etc).

Where do we want it?
You can't suit riders on every schedule, but Baxters/Willesden seemed to keep riders happy with fixed locations. Would Loudeac have worked for most people?

Err ... what else?!?

My initial thought - as might be clear - would be a budget service, with the providers taking a small fee to allow them a comfortable-ish time before/after the ride.
I doubt we will come up with one workable package, but this could be useful info in 4 years time for friends/clubs looking to team up on a small scale. Input from those on the support side would be particularly useful.

[MSeries]

What I had in 2007 worked very well for me. Provided by a friends wife, the friend and I rode together. She took my tent and drop bag in their car, I took it to their house beforehand. I travelled to Paris independantly using Bike Express and en velo after a 900km tour. I saw them in Paris before the ride so could have given them my stuff there. She drove to a place 20km east of Loudeac which is on the PBP route and pitched their tent and mine at the municipal campground which had no other campers. We arrived there ate slept showered and departed for Loudeac returning that night for food sleep shower change of clothes etc. We then had to get back to Paris in 2 days so we decieded to overnight again at Mortagne au perche. Our supporter drove to the control and we slept outside on our mats in our sleeping bags. This second 'camp' was a bonus but very welcome, our supporter had to get back to Paris anyway. I made my own way home via a 100km ride to catch the Bike Express again and collected my stuff from my friends' house afterwards.

I'd like to do the same again.

in summary I had a couple of bag drops and some food provided, no transport for me just my stuff.

[arvid]

I have participated in a Dutch recumbent support team that had booked campings at 200, 400 and 600km, bagdrops at those places were also possible. I only cared about the 600 (in Sizun).
This mainly had to do with my expected ride schedule: start at 17:30, ride 580km in 28-32hrs(was 28.5), shower+sleep(+/-6hrs) in Sizun on the way out. A friend of mine (6421) insisted on sleeping only past Brest, I understand that, but it didn't fit my expectation of achieving that before midnight. With a night of sleep skipped that seemed like a bad idea to me, and unnecessary with that much time in hand. He arrived in Sizun when I left on tuesday morning at 8am.
Tuesday: ride 340km to Fougères, sleep (3-4hrs) there
Wednesday: finish the ride (310km).

This plan worked perfectly. I found a plan worked out to this detail boring though. It wasn't the adventure that LEL2009 and Mille Miglia 2010 were to me. YMMV

Without this support team I probably would have booked a hotel in Brest to facilitate the first night of sleep.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Loudiac works for 84 hr starters but not so much for the other starts. I prefer having a bag drop where I sleep but I didn't sleep at Carhaix (rain slowed the first day) or Fougere.

[mattc]

I'd be happy to travel independently. The bus initially seems a great idea but packing your bike and considering that some had to travel a hundred plus miles to join it knocks off the shine.

I'm beginning to come round to this view too. There are so many travel options that will suit different people, with plentiful online advice/booking etc - getting to SQY is the easy bit. What I would really appreciate is TLC during the ride, and as we're all riding the same route this seems the easiest place to cut costs and possibly utilise economies of scale.

I agree about the atmosphere in a shared hotel. The advantage of SQY is plentiful accomodation, but it's very widely spread. It's fun mixing with Johnny foreigner but it might be nice to be with a few more AUKs than happens by accident. Unless someone actually makes a block booking, I doubt that more than a few oh-so-independent-and-self-sufficient AUKs can be herded into the same hotel at the same time!
I have negligible camping experience, but MSeries makes it sound a good option. warm sleeping bags and someone to point out the showers would solve most rider needs.
(the internet says Loudeac Municipal Camping - like SQY's - is closed for maintenance this summer!)

[pumpkin]

If enough people could organise it between themselves, then why not a non-riding friend/partner driving a car or van (owned or hired) carrying the kit. Wheels,tyres,tubes,warm/wet weather spare kit etc. Of course there has to be some agreement re locations/wait times/phone# etc

[MSeries]

I have negligible camping experience, but MSeries makes it sound a good option. warm sleeping bags and someone to point out the showers would solve most rider needs.
(the internet says Loudeac Municipal Camping - like SQY's - is closed for maintenance this summer!)

Camping made it relatively cheap. Hotels would work just as well but it was very low key arriving at the campsite in the dark, eating and just crawling into the tent. A hotel might have prevented a middle of the night cook up.

[EdinburghFixed]

For me, just having a simple, reliable bag drop would be a big win.

This time around, Loudeac would still have suited (I got there at 2pm and again at about 5pm the next day, so it wasn't an overnight stop). Just to get a change of clothes, battery swap, refill on food - making three 400km legs.

Personally though, I'd love a double bag drop even more - Fougeres and Carhaix perhaps (off the top of my head). Then I could reprovision at (roughly) 300, 200,200,200,300 intervals, which would be neat.

I've "done" PBP as a touriste. If I go back, it would be to go a bit quicker, which makes provisions pretty useful. Would definitely pay for something along those lines.

I'm not sure having a physical helper would be at all straightforward, given how wildly different times people will be at different controls (between 90 and 84 hour start, to being with!)

[border-rider]

There always used to be an "official" AUK group that travelled together from the ferry and booked into the same hotel

Last time this was the campsite, and this was the focus of the AUK presence. Nothing this time, of course, but it wouldn't be hard to nominate a hotel - or even the campsite if it's open. 

A bag drop would be nice, but it's not critical for me.  With judicious packing and washing stuff on-the-fly I got round with an under-stuffed Barley with no problems.

We had a fair few AUKs in our hotel, and we ate out at one of the restaurants on the main drag at StQ.  We weren't short of friendly faces any night we were there.

[Salvatore]

There were plenty of AUKs at the temporary campsite this year. The campsite was excellent, by the way. Enough showers and toilets, all kept clean and (this is a French campsite, remember) with plenty of toilet paper. I could have done with another night there for recovery, but we were thrown off (in the nicest possible way) at midday on Friday.

I tend to travel independently - ride to the start, no bagdrop, ride home - but I appreciate that time might be tight for some and that is not possible. The hardest bit of the whole trip for me was riding from near Evreux to catch the ferry from Caen on the Sunday, pulling an overloaded Bob Yak into a headwind. Thank goodness it was the 2300 ferry.

[thing1]

The main drawback of the campsite this year was you had to qualify early in order to get a space! And pre-qualification didn't help for that (or with any part of the qualification process, as it turned out).

A bag drop service including shipping tent to campsite would be ideal. That way we could light-weight tour over again, still without having to lug the tent etc with us.

[Manotea]

I was riding unsupported which worked out fine this time round, but the weather was kind.

What I really missed on the road was familiar food: doughnuts, chelsea buns, etc., and I'd have killed for a double helping of beans on toast with apple pie and custard to follow. And the odd bucket of red hot English Breakfast tea, of course. I probably would not be fast enough to make it worthwhile planning a hotel/campsite stop but I'd consider using a bag drop to ensure I can pickup a musette of grub along with some clean shorts.

[teethgrinder]

It would be good to get feedback on what was a good hotel this time and get a group staying in the same place. A block booking is not needed in a world of online booking. An independent traveller can book 12 months out, cancel up to 12.00pm on the day of arrival without penalty and PBP doesn't change this.

I entirely agree. Back in the day (before internet) Noel Simpson used to block book the Hotel Pavillion Bleu via the telephone. It wasn't a great hotel IMO, but they put a room aside for bikes and it always had a good atmosphere.
I was going to camp this time, but there was doubt about whether there was any camping and then whether there was space. Camping is usualy a very good option if you want a good pre and after ride atmosphere. I had 2 24hour TTs to plan at the time, so didn't want to mess about and booked myself into a Formule 1, job done and all sorted in a matter of minutes.
I tried to get a group together to share hotel room ar stay in the same hotel, but it was a bit of a last minute effort, but at least I had a nice group ride from Dieppe to PBP, then back again. Back in the day (BI) Noel Simpson led a ride from Caen to PBP, then back.
All it needs is someone to lay down a plan so that people can work their way into it, or join it along the way. just a designated hotel mentioned in Arrivee with a website address and maybe a volunteer to do booking for anyone not on-line. Then one person to do a nice route to PBP from the hotel and from the ferry to PBP. Easily done nowadays with GPS.
That's what I tried to do this time, but it was a bit of a last minute effort when people had allready made half baked plans.
In hindsight, Newhaven to Dieppe wasn't the best crossing. Next time I'll use the Portsmouth-Caen and join the Portsmouth lot.

[veloboy]

I had a bag drop last time in '07 with a Danish group at Loudeac, which happened to work out very well with the wet weather and the fresh change of kit at 400 and 800km. However, we did spend a lot of time trying to find where the drop bag was on the way out and even knowing where it was on the way back, it was some way from the control facilities and one had to plan carefully to avoid wasting time at the control.

This year, I rode unsupported and carried only 1 spare set of kit (for the contact points):
- spare bibshorts
- spare mitts
- spare socks

It worked very well for me and had a change / shower at Loudeac on the way back. Living in London, getting to the event was really easy using Eurostar (absolutely no problems with bike in a soft bag - in fact, the train manager insisted we [Swiss Hat and SG] put them into the bar carriage in the corner, out of harms way from those heavy suitcases! We had booked a small hotel in St Cyr, walking distance from the local RER station and also had some reasonably priced local bars and restaurants. We picked up beer at the local supermarket and kept a supply in reserve in the fridge within the rooms !!

It occurs to me that PBP is a large enough event to be a logistical nightmare for organising group support (if going for a fast time); however, a dedicated individual support team could get you round faster [but the idea of 'unsupported' really appeals!].

[Ivo]

Having done various sorts of PBP's (unsupported in '95, Willesden support in '99 and '03, basic support in '07 and '11) I'd say that the basic support version suits me best. Just a van/camper at Loudeac with the chance to get some fresh kit and restock on various other items like your favourite energy drink and your favourite foods. For the rest, this year even more than other years, you can perfectly well feed along the route, either at the controls or at supermarkets (some 24hour especially for PBP) and various roadside opportunities.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I was riding unsupported which worked out fine this time round, but the weather was kind.

What I really missed on the road was familiar food: doughnuts, chelsea buns, etc., and I'd have killed for a double helping of beans on toast with apple pie and custard to follow. And the odd bucket of red hot English Breakfast tea, of course. I probably would not be fast enough to make it worthwhile planning a hotel/campsite stop but I'd consider using a bag drop to ensure I can pickup a musette of grub along with some clean shorts.

Should we club together and pay for elS to provide a roadside support, perhaps somewhere between Tinteniac and Loudeac 

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I rode unsupported and w'out bag drop this time and will do, if I qualify next time.  I was equipped for much worse weather than I got.  We should recall this topic on the forum next time around as could then block book a YACF hotel. 

[Hummers]

*splutter*

Support?

Bag drops?

TLC?

Hotels?

Donuts?

*shakes head*

H

[Tewdric]

Driving over and having a hotel close to the start made life very easy and was very cheap compared to Baxters.  If I do it next time round I'll look to do the same thing, although a nominated AUK hotel or chalets at the campsite would be tempting.

[roddo]

For future reference:  I approached the excellent team at Marmot tours have suggested they would be interested in supporting a bunch of riders for 2015.

I have done a Raid with them and found them great. 

[mmmmartin]

I wil probably join Willesden soon and qualify with their events and ask advice. Every time I've met them they seem really switched on. Their events are good to ride as well.

[Filthy]

The Filthy bus trip went well, cost after being split 7 ways for fuel, ferry & vehicle insurance was about £80. All except 1 stayed at the campsite which was good as well, clean, no overcowding if a little way from amenities (bar). I had no complaints apart from the drivers wind on the return journey which the management will deal with next time. If I'm still around next time & my is to be I think that I will plan a similar trip. There is an option to take a non-cycling member who would do support but I did not feel in need of the option this time. If I was going faster it might make a difference, but I cant honestly see that happening.

[Wobbly]

I wouldn't be in the slightest interested in bag drops or support. What I would be interested in though, would be an AUK hotel in SQY. The Pavillon Bleu (mentioned earlier) was a dreadful place but at least it was full of friendly and knowledgable AUKs which made for a decent pre-ride booze up meal.

[Ian H]

I wouldn't be in the slightest interested in bag drops or support. What I would be interested in though, would be an AUK hotel in SQY. The Pavillon Bleu (mentioned earlier) was a dreadful place but at least it was full of friendly and knowledgable AUKs which made for a decent pre-ride booze up meal.

I heard they were touting for business this time. Dunno whether they got any.

[Wobbly]

I understood the hotel had changed ownership and been revamped. I haven't heard of any PBP riders staying there though.