Ana's story is an interesting one. She mentioned that she'd done the Dean 300 as a qualifier, and articles on her mention a partner called Alex, who trained her. She's based in Cheltenham, and her job involves exercising racehorses. I find that interesting, but it doesn't seem to figure in the profiles of her.
She told me that her horse-riding gives her core strength, and that she favours climbing. Her results in local hillclimbs, and in the Trans-Pyrenees event confirm that. The Trans-Pyrenees is from the same stable as TCR. Her strong placing in the T-P marked her out was the most in-form female ultra rider at PBP.
She's late to cycling, she told me that she'd taken it up in the last three years, and that accords with Hofnar's outline of her riding style, which lacks tactical nous. There are references online to Ana receiving a bursary to attend Emily Chappell's Adventure Syndicate training camp in Girona, and to sponsorship for her bike.
I wonder if Alex rode the qualifiers, and had any PBP ambitions? If Carlos really did pace Ana, was he a substitute for Alex?
As there's no prize fund, it's difficult to 'follow the money'. The only obvious commercial aspect to PBP is through brand enhancement. Marko Baloh finished PBP wearing a shirt promoting his coaching business. Victor Decoard, who rode for Singer in 2015, and appeared with his partner Sina in the 'Brevet' film, fielded a 'Cycles Victor' team, which included former PBP organiser Jean-Gualbert Faburel.
TCR had generated a lot of interest, thanks to Fiona Kolbinger. Fiona had declared that she was going treat PBP as a party. She had clearly enjoyed that aspect of LEL. The TCR had finished in Brest, and had primed press interest. L'Equipe deployed a staff photographer to PBP.
Pacing at PBP is an interesting subject in itself. The early editions were paced, with pacers leap-frogging the lead riders by train. Pacing by a single rider, who rides the entire course is legal, if the pacer is entered, but illegal if the pacer has no number. The difficulties of entering PBP 2019 upset many plans.
So the key questions are: Was Ana paced, and if so by whom? If she was paced, who arranged it? If she was paced, how has it come to light?
One response to 'cheating' at PBP is 'Why would anyone do it. it's not a race, so they're only cheating themselves'. The cluster of quasi-commercial interests surrounding PBP provide an answer to that question.
It's ironic that the shift to Rambouillet, and changes in the organisation of PBP, reasserted the amateur nature of PBP. Much of the professional gloss of previous editions came from the St Quentin authorities. PBP 19 was more of a bare-bones affair.