Yet Another Cycling Forum

General Category => Audax => Topic started by: LittleWheelsandBig on 27 December, 2015, 11:58:49 am

Title: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 27 December, 2015, 11:58:49 am
For 2-6 July 2016, HK and I will be riding the UAF's PBP Audax. It is similar to 2015's PBP Randonneur but the 1200km is ridden as a group led by 'road captains' at 22.5km/h between stops. Four course meals, wine and hotel accommodation are included in the entry fee. The group's luggage is carried by a following car, so there is no need for big bags on our bikes.

More details are available at the UAF website (http://www.audax-uaf.com/cyclotourisme/paris-brest-paris-2016-2/). Helmets are mandatory, as are lights and reflective vests at night. Pre-inscription of 150€ is required by 31 January (late entries, add 30€) and entries close on 31 March (total 630€). The ride jersey is included, of course, and the peloton looks very impressive riding into the finish in matching jerseys.

This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSb8Iu7slw8&feature=related) gives a decent idea of what the ride will be like, though the route will be different. Audax, not PBP Randonneur (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=7055.0) and HK's ride report (https://judithswallow.wordpress.com/ride-reports/double-or-quits-an-opportunity-that-comes-only-every-20-years/) might be interesting reading.
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2016
Post by: drgannet on 27 December, 2015, 12:31:59 pm
How many people take part?
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2016
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 27 December, 2015, 12:37:22 pm
Between 50 and 150 in each start for every 1000+km UAF brevet we've done since 2010. It is difficult to feed and accommodate larger groups without delays. I also think the French highway requirements change as the group size increases - below a certain size, no escort; bigger group, escort car/s; larger again, motorcycle marshals

PBP Audax 2011 had separate starts in July and August to overcome that problem. There were around 200 starters combined.
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2016
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 15 January, 2016, 07:09:21 am
To assist foreigners towards riding PBP Audax 2016, the UAF has added an English-language entry form. Estranger qualification requirements are somewhat lower than for the French.
http://www.audax-uaf.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/English_pre_registration_Paris-Brest-Paris.pdf
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2016
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 09 July, 2016, 11:03:06 am
A fairly long slideshow of photos that gives a decent flavour of riding PBP Audax 2016

http://lerandonneurvendomois.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/paris-brest-paris-audax-2016-en-image.html

The riders came from Australia, Belgium, Britain, France, Sweden and the USA.
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2016
Post by: T42 on 09 July, 2016, 11:12:42 am
:thumbsup:

I followed the whole thing on the UAF's FB page, it looked great. Jacques did a great job.
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2016
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 29 July, 2019, 10:57:25 pm
PBP Audax has swapped to quadrennial editions, so late June 2020 is your next chance to enjoy the 'other PBP'. Discussions of some previous PBP Audax brevets at https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=7055.25
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 18 December, 2019, 07:06:43 pm
The first details are up for the 2020 PBP Audax. Entries will open to any foreigner who can convince the organisers that they are likely to finish. A previous 1000+km brevet, previous Super Randonneur or a 400 / 600 BRM in 2020 should do it. French folk will need a 200, a 300 and a 400 or 600 UAF as qualifiers in 2020.

Don’t worry if you are a monoglot like me, the main contact Jean-Michel Vincelot is very comfortable with enquiries in English. The other riders and ride crew are welcoming of foreigners and have proved it by coping with me during the last two PBPs Audax. There will be contingents from the UK and USA and no doubt Sweden, Belgium and elsewhere.

http://www.audax-uaf.com/cyclotourisme/paris-brest-paris-2016-2/
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: L CC on 19 December, 2019, 12:56:03 pm
I love Google's translates

Quote
Finally they will be 29 arriving on time in Montrouge, at the Buffalo velodrome now destroyed, drunk with fatigue, bearded, but happy: ordinary people who had just achieved a pretty extraordinary feat! Did they imagine that 85 years later, other cyclists would continue to perpetuate this initial raid?
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 19 December, 2019, 02:55:31 pm
Quote
... ordinary people who had just achieved a pretty extraordinary feat! ...

That sounds a lot like one of the reasons I ride long brevets.
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: bludger on 07 January, 2020, 08:36:38 pm
A great new video about the ride.

Looks tough! Aerobars verboten!
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: Ian H on 07 January, 2020, 10:27:02 pm
Hmm...
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: bludger on 07 January, 2020, 10:29:04 pm
forgot to post it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtSuSgQrePU
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: T42 on 08 January, 2020, 01:56:29 pm
It's easier than it looks.  The speed is held down to the 22.5 kph average so that you conserve a lot of energy, and you can shelter inside the peloton if it gets windy. When I did it in 2006, the first stage was longer than I had ever cycled, and I was disappointed that the second stage was only 300-odd.  The 300 & 400k qualifiers I had done were far harder.

The main thing to avoid is getting to the back of the pack, particularly in undulating terrain. The concertina effect means that you're forever braking and accelerating again.

In 2006 we had 180 riders:

(https://pbase.com/johnewing/image/169370214.jpg)
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: bludger on 08 January, 2020, 02:29:44 pm
It sounds a bit like how it was at the start of my Belgian 400. We all stuck together for a long time at the start in a big centipede. Is there a Captain who very firmly controls the pace or is it more organic? If you're dropped and have to trundle the remainer of the leg to the control on your own/with others who are 'eliminated' are you 'knocked out' or do you rejoin the next day?
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: T42 on 09 January, 2020, 09:05:21 am
There's a team of road captains: two up front whom you're not allowed to pass, two at the rear and maybe a couple of whippers-in patrolling the length of the pack.  When I did it the rule was that if you dropped off the end you had to reach the next control within 10 minute of the pack arriving, otherwise you were disqualified. That actually happened to me by mistake: I arrived with the pack but immediately went haring off looking for a loo. Nobody said a thing, but when I got the medal the following January it just said "Souvenir".  I protested and they fixed it.
Title: Re: The other PBP - Audax in 2020
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 11 January, 2020, 03:16:58 pm
Things have mellowed a little since then.

I and a couple of others tend to hang at the back and pace riders (with flats, etc.) back to the bunch. If we don't quite make it back to the bunch before the next stop, no major dramas, since I/ them are captains so those riders are still with a ride captain. Don't extract the urine though. The intent is to complete the event with the bunch, to schedule.

During Paris-Nice 1000 UAF a few years ago, temperatures >40 degrees meant several overheated folk got pulled off their bikes for stints in the air-conditioned sag wagon before being put back on their bikes for subsequent sections. They got medals but no homologation.
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: HK on 26 January, 2020, 11:53:16 pm
I will not be riding this edition of PBP Audax. Things and life beyond my control.
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 01 April, 2022, 12:26:15 pm
2020’s PBP Audax was postponed for the obvious reason. Now it is running in June 2022. If a 1200 brevet ridden in a group with restaurant meals and wine on the tables interests you, now is the time to enter.

HK and I will both be riding our third PBP Audax amongst some Anglophone friends and very welcoming French folk. Check out https://www.audax-uaf.com/ and follow the links for PBP Audax.
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: T42 on 01 April, 2022, 12:57:48 pm
HK and I will both be riding our third PBP Audax amongst some Anglophone friends and very welcoming French folk. Check out https://www.audax-uaf.com/ and follow the links for PBP Audax.

Glad to hear it. 

PBP Audax was where I broke my long-distance teeth: it's a great nursery school for Audax riding of either sort.
Title: Re: The other PBP – Audax in 2020
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 26 April, 2022, 10:40:26 am
And both Bordeaux-Paris UAF 600 and PBP Audax 1200 are cancelled for this year.

Apparently a major issue was finding restaurants to serve meals at odd hours of the night (closures/ fallout from Covid?) at the right locations. I am disappointed from both a personal and a collective perspective. Being part of a social group riding through darkened countryside punctuated by good meals and warm welcomes creates treasured memories.