Anybody know what happened to any of the following?

[madcow]

The 4 year gap makes you forget how hard it is and happily start the qualification process all over.

Isn't that the definition of "randonesia" ?
Dear old Damon nailed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md4w1Li1zRY 

[Jethro]

Just watched Adam Watkins Youtube video of his PBP.  Appears he got chickenpox and only got about 60k into the ride before calling it a day.  Then got turned away from his coach to come back home and made to find his own way back as he was considered to be infectious.

[Cudzoziemiec]

That's a bit double-shit. Adam Watkins is a nutter of the nicest sort.

[Suffolk Born]

Probably Shingles, Chickenpox at his age may of knocked him for six, but still a poor show from fellow club members, at least they may of offered to take his bike back home on the coach.

[Lightning Phil]

I thought the company would send a txt or have some signage but maybe not. All looks hard work. Kudos to those of you who did it and I know some of you have done it numerous times. Does the 4 year gap make the memories fonder?

Crazy and in the days of what three words they could have texted / messaged including an exact location.

[Andy W]

I watched Adam Watkins YouTube video as well. Really felt for the poor bloke. That story about not getting on the coach is going to run. I’m just glad he didn’t get gout. I expected he’d get a lift home in a Volvo 240 estate.

[Suffolk Born]

towed by a Suzuki Jeep!

[Jethro]

Is Adam Watkins on here?

I really feel for the man, and indeed everyone else that rides PBP.  It is clearly a massive undertaking with all the training not to mention the true cost of everything and then to get chickenpox/shingles.  That is really tough luck.

[Ian H]

I decided fairly early not to enter this year, a decision reinforced by a slightly ragged SR.  So I rode over to stay with friends near Fougéres, took some photos of riders as I crossed the route on Tuesday, stopping for a chat at Paul Rogue's place in La Tanniere.  Wednesday we went back to the route to see folks on the return leg.  I had an errand as one rider had been scammed and had his bank cards locked - I had his replacements.

Thursday I was invited to join the Ernée Randonneur club for their retirees' ride.  They take it in turns to organise routes, always with a beer stop partway, and they finish at the organiser's home for more beer and cake.  There was heavy rain in the morning (south of the PBP route) but it soon got stiflingly hot.  150k in total.

Friday, having checked the tracker for finishers and non-finishers, I said goodbye and rode back to St Malo and the ferry.  The trip removed any lingering regret about not actually riding the event.  Well done all those who finished and commiserations to those who didn't. 

[pumpkin]

Watched Amy Hunt and her preamble to the event. Full of enthusiasm and wide eyed wonder as she and her companions cycle to the start.

[Jethro]

Yes I watched that too.

Wonder when she is going to upload the actual ride video.

[Peter]

Hunt, or Hudson?

[pumpkin]

Watched Amy Hunt and her preamble to the event. Full of enthusiasm and wide eyed wonder as she and her companions cycle to the start.

Weekend apparently. Adam Watkins is on YT? talking about his colleagues who left him. Seems they/The club have had some feedback from the cycling community

[D.A.L.E.]

So are ACB cancelled then?

[Lightning Phil]

Chicken pox is highly contagious 😷 for a number of days. The rest of them on the bus will have had suppressed immune systems, thus susceptible to shingles being triggered, if they’d had the pox before.  Reasonable not to let him on.

[Flâneur]

Chicken pox is highly contagious 😷 for a number of days. The rest of them on the bus will have had suppressed immune systems, thus susceptible to shingles being triggered, if they’d had the pox before.  Reasonable not to let him on.

If they’d already had chickenpox, exposure to a chickenpox case would have absolutely zero to do with developing a case of shingles. Complete old wives’ tale.

The mental and physical stress of a PBP or LEL, or a 600 could conceivably cause shingles. Probably best the worry warts don’t ride them just in case.

[mattc]

Going off topic, but all these support vehicles (as in bike races) hardly makes it a green sport. I wouldn’t want anyone driving 100s of km supporting me. I’d do the ride again, now I’ve discovered Grimbergen.

Well I sort of agree ... but people/families do go on hols. In August. And many drive further than Paris-Carhiax.

[mattc]

K330: Steve Ferry. I packed shortly after Tintaniac with heat exhaustion. I stopped for what appeared to be ages and did not feel any better. Then thought it is only a bike ride and packed.

100% recovered with two days rest 

see you on the road Steve (probably in cold mid-winter ...)

[TomAplomb]

Chicken pox is highly contagious 😷 for a number of days. The rest of them on the bus will have had suppressed immune systems, thus susceptible to shingles being triggered, if they’d had the pox before.  Reasonable not to let him on.

From the NHS website:

Shingles and chickenpox

• You cannot catch shingles from someone with chickenpox.
• You can catch chickenpox from someone with shingles if you have not had chickenpox before.
• When you get chickenpox, the virus stays in your body. The virus can be triggered again if your immune system is weak. This causes shingles.
• This can happen because of stress, certain conditions, or treatments like chemotherapy.

So yes, there would be some risk to those adults who had not had chicken pox before (but >90% of adults have had chicken pox).

But even then, symptoms appeared on the Sunday, and the coach trip was probably the following Friday, meaning Adam would have already been over the most contagious part of the infection.

On top of that, the medic deemed him safe to travel and was able to get a flight.

[mzjo]

Going off topic, but all these support vehicles (as in bike races) hardly makes it a green sport. I wouldn’t want anyone driving 100s of km supporting me. I’d do the ride again, now I’ve discovered Grimbergen.

Well I sort of agree ... but people/families do go on hols. In August. And many drive further than Paris-Carhiax.

France had (and probably still has) the highest proportion of camper-vans per capita in Europe. Given that a lot of them will be in the north of France, that Brittany is a very popular holiday destination and that not everyone sticks religiously to the N12 crossing it, even before allowing for any non-french holidaymakers, it won't take many PBP support camper-vans to give an impression of causing congestion which might not be that much worse than what is there in non-PBP years. They won't help the congestion on the route but taking them away might not have as much benefit as one thinks, apart from while parked up around controls. Camper-vans are an established feature of french cycle-touring, like them or not (to the extent that some concentrations will cater for camper-vans in excess while having no proper camp site!)!

[zigzag]

going back to the rider a013 - he was in our group from villaines to fougeres, and his way of riding and his dazzling rear light won him no friends in the group. i think he was dropped after fougeres. it looked like he was pretty new to cycling, but wanted too much too soon. without doing enough research about how things work got disappointed and threw the towel in. at least two riders in the top 10 were self-sufficient, but yes, support makes a big difference.

[Byronius Maximus]

 it looked like he was pretty new to cycling, but wanted too much too soon.

Yes, he's clearly a talented rider but many of the complaints seem to come from a level of naivety about the event and long distance riding in particular.
I can understand the frustration with the bag drop, but equally, as soon as you hand something like that over to someone else then you have to accept that you have put an element of your ride outside of your control. If that's something critical to your "success" on the ride (however you are defining success), then it is quite naïve to not have a backup plan and it is at least partly one's own fault when it all goes tit ups.
Generally it struck me that there was a lot of blaming others for things that happened from which lessons could be learned for future rides.

[Peter]

If a013 is Matt Page, he's so new to cycling that he was first back on LEL - by a long way, I think!

[Tim Hall]

I appreciate what one sees on a video may not be quite accurate but the throwing of the brevet card at the controller in Brest looks pretty shoddy behaviour.

He's edited the video. It used to show the card being thrown/dropped but now it goes straight to the controller stamping it.

[αdαmsκι]

He's edited the video. It used to show the card being thrown/dropped but now it goes straight to the controller stamping it.

🙄🙄