Paris Brest Paris (PBP) 2019

Getting a bit nervous now, imminently about to enter the unknown. Well after Brest anyway. Wondering if the bare minimum involving only having done the one 200 pre qualifier, and then the minimum qualifying rides this year are enough. Including the post bike fit dunwich ride, these are the only rides I've done on the geared bike.
So my plan is to just aim for 20kph ave, which gives me 30 hours off the bike. Plus, I have forgone caffeine for past two weeks, so will be drinking espressos strategically. And sleep normally now as much as possible till the start.
Weather looks like it'll be likely be a bit wet a few times, but without any stormy headwinds or heatwaves, so am willing to get a bit of rain if it means a tailwind back.

Based on my experience of failing to finish LEL, don't make too definite plans about average speeds or anything. I went into it thinking of it being a straightforward series of 300k day rides with sleeps inbetween. The reality worked out very differently. My average speed plumeted as the ride went on and I wasted a load of time trying and failing to sleep early on. In retrospect I'd have been much better to ride as far as possible without sleep initially, building up more of a time buffer to cover me for later in the ride.
This isn't to be discouraging or pessimistic - you'll be fine. Just don't expect things to go exactly as planned. Weather, sleep stops, etc are all a bit unpredictable.
(no idea why I'm giving advice having failed to finish anything over 600k, but have spent a lot of time thinking about where I went wrong on LEL. Though it's quite a different ride as well of course).

Good advice. Especially if it's your first PBP. The fewer plans you have the better - just go with the flow, stop when you feel like it and ride when you can!

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/trek-700-l-mattress-yellow-id_8493395.html

Cheers, managed to get a couple of hotels booked en route so bit more sorted now.

Help! Where can I get a rear derailleur hanger in paris??

Try:

Cycles Laurent
La Bicyclette
Franscoop

I'll try and ring some friends too.

Nooo that sucks.

In cycles laurent now. Bit stressy

So @ad441 advice of not expecting things to go according to plan has already been heeded. 20km out of paris on my way to Rambouillet on the 1st steep hill my derailleur gets ripped into the spokes. Learning the lessons the hard way. Turns out most bike shops in close for these couple weeks. So got to a train, headed back to Paris. More closed shops, but spotted a mechanic looking guy in an electric bike shop. He phoned someone and gave me an adress across town. Scooted to the great Cycles Laurent. Luckily its downhill to the river. But Tony there broke the news to me that I won't be riding PBP on my bike. However, he is going to set up a carbon bike for me with exactly the same setup as mine. What could go wrong?
So am now waiting, eating pizza and drinking beer.

Wow, good luck with it all! It sounds as if you've already had all your bad luck.

Forgot to mention, this is all in the rain.
Worst case scenario is I now have a light bike for a week in France in the summer.

Are you buying the bike or are they lending it to you?

Renting. Bit apprehensive about the fit, so will just see how it goes

Hope it fits great!

Interesting:

2 Attachments

Slightly illegal extensions

Hopefully you've got all your bad luck out the way and the rest of the ride will be great.

Plus I suppose at least it didn't happen on the ride when it would have been much harder to sort a replacement bike.

Good luck everyone doing pbp.

The extensions might not be any further front than the bottom of the brake levers, so might get through. The bike check wasn't very scientific though, the judge just put his arm against the levers to see if the extensions are short enough.

I changed for shorter ones after TCR.

Some nice bikes here.

true but these are not adjustable

imagine that would hurt being dq'd after all that effort building your dream bike.

I think this passes the rule, weather or not it passes the heck another matter.

Good luck to all riding. Hope you have better ru da and weather than I did!

Weird!

How is that going to ride over bumps? The fork is supposed to flex, but it can't with the mini-scaffolding tubes welded to it.

The cut-out for the light is a tiny bit irritating. I expect he's thought about managing heat from it.

I reckon someone with kit like that is a likely DNF.

I reckon someone with kit like that is a likely DNF.

what makes you think that?

Yeah reminds me of Rob English in TABR who had a very pretty custom bike, but was injured early on.