paris-brest-paris

Run every four years by the Audax Club Parisien, Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) is a timed 1200-kilometer "randonnée" that goes from the French capital to the port city of Brest on the Atlantic, and returns along the same route.

The maximum time limit to complete the distance is 90 hours. In recent years the event has attracted over 3000 entrants from around the globe who want to try their hand at this demanding test of human endurance and cycling ability. There are three staggered starts, depending on one's abilities. The fastest riders get 80 hours, the intermediate group has 84 hours, and the slowest group is allowed 90 hours. Each rider is free to choose his or her starting group. Entrants can ride PBP non-stop (except for having one's route book signed and stamped at checkpoints) in 44 hours, snatching food in mussette bags from support crews as the fastest riders do. Or, like most randonneurs, one can catch a little sleep at night and eat a few sit-down meals along the way. Support can only be given to riders at the checkpoints, which are spaced approximately 65-90 kilometres apart, so there are no following cars as in a normal road race. Support crews must leapfrog their rider; in between contrôles, the randonneur must fend for himself. However, the vast majority of entrants don't use personal support crews at all; they are true randonneurs and find whatever they need along the route. (Each checkpoint serves hot food around the clock and has some primitive sleeping accommodations.) The PBP route, while not mountainous, is quite hilly, and weather can play a major role in the outcome of the ride.

Begun in 1891 as a professional race, PBP gradually evolved into an amateur "randonnée" in the middle part of the 20th century. There were PBP professional races in 1891, 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931, 1948, and 1951. Though the starting fields of racers were always small, each PBP attracted some of the best endurance racers of the day and the winner of each PBP race was awarded great fame. Unlike the equally grueling Tour de France, with its sleep time between the daily stages, PBP was raced "all in one go" and this created huge interest among fans of cycle racing. It was thought that such a demanding race was too hard on the racers' bodies, so PBP was organized only once every ten years. However, proper preparation meant the entrants had to forego the very lucrative criterium season which follows each Tour de France, and interest among the pros declined until the racing version eventually died out.

Along with the racing field at the first PBPs, there was also a slower "tourist" category for enthusiasts who wanted to see if they could make the distance too. There were usually at least a hundred of these amateur riders at each PBP, but in 1931 the race organizers dropped this "unglamorous" group. The Audax Club Parisien stepped in to fill the void and there has been a PBP for randonneurs ever since. The 2011 PBP will be the 17th such event organized by the ACP. Successful completion of PBP means one's name is entered into the "Great Book" in Paris along with every other finisher going back to 1891, and a much-treasured medal is awarded.

How to qualify: all would-be PBP participants must do a Super Randonneur brevet series (200-, 300-, 400-, and 600-kilometer events) in the year of PBP, finishing the series by mid-June. Each qualifying brevet must be on the calendar of the Randonneurs Mondiaux and run under the guidelines of the ACP.

This is a link to the Paris-Brest-Paris of 2007.

Official link to the PBP English website: http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/EN/index.php

2011 Paris-Brest-Paris http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris-Brest-Paris_Randonneur