Re: [RUSA] Digest for randonneurs-usa@googlegroups.com - 2 updates in 1 topic

[George Swain]

This is fantastic, Paul! I suggest you submit it to AR if you have not already done so (or if it did not already appear there). If it was published already, send it in again. Can’t read these reminders enough. 

Thanks for sharing,

George 

On Thu, May 22, 2025 at 10:14 AM <randonn...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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• Paris-Brest-Paris: What To Do, Two Years Out - 2 Updates

Paris-Brest-Paris: What To Do, Two Years Out

jpeterd...@gmail.com: May 21 10:23AM -0400 Thank you, Paul.   A every word you've written is a good reminder of the encompassing effort a successful PBP ride requires.   Jan Peter Dembinski   Sent from my iPhone   On May 20, 2025, at 4:25 PM, Paul G. Rozelle <proz...@gmail.com> wrote:      The 21st edition of the quadrennial Paris-Brest-Paris is just over two years away. While that may seem like an eternity from now, in some ways it's not. Here are some thing you can be thinking about and doing two years out:   Money. If budgeting and saving for PBP has not already begun, start now. It's a lot of money under normal, stable circumstances, which doesn't describe the current economic environment. Remember you've got to budget for currency fluctuations—$1 buys 0.90€ today, but it bought 1.00€ in 2023 and 0.70€ in 2007. All of your costs in France might be 10% less, or 30% more, depending on nothing other than the exchange rate. Did you factor inflation into your budget? Did you account for airfare volatility (I've paid anywhere from $800 to $1,800 for flights to Paris (CDG) under functionally the same circumstances over the years). Do you have to pay the cost of getting your bike and extra luggage there and back? Do you need to pay for a shop or mechanic to disassemble and reassemble—twice!—your bicycle for your travels? Are you planning on traveling with family or doing touristy things while you're there? Coming up with the money to do PBP can be a significant hurdle to participation so lessen it by budgeting accurately and starting to save now.   Passport. In August 2027, will yours have at least six months remaining before expiration? If not, make a plan for renewing it well beforehand. “Well beforehand” should be at least six months at the absolute latest because it might take that long to go through the process. You don't have to imagine drastically cut staff at the State Department and Post Office: those things are a reality now and are unlikely to change. You also don't have to engage in a flight of fancy to understand that the government might shut down when your passport application or renewal is in the queue and that the queue gets a lot longer as a result, pushing up against your deadlines. That's happened before. Multiple times. This is one of those things that you simply do not have a remedy for: no passport = no trip to France (or anywhere else). The absolute last thing you want to deal with in the run-up to PBP is government bureaucracy or spending your time trying to get help from your congressman or taking days off work and away from family to travel to one of the few places in the country that will issue you a passport emergently. Take care of this now.   Vacation. For those of us still working, block off whatever time you can conceive of needing or wanting to travel to PBP on your calendar now. Tell the boss that this is something that you are doing—not “planning on” or “thinking about,” but doing—and that you're going to put in the time off for it and that you're already starting to plan and organize your workload and schedule to ensure that it happens seamlessly and smoothly for you, your colleagues, clients/customers/whoever. If it's on the calendar, it'll happen. If it's not, it won't and someone will drop some meeting or project right in the middle of it and you'll be behind the curve on trying to defend and take the time. PBP '27 has been on my calendar since I got back from PBP '23. I've already told people “no” when it comes to scheduling during or immediately after that time. As in, “No, I'm not agreeing to a case management schedule that has a federal civil rights trial starting September 7, 2027 (and that would have mandatory pretrial meetings and conferences when I'm going to be in France).   Changing jobs? Congratulations! When you get the offer, tell them before you accept that you're in France for two weeks in August 2027. I've done this (for the Silk Road 1200 in Uzbekistan, of all things) and I've hired someone who did this (for a month of trekking in the Himalaya scheduled before she changed jobs). Just like the boss, hiring managers expect and appreciate people who are clear and direct about their needs.   The Home Front. You might know you're doing PBP, but does your family, friends, and other people important in your life? Talk to them now. Share the experience with them and get them bought in and supportive of you and what you're doing. It's not just going to PBP, it's qualifying for it, getting in shape, and spending some cash. These are “now” conversations and actions, not stuff to save until 2027.   The 2026 brevet season. If the ACP's rules remain materially the same, there will be a prequalification/priority registration period which is based on the longest ACP brevet you rode in 2026. For some of us—here's looking at you, Florida—those will be the next ACP brevets you do because the 2025 season is already over. Plan now for when and where you're going to do those rides and make sure you're got the money/time/training on board for them to happen successfully.   Are you even remotely considering riding PBP “for a time” or trying for Charly Miller distinction (56h40 or less)? If so, then training and preparation starts now and so do those family and work conversations. Getting in shape for a fast 1200K is a much greater time and possibly financial commitment than “just riding” (as if there was such a thing) a “normal” (what's that?) 1200K. Are you going to have crew? Start identifying those people now so that you can work with them in the 2026 brevet season, which will be here before you know it. The amount of screwing around with your bike/fit/gear/nutrition/hydration to get things dialed in is significant and the sooner it's underway, the less stress and anxiety you'll have about it.   Skills development. Are you adept—meaning, can you do it when you are sore, wet, and tired?—at changing flats and tuning and adjusting a bike? If not, acquire those skills to a high degree of proficiency, which you have plenty of time to do if you start now. Learn how to correctly and confidently break down, clean, pack, and reassemble your bicycle all by yourself. Your LBS probably offers classes in all of this. Take them. If they don't suggest that they do. Or pay a mechanic to teach you this stuff. (Do not just jump on the internet and try to learn this stuff yourself.) Learning these skills will significantly reduce your stress and anxiety, build confidence, and save you a bunch of money.   Navigation is a learned skill, too. You need to be an expert in using whatever GPS device you prefer. Meaning, you can confidently program, reprogram, load, toubleshoot, and reset it and you can do all this when you are tired, jet-lagged, nauseous, cold, and wet. You've got the correct map database loaded into it. You have no questions about how long it'll run and when, where, and how you're going to recharge it. And then, when the thing totally craps out or sprouts wings and flies off into a ditch, you can pull out a paper cue sheet and confidently read and navigate from it. It's not enough—not even close—to load in a route that someone else created and then hit “start” and mindlessly follow the magenta line. That's a DNF waiting to happen. Learn how to create the route yourself and follow along with a cue sheet you will never, ever, worry about getting off route again or be concerned when your electronics die.   Language. Parlez-vous? Even a few words of badly spoken French will greatly enhance your PBP experience. Invest a few minutes a day or an hour a week in learning the basics and a few key cycling phrases and in two years you'll be a chatter box in the peloton.   Proselytize. For many, traveling and riding with others is part of the fun of randonneuring. Talk to your riding buddies—especially nonrandonneurs—about PBP and do what you can to gin up interest in it. I rode in 2015 with three guys I practiced law with. We all finished and had a blast. Two years before, none of those guys had ever done a brevet. Know some randos who only do perms or 200Ks? Your 2027 riding companions and travel mates are out there: go find them!   A bientôt!   Paul ROZELLE   --   You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Randonneurs USA" group.   To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to randonneurs-u...@googlegroups.com.   To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/randonneurs-usa/e6708f45-20f7-475d-b563-94e2ace4f7d4n%40googlegroups.com.

Joshua Haley <joshua...@gmail.com>: May 21 11:07AM -0400 I've kept all of this in the back of my mind (and even bought my 2027 PBP bike this year to have time to figure out what doesn't work next year), but it's a bit daunting to see it all in text. I inputted my 2027 vacation this morning to a very 'wtf is this?' message from my boss.   Josh

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[Jack Nicholson]

I agree with all the good advice, but would add these about navigation:

The cue sheets provided by the organizer for 2019 and 2023 were pretty high level/basic, not detailed turn-by-turn. If you want a cue sheet you’re probably better off grabbing one off RWGPS once the route is available there.

Most of the time you just have to follow the riders in front of you, but I must admit on night #1 of 2023 the two riders in front of me missed a turn and we all ended up off-course until we realized we hadn’t seen any other riders for a couple minutes. Minor glitch.

The turns are marked by arrow signs, which should not disappear as souvenirs since in 2023 riders were each provided souvenir sign in their bag of goodies. At night, however, the signs are harder to spot as only the little triangular arrowhead is reflective. 

Jack

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