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PBP 2007 - Riding the Qualifying Brevets

By Theo Wyne

Original to Aquarticles

Editor's note : This article is intended for anyone who is confronting health issues as they prepare for the PBP. In particular the issue of cloudy vision or blurred vision is addressed. This article provides more background detail to another article at the following link:  My 2007 PBP (Paris-Brest-Paris) Cycling Adventure

Getting ready to ride a Danish brevet...

My 200 km Brevet

I showed up for the first 200 km brevet feeling nervous. At 40 years of age, having never participated in any organized race in my life (cycling or otherwise), I wondered what I was getting myself into. The fact  I had not cycled for several weeks and was a bit out of shape did not exactly fill me with confidence. I began the brevet by joining a throng of several hundred riders. I felt overwhelmed. I rode above my limit, did not understand how a double pace line works (two long rows of single-file cyclists, with the leaders of each row backing off at the same time and taking a position at the rear of the group when tired), and did not have enough food or Gatorade. After 60 km of trying to keep up with the fast guys, committing cycling faux pax after faux pax , I began to cramp out in my legs and finally dropped out of the group on a particularly steep climb. I then got lost in the Danish hinterland and was feeling rather forlorn - when along came John Anderson. This dynamo of a cylist is 60 years old and competing in his third or fourth PBP. For the remainder of the 200 km, John schooled me in the finer points of group riding, pace lines, tail winds (ride the draft of other cyclists or slow moving vehicles), proper nutrition and training.

It took me a couple days to get over my sore legs from the 200 km brevet. I completed it in 8 hours and 15 minutes, a reasonable time. The only worry I had concerned some cloudy vision I experienced toward the end of the ride, along with some knee pain. These were to be recurrent problems…

My 300 km Brevet

By the time of the 300 km Brevet, I felt much better prepared. I had been cycling more (around 150-200 km a week) and showed up feeling optimistic. Until I noticed everyone was in rain gear! But the skies were blue…what was going on? Turns out my limited Danish did me a disservice on the internet. I was told a major front was moving in and we'd have heavy rain by 3:00 at a town called Viborg. I hoped everyone was wrong. But they weren't. At 2:00 the prevailing wind of north Jutland stopped, and the blue sky was traversed by an ugly scar of deep black directly overhead. Yup, major frontal system alright! Determined to do my best under bad conditions, I again cycled beyond my ability. The rain came, I was soaked to the bone (no rain gear), and to make matters worse, my cloudy vision (especially in the right eye) returned with a vengeance. By the 250 km mark I thought of stopping. Instead I doggedly followed a trio of faster cyclists ahead of me, sometimes to my peril (bent the rear rim of my used-to-be new bike on a cobble-stone curb due to my poor vision). Somehow, I finished the event. I was seriously concerned about my eyes now. I noticed that the pupil itself was cloudy - seemed to be something to do with my cornea. Hmm, not good! After 6 hours of heavy sleep my eyes were normal again, but I still had sore knees. I decided to see a doctor about my eyes.

A visit to the doctor led to the news that the vascular structure of my eyes and brain may be insufficient for the strain I was placing on it. My doctor said in his broken English "Your brain tells you it is too tired!" Good news was that the risk of permanent damage was very low provided I slowed down for rest whenever my eyes conked out. Okay, I could live with that. I followed up the visit to the doctor by contacting a family member who is a semi-pro cyclist. She told me that I was "bonking" (low blood sugar level) and that more and better nutrition were the keys to success. In other words, more Gatorade and energy bars needed.

My 400 Km Brevet

My 400 km brevet was tremendous fun for the first 200 km. A strong wind was on our backs, I was buried deep inside the fast group of cyclists (with even less wind resistance), and I had lots of energy bars and Gatorade. Then, rounding a corner inside a forest, following single file at high speed, I went for my water bottle at the wrong time. I was unprepared for a sudden turn in the path, held onto my water bottle when I should have thrown it, slammed on my front brakes and cart-wheeled into the bush. I had just crashed! In shock I checked my body to see if I was hurt. Everything seemed okay. Then one of the Danish guys helped me up. I seemed okay, the bike seemed okay…and so I just got back on and started pedaling again. And then I reached the tip of Jutland, the Danish peninsula that "juts" out into the North and Baltic Seas. I turned around to face a headwind for the next 200 km…and bonked. I lost all energy, had to climb off my bike and recline against a tree in the sun. The group I was with receded into the distance and I was left alone with my thoughts. I remembered reading once to always eat something substantial and then wait 15 minutes before considering whether to drop out of a serious long distance sport event. I did that, and then found I had the strength to carry on - alone. And so I got lost in the Danish hinterland - again. Danish villages all look the same to me and the signage seems designed for locals who know their way around anyhow. Luckily, as night fell, the last stragglers of the "slow" group came along and I was allowed to limp along behind. We cycled on into the pitch dark of night, and my "old friend" blurry vision reappeared. I am sure the guys I was with were wondering why I was hanging so far behind them as we cycled in the darkness. Had I told them I was pretty much blind, with the visual acuity of looking through glasses smeared with Vaseline, they might have asked for even a bit more distance! Finally arriving at our destination, my group invited me to share a few beer in triumph. My father in-law was there at 2:00 am to pick me up and gave me the perfect cover to dodge the request. It wasn't that I didn't want a beer - it was my partial blindness that freaked me out. After all, it is kind of nice to see the people you are drinking with. The comment one guy made that "Man, your eyes looking very strange" didn't help either.

On arriving home I told my wife that if my eyes were not better in a few hours that I was out of the competition for good.I woke up 6 hours later with my vision fine. Phew! Having done a 400 km brevet, I realized that all I had to do for the PBP was repeat the process three times over 90 hours. With a few rest breaks between each 400 km or so, and it should be possible.

My 600 Km Brevet

With the help of my pit crew...

Back in Denmark, I was totally psyched for the final 600 km brevet. The fact the race route passed 6 km away from my apartment a the 200 km mark of the race was perfect. I'll never forget the evening of the event. For 200 km I rode with the dozen cyclists that made up the "fast" group. With wind on our backs we flew across the countryside, averaging 40 km an hour for long periods of time. The rolling countryside bathed in shades of blue, the rise of a harvest moon, the still waters of fjords, the scampering of hedgehogs, the yelp of a fox - all punctuated by the clock-like whir of our bikes and an occasional chat. That was a fun ride. And then I had the perhaps cruel pleasure of waving my group on as I came by my village, telling them all I was going to sleep in my bed for a few hours, have a hot breakfast and then head out on my own later. Probably a cycling faux pax to do that (peer pressure to stay cycling with the group and all), but it was my prerogative. And yes the sleep and meal to come did wonders for me. My eyes were fine when I later restarted the event. The next 400 km were a grind, especially since they were under a scorching sun, but I endured. I cycled all that day and through the next night with nothing but sore knees and sore butt as a problem. No more blurry vision! As for my knees, I adjusted my seat post and shoe cleats, experimenting with them till I got a fit that felt better. And I got a new seat with a wee bit more padding.

Post-script: I will never know exactly what the "eye problem" was that I experienced. I do know it freaked me out at the time. It is for that reason that I have decided to post this little story since to the best of my knowledge there is not much reference to my symptoms in the various long distance cycling articles available on the internet.

And it was off to a succesful finish!   :)