August 23, Thursday - We slept till 1 pm - over 12 hours! And it was still rainy, drizzly, and overcast when we got up. But Buckingham Palace was still warm and dry. We did, however, notice that our Tasmanian neighbors had shored their part of the campsite up with wooden pallets to keep their table and chairs from disappearing in the muck.

We gathered our laundry together (toxic waste!) and headed into town to check when Jeff (RoadiJeff) might be finished, to check on the status of other riders, and to do our laundry.

While we were at the Start/Finish area, we heard quite a few interesting rumors about the PBP, including that riders were getting an extra 5 hour on the outbound trip to Brest, that riders were getting an extra 2 hours overall, and that the DNF rate was at least 30%.

We found out later that two of the three rumors were not true ... there was about a 30% DNF rate, but no extra hours were granted.

While we were there, we also picked up our official photos. At least we got some good photos out of the deal! We even look happy in those photos.

After doing some laundry, we returned to see RoadiJeff come in. Jeff successfully completed the ride and still maintained his sense of humor through it all.

In the on and off rain, we returned to the Swamp to have supper and rest.

August 24, Friday - We slept in again. I don't know about Rowan, but I feel absolutely exhausted, still. I was to discover later that I was on the verge of quite a nasty flu/cold thing which plagued me until I was back in Canada.

At some point in the afternoon we went into town to chat with RoadiJeff about the ride. Several other people joined in the conversation too ... some had finished the ride, some had not. It was interesting hearing everyone's experiences. We also saw DrC return to the hotel after completing the ride.

After chatting with everyone, we went shopping for some groceries and returned to camp to have supper, to clean up some of the mud, and to pack. Tim, Rowan's friend, had come in at some point in the morning, and Andrew, one of the other Tasmanians, was to follow some time later. Tim, in particular, was feeling really good and had a surprising amount of energy.

Rowan put together a package to mail home in the morning so that he had less to carry the rest of the way. Several times on the rest of the trip, I thought I should have done the same thing.

A few comments about the 2007 PBP ...

The volunteers were great! They were very helpful and made every effort to understand everyone. They were also quite plentiful at the controls. Even outside the controls, the volunteers were plentiful and helpful, keeping tabs on us along the way. From the perspective of someone who does a lot of riding alone, it was wonderful to know there were people all along the way checking up on things.

The controls seemed much better than last time. This time we were at the back of the pack and last time I was in the middle of a large crowd, so perhaps that made a difference, but the controls seemed much cleaner and more efficiently run. There also seemed to be more volunteers around, and more toilets available. We were at Mortange, Villanes, Fougeres, Tinteniac, and Loudeac, and all seemed very nice ... much nicer than last time ... especially Loudeac!

About having fun on the PBP ...

Rowan and I discussed the PBP many times before we rode it. We both successfully rode the PBP in 2003, when we met. However, for both of us, the ride was a bit of a slog. Both of us ended up "bashing" the event to some degree that year. So this time we wanted to relax and enjoy the experience. We wanted to talk to the people; to take pictures of the bicycle displays, towns, and scenery; and really to enjoy the whole thing. The ride itself was a secondary concern.

Unfortunately, this ride did not turn out as planned. Because of the rain and bad weather, very few people were out cheering us on, and during the first night the only road side stand was the water stop about half way to Mortange.

Then the rain slowed me down so much we didn't have time to stop and take pictures or talk to anyone, and we were so far back, we didn't have a lot of cyclists to chat with. Before we decided to abandon, I was very disappointed that I could not stop and take photos in a few of the towns that we went through. There were several interesting sculptures - bicycle related - that I missed. That actually disappointed me more than abandonning the ride!

We realized that if we were going to make it, we would not likely get any sleep at all till Brest, and Brest was still a long ways away. We finally reached a point where neither of us was enjoying the ride at all anymore, and there was really no point in continuing. So we had our own adventures getting back to St. Quentin ... and continued on our tour of France!

As for future 1200Ks ... the jury is still out.