I’m off, says Paul Howard. Paris-Brest-Paris starts on Sunday night – 18:00 – but I caught the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry early yesterday to make sure I’m at the start in plenty of time for all the signing on and bike and kit checking business (also to give me some time in hand in case my ageing VW camper needs a rest on the way).
Call me cynical but there are a lot of things I don’t believe in. Wristbands that promise to “balance the body’s magnetic and electrical fields” are up there with ghosts. And unicorns.
On August 21 Paul Howard will be taking part in one of the oldest, and toughest, cycling events out there: Paris-Brest-Paris. Before he attempts to ride 1200km in less than 90 hours he looks back at the history of this brilliantly crazy event.
Team Boardman Cycling Plus will be updating you each week with the highs and lows of their training as part of the team. This week Alan is back in the saddle after nailing La Marmotte…
Senior art editor Mike Ellott was all packed, excited and ready for his trip to ride over French mountains. And then someone mentioned hi-viz gilets…
Team Boardman Cycling Plus will be updating you each week with the highs and lows of their training as part of the team. This week Lindy’s gets in some training for the Cent Cols Challenge….
Having ticked my first goal box (get down to 98kg for the summer events get in!) I was looking forward to putting in a decent time at the BHF London to Southend ride last weekend. Of course, if you fail to plan you plan to fail so I booked Mrs Bowler and I into a hotel to make sure I arrived at the start line for 8am fresh and keen.
For future reference, part of planning for success will always include specifics on whether or not the hotel for the night before is next to the 9th floor of a multi-storey car park in East London. Serenaded by alternations of sirens and Saturday insobriety I managed four hours sleep before groggily rolling out for the five miles down to the start.
I can’t speak highly enough of the event itself – the route was great; 52 pretty flat miles with two decent hills for interest and the start / finish organisation was second to none. It was a wet ride and there were a fair few elbows and headbutts flying around on the climbs as riders looking for good times levered some room but I’m happy to say I stayed upright all the way through and generated some cash for a great cause to boot!
I’d targeted 2.5 hours so you can imagine my delight when I ticked over the line in 2:29:00. At least, I can imagine the delight I would have felt finishing in 2:29:00. In fact I was miles out – 2:49:00. I can list all the reasons until I’m blue in the face but the clock doesn’t lie. I’ll be back there next year to take care of that unfinished business.
In the meantime I’m riding every day – especially since the article explaining the results of our tests at Claremont Sports, Medicine and Performance Centre were revealed in the latest issue of Cycling Plus – and I’m looking forward to a weekend of tent touring in the New Forest this weekend. It’ll be great to kick back and spin some low gears (assuming the weather holds) without stressing too much about thresholds and zones for a couple of days. I’m still targeting 90kg by the end of September though so I don’t have too long to relax. Skinniness, here I come.
Team Boardman Cycling Plus will be updating you each week with the highs and lows of their training as part of the team. This week Alan is back in the saddle after nailing La Marmotte…
It isn’t just the Cycling Plus writers who get on their bikes, the ad team are at it too. Commercial director Scott Longstaff used to play rugby and thought Lycra was just for cheerleaders. He’s changed his mind since dedicating the last few months to conquering arguably the world’s toughest sportive, La Marmotte.
Everybody has a stand out memory from their wedding…one of mine involves a professional cyclist’s drug bust.
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