[OrRando] No wonder the PNW contingent is doing well

[Joel Metz]

it was brutal. not really that bad of rain, in the scheme of things, but
enough to drag the times down, and cause something like a 30% abandon
rate...

i felt great the whole time, im sore today, but you can bet ill be back
for my third in 2011...

89h47m - 30 min slower than 2003, but this pbp will likely be the stuff of
legend down the line here...

-joel


>>From the weekly RBR report:
>
> Weather Woes Wallop PBP
>
> Report  from RBR correspondent Les Woodland in France . . . .
>
> "The weather is simple," said Europe-1, one of France's most
authoritative radio
> stations. "If it's not already raining where you are then it soon will be."
>
> That was 8 a.m. on Tuesday -- late news for the 4,000 randonneurs who'd
set off
> hours earlier on the longest ride of their season. Among that number
were 570
> Americans. Rain was already torrenting down as they left the western
suburbs of
> Paris, and that was how it stayed for the rest of the night.
>
> This year's Paris-Brest-Paris quickly turned into 1,200 km (745 miles)
of misery
> for riders who had already ridden qualifying events of 200, 300, 400 and
600 km
> just to be there.
>
> "I watched them leave and you could see that even though the excitement
made them
> cheer and wave, there was a look of real concern on many of their
faces," said
> Jean-Louis Tachlon, who'd crossed the country from Lyons to support his
clubmates.
> "For some there will be a real risk of hypothermia."
>
> PBP, held every four years, has been lashed by rain and buffeted by cold
northerly
> crosswinds in one of the worst summers Europe has known.
>
> Forecasters said the rain was due to end only when the last riders were
back to
> Paris after 90 hours. Northerly winds on a route that runs east-west are
almost as
> difficult as headwinds. Temperatures have been consistently in the
50-60F (10-16C)
> range. More than the usual number of retirements is expected when the final
> accounting is done.
>
> The irony is that in the previous PBP, France was hit not by
> winter-in-summer but
> a heat wave that killed 15,000 citizen. Then the heat vanished with just
days to
> go. Many will be wishing the rain had done the same this year.
>
>
> --
>    Michael Rasmussen, Portland, Ore, USA
>   Be Appropriate && Follow Your Curiosity
>         http://www.patch.com/words/
>
>
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>


-- 
joel metz : magpie at blackbirdsf.org : http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
bike messengers worldwide : ifbma : http://www.messengers.org/
==
          i know what innocence looks like - and it wasn't there,
                                after she got that bicycle...




-- 
joel metz : magpie at blackbirdsf.org : http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
bike messengers worldwide : ifbma : http://www.messengers.org/
==
          i know what innocence looks like - and it wasn't there,
                                after she got that bicycle...