It's done!

I guess I forgot to write a conclusion and such so I promise to collect my thoughts on that...

Just to close for the moment I finished around 82 hours, within the time limit...

Henrik actually recovered and found me in Dreux while I was eating lunch. We were both happy to be there realizing we had plenty of time to get to St Q and the finish. Although we got split up on the way into town we found each other at the finish and handed in our cards at the same time... Now to wait until Sept 30th when the official announcement is made. I'll post a final thoughts around that time...

last stop before paris!

well... after the last stop henrik's legs started to go... so I ended up in dreux before he did... I hoped he would be ok... and timewise I was pretty good to still finish before my 84 hour cutoff...

later while eating at dreux (and still trying to get a data connection on the phone to send this!) henrik showed up...

down and out... well almost...

well on the way to ??? I noticed the rear brake was set a bit too weak so while messing with it I saw this...

though I hoped it would last the trip the wheel started getting worse around 80 miles later... so I decided to back off on the power and hope to make it to the next control without having to stop and tweak the spokes just to get there...

I bought a new rear wheel at the next control... though I had the tools to do this but because of they very busy bike shop it took me an hour just to buy it... plus side is I got a chance to rest and chat with others... also piece of mind that a new wheel was on the rear put some more juice back into my pedal stroke...

those nice country roadsw

for those who don't know there a lots of little french roads that are very beautiful and hilly... after doing the bonifay cheaha challenge to prep for pbp now I must say pbp is much hillier than bonifay...

they say bmb (boston-montreal-boston) is hillier than pbp... ok that's a tough one! but these french roads have more apeal...

more sleeping anywhere...

in the back of the bar we find that three bar chairs are quite comfortable as a bed after 400 miles of continuous riding

stopping at quaint shops was the bomb!

on our way back to loudiac(sp) it turned freezing cold with rain... we found this little café/bar open at 1am... it was packed but warm with lots of hot coffee... I got a café o la with double sugar... delicous! afterwards the rain let up and the sugar and caffeen kicked in and I was flying... unfortunatly coming into one of the other small towns I misjudged a curb and clipped some type of brass plate in the road and poped a spoke... was ok though so rode on through the night... we picked up some other groups who enjoyed that I had bright lights and could lead the way fast down the curvy roads at night (gps was a big help as I knew ahead of time if an intersection or turn was coming up)...

cyclist will sleep anywhere

back at the control between brest and loudiac(sp) ... we started to notice more and more riders napping... after this point we found it not uncommon to find them sleeping in bus stops, park benches, small alleys and such...