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| Through Snowdonia in the 2011 Brian Chapman 600 Classic Audax. Robert rode this as part of his qualifying for the Paris Brest Paris |
Congratulations to Robert Hydon who has completed the 2011 Paris Brest Paris. Completing his 1230 kilometre ride in 80 hours and 34 minutes.
Robert left the start at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Paris) at 19:15 on Sunday 21st August and rode through the night arriving at the control in Villaines-la-Juhel at 5:12 on Monday morning having averaged 22.2 kph for the 221k including stops. Continuing South West through Fougeres, Tinteniac and Loudeac, he arrived in Carhaix-Plouguer just before midnight and was maintaining an average speed of 18.5 kph and only 90 kilometres to go to the halfway point at Brest on the Brittany Coast.
He arrived in Brest just before 10 on Tuesday morning having tried to catch some sleep earlier. He’d taken 38 hours and 38 minutes ro reach the French coast which put him well inside the 90 hour cut off time for completing the ride.
By 8pm on Tuesday, Robert was back in Loudiac, but he needed to sleep and his average speed was slipping. After resting, he arrived in Tinteniac at 6:30am on Wednesday with his average speed down to 14.6kph and with 365 k still to go after already completing almost 900 k. By now, he had to be short of sleep and energy. Here Robert showed what he’s made of by gradually increasing his speed and his overall average gradually crept up.
At Villaines-la-Juhel, his average was over 15kph and at Dreux with only 64 kilometers remaining it was 15.4 kph. He just kept pedalling steadily in the closing stages to easily beat the cut of time by over 9 hours with his time of 80 hours and 34 minutes
Robert is a Calder Clarionista based at Winchester in Hampshire. His early 2011 Audax rides to qualify for the Paris Brest Paris included the Kennet Valley 207 k in Berkshire which included 1763 metres of climbing, the Chalfont St Peters 300k in Bucks, the Chepstow 400 which included 4,900 metres of climbing (2.5 AAA points) and the Classic Audax, the Brian Chapman Memorial 616k which starts in Chepstow and has a colossal 8450 metres of climbing (8.25 AAA points).
Well done Robert.