Disclaimer: I wrote this post a while ago with intentions to post it, but laziness got the better of me. I still have to do my other trip, a 700km route from Montpellier to Barcelona (outskirts). TBD.

Intro

This BRM is 200km endurance trial. It is an official Paris Audax club (PBP) event, which upon finishing allows participants to check off one of the qualifying events (2/3/4/600km events) for the Paris-Brest-Paris 2027.

This is my first endurance event. Among the many goals I have as a new cyclist, doing the PBP next august is my major endurance goal. I’ve done MTP -> Toulouse before but that was more of a credit card touring/bike-packing adventure along the Canal du Midi.

I expect to finish ≈16h, if all goes well.

Map

Ride forecast for Sep 13, 2026 at 06:30:

Temperature: 16.5°C to 27.9°C, feels like 16.7°C to 29.1°C Wind: 4.3 to 13.5 km/h, with gusts up to 23.8 km/h Probability of precipitation: 0%

Garmin Connect map

Equipment

Grizl OG CF 7 (stock, except for P-zero TLR tyres)
QuickLoad
e-blanket
C02 charge
C02 adapter
spare tube
Tyre levers
Canyon multitool
Nightcore 4th gen external batter
Garmin Edge 840
Garmin Varia RTL 515
Lezyne Macro Drive 1400+ Noir
Millet x Canyon hydro vest
Compression arm bands (not really warmers but, they cover me so it is extra protection)
Photochromatic EV Radar Paths (unsure If I bring black lenses yet, leaning no)
stick of sunscreen

Personal stuff

iPhone 15 pro
Passport
50 euros cash

Fuel

2 Homemade Rice Krispies
2 Preztel Marshmellows
90g precision fuel
90g Decathlon carb mix 1:0.8
≈150g Pack of Haribos pie
4 1500 precision hydration

Total: ≈475-550g’s carbs.

Post race analysis

I didn’t keep up with maintaining this file, so this will be a short recap. Here’s a general overview.

tldr;

didn’t eat enough and not having the right easy food to eat
went to fast in the beginning
brain annoyed already by lack of sleep, failing fidlock system

insert embedded interactive course:

map of course, with scrubbing that matches elevation to position etc.

photos at the control points

Control points

We had to register 2 extra control points, the start and finish. There was two groups, the 6h30 and 9h00 group. Unsure as to why some people were able to leave later when the sign-ups stated 6h30 start.

Here were the mandatory stops:

Escaliers Saint-Charles
Col de la Gineste
Panneau de Carqueraine
Monument de la desembarquement
Panneau Theolys-sur-mere
Escaliers festival de Cannes

From stairs to beaches

Escaliers Saint-Charles -> Panneau Carqueraine

From the start I noticed two dudes ahead. I stayed with [triathlon dude and nuclear engineer dude] for the first 50km. The Col de la Gineste -> Route des Cretes -> Bandol was very nice. The temperature fluxiations were a little crazy it would’ve been nice to have a proper arm warmers. Quentin (LFM) Joined us around la Seyne-sur-mere. We almost lost him but eventually he caught up after the majority of the climbs were done.

At this point I must’ve sipped my carb mix an okay amount. And had one marshmellow-pretzel? I felt like I had eaten a bit more too.

We stopped at Toulon to get some sandwiches and coffee.

Solidarity with some misery

Carqueraine -> Monument -> Theolys-sur-mere

Saw some triathlon going on which was very cool to see because of the crazy looking speed machines.

Just After reaching Carqureaine my legs gave up. I could feel I could no longer keep up, so I ate a fair amount of the Precision Fuel. It wasn’t great but good enough. But eventually I just got dropped. I had no power at all. I was cramping up too. Quentin stayed with me until eventually my energy came back, but it took a while

We stopped at (?) Saint-Maxim, just a bit after Saint-Tropez.

I got ice cream, Orangina, and we were on our way. I was already very tired at this point but I had to keep going. My power did come back, but I could no longer push myself. Putting power down felt like hell. Looking back at the data it seems I kept it okay at 160bpm. But in the moment, it was for sure suffering.

Had gummies and more carb drink while we stopped at the monument.

Around this time we had caught up to another rider from the BRM (I forget her name).

Pain, tears and joy

Theolys -> Cannes

The most painful. My legs, ass, arms, hands and brain all were in pain. Once we got the town limits signage, I was spent. My stomach was in so much pain. A friend of the organizers had spotted us and came to talk to me. I was so beat and trying to concentrate but I could barely focus. Maybe his present help me through that moment but, I was irritated by having to use energy to listen to him. Was an odd experience. That dude was nice and tried to give me good tips. He had a nice bike.

Quentin left me not to far from the Theolys-sur-mere’s train station so he could get home. I hadn’t realized this until I had stopped for another Orangina and walked further up the road so I could keep making progress.

Eventually I was able to get back on the saddle. I truly wasn’t far from Cannes, so I endured the pain I was in and went at a nice painfully and leisurely pace (sub 20kph lol).

I got to Cannes and was relieved. Arrived at the steps, I cried. Arriving at the station before calling my girlfriend, I cried.

What went wrong

I don’t I ate enough, and I wish I had kept some checklist or something to truly keep track the nutritional side. Definitely make sure to use my head unit’s timer+notification to remind me to eat and drink more. I didn’t even use my other salt packs despite there being some hot moments near Cannes.

The saddle height, might be causing my inner-thigh/perennial(?) saddle sores. For now, I’ll slightly lower the saddle from 755 to 53-52. I’ll might want to also tilt my saddle ever so slightly down. I don’t know if my saddle is level. Can’t remember what Quentin (bike-fit studios) did.

Fidlock system was great and looked amazing. Except when every bump caused the back to fall off. All I needed was an extra washer to fix this, but I had to live with it coming loose the whole trip. It also wasn’t super easy to feel when it was on correctly.