Average moving speed for the whole ride was 15.8 mph (> 30% faster than my moving pace in 2007 which was ~ 12mph). I recorded the ride as 4 different stages due to memory limitations on my Garmin 800.
Stage 1 (St. Quentin – Tinteniac, 224 miles) : 18.3 mph
Stage 2 ( Tinteniac – Brest, 159 miles) : 15.2 mph
Stage 3 (Brest – Fougeres, 190 miles) : 15.1 mph
Stage 4 (Fougeres – St. Quentin, 193 miles) : 14.8 mph
The first 224 miles was significantly faster due to a number of factors including flatter terrain, adrenaline common to the start of any ride, daylight and the opportunity to take advantage of the initial large group of riders in our wave.
My planning going into the ride had assumed a 17 mph average out to Brest and then 16 mph back. We did average 17 mph to Brest but then only 15 mph on the way back (i.e. 1 1/2 hours of potential sleep/rest/buffer). All in all not to far off the planned pace.
Total moving time on the bike was 48 hours 12 minutes (of our total elapsed time of 55 hours 45 minutes). That means that we spent 7 1/2 hours not moving forward 🙂 I would approximate this as 2 1/2 hours on road side stops (mechanicals, toilet stops, ditch naps, rain gear) and 5 hours at controls (roughly averaging 20 minutes per control).
The out leg to Brest took 26 hours and 45 minutes (22:43 riding and 4:02 off the bike). Returning took 29 hours (25:29 riding and 3:31 off the bike).
So what would it take to go even faster?
The main place we could have saved some time was by being even more efficient at the controls. The lead group while riding a bit faster on the road seem to save a lot of time by 1) having their support crew at every control, 2) sprinting once they get off their bikes to get their cards stamped while their support crews restock their bikes and then are straight back out again riding (I would guess 5-10 minutes max per control compared to our 15-45 minutes which adds up over the course of the ride), 3) stopping once a control en masse for a quick toilet break by the side of the road (if you need a Number 2 too bad), 4) not stopping if anyone has a mechanical (again too bad, good luck chasing to catch back on), 5) no ditch naps and 6) dropping anyone that can’t hold the pace as the ride progresses.
Some of these points you can’t do to much about if you are with a group that is going to stick together. The flip side to this is that by having a trained group riding together you can afford the inevitable extra mechanicals, toilet stops and ditch naps because you can be confident of making reliably good time on the road with just your group sticking together. If you were attempting this by yourself you would be reliant on the strength and ability of whatever group came along that you could ride with if anything caused you to drop from the lead group or soloing it out at a slower pace.
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