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How to follow PBP?

Old 02-04-19, 09:02 AM
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How to follow PBP?

Newbie question.... I'm interested in randonneuring, but the closest rando club is hours away. Consequently, I'm not connected any people in the know about PBP.

I understand that PBP is happening this year. I'd like to follow it online and learn about the route, but especially about the event itself and the experiences of those participating. I'm sure it's not broadcasted like the Tour de France is. Is it covered at all for those not attending or participating? Are there websites everyone PBP-interested knows to check out before or during the event? Is there anything of interest for the non-randonneur cycling enthusiast beyond finding out who has qualified for PBP? I'm not even sure what I should be looking for beyond the rider's history and the general mechanics of randonneuring.

Help me know what I don't know....
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Old 02-05-19, 12:51 PM
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watching rider progress is approximately half as interesting as watching paint dry. It is possible. I wonder if people put their rides on spotwalla.

I would say there are plenty of videos on youtube that are as interesting as anything else. And you don't have to wait

One thing I found following someone I know on RAAM was that finding their location on street view was really interesting. For a lot of us, looking at street view along the route of PBP is enough to make us want to get on a plane right now.
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Old 02-06-19, 01:18 AM
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There will be a way to follow specific riders if you want. I don't think that will be set up yet ... not until riders get their numbers.
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Old 02-06-19, 07:45 AM
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the rider tracking provided by the organizers only shows when the rider checked into the controls. Now I'm thinking about setting up a tracking site for people with tracking devices that allows people join up.
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Old 02-06-19, 10:30 AM
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Originally Posted by unterhausen
the rider tracking provided by the organizers only shows when the rider checked into the controls. Now I'm thinking about setting up a tracking site for people with tracking devices that allows people join up.
I'd do that! I will have my SPOT on me.

To the OP -- it's not an organized stream of information, but the pbp2015 hashtag on twitter and instagram had some fun posts, and you don't need an account to read through a hashtag. I expect people will use pbp2019 this time -- looks like there's already some posts -- lots of screenshots of people's registration page:
https://twitter.com/hashtag/pbp2019
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/pbp2019/
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Old 02-06-19, 12:24 PM
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Thanks for pointing out those hashtags. I will have to figure out how to tweet a picture. Or maybe instagram. My instagram account is barren of posts at this point

I probably will set up a spotwalla group tracking event. Spotwalla is a lot nicer than the spot website because your ride doesn't go away. https://www.spotwalla.com/

I am going to look into the tracking site that they use for TABR and the divide race, but I'm not sure if I can set up a page there.

Last edited by unterhausen; 02-06-19 at 12:33 PM.
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Old 02-06-19, 06:15 PM
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I was thinking of trackleaders. I think you might have to pay for that though. I sent them an email anyway.

Looks like there is a spotwalla page being set up. I'll post more info when it happens

Last edited by unterhausen; 02-06-19 at 08:23 PM.
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Old 02-08-19, 04:52 PM
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Thanks for all the responses, folks. This has been helpful for understanding a bit of how it all works.
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Old 03-26-19, 10:33 AM
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I'm working on a project called DotWatcher (dotwatcher.cc) and we're thinking up creative ways we can track riders throughout PBP. We've typically covered events that have SPOT tracking but this one could be more difficult. I'm hoping to get in touch with organisers and riders who are taking part to cover all bases. Watch this space!
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Old 03-26-19, 04:45 PM
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I have watched dots on TABR. I think PBP will be difficult to dot watch unless the dots are very small. There are some visualizations online of the sheer mass of people on PBP and the distance they are along the course. It's a moving Gaussian distribution.

https://www.gicentre.org/pbp2015/

select "progress chart (animation) and hit update chart. It's a lot more fun if you know someone riding and their number

Last edited by unterhausen; 03-26-19 at 04:50 PM.
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Old 03-27-19, 07:13 AM
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That's so cool, thanks for sharing that.
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Old 04-10-19, 09:59 PM
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PBP reminded me of this post after the 2015 edition: https://www.bikeforums.net/long-dist...-baguette.html
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Old 04-11-19, 06:06 AM
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That's a good story. He's lucky he's so nice because there is a maximum speed you can go and he exceeded it, so they could have dnf'd him. I have heard there is no food for faster riders, because none of them use it, but he got food at every control but one. So he didn't really finish on cashews or a baguette.

His concern for the slow riders he saw on the way to Brest when he was returning to Paris is well taken. I have always thought that time in the saddle is just as hard on you at a slower pace as it is at a faster pace. And also, I slept for 6 hours out of the last 12.

Last edited by unterhausen; 04-11-19 at 10:41 AM.
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Old 08-10-19, 08:57 PM
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Bump in hope of updated info!
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Old 08-11-19, 07:42 AM
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Instagram is very active if you follow #parisbrestparis2019 and #pbp2019. This is my first time so I don’t know how much I’ll actually be able to post, mid-ride, but I’d say follow those tags.
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Old 08-11-19, 08:56 AM
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Someone set up a page for pbp on spotwalla, I'm gonna get the bubbler gps app for my phone and add myself to it. I saw a few names I know on it already, including unterhausen. I dunno much about spotwalla so hopefully I can figure it out.
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Old 08-11-19, 11:04 AM
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this is the spotwalla page I'm on. https://spotwalla.com/locationViewer.php?id=689 Currently in Pennsylvania. There are other PBP pages. Here's one for Australians https://spotwalla.com/locationViewer.php?id=212
You can go to the spotwalla main page and scroll through the locations, there may be more, but I didn't see them right off or they don't have anything about PBP in their name
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Old 08-11-19, 09:08 PM
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Seems like PBP's official tracking website is now running: https://track.rtrt.me/e/PBP-2019#

And here's my tracking info: https://track.rtrt.me/e/PBP-2019#/tracker/RU5ML3SW

Edit: seems like you can share multiple participants with a comma-separated list of hash tags in the link. In the URL above, for example, my hash tag is RU5ML3SW. So if you want to track multiples, you'd add more hash tags with a comma in between each one.

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Old 08-12-19, 11:06 AM
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Originally Posted by unterhausen
this is the spotwalla page I'm on. https://spotwalla.com/locationViewer.php?id=689 Currently in Pennsylvania.
I've added myself to this one as well, although the SPOT won't get turned on until I'm in France. It's set to show SEB on the little flag. Rider number N101.
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Old 08-13-19, 02:32 AM
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Originally Posted by antimonysarah
I've added myself to this one as well, although the SPOT won't get turned on until I'm in France. It's set to show SEB on the little flag. Rider number N101.
You'd better get a move on! The ride starts in a few days!

Most of the Australians are there already ... quite a few have been there for days or weeks.
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Old 08-13-19, 09:12 AM
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I'm leaving on Wednesday night on a red-eye flight out of Toronto. Hopefully the jetlag won't be too bad if I can get manage to get some decent sleep on the plane, gonna take some sleeping pills to help with that.
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Old 08-13-19, 08:39 PM
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I'm leaving today. Last minute packing!!!
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Old 08-14-19, 06:34 AM
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I should really start packing! Gotta be at the airport in 12 hours or so...
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Old 08-16-19, 07:48 AM
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Met the wife of a RUSA member while shopping at Intersport near Rambouillet. Apparently the TSA hasn't been kind and confiscated a bunch of CO2 canisters...
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Old 08-16-19, 08:56 AM
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Take note change of course from Dreux back to Rambouillet Paris-Brest-Paris 2019
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