PBPoops!
Harold Bridge

Stuff Happens!.
1991; A retired public health nurse , planning to view the historic buildings in Paris while waiting to start the massed attempt to reach Brest, had her panniers stolen from her locked bike!
Despite a frantic attempt to replace them, she was left in despair during the PBP Cenntenary and consequently failed to finish.
In 2003, another woman, who had flown from Canada to France earlier, was bereft her bike when the airline lost track of; "la Velo"!
She was perhaps lucky that a non-participating Danish woman, who had a decent racing bike that was suitably sized, that with a little work the Danish bike was rigged to fit.
And she completed PBP on that. Her own bike turned up after PBP!
2003 was also the year that an assault on PBP was planned with the aim of achieving "First Back" status.
But it went wrong after a crash. We failed to ask; "What If" questions.
Although a very old story, it is valid to include in this diatribe the "putting foot down in long grass that hid a rock filled ditch" story....

August 14, 2011