Paris Brest Paris - 2015 (#18)
Plaquette produced for Audax Club Parisien
by unnamed committee
(68 pages - 123 photos)

There is a comfortable sameness about plaquettes from edition to edition. To move beyond this there is always an effort to emphasize the things that made this PBP a little different. A big one for 2015 was, of course, the new start location at the national velodrome, not too far from the only start location many of us have ever known at the Gymnase des Droits de l'Homme. It was a nice change, wasn't it. The other things that got attention in the plaquette were the record number of participants, the 2015 curiosity bike, the "ElliptiGO", and the unsupported solo first finisher Björn Lenhard who took a big bite out of the course record. There was also sadness for the death Yves Michel, the 2015 participant who lost his life on the course. For me one of striking new things about 2015 was the new rider numbering system. Suddenly time-limit groups, bike type and start times were much more intuitive. It wasn't mentioned at all in the plaquette text, but it makes understanding the photos, and the riders in them, much easier.

I had complained in 2011 about the sterile results tables in the plaquette. This time the results pages are so much more appealing. The boxy tables are gone, the information is more succinctly displayed and the alternating lines of soft blue and white backgrounds offer clarity and it's pleasing to the eye. The other major improvement to the result pages was inclusion of a nice selection of photos which evoke the flavour of the event, and cheer up the otherwise cold data on these pages.

The photos themselves were exceptional in the 2015 plaquette. In 2011 I picked out only 13 images for my plaquette photo gallery. This time I included 62 images. I know the quality isn't great when you enlarge small magazine images like these, but I still like getting the more detailed view that comes with enlarging. [Gallery linked below.]

Like in the 2011 plaquette the most interesting piece of writing in 2015 was Jean-Gualbert Faburel's ride organizer's report. Notice his very strong support of unsupported riding at PBP. I wonder if this is clue to future changes at PBP?
[Eric F.]

PBP 2015 Vital Statistics: 

Participants (Starters): 5870
Finishers: 4610
Women Finishers: 234 (5.1 %)
DNFs: 1260
Attrition Rate: 21.5 %
1st Solo men: Björn LENHARD (42:26)
1st Solo woman: Stephanie Kaatz (55:50) 158th overall
1st Tandem John JURCZYNSKI & Ann RASMUSSEN (51:48) 79th overall
1st Mixed Tandem - (same: JURCZYNSKI & RASMUSSEN)