My first brevet

Sunday, December 11, 2005

What its all about ?

What is a brevet anyway ?

Wikepedia defines it as "A long-distance, comfortably paced, bicycle ride with check-point controls and a time limit."

I wish to participate in such a brevet. I am aiming at a 200km brevet in February 2006. The route is Elefsina (just outside Athens), Xylokastro and back.


The reason for wanting to do the 'brevet' is to confirm to myself that I have managed to "break through to the other side", the "other side" being the inactive / slouch / couch potato lifestile I was following for many many years.

I have been inactive my whole life and just two years ago I realised that this was getting me straight to the grave. I was overweight (obese is the right word), smoked about 50 cigarettes a day, worked about 12hours a day and my only contact with sport was siting on the couch and watching football.

Something clicked inside me, and I decided to change. Maybe it was that I wanted to see my two daughters grow and them having children ? Maybe it was that we just learned that my father-in-law had a terminal case of cancer ? I do not know but I am happy that I changed.

So here I am, a bit lighter, but still overweight, ex-smoker now for two years, and a crazy cyclist. I learned about the brevets just as I started to ride two years ago and I then said to myself : "Hey, one day you are going to do it". I feel that the time has come to at least give it a shot. It is not going to be easy for me. The longest distance I have done on a road bike is about 50kilometers so I need to gradually build up my mileage over the next 10 weeks to a level where I can complete the distance
  • at a reasonable time and
  • be able to keep up with a moderate group so that i do not spend 8 hours alone on the saddle

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