Full transcript
- Okay, everybody, for today's installment
of the PPP Prep series, we have two guests today.
We have Rose Cox and we have Josh Haley.
Rose and Josh are, well, as you find out
as I introduced them, perfectly placed
to be describing for you what the organizers are planning
for 2026 and 2027 to get you to PPP.
So let me start by introducing each of them.
I'm gonna start with Josh.
So Josh has been a Rusa member since 2016.
He celebrated my 60th birthday
by joining Rusa on that very day.
Josh is a two-time finisher of PPP in 2019 and 2023.
And he's finished three other 1,200 Ks
and at least two other 1,000 Ks.
So he has quite a bit of Palmares.
Rash, excuse me, Josh currently serves
on three Rusa committees.
And he is the RBA for the Ohio Columbus region within Rusa.
And he's been that RBA since 2023.
Next up, I'm going to tell you about Rose.
Rose has been a member of Rusa since February of 2015.
She's a PPP finisher in 2023
and she's also finished 1,000 K in 2022.
And that order, I think is going to factor
into some of the questions that people have
and basically the experience that we can provide.
Rose is the RBA for the Washington Seattle region
within Rusa.
She's been that RBA since July of 2020.
And I should point out that in Seattle International
Randonores, the host club for that region
has been among the very largest host clubs within Rusa.
And just to give you a little bit of perspective,
the next largest club below Seattle
would have to increase their membership over three times
to reach the size of the Washington club.
And that gives Rose experience in hosting events
for large groups, certainly large in comparison
to other regions throughout the U.S.
Maybe not quite on the peace scale,
but I think you get the picture there.
So Rose and Josh, let's start talking about how RBAs
are going to start planning things out,
knowing first from their own perspective
of having been a rider trying to qualify
and also from being an RBA
and understanding the needs of their membership.
So let's start with that.
So let's also start with 2026.
So Josh, what do you have planned for your region
in 2026?
- Really the big difference between a normal year for us
is we're gonna run a thousand K this year.
And that's primarily one 'cause a thousand K
is just a great event, everyone should ride them.
But also that gives you the highest
pre-registration priority next year.
So if you really, really want a specific start time,
having higher priority definitely helps that.
So that really is the only big difference
between what we're doing this year
versus what we did last year.
- So your region will have a full series?
- Yes, I guess I should back up.
Our region has had a full series every year
since the founding of Rusa, Modulo, the COVID year
when nobody was running for a couple of months.
- Right, right.
- So the series is important for the people
that maybe can't fit in a thousand K or 1200 K
because that allows for them to get
at least an incrementally higher,
longer, pre-qualifying purvey.
People that do a 600 K as their longest
in the prior year to PVP certainly might get a little antsy
waiting a couple of weeks for their turn to register,
but they are still ahead of quite a number of other people.
- Exactly, I'll probably go a little bit against the grain.
You really don't need a thousand K in my opinion
to have a good start time.
The 90 hour start especially because it starts
in that late afternoon and goes into the evening hours,
people get really fixated on, I must start at 5.30
and if you're one of those people,
having as high priority as possible
is gonna make you feel mentally comfortable,
but honestly if you're traveling to a different time zone,
the difference between starting at five
and starting at eight is pretty negligible.
- So Rose, I saw you agreeing with Josh
about people not meeting a thousand K in the year prior
to I'm gonna put this to you.
So tell us why you agree with Josh
and then also if you could flip to the other side
and tell people the benefits of having done a thousand K
in the year prior.
- So I think you shouldn't fixate
on having to get that thousand K
'cause you will be able to with a 600 K
will be fine to get a sign in.
I mean, my first PPP year,
my longest ride was every ride that I did
to qualify for PPP.
And so my 600 K, I had no problem getting in to PPP.
As far as the thousand K,
I mean, I think doing a thousand K is a great idea
if you have the time to do it,
but not everybody has them at the time
or they're just not mentally prepared
to think about doing a thousand K.
If your region's hosting a thousand K
where the overnight is at the same location every night
that makes it easy for your planning to kind of,
I don't have to worry about getting a hotel room.
I'm going back to the same place every night
and my stuff is gonna be there.
So the thousand K is great,
but again, don't fixate on it.
It's not a big deal.
You the 600 K or even a 400 K
you're going to get your start time.
- Right, so as far as having or being able
to pull off doing a thousand K in the year before,
one of the huge benefits I think, if you can do this
is the experience you gain.
I think that as you alluded to with your reply
just a moment ago, having multiple days on the bike,
a thousand K forces you to do three days
which is a huge difference from just two days
when on the 600 K you could probably do it
and lots of people do in one go.
They don't stop, they don't sleep, they just push through.
Even if they're finishing in 30 hours
or 32 hours or something like that,
they may just ride through the night.
A thousand K, you're going to need to experience
stopping sleeping and then the important part
of getting yourself going the next day
which is not a trivial accomplishment.
So is SIR going to be hosting a thousand K in 2026?
- We are, so we're doing a 1200 K and a thousand K
on the same weekend at the same location.
So you have to choose ahead of time
which one you're going to do.
You can't just say, okay, I've only done the thousand K done.
Doesn't work that way.
But it's a ride that the route's not grossly difficult.
We tried to keep it so the climbing was doable
for someone who's never done a thousand K or 1200 K
just to give you the chance to see
how you handle not sleeping, handling, feeding yourself.
And it goes to the same hotel every night.
So I think it's going to be a good ride.
It was at the thousand K that we ran a few years ago
that we had big issues with due to fires in the area
but we were running it in June
where there hopefully will not be fires this time.
- Okay.
So the pattern that you have for your thousand K
where riders are going to have access
to drop bags on the second and third days,
that's not exactly what people will experience on PPP.
However, the biggest thing that I think riders
are going to get out of doing a thousand K
is not so much getting access to their bags
but rather being able, as I joked about a moment ago,
getting back on that bike and moving forward
which I said was not a trivial accomplishment.
So both clubs, both of your regions
are hosting at least a thousand K next year.
- This year.
- On top of, I'm sorry, this year.
Yes, on top of a full series here.
So just to be clear about Seattle, not to talk over you
but we are actually doing three series.
So we're doing a full spring series.
We're doing Brevet week because Brevet week
is a really good opportunity for people
to have to get on their bike every day
and get out there and ride.
We leave from the same location.
So you can choose to do the full series
or whichever ones you want to get.
Then we have another full summer series as well
that will offer an eight K, 600 K.
So it's three full series that if people are crazy
they can do them all.
- So that Brevet week is like doing a thousand K
without doing a thousand K.
- Exactly.
- Right.
Okay, so we've talked about 2026
which I mistakenly called next year, get with the program.
So 2027, I think that there's one big difference
that riders should know about
in terms of how they do their pre-qualifying
versus how they do their qualifying.
And those two terms are pre-qualifying
are the rides that you, the ACP events
that you accomplish this year.
And the qualification, which everybody has to do
whether they do a 600 even
in the prior year, in 2027, the year of PVP
they have to do the full series.
So the distinction that I want to make between the two
is that for people in the Washington region
they've got three chances to get a lot of these things done
and they've got the full year, SIR hosts rides
almost year round, if not year round, right?
In 2027, things are going to be a lot more compressed
in fact, by half.
And by that, what I mean is you as a rider
will need to complete your full SIR series
by the end of June.
And really, you need to complete it before the end of June
because they'll, things held, 600 Ks for example,
held in June are going to be panic events really
because it's your last chance.
And if you fail on that one for whatever reason
like your vacation time doesn't get approved
or your bike broke a week before
you have very, very few options to look around
to do the next one.
You're going to have to travel to do that.
So with that kind of setup
how do you think your regions are going to be rolling out
your full series?
And I want to start with Josh
because I think your region is a little bit more climate
affected by that.
- Yes, yes, effectively, we start kicking things off
the end of March and that occasionally means riding
in 25 degree weather with your water bottles freezing.
So we really kind of have to squish everything in
and we usually run a 200 kick things off in March,
realize how out of shape you are.
Two out of three in April, 400 in a flesh in May
and then 600 in June.
So kind of the way that we typically set things up
to help prepare riders during a PPP year is
one on the 600, 'cause that's the one that
everybody seems to have the most trouble with.
Just time on the bike, more times things go wrong.
We try to collaborate with our neighboring regions
to make sure we're not all running them on the same weekend.
And in Ohio, we try to push them
toward the beginning of the month as far as possible
so that there's a couple of different options,
especially if schedule doesn't work out
or if you have issues.
And then, I'm not sure if it's the same this year,
but for qualification,
you don't actually need a full SR series.
You can substitute longer events for qualification.
So if you DNF 300, but you can pick up an extra 400
because it's on our schedule or someone else's,
you can quote unquote make up for that 300.
If someone has the privilege and opportunity to travel
and I realize that is not necessarily everyone,
the advice I give my locals here is go down to Florida,
ride some rides in January and February,
see if you can qualify before we even kick things off.
One, just because you're gonna have more opportunities
that way.
And then two, Ohio historically has an extra degree
of difficulty on our series in PVP years.
With the goal of if you finish an Ohio series,
the climbing at PVP is not gonna feel too horrible to you.
In fact, you'll think it's easy in comparison.
- So let me ask you quickly then
about the degree of difficulty.
Are you in the PVP years trying to match
what people will do on PVP?
Or are you trying to set the bar higher
so that what they find on PVP is relatively easy?
- That's a difficult question
just 'cause the topography's different.
We tend to do a lot of our rides
on PVP years in Appalachia.
So per foot, you may have the same amount of climbing,
but a lot more of it is gonna be at the short punchy
13 to 15% grades, which is much more difficult
than anything on the prior editions of PVP, in my opinion.
- Yeah, that pretty much describes the Appalachians.
So Rose, how will SIR address
the sixth month or even less timeframe
for qualification of PVP in 2027?
- Well, we'll start the season a little bit earlier
than we did this year.
So we'll start it in March and we'll do a full series.
And March and April will also have an additional 200 and 300
and probably a 600 that you'll be able to pick up in Olympia,
which is not far from us.
And then also we have the organ folks.
We try to coordinate our schedule kind of with their schedule.
So you can always pick up the two, three, four,
and six in Oregon if you need to.
So that's the first series.
- And then you're overlapping with them, right?
- We try not to overlap.
Sometimes we may be hosting a 300
and they may be hosting a 200 the same weekend,
but you know, sometimes--
- I don't consider that overlapping.
- Oh, I don't either.
And then after that first series, we'll do a bervet week,
which will give people another opportunity
for a two, three, four, and a six.
And then we do what we call the last chance rides.
And those are usually held the end of May
and the first two weeks in June to give people a chance.
And we don't necessarily run the rides
if we don't need to.
Like if someone needs a 600,
it will be on the calendar and we'll run it.
And there are routes that we do out of a specific hotel
that we've run year after year.
They're just, it's easy to run them out of that hotel.
So that's, we'll do three full series starting in March.
We'll help folks get ready in January and February
by doing ruler rides.
So that will get people in shape to start riding.
- Yeah, and we're warmed up to that.
Let me ask you a question about your bervet week.
Is the expectation that somebody attending bervet week
is going to be due for events?
Or can they look at it as what you described
as your later second chance series?
- So it's up to the person.
There are some people that their plan is
to finish it all in one week.
So a lot of that has to do also
because March and April, the weather can be iffy.
So people may not wanna go ride a 300K in the pouring rain.
- Right.
So I wanna approach this discussion of advice for riders
and talk about the concept of getting things done
as early as possible.
And I think that you might as a rider assume
that there'd be less pressure on you having done that.
But I think that there may be some danger
in accomplishing all of your events in January
and then spending the next seven months doing what exactly.
So let's talk about that a little bit here.
So I know that people have been successful in doing this.
I think that might require an extra degree of
what's the word I wanna say, commitment to training throughout.
One of the questions that we got asked
by the survey respondents was, okay, I finished my series.
Now what do I do in the three months until PVP?
So let's talk about that.
And in terms of what your clubs might be offering.
- Do you have some numbers?
- Yeah, I'm happy to pontificate on that.
So I am a big believer and get the qualifications done
as quickly as possible in the year.
And last time I qualified down in Florida
before Ohio even started running rides.
I think the danger there that you alluded to
is you still need to keep the volume up,
realizing that there is a non-trivial, excuse me, 1200K,
at the end of the tunnel, if you ride a 600 in February,
you really shouldn't get off the bike
or just kind of putts around for the rest of the year
'cause you're gonna show up to PVP under-trained.
So I still think it's worthwhile to,
even if you do that early, fit in some long rides.
I have one club member here who swears by,
they don't really wanna do more than a 200K,
but they'll do them back-to-back do on Saturday and Sunday
just so you're used to riding through that fatigue.
As far as the club here goes,
I don't think we have anything particularly special,
but the riders that are gonna be going from Ohio
probably will be meeting up to do some of those 200Ks
and 200K perms just to keep the volume up.
And then really, historically,
it all depends on what you and your body are used to.
I tend to start really tapering down
after that first week in the August.
So by the time I get on the bike in France,
I feel like I'm ready to explode
because I've been looking forward to a long ride for a while.
I would say one of the big things with the training, though,
is especially if this is your first time,
figure out what works and doesn't work for you this year.
So you have time to adjust and try new things
before it's go time.
- Yeah, that sentiment has been expressed
by some of the previous interviewers.
So Rose, how will SIR deal with the interim
between the last qualifier that fits within the PVP schedule,
the ACP schedule?
And actually riders going off to France.
- Yeah, so in June or in July,
we will have rides that are set up for people
to just go out, spin your legs,
get yourself ready for PVP.
We did that last time.
It could be anything from just ruler rides,
the 125, the 150s.
But again, I agree with Josh and who he was talking about.
I think 200Ks keep you in shape and keep things going.
I don't agree with someone doing,
like if you've qualified and we have a series in June,
there is no reason to go do another full series.
You just don't need to.
As far as I am not of the thing that you go
and do all your pre-qualifying rides all at once,
I think it's good to work your way up.
I just think mentally it's a good way.
I think it's a good way to figure out
maybe what didn't work or what might be better
to be able to try out some things.
So I'm more of the school of doing your qualifying rides
with a little time in between each ride.
- Yeah, I think that with the experiences
that you get on each ride,
it takes time to assimilate the enjoyment of it,
what you've learned in it.
And that might be short-changed by not having the chance
to really think about it,
but getting back on your bike to do the next in the series.
- And I think riding in different weather conditions
is important 'cause say you're down in Florida
and you have five days of gorgeous weather,
that's probably not gonna happen at PDP.
- You think, right.
Okay, so I wanna flip this on its head just a little bit.
We've been talking about what we're doing
for the riders that are planning on going to PDP,
but your club serves probably a greater audience
of people that aren't going and have no intention of going.
So how do you fit in doing that
within the preparation time frames?
And Rose, you mentioned that you offer
a lot of Roluro rides in the high summer up there.
That's one way that you're keeping people engaged.
One of the things that SFR does is that when we schedule
our longer rides, and I'm talking about the three,
four and sixes, we often will run along with it
on the 300K the same day,
on the sometimes the 400K the same day,
but on the 600K, like on the second day of that 600K
our shorter rides, popular length and 200Ks.
And that keeps the audience,
the broader audience in our club engaged.
What I think about also is I think that the people
that are going to benefit from riding in larger groups
and having a wider variety of aces and bikes
and people and everything else.
Let's talk about that just a tiny bit.
- Seattle has historically not done that.
Added shorter rides with longer rides.
However, for 2027, we have a committee this time
that I'm putting together that will come up
with the routes that we're gonna do.
And that is one of the things that I wanna add to it is
I have some shorter rides that go in just regular Russo rides.
So riders not going to PBP can be included.
And I agree with you.
I think it's important for anyone going to PBP
to be comfortable riding in a group
because you may be by yourself sometime,
but you ultimately are gonna start in a group.
You'll probably leave a control in a group
and it's good to be able to ride with other people.
- Let me ask a quick question about post-PBP.
We have hopefully a lot of successful PBP finishers
that are coming back.
Do you ever schedule something to allow them
to show off their jersey?
- Oh yeah, for sure.
- Okay.
- We'll either have a ride is usually what it is
with everyone.
We have in September an anniversary ride that we have.
And so it's usually at that ride where the PBP folks
will come in, show off their stuff.
- Oh yeah.
We'll make riders coming back suffer.
We run an 8K, 600K the month after PBP.
And well, from our perspective, like you're already trained,
your fitness hasn't decayed that much from the event.
It's more difficult to do them in the off years
rather than right after PBP where everyone kind of
historically peaked three or four weeks earlier.
And at that point, they're fully recovered and ready to go.
- Okay.
You don't offer like a popular with a picnic as a summer.
- Right, exactly.
- That's what we do, maybe we're underachievers I guess.
- To answer your prior question too,
something that Alex the prior RBA did in '23
and we're probably repeat next year,
for the two and the three at least,
our kind of scheduled ACP series rides were crafted
in such a way where we had two events starting
at the same time and one event went down into Appalachia
to have a type two fun journey.
And the other event went out into the plains and farmland
to have a flat journey that can be easy if it's not windy
or potentially even harder than Appalachia if it is windy.
Just because our Hilly rides are very self-serving
to those going to PBP, but we also want to make sure
there's a ride for people who don't want to go suffer
in Appalachian hollers and preparation for that.
- Right.
So let me make a statement and you can pick it apart
or tell me whether it resonates or whatnot.
So one of the respondent questions that we got was,
how many qualifiers, how many pervades do I need to do?
And my answer would be not the obvious one of four,
which is the absolute requirement, but rather five.
And I'm suggesting to do that,
but I would add the plus sign at the end of that five.
You should do five or more.
And that entails one in 2026, do something, ACP,
and then you've got to do the four at minimum in 2027.
What do you think about that?
- I mean, I agree.
I know people that finished PBP,
it was a bucket list ride for them
and the only pervades they ever did before that
was the qualifications.
If you're somebody who once or twice a year
rides a century ride and this is a stretch goal,
you need a little bit more volume on training.
So it really comes down to one,
how motivated are you to train on your own?
So for me, I definitely use pervades
as kind of a commitment device
to make sure I get the volume in there.
I know people, they'll go out,
blast out 100 miles on Saturday, have a great time,
do it every single Saturday.
And honestly, they really don't have
that much difficulty adding volume.
So kind of need to figure out where you are
on the cycling spectrum or your training load looks like
and what you want to do.
'Cause somebody who's never ridden a pervade before
but they ride, club rides multiple times a week
is very different from somebody
who's never ridden a pervade before
but they've qualified for RAM.
So Rose, let me ask you as a follow-up to that question.
So if you do five or five plus
and the fifth one is really the first one in 2026,
I would say if possible, make that a 600K,
find out some way to get that done.
And I think it might imply that you do six or more
but what do you think about that?
You know, what I'm thinking about
when I'm suggesting that is all the knowledge
that you gain from doing a 600K
that will possibly make the 600K that you do
in the qualifying year easier
if you've never done 600Ks before
or that it allows you to have this continuity
each year of doing some multi-day qualifier.
What do you think about that statement?
- Well, I think you should do a 600K in 2026
if you've never done one.
That's a definite.
I think it's easier going into
PBP qualifying rides knowing
that you can do a multi-day event.
That I do agree on.
I think as far as going back to what Josh was saying
about people preparing,
I'm a firm believer that it's not the number of miles.
It's the quality of miles.
And if you're keeping yourself in shape, that's great.
But the hard thing about any long-distance event
is yes, riding the bike,
but two is feeding yourself,
knowing how to handle a control,
knowing how much time you need off the bike,
knowing how to handle it overnight.
And I think you get that by riding Bravais,
not just going out and riding 100 miles.
- Right, right.
Well, at the very least,
what you would not get by going out
riding solo 100 mile events all the time
that are not Bravais is the experience
of mixing with other people.
- Exactly.
- Definitely going to be with other people on PBP.
There's no way around that.
You almost will always be within sight of another rider.
Just that's hard to accomplish not doing that
with 8,000 potentially other riders out there.
Okay, so let's see.
What questions haven't I asked about this?
- Well, one of the things we haven't talked about
is riding at night.
- Okay.
I think if you're someone new to this
and are thinking about doing PBP,
you're going to be riding at night,
especially in the 90 hour group because you started right.
So being able to ride at night is important.
Some people just don't have that in them.
And realizing when you ride at night,
I don't care how fast you are,
you're always slower at night than you are during the day.
It's just a reality.
So that's something that you need to take into consideration
when you're planning your sleep
or when you're going to get to a control.
So that's something in 2026
that people really need to work on.
Maybe they go out and do a perm,
but they don't start till five o'clock at night
just to see how riding at night is going to affect them.
- Yeah, so on that note,
one of the things that I think,
and this harks back to your point
about the quality of miles.
200K isn't super long or anything,
but one of the things that my club has done in the past
is host nighttime 200Ks.
And that gives people the safety advantage
of maybe napping during the day
and then starting an event at night
and almost riding the entire thing in darkness,
but you don't have prior days ahead of that.
So you're learning how to better handle your lighting
and not at the point of total exhaustion.
You certainly get tired people
that finish our overnight 200Ks
are pretty blurry when they finish,
but they're not so deep into it
that they're almost driving or riding as if they were drunk.
Do either of your clubs offer 200Ks like that?
- Seattle has previously.
I don't have that set up in 2026, but so far,
but it doesn't mean I can't change one of our rides to that.
And I'm sure it's something we'll definitely do in 2027.
Of course, riding in March, in Seattle,
you're gonna be in the dark for a good part of your riding.
It's not a lot of daylight hours.
- Right, yeah.
So Josh, anything that you think I've missed asking?
- I don't think so.
So many things I could pontificate on,
but I know you have more of these recordings
where all those topics have probably come up.
- Okay, so if I can step away from you
responding to things from the perspective of an RBA
and kind of focus in on Rose here,
one of the things that hasn't been talked about
in our previous recordings with other people,
that certainly that much,
would be the experience of doing PVP as a woman.
And so Rose, do you have comments to make,
advice us to give or anything about that?
- Oh, so many comments.
So the very first PVP I did, I was a newbie to all of this.
And we were riding a little behind the group.
And I think what happens is that the women's restrooms,
no longer turn into women's restrooms.
They're kind of a free-for-all at a lot of the controls.
So the restroom situation,
something you really need to think about.
I determined that trying to use some other sort of restroom
or some other break prior to a control made things better
than trying to deal with the restrooms at the controls.
Now in 2023, we were riding a little faster.
And so we were riding a tandem
and we were in the 90 hours start.
So we left like at 515.
So when I would get to restrooms,
they were pristine and clean and nice,
but it's just because we were riding a little ahead
of the group, but restroom situation, bathroom situation,
something you need to figure out.
For women, there are a lot of devices that you can use.
I probably won't go over this here,
but if anyone wants to contact me, they should.
And I can give you a lot of great information.
But there are things that you can use
that make using kind of disgusting restrooms better.
Trying to take a shower.
You just have to realize that,
yep, there might be some dudes in here
and you're just gonna have to deal with it.
So not a lot of extra privacy,
maybe not all women that have done PPP have had that issue,
but I certainly did.
So there are things you have to think about.
I think on a whole,
the controls themselves are, as everyone knows,
they're kind of a free-for-all.
And I would say everybody that rides PDP,
man or woman, needs to have a plan
before they go into every single control
because the time you waste in a control
is a time you could be on your bike.
And being off the bike and relaxing super important,
but being off the bike and wasting time
because you don't know what you should be doing
is not good.
It ends up being a detriment to you
later in the ride when you're totally exhausted.
- Right, and I think to bring that back
into the original question and respond to that question,
you have extra challenges.
- Exactly.
- Out of control being a woman.
So having a better, firmer plan
might be to your good advantage.
- Yep, and it is, it truly is.
I can tell you that from the first time I did it
to the second time to the third time
that every time I did things just a little bit differently.
- So I've noticed certainly from my friends
over the years in their telling of stories
and when they would then get up and talk at seminars
that we might host about PDP,
they often focus on the bad stuff.
And I wanna get from you what I think might be part
of the good stuff and that is outside of the controls.
How are you received as a woman?
- Oh my God, it's incredible.
You're kind of like a rock star,
especially being on the tandem.
So a guy on the front, a woman on the back,
everybody loves you, let's just put it there.
But people in France love this ride.
They love seeing women on this ride.
- And I think if you needed anything
that you couldn't easily obtain out of control
and just went up to someone on the street,
they would get it for you.
Being a woman at PDP is a great experience.
- Right, yeah, notwithstanding what you talked about
as far as the bathrooms goes,
this part outweighs that bad part.
- Totally outweighs that for sure.
- All right, so as we conclude,
I wanna thank you both for spending the time
to talk with me today.
However, I have five questions that I wanna ask
of each of you and I'll ask them
and then have both of you respond
and then I'll move on to the next question.
And I want your immediate, quick off the cuff response.
So first question, we'll start with Rose.
Are you going to PDP in 2027?
- Yes.
- Okay, Josh. - Yep, time off.
It's already on my work calendar.
- Okay, this one might be a little bit long-winded
and I warn you that it's a trick question
that I've thrown in here.
Describe the best bike for PDP, Rose.
- Oh, best bike, the bike you're most comfortable on.
- Good answer, Josh.
- 100% agree.
- Okay, great, yeah.
So there isn't a specific make and model.
- No, I would take a bike that's two miles an hour slower
if it is more comfortable when I get off of it.
- Okay, all right.
And this is something that you as a rider
out there in audience land can help figure out
for yourself by doing more events, ACP events,
specifically in 2026.
So on PDP, name the one thing
that you can't do without, Rose.
- Bloob.
- Bloob, okay, and we won't talk about with kind of bloob.
(laughing)
- I was thinking about that pork sausage
that's like wrapped in a buckwheat crepe
with Dijon mustard.
- I think--
- Sorry, it's a slightly different direction.
- Yeah, you're anticipating my next question,
or my next or the last question here.
So, Josh, is that what you can't do without on PDP?
- Man, if you're not eating French food,
riding your bike across France, you're doing it wrong.
- Okay, all right.
So, Rose, which control is the best control?
- Tintiniac.
- Tintiniac, oh, interesting.
That's the first non-Valan Lajuel response that I've had.
- And the reason why is I met this really great gal there
in 2015 when I had a really bad neck issue.
We have stayed friends,
and I truly made a really great friend there.
So, it's a lovely little town.
- Yeah, it is nice.
We will only get to, well, do we do it twice in 2027?
I'm not sure.
- I think that is where the route--
- Oh, okay.
- Yeah, like I think after Tintiniac,
it starts doing some bubbles.
- Okay, great.
All right, glad to clarify that.
To add on to your Tintiniac story, Rose,
when I completed my first P.B.P. in 2011,
I still had P.B.P. fever afterward,
and I was on Facebook, I think,
and I found that somebody in Tintiniac
had taken a bunch of photos.
The endless stream of riders coming by,
and I took a bunch, and I found myself in one of those,
and I reached out to that person,
and then in later iterations of P.B.P.,
that photographer met me at Tintiniac when I arrived,
bought me a Coke and a jambon sandwich.
- That's awesome.
- Yeah, and we sat and talked,
and I think Mark, your predecessor as RBA,
also, I think he went over to this guy's house
and had a meal during P.B.P.
So there are these connections that you can make,
and Tintiniac is one where I've made
those connections with the local.
So, Josh, which control is best for you?
- Man, Tintiniac is a strong contender,
because I think the route gets noticeably easier,
and that lasts the worst of its behind you,
but I'm probably gonna have to go with
whatever else is answered in, say, Vellons.
So the town is just an absolute party.
Every time I've rolled through there,
I feel like I'm the lead breakaway of the Tour de France,
even if I'm moving like seven miles an hour.
- And last time I got a massage there at the 1,000 K mark,
which was pretty dang incredible.
- Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, well, there's lots of reasons why
Vellon L'Azuriel is a leading contender
for the best control.
So the last question, Rose,
what's the favorite food at controls?
- Oh, potatoes.
- Ah, patage, not patage, puree.
- Anything potato.
- Yeah.
- How much for you, Josh?
- Yeah, for talking about at controls,
I think it's a mix between, you know,
if they have mashed potatoes,
like just great for the soul on a revue.
The flan starts hitting real, real good
near the end of the ride,
especially if you've been mouth-breathing
like I do, your throat starts getting sore,
and the flan's just like this cool flavorful burst of sugar.
- Yeah, yeah, I imagine that we could probably
have another video recording session
talking nothing else than about the healing time it takes
for having consumed so many baguettes
while you're staying in France.
Yeah, we'll leave that for another video.
And I wanna thank you all for the time that you spent.
Josh, the background sounds mean
that you maybe need to attend to some other issues there,
so I'm gonna let you go.
- Okay.
- And thank you both.
And we'll see you all on the next installment.
- Thanks, Rob.
- Thanks, Rob.
- Have a great afternoon.