PBP Update Thursday: Some Cause for Concern

It’s almost 2:30am and I’m feeling a growing anxiety as I am not seeing James’ check-in at Villaines registering on the tracking page of the official Paris-Brest-Paris website. He reached Loudeac this morning at 3:44am, which is 775k into the ride. Then he checked in at the control at Tintenia at 12:39pm (860k point). It looks possible that he slept for an hour or so, or perhaps stopped for food (?) as  there is about an hour more on his time than would be expected given the number of kilometers ridden. Then he appears to have pushed on with very little sleep to Fougeres (915k) with his arrival at the control clocked in at 5:17pm. His next control was to be Villaines (1000.2k), which is 87.5k from Fougeres. Calculating the time taken for each distance between contols earlier I'd come up with a rough estimate that he’s riding about 14km per hour. That means that if this is even close to what he’s averaging he should have arrived at Villaines somewhere around midnight. And yet it’s now 2:34am and he’s not showing up on the tracking system. I am wishing for some error in the system that is just slow to register the check-in at the control. It’s hard to clutch at his straw as I know the control should have been closing for him around 1am. They only have a certain amount of time to reach each control and if they miss their widow they’re disqualified. As you might imagine my stomach’s a knot, the adrenaline is pumping and I’m sitting in the doorway of the hotel room trying to keep it together. I can’t imagine getting any sleep until I either see him on that tracking sheet or get a phone call about what’s happening. I’m keeping everything crossed for the former outcome.