A brevet is ridden to a card of closing times, not to a moving time. Will you make each control, and with how much in hand after a night's sleep? This tutorial plans a 600 km brevet in TourKit, splits it into two days and works that out, in real time, in under three minutes. Every step is below too.
The route is an example, a loop from Rambouillet through the Perche, Mayenne and Brittany's edge, not an organised event.
1. Plan the route
Search for your start, pick it, and choose Route from here. Zoom out until the whole ride is in view, then click each control town in turn: Mortagne-au-Perche, Villaines-la-Juhel, Fougères, Domfront, Argentan and L'Aigle. The route follows the roads between them.
A brevet comes home. Right-click the last point and choose Close loop.
The loop comes out at 615 km, with 4,426 m of climbing measured on the ground every 30 m.
2. Add the controls
Right-click a control and choose Add POI here. Set it to Control and give it the name on the card. Do the same at every control. Pacer reads them as the rows of its clock.
3. Save it
Save it with a name. It stays private until you share it.
4. Split it into two days
In the ••• menu, choose Split into a multi-day tour, then two stages. TourKit cuts where the riding time is even and lists places to stay near each cut. Choose End each stage at a place to stay, and day one ends near Fougères, 310 km in.
The split's riding times are at the effort Pacer suggests for a ride this long, so they agree with what Pacer says next.
5. Pace it by the clock
In Routes, find the route by name and open it in Pacer. For a ride of about 26 hours, Pacer starts at 65% of your FTP on the climbs. For the rider here (FTP 250 W, 75 kg) that is 23 h 36 m to 27 h 43 m of riding. The range is a band, not a promise: wind and your own riding position can move your time by more than its width.
Then By the clock:
- Set your start: Saturday 06:00.
- Stops: Pacer stops 45 minutes at each control until you say otherwise.
- The sleep: a sleep is a long stop, 4 hours at Fougères.
- Closing times: type each control's closing time from your card. On a 600 that is the distance at 15 km/h, and 40 hours at the finish.
| Control | km | You arrive | Closes | In hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mortagne-au-Perche | 137 | Sat 11:35 | Sat 15:08 | 3:06 |
| Villaines-la-Juhel | 219 | Sat 15:46 | Sat 20:36 | 4:06 |
| Fougères (sleep until 00:01) | 302 | Sat 20:01 | Sun 02:08 | 5:06 |
| Domfront | 376 | Sun 03:17 | Sun 07:04 | 2:31 |
| Argentan | 440 | Sun 06:42 | Sun 11:20 | 3:09 |
| L'Aigle | 497 | Sun 09:56 | Sun 15:08 | 3:31 |
| Finish | 615 | Sun 15:24 | Sun 22:00 | 4:32 |
You are home on Sunday between 13:21 and 17:27, with at least 2 h 31 m in hand at every control. Time in hand is counted from the late end of the band, so it is what you keep on a slow day. It is tightest at Domfront, the first control after the sleep.
The plan holds one effort all the way. If yours falls as the hours go on, give Effort falls a percentage for every 10 hours of riding, and every later control moves. On Paris-Brest-Paris, riders' effort fell about 6% for every 10 hours they rode, and a sleep didn't bring it back: Six riders' Paris-Brest-Paris 2023, and how close Pacer came.
6. What it takes
Under By finish time, give Pacer a riding time and it works back to the effort. 24 hours takes 75% of FTP: 188 W on every climb, and 135 W on the flatter roads between.
Every climb gets its own target power in the climbs table, and Fuelling gives the carbohydrate and bottles for the whole ride.
Save the plan. Pace Plans keeps it, and exports it for your bike computer as a course with its targets.
The qualifying season
Brevets that qualify for Paris-Brest-Paris 2027 count from 1 November 2026 to 30 June 2027, and the event runs from 22 to 26 August 2027. Plan your 600 now, and the clock tells you what the card asks of you.
New to the Planner? Start with Your first route in the Planner.
Try it free at tourk.it
Recorded in real time in TourKit, on a demo account with an FTP of 250 W and a weight of 75 kg. Pacer's times are a model of your riding, not a promise: it does not yet model wind or your own aerodynamics. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Heights in France: IGN, RGE ALTI, Licence Ouverte 2.0, last updated 26 November 2024; elsewhere Copernicus DEM GLO-30, © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018, provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA.
Paris-Brest-Paris is organised by the Audax Club Parisien, and TourKit has no connection with it.