Published: Thu, Sep. 27, 2007 12:00AM

Modified Thu, Sep. 27, 2007 02:04AM

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"There were people all around me saying stuff in all kinds of languages, some I'd never heard before," says Kimball. Initially, he was caught up in the excitement of being in what most consider amateur cycling's biggest event. "There were spectators cheering all around," he recalls. "It was exciting. It was terrifying."

Then, about 30 minutes into the ride he felt something hit his face, his arms, his legs.

What would become the legendary rains of Paris-Brest-Paris 2007 had begun.

The hills, the cold, the rain

The rain wasn't the only challenge Kimball faced during those initial kilometers.

There was the notion of what exactly constitutes a hill. "The conventional wisdom is that PBP is hilly," says Kimball. "When we reached Mortagne-au-Perche I said, 'I don't know if I can ride 1,200 kilometers of this.'"

And there was the unmarked turn that cost Kimball and a pack of cyclists a precious one-hour detour.

"Luckily, that was an anomaly," he says.

The rain, however, was not. Kimball isn't one to whine about weather, though he could. A rain cloud seems to follow him on his epic rides: The last three days of last year's Cycle North Carolina, for instance, were in a steady downpour that caused scores of riders to abandon the ride.

"That was a warm, tropical rain," Kimball clarifies. "This was a North Sea storm." Though none of the three carried a thermometer, they reckon the temperature never got out of the 60s during the day and dropped perhaps into the upper 40s at night. Kimball had prepared for such a possibility, packing rain-resistant clothes. Others weren't quite as foresighted.

"People were being hauled off by the truckloads with hypothermia," he says. Preliminary reports -- a final ride summary by the sponsoring Audax Club Parisien is due out Sunday -- suggest a record 30 percent of those who started Paris-Brest-Paris this year failed to finish.

Meeting deadlines

Though riders have 90 hours to complete Paris-Brest-Paris, there are various deadlines along the way. To verify that they are sticking to the designated route, riders must pass through 15 control points along the route. Each control point must be reached by a certain time; miss it and you're done. That hadn't been a concern for the three.

Until the sky let loose going to Loudeac.

"We can't see. We're all tired. I think we better sleep for an hour," Kimball yelled to his friends through the rain. "If one of us gets in trouble, we're hosed."

They agreed to press on to Loudeac, then decide whether to stop and rest. Kimball wasn't keen on that idea; when they had stopped there on the ride out, the place was a madhouse. "There were people in line waiting for food, to take showers, to get a cot for a couple of hours of sleep."

The discussion turned out to be for naught. While Kimball and Himstedt got food, Stewart took a gander at the control card, which told him when they needed to be at the next stop. It was around midnight, and they needed to be in Tinteniac by 5 a.m. It was 50 miles down the road, and in the pouring rain they were slogging along at about 8 mph.

"You know," Stewart announced, "we're running close on time."

Back on the bikes and into the rain they went.

It's key to remember that they were 500 miles into the ride, had been on the bikes for more than 40 hours and, in a series of mostly 15- and 30-minute catnaps, had slept a total of maybe three hours each.

"I was falling asleep at the handlebars," says Kimball. "I was having REM sleep. Little dreams."

Himstedt says, "You know how it is when you fall asleep in a car and your head jerks you awake? It was like that."