*Chapter 24*

All Girly

 
 
“You all right, kiddo?” Mum enquired a couple of minutes later.

“Um, er, yeah, I guess.” I managed before my brain re-engaged.

“So who is it this time?”

“Eh?”

“I’ve seen that look before, missy, so who is he?”

“Josh,” my gob announced before my brain could intervene.

“As in big lad that stayed at ours last night?”

“Um.”

“We’re gonna have to put a lead on you, I thought your sister was bad enough.”

“What?”

“Boys,” she supplied.

“Huh?” my thought muscle finally got its act together, “Noooo, that is like so not happening!”

“So what was that faraway look for then?”

“I wasn’t, I mean it’s what Josh said.”

“And what did he say?” Mum pushed.

I started to blush.

“Something about you being a young woman I’m guessing?”

“Kinda, he said I was the first girl he’d slept with.” It was out before I realised how that sounded.

“I thought there was something different about you, well I suppose we can’t stop you, at least you’re on the pill.”

“Wha?” the penny dropped, “No, no, no! We didn’t do anything, please don’t say anything to anyone, we were sharing in Switzerland that’s all.”

She looked at me doubtfully, “So why the look? Do you like him?”

“Of course I like him, oh not that way, that’s so wrong. He’s a mate.”

“But?”

“But he said I was a girl.”

“And I don’t suppose you did anything to reinforce that idea, Gaby Bond?”

“’Course not!”

Or had I? My mind did a quick revisit of the last week and I realised that my actions on more than one occasion rubbed my female self in his face so to speak. I didn’t mean to and he was good about it but…but what? I don’t know what.

“Hey, you two, are you riding this morning?”

“Coming, Maria,” Mum stated, “come on you; let’s see what all those mountains have done to your form eh?”

“Er sure.”
 
 

Anja, Tina and Erika were chatting about some TV show or other, George, Mike, Petra and Maria were waiting by the bus.

“Sorry, George,” Mum offered as we scooted over to join them.

“Concentrate on work now, eh?” George suggested.

“Yes, boss man.”

“Okay, the details of the Japanisch events came through last night so finally we can prepare for the trip properly.”

“’Bout time,” Tina opined.

“I know, I know,” George allowed, “so as you know the womens’ race scene over there isn’t very strong, you’ll be up against their national squad and other invited riders, I think some of the Dutch girls are going over too. There are two criteriums and a hundred K road race so nothing too exciting but I want us to put on a good show okay?”

“Sure boss.” Anja stated.

“They’re sort of demonstration events tagged onto the men’s programme; apparently it’s quite a big deal for them.”

“So what’re we doing this morning?” Erika enquired.

“Steady ride up to the ring,” Maria told us, “we’ll concentrate on crit skills, we have the use of one of the car parks.”

Joy, I got out of bed for this.

 
 
From home the route up to the ring takes you up the valley usually to Adenau before climbing to the circuit, from this far down the valley there are other options. This morning Maria and Anja led us through town then onto the quieter road towards Godeneltern. Clearly your idea of steady and George’s are two different things, the road jigs quite steeply up to the village before starting a long, steady ascent through the forest that covers the north facing hillsides.

I’m not complaining, after some of those alpine climbs this is, not easy but certainly not as taxing. We rode in pairs, taking quite long pulls on the front, I was alongside Tina.

“Hey, girl, steady up it’s not a race,” she puffed.

“Er sorry.” I eased back and took a look behind, the others were now some twenty metres adrift but riding along steadily chatting.

“I think Switzerland has been good for you,” Tina suggested.

“I guess, some of the climbing was pretty intense.”

“Ja, when we rode the Willem Tell in the spring we did the Albula, not so steep but long.”

I’m guessing the Albula is one of the passes.

“Yeah, climbing for twenty K can get a bit old.” I agreed.

Ramersbach hove into view and the others caught up to us as we turned onto the Kempenich road, the lesser of two evils as the other road has some nasty bits of climb and doesn’t get you much closer to our destination. We soon reached the main road and Maria instigated a quicker rotation that soon had us eating up the dozen or so kilometres along to the Ring. We made our way to the car park we’d be using and I for one was quite happy to come to a halt at the Apollinaris bus.

“Okay, ladies,” I bristled a little but George has always thought I was a girl, “we’ve set out a circuit, Mike and Pet have swept the corners so you shouldn’t need to worry about giving your all. We’ll start with a few laps to get the feel then we’ll play rabbit, so, when you’re ready.”

Assorted top layers were discarded and we started out on an hour of purgatory. The circuit they’d laid out was pretty typical of the sort of town centre route they expect us to race on, short straights, ninety degree turns, maybe a chicane and all squeezed into a kilometre or less. At least here on the car park if we get it wrong there’s space to recover, on narrow cobbled streets with curbs and drains you don’t get that luxury.

After a couple of laps getting the hang of the circuit the speed increased and we got down to work. Accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake – well you get the idea. Obviously with just six of us it’s not quite the same as race conditions but it doesn’t mean that it’s not quite intense.

“Tina!” George shouted after several laps, the signal for Fraulein Porsche to make a move.

The idea is to mimic the constant attacking that you often get in these events, a completely different style of riding to open road riding. Teen didn't go straight away, choosing her moment to give the best chance of breaking the elastic, the rest of us for our part have to try to stop her.

"LINKS!" Anja called as we prepared for corner three, game on!

I won’t bore you with a blow by blow account; Tina's effort had us all eyeballs out for a couple of laps before George called Mum into action, reset and start again. No rest but a new effort as Mum dangled off the front not really going anywhere. I was quite surprised when just one lap after Mum’s attack George called me, bummer.

Just because I’d been called didn't mean the chase for Mum was over, far from it which in turn makes it harder for me to escape. I decided to make my move at the bottom corner, hopefully out brake the others before hitting the climb up to the bus. Instead of dropping a sprocket I left it in the fourteen and just hoped I had enough momentum to squint through as the others slowed.

It was tight; Maria almost had the door shut before I hit the turbo button. Accelerating when you are already doing over forty K's is never easy but my higher gearing helped me gain the crucial few metres that allowed escape. Mum had slowed on the climb so that by the top, all two hundred metres of it, I was on her wheel then past as we took the next corner.

Time trial mode, give it everything. I kept the pressure on completing a full lap before even chancing a quick look back through turn one. Where are they? Whatever keep it going, Drew. You lose count on these little circuits, I think I’d done about five laps out front when I spotted the others in front of me!

Think male bovines and a colour that I blush to. I gritted my teeth anew and continued to plough my lonely furrow around the car park with renewed enthusiasm. Slowly the gap closed, metre by metre then clearly a consensus was reached ahead and I closed the gap more rapidly as they slowed a little. A further effort on the next ‘climb’ let me tag onto the back of the group and finally take a breather.

“Bleh!”

“What kept you?” Mum enquired.

“Last lap!” George called on our next pass.

Anja made the move halfway around the lap, Maria jumped on it but the pace remained high, all of them keen to reach the line first. I managed to stay in contact – just, up the incline but when Mum exploded past the others out of the last corner I had nothing left. It was embarrassing, it was more like watching one of the girls with BC than my Mum as she crowed and posed after taking the ‘win’ – technically I’d won having taken a lap but you know what I mean.
 
 

“Well done, youngster!” George allowed when I wheezed to a halt.

“Thanks.”

“She makes us look bad,” Erika moaned.

“She eats fewer cream cakes than you,” Anja suggested.

“Not looking at my bills,” Mum chimed in.

For my part I was too ker-nackered to make any comment. I gratefully downed the bottle that someone passed me, too tired to even get off my steed.
 
 

“You okay now?” Petra enquired as we negotiated downtown Adenau about twenty minutes later.

“I guess, I feel such a girl’s blouse though.”

“There’s no prize for being Supergirl eh, Bossman?”

“For sure,” George agreed from the front of the bus.

Yeah, you’ve got it; I’ve taken the girly option to get back home, a ride in the bus. The others didn’t get the option so we’re following them back down to Bad Neunahr – to be truthful I’m not even apologetic about it. Of course you can’t go on an Apollinaris ride without finishing with coffee, even if it is in the team HQ.
 
 

“Everything okay?” Dad enquired seeing me clamber down from the bus.

“She’s fine, bit tired is all,” Petra advised.

“Not as much as her Mum,” said parent chimed in as she clattered into the building.

“She hasn’t learnt to control it yet,” Maria supplied, “it will come.”

“Did Josh get off okay?” Mum enquired.

“Yeah, he’s got promise that lad.” Dad observed.

“And I pay you to get that promise,” George mentioned.

“Talking of which, next week George…” Dad took off in pursuit of the Direktor leaving us poor riders to get our own coffee, damn cheek!

 
 
“So what’re you doing this afternoon kiddo?” Dad asked as we headed back home.

“No idea, go see Con maybe?”

“All your washing done?” Mum queried.

“Yes, Mum.”

We swung into Dernau a minute later.

“Stop! Stop!”

Dad slammed the anchors on; Mum asked the question, “What’s up?”

“It’s Anna! See you in a bit!” I almost leapt from the Mercedes and headed towards Edeka where I’d just seen my friend enter.

“More girly than her sister,” Jenny sighed.

Maddy Bell © 19.03.2014