Gaby Book 28  Balancing Trick by Maddy Bell Copyright© 2023 Madeline Bell

 
"Two weeks?” Max repeated.
"At least,” I confirmed.
"Just you and Amanda?”
"I said didn’t I.”

We hadn’t had this conversation this morning because, well its not very private in Olaf’s car is it?

"So party time then,” he enthused.

I had wondered how long it would take to bring that idea to the surface.

"Ut uh, no parties, loud music or house burning, Mum was very specific.”
"What about boyfriends?”
"Not mentioned.”
"So we could…”
"We could.”
"I hear a but coming,” von Strechau mentioned.
"Mand’s still gonna be around.”
"And? She’s seen us kissing before.”
"Er yeah.”
"So what’s the problem? Hang on, you thought I meant…”
"Er maybe,” I admitted dropping my voice so the rest of the carriage couldn’t hear.
"Well I guess we could.”
"No, no, kissing's fine, really.”

What am I saying? Did I just suggest that we, well do It? Get a grip Bond, you’re seventeen, an adult, if you want to take that step just say so. The question is, do I? I know its a perfectly normal thing to do but it still feels, well wrong. I know I’m a fully paid up member of the fairer sex but, well you know my history, I guess I’ve still got some issues.

And Max, well he’s never pushed me to do anything, its me that’s instigated things, allowed things to get to where we are. And where are we? I guess we’re a couple, scrub that, we are a couple, boyfriend, girlfriend, we kiss, we cuddle we sometimes indulge in a bit of, well, second base. And I guess I’m fine with that, I’m just not sure about taking that final step into womanhood.

"We could do a bit of practice before we get to Remagen?”

I glanced out of the window, we were just departing Echternach.

"You’re seat or mine?”
 

"Hello, Gaby?”
"Speaking.”
“ Frank Obermayer, from the BDR?”
"Oh hi.”

I’d been expecting his call but even so I was thrown a little.

"I spoke to your father, about the weekend?”
"Er yeah, I was just doing some college stuff.”
"Well I won’t keep you long, I’ll pick you up myself, if you can be ready for two, we’ll meet the others at Lűttich, have a look at the route and hopefully you can have a ride up the Mur de Huy before we go to the accommodation.”
"Two, on Saturday?”
"Yeah, any problem?”
"Er no, just thought with it being so close we’d be travelling on Sunday.”
"Close for you, some of us have a bit further to travel.”
"Yeah, I wasn’t thinking.”
"If there’s any change I’ll give you a call.”
"I’ll give you my Handy number, in case I’m not at the house.
 

I put the phone down and returned to the lounge where de Vreen was still watching MTV.

"That’s put a spanner in things,” I sighed, dropping onto my end of the sofa.
"What’s that?”
"Well you know Sunday?”
"You’re racing in Belgium? It cancelled?”
"Well its only just past Aachen, I thought we’d be travelling over Sunday morning.”
"But you’re going Saturday instead, so what’s the problem?”
"Yeah, the problem is I said I’d work at the kiosk Saturday.”
"Bummer, can someone else cover?”
"Probably but that’s not the point really, every time I say I’ll be there something comes up.”
 

The rest of the week had less drama thankfully, I swapped my Saturday at the kiosk with Kris so instead of my ‘free’ day on Friday, I don’t have to go in to college for lectures on Fridays, I’ll be at the Kabin. Maybe I should make that a regular thing, at least those weeks I’ve said I’ll work.

And me and Max never got our ‘make out’ session at Bond Acres, news of our ‘home alone’ status quickly got around, we got dinner invites for both Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday it was Max’s place and no I didn’t reprise my stage outfit again, his gran would’ve had conniptions, no I was quite demure for the evening! We did manage a few minutes out in the courtyard but I felt a bit guilty leaving Mand to the mercies of the Baroness.

Then on Thursday we ended up at our sometime employers place, the Sebenschuh restaurant and Weinstube. I think its the first time I’ve eaten there with the family, its usually either a girls night in the cellars or with my family in the restaurant. Not that we ate in the family house, we were in the restaurant but it was a quiet night and the only customers sharing the room were drinking rather than eating so needed minimal attention.

Which only left Friday, Mand came up to Altenahr from school and we ate in the Krone before getting the Ahrtal express back to Dernau. I know it might seem a bit extravagant but I never want to cook after spending a day over a hot erm, hotplate and given we’ve not spent anything all week, well I think we deserved a treat.

And the Rents, well we had a call each evening but given the girls were doing a training block ahead of a busy week of racing, there wasn’t really much to say so the calls were quite short.
 

"Any idea what time you’ll get back?” Mand asked as I enjoyed a lazy breakfast.
"Shouldn’t be too late, its only a couple of hours away, you thinking food?”
"Partly, you could be back before me.”
"I guess, I’ll nip around to the shop after this and pick up a few bits so we’ve got options.”
“’kay.”
"You all sorted?”
"Think so, I’m meeting the lads at Dusseldorf station, Josh’s uncle’s bringing them down and picking me from there, bit of a faff, I have to get the first Express down to Remagen, there’s a through train just after seven.”
"Guess we’ll be slumming it in some grotty b&b as the Federation are paying.”
"Gift horses and all that.”
"Yeah, I suppose we get spoilt a bit on Appollinaris’ tab.”
"Well some of us have training to do, if I’m not back, have a good ride tomorrow.”
"I’ll be riding later,” I told her, it wont be her four hour jobby but its still riding, "Enjoy the Wupper.”
 

By twelve o’clock I was chomping at the bit, with no one to watch over my preparations I’d checked and rechecked that I had everything. Helmet – check, licence – check, shoes – check, well you get the idea, given my previous record with these things it was essential. Of course I’m not riding for Appollinaris this week, instead its for my country, well the one that now claims my allegiance, I’m not sure what kit I’m supposed to wear so I’ve got my team strip in my bag just in case.

I put everything by the door – after checking it all again and picked up the project that Lisbet wanted me to do. I’ve spent a fair bit of time on it this week, well if its worth extra credits its a no brainer right? I must’ve got a bit lost in it because the rap on the door made me jump out of my skin.

"Coming!”

I slipped my Birkenstocks on, turned off the hi-fi and headed for the door.

"Er sorry, I was miles away,” I told Frank as I opened the door.
"No problem, I’m a little early, all ready?”
"Yep, checked and double checked,” I stated heaving the bag onto the step, just need to lock up.”
"Okay, I’ll take this down.”

Two minutes later and I was down on the drive, my bag already on the back seat with I presume Frank’s and a load of federation stuff.
"That’s me,” I beamed, "All ready to go.”
"Forgotten something?”
"Nope, all checked present and correct, all in the case.”
"You’re father did warn me,” he mentioned with a bit of a smile.
"What?”
"How you get very focussed – which is a good thing, so where are we going?”
"Er Lűttich?”
"To?” he prompted.
"Ride the Fleche Wallone.”
"On?”

He’s worse than Dad with his cryptic questions.

"Er bikes,” the pebble finally dropped, the reason he was stood by the open tailgate of the two fifty T, "Shitza!”

Yep, I’d remembered everything except my bike!

"Sorry, sorry, its just in the bike cave.”

As luck would have it Mand arrived back during this conversation which meant I didn’t need to find my keys again.

"So what’ve you forgotten this time?” she asked as we waited for the shutter to go up.
"Nothing.”
"Really?” the raised eyebrow suggested she didn’t buy that for one minute.
"Well not forgotten exactly,” I suggested.

Of course she spotted my bike almost immediately, still in the stand with the wheels stacked underneath.

"Really Gab?”
"It was an oversight, grab the wheels for us,” I blustered.
"If you say so,” she smirked, no doubt the world and its friends will know before I get to Belgium.

I released the bike, sans wheels from the stand and followed de Vreen back out to the Mercedes where Frank had a nest of old blankets waiting.

"That was easy,” he allowed, settling the two pairs of wheels on top, "I often have to drop the saddle to get them in.”
"It is an XS,” Mand pointed out.
"That’ll be it,” Frank agreed, "Come on Fraulein Bond, now we’ve got everything, we should make a move.”

"Have a good ride,” Mand called out as Frank edged out of the driveway.
"And you,” I replied with a wave.
 

"Can do without this,” Frank mentioned as we passed the old border crossing, ‘this’ being an incessant drizzle that we’d run into shortly after the Kreauz Aachen five minutes ago.
"Yeah,” I agreed.

We hadn’t spoken much on the way, Frank having a very intense driving style and me not really having anything to say. Despite a bit of traffic at the Kerpen Kreuz, when isn’t there, we’ve only been going for just over an hour. Frank was following one of those GPS things which provided some entertainment and soon enough it was suggesting we leave the motorway at the next junction.

Virtually as soon as we slowed and negotiated the junction, the wet eased to a few spots, maybe it wasn’t as wet as it seemed.

"We’re meeting the others at some sports centre.”
"Is that where it starts?”
"No, you get to start in the city, it’ll be neutral until you clear the mitte.”
"Right.”

The road was tracking the river, the Meuse or Maas depending where you are, through a bleak, grey landscape of industrial wasteland and docks, barges moored in ranks along the far bank. We looped over some sort of canal, the GPS almost immediately announcing that we were at our destination.

"That was easy,” my chauffeur noted.
"Yeah,” I agreed, okay, miss chatterbox I’m not, well not at the moment.
"And there’s our bus,” I was informed as we pulled in behind an older Mercedes minibus with a fairly big trailer tagged behind.
 

"You made it then,” Tali opined as I followed Frank up into the BDR bus a couple of minutes later.
"Yeah, thought I’d best put in an appearance.”
"Humble as ever,” Gret put in.
"Of course. Hi Izz, Liezel.”

Izzy, Isolde Beyer and Liezel Böhm are the rest of this weekends team Izz comes from near Ulm and Liezel lives somewhere near Regensburg, like my regular team mates they flew to Brussels this morning where they were picked up from by Andreas our federation mechanic and Matty our ‘Girl Friday’ for the weekend. After the introductions, Frank went over the days programme.
 

“… everyone okay with that?”
"Wait for it,” Tali stage whispered.
"Er Frank,” I started, "Do we eat soon?”

I’m sure I saw monies being passed towards a grinning Thalia Schmidt.

"Matty?” Frank queried.
"Now?”
"Seems as good a time as any,” our leader stated.

Matty fumbled around with the large cool box that shared her seat then started handing out bakery style bags.

"They’re only supermarket sandwiches I’m afraid, they hadn’t got much choice.”
"We’ll have better for tomorrow girls,” Frank stated giving his assistant a Paddington stare.
"For sure and a good meal this evening too,” the poor girl advised.
 

I think the others were as hungry as me, certainly the contents of the bags didn’t last long, they weren’t actually that bad. I got mozzarella and tomato with the usual lump of lettuce to fill it out a bit, not exactly race food but it filled a hole, all that was missing was coffee. I guess you can’t expect miracles.

Andreas meanwhile had been quite busy, the trailer was now behind Frank’s estate car, he and Matty were going directly to Huy where we’d meet them to collect our bikes for a spin around the finish circuit.. It felt somewhat similar but nevertheless different to how we do things with Apollinaris but the endgame was the same, hopefully success on the roads of Belgium tomorrow.

Of course we are doing an abbreviated version of the course, something like sixty kilometres through the forests and fields between Lúttich and Huy then a thirty five kilometre circuit the same as the seniors use except they do two laps after a much longer approach. Its not the hilliest bit of the world but nor is it flat and I think we were all a bit surprised at the steepness of a couple of bits. I’m sure Dad would’ve been waxing lyrical about the grades, the length, the surface but Frank was clearly more hands off.

By the time we made our rendezvous at Huy the damp had cleared, the early evening looking to be the best of a slightly grotty day. It was about half five when we set of for our lap with instructions to take it steady, its not a race this evening after all. The last time we all rode in the same event was in last year’s Nationals down in Bavaria although we have crossed paths at other times, just not all together.

Five is always an awkward number but we soon settled into a single rotation which gave everyone time alongside everyone else. Of course I know Tal and Gret’s strengths and weaknesses but the other two were unknown quantities. Oh they’re obviously decent riders to get selected but are they climbers, sprinters or what?

We stayed as a group quite nicely over the first two summits, the first a bit of a drag, the second a more punchy affair which left what will be the final climb of tomorrows race, first one to the top the winner. I’ve read the race reports, on a good day you can power up the twenty percent cobbles at the top, a bad day and you could be struggling to walk up the greasy surface. I remembered Mum’s advice, right hand gutter, the long way around is smoother.

The crowd barriers were already out and after a jiggle past the closure barrier we were on the famous climb. The first part is quite benign then the tarmac changes to setts, the road narrows and turns right as it starts to ramp up. I flicked down a sprocket to keep the cadence higher before hitting the turbo and accelerating towards the sharp left at the base of the wall.

Another click dropped the chain onto the inner ring at the front, a brief over rev then I was on the wall itself. The cobbles were still a bit damp which caused some loss of traction but Mum was right, the right side gutter was much better than the main carriageway. The steep bit is only about fifty metres before it starts to ease off but I was well into oxygen debt by then.

The road started to widen a bit as I struggled for air, finally getting on top of demand on the false flat that makes up the last hundred metres. Up a gear, another, no chance to change the chainring, final effort and I was across the line. I pulled up to the barriers and grabbed hold, my legs and lungs screaming from the effort.

It could’ve been seconds or minutes, but eventually more bodies joined me, each doing their own version of oxygen grab. Tomorrow is gonna be hard, this finale was bad on my own, with a whole bunch squeezing up, it’ll be a nightmare. Frank hasn’t given us a race plan yet but I think I know what I’d like to do.
 
Maddy Bell © 19.05.2023