The Cyclists Ch. 01

One afternoon in early August, I was out for a training ride on my road bike in the hills east of Portland, Oregon. I was doing some interval work on my way to the top of Larch Mountain. As I neared the top and after a particularly tough interval, I spotted another rider on the side of the road. As I got closer I could see it was a young woman who seemed to be about my age. When I was about 10 feet away I called out, "Are you okay? Do you need some help?"

"Yes I do!" the woman called back to me. "I hope you use clinchers, because my last tube just went flat."

For those of you that aren't into bike riding, 'clinchers' are tires much like car tires, except they have an inner tube. Most racers use what are called 'tubulars' or sew-ups' in which the tube is stitched inside the tire and then the tire is glued onto the rim of the wheel. Tubulars are great for racing but are quite fragile, so most people train using clinchers for their ease of repair and over-all durability.

I pulled to the side of the road next to the woman and said, "Yeah, I'm on clinchers. I have several tubes, so let's fix you up." I smiled at the woman, held out my hand and said, "I'm Reg, by the way."

She smiled back and said, "I'm Kate, nice to meet you Reg," as she took my hand. "Thanks for stopping, by the way. Several people just blew past going up and down and never said a word."

"I imagine they're training for the time trial up this hill. You know how focused some people get while training," I said.

Kate grimaced and said, "I'm afraid I'm one of those people and have been guilty of not helping my fellow cyclists. I hope I haven't ruined your training!"

I laughed and said, "Nah, I was doing intervals and had just finished my last one. Let's get you fixed up and back on the road!"

I had Kate hold her bike while I pulled her rear wheel off. I dug into my saddle bag for a tube and my 'Quik-Stik'. I had her tire half off, pulled the tube out and then ran my fingers around the inside of her tire to make sure there was nothing to cause another flat. My finger encountered something sharp, so I checked the outside of the tire and discovered what looked like some wire or a staple embedded in the tire. I was able to wiggle the wire out of the tire and then rechecked the inside to make sure there wasn't a gaping hole which would cause further problems. There was a hole that I felt was marginal, so I pulled a one dollar bill out of my bag, folded it over, then laid the bill over the hole, then carefully replaced the tube making sure the bill was flat and then began to re-inflate the tire. Once I had the pressure up to where it needed to be, I reinstalled the wheel onto Kate's bike.

"Man, you did that really quick!" Kate exclaimed. "I always take forever to change a tube. I usually don't check the inside of the tire and I'm guessing that's why I got the second flat of the day."

I laughed and said, "Yeah, that's probably the reason. If you don't mind, we should probably ride together, just in case you get another flat. I have two more tubes...just in case."

"That sounds good. I was going to ride to the top and back down to the Scenic Highway and then ride out past Multnomah Falls to the Interstate before riding home. Does that work for you?" Kate asked.

"Sounds good," I replied. "I will need to stop at Vista House to refill my water bottles, though."

We remounted our bikes and began pedaling up the hill. Kate, I had noticed, was very pretty and very petite. Her legs were very well muscled due to many hours in the saddle. She had very light blond hair and a very nice looking ass that was hard not to stare at while I followed her up the road. She was a very good climber and rode at the speed I would have been going by myself. When we reached the top, Kate let me pull up alongside of her as she said, "I would normally take a rest here, but since I had my long mechanical would you mind if we keep going?" I indicated that I had no problem with that and pointed my bike back down the hill.

My favorite aspect of bike riding is descending...very fast! As Kate and I descended, I let her lead figuring she would be a good descender as well. It turned out that she was not very good at it at all. I zoomed past her to let her see what is possible if you do it correctly and managed to drop her in a hurry. I slowed down as we hit a fairly flat stretch of road and waited for her and when she finally caught me, she cried out, "I suck going downhill! I lose more races because I can't descend for shit!"

"Your technique is all wrong. I was watching for a while and I think I can help you." I told her to pull off the road so I could more easily explain what to do. I gave her my spiel and demonstrated some techniques that I had learned over the years. When we got back on the road and hit another downhill section with some corners, I could see an immediate improvement. I pulled alongside of Kate on a flat stretch and could see only teeth as her smile was huge!

When we got to Scenic Highway, we turned right and zipped down the hill to Vista House. When we had stopped, and climbed off our bikes, Kate grabbed me and pulled me into a bone crushing hug as she thanked me. "Oh Reg! Thank you so much! I feel so much more confident now. I hope we don't have too many cars in our way going to Multnomah Falls!" We filled our bottles from the drinking fountain and then hit the road again. I let Kate lead down the hill as she flew along like a seasoned European pro.

We rode past a number of water falls as we zipped along. Since it was a weekday, there wasn't too much traffic to hold us back, so we made great time. When we had ridden back up to Vista House, I told Kate I wanted to refill my bottles. We each had a gel to fuel us for the remaining ride into Portland as we admired the view of the Columbia River. After a while, Kate asked, "Could you use a training partner? You seem to know so much and, I'm pretty sure, I have a lot to learn."

I thought for a second and said, "Yeah, I would like that. It was nice to ride with someone again. How often do you train?"

"Well, it depends on my race schedule," Kate replied. "I'm doing the Larch Mountain hill climb on Sunday, so I thought I would do an easy day tomorrow, a hard day on Thursday, an easy spin on Friday and rest on Saturday."

"Um, would you mind if I make a suggestion about your training?" I asked. Kate shook her head, so I said, "I think it would be better if we went hard tomorrow, like doing intervals up Larch, ride a hard, flat day on Thursday, do more intervals up Larch on Friday and then an easy spin on Saturday. That should get you ready for the time trial on Sunday."

Kate looked at me for a moment and then said, "I guess so. What do you base this strategy on?"

I chuckled and said, "Well, I used to race professionally in Europe a few years ago and that's the sort of thing we would do before a big one day race."

Kate's eyes got big as she said, "You raced in Europe? What was the biggest race you rode?"

I laughed and said, "I rode the Giro d'Italia three times, Milan-San Remo three times and the Giro d'Lombardia four times. I was on a pro-continental team in Italy, so we got invites to all of the Italian races, as a rule. I retired from racing 2 years ago."

"Wow! That's pretty cool! I would love to hear all about your experiences some day." Kate said.

I said, "How about tonight? We could go out to dinner."

Kate smiled and said, "Okay, if you'll let me buy. I feel it's the least I can do after saving the day for me." I agreed to her terms and we set our sights for Portland.

Once we got into town, we were able to ride side by side and talk for quite a while. We ended up riding down a bike path that I usually avoided because of the pedestrians and kids on their skateboards. Kate asked me where I lived and when I told her she laughed saying she lived two blocks away from me. When we arrived at her house we decided on a time and where we would go. I told her that since she was paying, I would do the driving. We said our goodbyes and then I headed for home.

As I showered, it dawned on me that I hadn't been on a date in quite a while. I should give you a little background information. I'm 28 years old, about 5' 10" and 145 pounds. I quit racing when I was 26. I have reddish brown hair and blue eyes. Otherwise I'm pretty average in looks and what not. I never really had too many girlfriends because bike racing consumes a lot of time with training, eating and sleeping. My Italian was decent, but I still had a hard time talking to the girls over there. I did date the sister of a teammate, but that didn't last too long because my teammate was afraid of his sister losing her virginity to me. Little did he know that she wasn't as pure as he thought she was!

I then began thinking about Kate. She was very pretty and had a lovely smile. She had very blue eyes that sparkled. She had a very tight body I could tell from when she hugged me and the thought of that hug caused my penis to react. I thought about jacking off really quick, but then decided not to, for some reason. I threw on a pair of loose cargo shorts and a light button up shirt and then hit the kitchen for some post ride energy drink.

When it was time to fetch Kate, I drove to her house and then knocked on the door. The person that greeted me was a vision of beauty! She was wearing a light-colored sundress and her shoulder length blond hair was loose and fell in waves. She smiled when she saw me and said to come in that she would be ready in just a minute. I stepped into her small house and admired how nicely furnished it was. The next thing I knew a large tabby cat was rubbing on my legs, so kneeled down to pet him. As I rubbed his ears, I managed to get a deep purr rumbling from him.

"I see you met Checco. He's my boy!" Kate said. "Well, I'm ready now if you are." As we left the house, Kate said, "I see you have excellent taste in footwear!" I looked at her feet and saw that she had identical Birkenstock sandals to the ones I had on.

"They're the only shoes I wear!" I said. "I have a high arch and they're the only things that are comfortable for me."

"I know," Kate said. "I have the same problem."

I took a couple of breaths to build up my courage and said, "You look very lovely tonight. I especially like you without your helmet on."

Kate laughed and said, "You look nice as well. I never would have known your hair was as curly as it is."

I opened her car door for her and got a big smile as she got into my car. As I got in and began driving away, I said, "I've met him, by the way." Kate looked at me with confusion until I said, "Checco. I've spoken with Francesco Moser on several occasions. He has a vineyard now and makes a pretty decent wine. He's a super nice guy. How do you know him?"

Kate laughed and said, "I don't. He was my Dad's favorite racer back in the 80's. My Dad idolized him."

We had decided to eat at a Lebanese place that we were both familiar with. It turned out that Lebanese was both of our favorite ethnic cuisines. We ordered hummus with pita bread for starters and we both had chicken kebabs with rice for our entrée. We also had glasses of lemonade with mint to drink. As we ate, Kate asked me dozens of questions about racing in the pro peloton and what it was like. When she asked me what the single hardest thing I ever encountered was, I told her, "Finishing a grand tour! Three straight weeks with two rest days where you rode as hard as you would during the race. It would be super-hot in the south of the country during the first week and possibly snowing in the Dolomites in the north during the third week. The stages are long, the mountains steep and the racing is full gas from beginning to end. I did manage to finish all three I rode in, which was, probably, my greatest achievement as a rider."

"Wow!" Kate said. "Can I ask why you quit when you were so young?"

"I didn't exactly quit. I wasn't offered a new contract. My results weren't all that great and I refused to dope with the rest of them. So, I decided that I had had my fun and worked on developing another skill. I was always good with computers, so I developed my software writing skills, developed a phone app that I sold the rights to for a decent bit of change and here we are. I work from home developing apps for phones and selling the rights to them. So, what do you do for a living to support yourself and Checco?"

Kate laughed and said, "Well, funny enough, I do something fairly similar to what you do. I write code for computer games. I work from home for a big game maker. My hours are pretty loose so I can train when I want to and I do pretty well as long as I keep my spending in check."

When we finished eating we decided to walk around the neighborhood where the restaurant was for a little while before heading back. When we got to Kate's place, I walked her to her door where she told me she had a great time. We agreed that I would ride to her house the next day at around 10am. Just before I turned to leave, Kate reached up and pulled me in for a kiss. It wasn't anything very passionate, just our lips meeting for a few seconds. But, in those few seconds my stomach did flip flops, while my lips felt like electricity was running through them. When we broke the kiss, we both looked at each other with eyes wide with, maybe, a bit of confusion behind them. Anyway, we said good night and I headed to my car and drove home.

As I got ready for bed and when I lay down, all I could think about was Kate and that kiss. I had never experienced anything like that with any other girl in my past. It took me a while to finally fall asleep and when I did, I dreamt about Kate.

The rest of the week, Kate and I rode the training program I had mapped out for her. We did intervals up Larch Mountain twice on Wednesday, rode hard for about 80 miles southeast of town out towards and past Sandy, another day of intervals up Larch Mountain twice and then a nice easy 50-mile spin on Saturday.

As we rode on Saturday, I asked Kate, "Would you consider riding sew-ups tomorrow during your time trial? They are considerably lighter and they roll very nicely."

Kate thought for a few seconds and said, "That sounds good, but I don't have a set of tubular wheels."

"Well, I do," I said. "I have several and the ones I have will work with your drive train. I set some up the other day just for you with some real nice light tires. We can ride to my place and I can swap out the wheels for you."

Kate agreed and when we got to my place I opened the garage door. When she saw all of the bike stuff in my garage, Kate looked goggle eyed and said, "Oh my god! This is incredible!" I put her bike in my repair stand and quickly removed her wheels. I pulled the gear cassette off her rear wheel, cleaned it up and then put it on the new rear wheel. I decided that while I had the bike in the stand that I should do a quick clean and tune-up on it. I said, "We should clean your drive train and make sure it's adjusted properly tonight for tomorrows race, okay?"

Kate smiled and said that that was a good idea. So, I said, "Let's get something to eat and drink real fast for recovery and then you can sit with me while I get your bike ready." I invited her into my house and grabbed a couple of bottles of recovery drink and some special muffin type things that I make for recovery.

Kate walked around, drinking and eating while taking in my place. "If I didn't know better, I would never have known you were a cyclist based on the inside of your house."

I smiled and said, "All of my mementos are out in the garage with my bikes. For some reason, I've always kept the bike thing separated from everything else."

When we finished our recovery meal, we went out to the garage where I removed her chain and chain rings, soaked them in a mild solvent and then scrubbed them down. I told Kate that I always liked working on my bikes, but never got to do it while I raced because we had team mechanics that did all of that. When everything was clean and dry, I re-oiled the chain after I put everything back together and then fine-tuned the shifting. I aired up her tires and then said, "Okay, here you go! Race ready. So, tomorrow, I'll pick you up at 7, get you signed in early and then get you warmed up before your start time. You should go home, have a good dinner with some fish and rice, and try to get a good night's sleep!"

I took Kate's bike out of the stand and gave it to her. She gave me another kiss and then said, "Thank you for everything you have done for me. I'll see you in the morning."

The next morning, I packed up a daypack with recovery drink, food, a couple of towels and some massage oil. In the back of the car I put some tools, a stationary trainer, a set of clincher wheels, a tire pump, and my bike on the top of my car. I then drove over to Kate's and put her bike on my car. She had sweatpants and a sweatshirt on over her riding clothes as we headed out to the race site. She looked as cute as hell in her baggy clothes, I noticed.

When we got to the race site, I told Kate to go check-in and then come on back while I set things up. I set up my portable work stand, swapped out the tubular wheels for the clincher wheels and then put her bike on the stationary trainer. When Kate returned, I asked her what her start time was and then told her she should ride her bike on the trainer for a half an hour before her start. She looked at all of the gear I had set up and smiled. "I feel like a pro, almost! Thanks for helping me. I hope I do well to reward your hard work."

I laughed and said, "If you finish in the top 5 I'll give you surprise I think you will like."

Kate laughed and said, "If I finish in the top 5 I'll give you a surprise I know you will like! I should, probably, start warming up now." Kate pulled her sweats off, climbed up on her bike and began spinning a nice easy gear. She commented that her legs felt, kind of, funny, so I told her that that was okay. I told her that as she warmed up, her legs would loosen up nicely and would begin to feel really good, very soon. She rode the trainer until 15 minutes before her start at which time I swapped out her wheels to the tubulars again. I wished her good luck, gave her a hug and told her I would see her at the finish line.

I stowed all of the gear in my car, put my daypack on with drinks and food, plus Kate's sweats and her sandals and began riding up the hill to the finish. Because there was only one way to the top of the hill, the organizers split the road so finishers could ride down to their cars and fans could ride up the hill to cheer on their friends. I rode up the hill at a pretty good clip because I wanted to be ready for Kate's arrival. By the time I got to the top, Kate would have been riding for 40 or so minutes. I found a picnic table to lean my bike on and then made my way to the finish line. As riders reached the finish, I was impressed by the number of parents and boyfriends/girlfriends who were on hand to assist their riders.

There was a public-address announcer who was calling out times as the women hit the finish line. The best time posted, so far, was 1 hour and 15 minutes. I found it both frustrating and exhilarating as I waited for Kate's arrival. When she, finally, appeared coming up the home stretch, I could see that she was really flying and when she hit the finish line she had quite a grimace on her face. I ran forward and grabbed her and held her up while I pushed her out of the way. Her time was announced as 1:03.05 and was the best time so far. I helped Kate dismount and steadied her since her legs were quite wobbly as I held her bike. When she was strong enough to stand on her own, I laid her bike down and gave her a towel to wipe her face.