Leading the Way

© Eleaf

Ever consider the motorcyclist who leads the racers?

I was in the lead, out in front of everyone else in the race. Nobody was going to pass me.

Of course it made a big difference that I was on a 1000cc motorcycle and everyone else was on bicycles. This was the day when I rode motorcycle lead for a bicycle race.

If you’ve ever been to a bicycle race you know that they use motorcycles to ride ahead and run interference for the cyclists, and the race officials are also on motorcycles as they do their jobs. Sometimes you’ll also have motorcyclists ferrying photographers so they can get good action shots.

On this day I was the guy riding lead. My instructions were to keep my eyes on the leaders and be sure to stay just far enough ahead of them that they couldn’t draft off of me and gain an unfair advantage.

The day in April started off chilly but beautiful. As I rode out to the race site I thought how sweet it would be to just keep on cruising. But I had work to do.

The race began and I had to hustle as the racers sprinted out, trying to take the lead. We headed out of this small Colorado prairie town going east on the two-lane road and things quickly settled into place. Three racers pulled ahead of everyone else and they would the ones I paid attention to from that time on.

We went out 8 miles and then turned around and headed back. The course was set up so that we would get back to town, turn around and head out again for 12 miles, and then turn back to town once more. After that we would cross under the nearby interstate and go north for 7 miles before turning back and reaching the finish line.

A surprising thing happened as we turned around the first time. What had been an unnoticed tailwind on the way out became a strong headwind on the way back. The pace of the racers dropped dramatically and I found myself pulling too far ahead and needing to slow down. But battling that head at 10 miles an hour was not easy on my Concours, which has a full fairing and catches the wind. At times I deliberately gained some distance on the riders and simply stopped in the road to let them catch up. And I was very glad I had that 1000cc power plant pushing me along and not my legs.

Back in town we turned around and once again had the tailwind, so the pace picked up. Twelve miles out we turned back again and the wind was blowing harder and the racers were tiring. The leaders had left the pack far behind but I could tell it was work for them facing into that wind.

We finally reached town again and headed out north. It would have been obvious if I’d thought about it but I hadn’t: the wind was now striking us squarely from the side. The body work on the Concours was now like a sail and at such a slow speed it took total effort to keep from being blown off the road.

I knew it was hard on the riders as well, and on the way out the group of leaders diminished to two. These guys were hard-core! And then it started to snow. I was wearing long underwear and my electric vest but at this point I was freezing. At least the guys on bicycles were working up body heat with all their exercise.

We made it to the turnaround and headed back and the wind was howling. I saw bicyclists literally blown sideways off the road as we passed them on their way out. Finally the finish line drew near and I suddenly realized the two leaders were sprinting and pulling up very close to me. I twisted the throttle and blasted on ahead, past the finish line, and just kept riding back to the staging area. No thank you, I’ll pass on riding lead in a second race today. Where’s the coffee?