That's Why He's the Diesel

I was at the back of our three-rider paceline when Diesel called out "Gravel!" from the front. Thanks to his warning, I managed to slide my hands down from the aerobars back onto the bars and control my bike through the 10-yard patch of loose rocks. As the smooth asphalt re-emerged, I grabbed my bottle and took a long drink of lemonade-flavored Gatorade. When I looked up, Diesel and Dools were pulling away, climbing the short, steep ramp up onto the levee road, where they would make a hard right and head back toward town.

No problem. I'll take my time pedaling up the hill and then catch them on the flats. But when I made the 90-degree turn onto the flats, I was smacked in the face by a raging headwind. Where did this come from? Storm after the calm?

So I put my head down and cranked into a wind so strong it felt like my helmet would blow off. Eighteen miles per hour, 19, 20, 21...OK, 21 MPH into a huge headwind should do it. But when I looked up, despite the fact that I was hitting it as hard as I could, Diesel was pulling Dools even further on up the road and the two were slowly melting into the horizon.

Well, this sucks! Only one thing to do: Try harder. So I did, and I kept losing ground. I was toast—they were moving at about 23-24 MPH and there would be no catch. A little more than halfway through a 60-mile ride, I was looking at wearing the mask of pain and riding alone for 15 miles straight into this monster wind.

"How the f--- did this happen?," I screamed at the turtle who appeared to be mocking me at the side of the road.

I kept churning my legs and about 15 minutes later I looked up to see Dools falling back. Diesel had blown him off his wheel, too. I pedaled up alongside and said, "Let's work together and maybe we can catch him — if he flats."

So Dools and I took 1-2-minute turns pulling and, after what seemed like half a day but was probably was about 15 minutes, we sighted Diesel. Hammering for 30 minutes into the winds had taken its toll, and he clearly was waiting for us to rejoin him.

"Why you slowing down?" I asked with a straight face.

"F----ing headwind, man!" replied Diesel.

Oh.