Chapter Two Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety
21st August 1979
In transit, Rural France west of Paris
As much as Sophie hated to admit to it, she was discovering exactly what her own limitations were as she struggled to keep up with the pack of other elite riders in the Paris to Brest to Paris. At this point the only thing that she was aware was how exhausted she was after so many hours relentlessly riding forward with almost no rest then turn around in Brest to ride back to Paris. It was when she had noticed the sun setting for the second time during the Audax that she had started to feel the doubts enter her mind that she might have taken on too much this time. There had been other Randonneuring events where Sophie had ridden through the night, but a second night drove home just how exhausted she was. In the back of her mind, she remembered some of the lectures at university, how they covered situations exactly like this and what Sophie was doing was extremely bad for her. As in this could kill you, bad.
Her mind kept drifting back to when she had left home in Tempelhof a few days earlier, how she had been torn over wanting to attend Sabastian and Henriette’s wedding or taking part in the 1200-Kilometer Audax which only occurred once every four years. It was the event that Sophie had been preparing for since the instant she had gotten back from Montreal. Kat had told her that she had everyone’s permission to go to Paris, she had still felt guilt over it. It was hard to be brash about wanting to crush the women’s record time when you really wanted to be somewhere else. Then Sophie had arrived in Paris and the instant she had stepped off the train there had been more media attention than she had imagined there would be with questions shouted at her and camera flashes going off. Sophie Sommers, Olympic Gold Medalist and Captain of the Black Eagles Women’s Cycling Team to compete in grueling endurance race… The newspaper and magazine headlines had run on from there. Like always, most seemed to focus on the wrong things. Sophie knew that there were monkeys in the zoo with better fashion sense than her and no, she didn’t have a boyfriend and most certainly didn’t need the complications of one. So, why had the reporters insisted on asking about those things? The stupid things that didn’t matter. The only thing that was worse was when the reporters had done their homework and asked Sophie about her relationship with her mother. They must know about some of the horrible things that her mother had said about her during the Montreal Olympic Games. How could they not? Wasn’t it painfully obvious that Sophie’s mother blamed her for everything bad that had ever happened. There was no chance of the reconciliation that people wanted for some reason after that.
Now though, all of that seemed very trite and distant as Sophie could only focus on the rider in front of her, or the little bit of road visible in the flickering dynamo light mounted to the side of the front rack of her bicycle. When she had started the race, it had been with a group of competitive cyclists who had the intention not only finishing the Audax, but breaking records. They had been the first ones to leave Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines about a million or so years ago. That was probably because it was far better press than crowd of cyclists who Sophie had seen on old bikes with the racks having all manner of gear lashed to them, including tents, and sleeping bags. They were just there for a nice tour through the French countryside. If they just happened to finish before the ninety-six-hour deadline, wouldn’t that be a hoot and they would get the medal awarded to everyone in the event who finished in time. If Sophie were being honest, she probably would have to admit that they probably had more fun doing this.
At some point, Sophie stopped being aware of the passage of time, her legs felt like they were made of lead, her hands were sore from where she had been gripping the tape of her handlebars. Her only consideration was just staying in the race and the knowledge that if she stopped, she might not be able to start again.
There was a brief stop at the control in Dreux where Sophie got the final stamp on her care and had a chance to refill her water bottles, she was back out of the road and the pace had picked up noticeably. The thought entered her mind that everyone was racing for the finish line, though this event had not been held an actual race in ages. Apparently, if anyone told any among the group that Sophie was riding with they hadn’t listened.
As she watched, some remaining in the group were starting to break away as astonishing as that sounded, the red lights marking their position growing a bit distant after having been a consistent distance away for hours. Perhaps it was what had been ingrained by years of competitive cycling, or some part of Sophie that didn’t care if she hurt herself, but she found the strength to push herself to push herself ahead of the group and was pursuing those other cyclists.
Finally, Sophie came to the finish line and coasted to a stop. One of the officials took her card, stamped it, and wrote the time from his watch down on it before moving on to something else. Looking around, she realized that it was just a summer night in the Paris suburbs with the air smelling to growing things and the sound of crickets chirping. Looking down at her bicycle where she had laid it down, it was the same Turquoise blue Bianchi that had been a Christmas gift from Kat and Doug. Six years earlier it had been her entry into serious cycling…
“Got you” A voice said as Sophie had started to collapse, and a man grabbed her by the shoulders.
Concentrating on his face, Sophie saw that it was Sabastian and that Henriette was there with him. “Aren’t you supposed to be on your honeymoon?” Sophie asked.
“Paris is on the way to Spain” Sabastian replied.
It was then that Sophie noticed that Kat, Doug, Josefine, Malcolm, Marie, and Angelica were standing around her. Even Petia and Darya had come despite Kat having told them to go on holiday for the month of August this year. They must have watched her come in and she had not noticed.
