This story is a sequel to the earlier work "Riding With Dirty Girls." You can probably get something out of the sex scenes in isolation, but to fully enjoy the story you really need to read Dirty Girls first.
This is a work of fiction. A figment of the author's imagination. It is not meant to be big on realism. It's a fantasy. The culture around world-class women's cycling probably isn't a hotbed of lesbian lust, but wouldn't it be fun if it were?
All characters are fictitious. At the same time, they are all over 18.
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Part 01: Zurich
I thought back to Namur. That tumultuous day when I won the race, clinched the Cyclocross World Cup, AND acquired a girlfriend.
I know, Licia and I were kind of girlfriends already, but Namur was where we'd made some kind of troth that we were a couple. Not an exclusive couple -- that aspect had frightened me -- but a firm pair. Bound to each other at a different level than the insouciant sexual partners that we still enjoyed having.
Strangely, that night in Namur, we didn't consummate our new couplehood with sex. Licia was far too drunk, but she was a happy, delirious drunk and, in a way, I had enjoyed helping her get ready for bed, when all she wanted to do was giggle, kiss, and grope me.
She expired into a deep drunken sleep and woke in the morning looking confused. She looked around the room, then at me, as if piecing it all together, then said, 'Did that happen, Chloe? Are you my girlfriend?
I crawled onto her bed, lay on top of her and kissed her. 'Yes I am. If you still want me to be.'
She wriggled her arms out from under the covers and clasped me to her. Just wordlessly holding me tight for long emotional moments, and I just lay and let her hold me.
When she released me, I sat back on my bed, and looked at her. She looked bleary eyed, dishevelled, but happy. 'I have to go back to my hotel in a minute,' I said, 'Will you be OK to get ready for breakfast?' She nodded, and I started getting dressed, and collecting my few things.
I kissed her and said 'see you soon,' then I slipped out and headed back to my team hotel. I felt a little conspicuous in the early morning mist, dressed for a party, and as soon as I got to the hotel I went straight upstairs to change.
Helen was sat on her bed, writing something on her phone. She looked up and grinned at me. There was definite glow to her. The look of someone radiantly happy. She and Lucy were clearly hitting it off massively, so I didn't need to ask about it. I just changed into something more casual and we went to breakfast.
And now, here I was, back home in Scotland, almost 2 weeks later, thinking about how much had changed this winter. My performance on the bike had moved onto a new level, and so had my love life.
The sex was the same, but relationships had developed. Stronger bonds had formed, and I felt I knew everyone better. Friendships had deepened, and in some cases, romance -- the thing we had aimed to avoid -- had crept up on us.
Lucy's coming out was perhaps the biggest surprise of the winter, because until our encounter in the showers in Troyes, it was not even slightly suspected. I was really pleased that there seemed to be a special connection forming between her and Helen.
And then there was Licia. I hadn't been looking for a girlfriend - at all -- but from our very first encounter in Dublin it was inevitable really. A connection and harmony like ours is a rare thing, and I'd have been mad to resist it.
I say I hadn't been looking, but maybe I had, subconsciously. I was definitely seduced by the idea of romance with Lucy. She dazzled me. Put stars in my eyes. But perhaps it was romance with Licia that had been enkindling all along.
Now, we were joined. An item. A couple. We had told each other we were, and from now on, I'd refer to her as "my girlfriend," which felt weird. We were calling each other daily and the phone sex was brilliant -- we were still discovering new ways to titillate each other with images.
It was all new ground for me because I'd never had a steady girlfriend, unless you count my college friend Meg. We'd spent a lot of time together, and she was my first sexual partner, but we never thought of ourselves as a couple. We were always just mates who sometimes had some fun in bed.
I still wondered how it would affect my freedom. There had been a lot of changes among the free girls. A lot of coupling up, but Licia was convinced that our sexual freedoms should and would continue. 'Look at Lauren and Magi,' she said, 'it works fine for them.'
Anyway, momentous though this change seemed, it wasn't the only thing occupying my thoughts. For a start, the World Championship race was coming up, and as World Cup winner, I'd be expected to compete.
I'd never bothered with it before. The World Cup was always my main ambition, and it seemed a bit odd to me, to have a season long competition like the World Cup and then award the World Champion's rainbow-striped jersey on the result of one race. Surely, the rainbows should go to the World Cup winner?
Now that I WAS the World Cup winner, I was especially miffed about it, but when I moaned about it to Molly, she just said 'If you want the rainbows, just go to the championships and win them...' Bah!
Femke was the current World Champion, and it was her second year holding the title, but she'd done it by focussing on that one race, at the expense of the World Cup -- she'd never won the World Cup. Plus, the World Championship race was always held on a course that was fast and not very technical, which also played into her hands. It's never held at Namur, for instance.
I wasn't enthused really, but it would certainly put a little icing on the cake to win the rainbows as well as the World Cup. I decided to go for it.
The race was being held in Switzerland, near Zurich, and almost in Sabina Cassini's back yard, so I gave Maisie a call. I reasoned that, since she and Sabina were now close, they would have discussed it, and I was right.
Maisie and Sabina were both national champions, so they'd be there, competing in their countries' colours, and they'd already done quite a lot of pre-planning, learning about the course etc, Maisie had actually been there to visit Sabina, and had had a look at where the course was being prepared. Meanwhile, I'd done nothing.
'I think I'm playing catch up on this, Mais.'
'Yeah but it's not a tricky course. Typical of the Worlds really. It's almost flat. The climbs and descents are all tiny, there's going to be a couple of bridges with stairs, one sandpit, one set of plank barriers, some artificial whoop-de-doos...' (a series of humpy bumps) '...and that's it. Beats me why they are so unadventurous with the courses.'
'Hmm,' I pondered.
'Plus,' she went on, 'the area where the course will be is really well drained, so it won't even be muddy... Sabina says it's always dry there, even after heavy rain.'
It didn't sound very inspirational, but it didn't hold any fear for me either. My level was so high now, I felt I could win on any kind of course.
Was I being hypocritical though, to go chasing rainbows when I'd spent so long disparaging them? And if I won them, would I be able to wear them with pride? Hmm...
I phoned Molly to talk about it, and of course she was in favour of me going for them. 'Whatever you think about the system, that's the system, and being World Champion would make you even more valuable. Other teams will want to sign you, and even if you want to stay with Febi-SRAM you'll be able to renegotiate your contract. You could probably get appearance money too, at some races '
She was right, of course. I'm already quite well paid as far as the women's cyclocross peloton is concerned; The income streams are complicated but my salary from the team last year was €70k (Molly thinks it should be €100k next time) and I can double that with sponsorship, prize money, and bonuses, even though I don't race as much as some riders do.
