Chloe Rides Again

This series 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, and any that are involved in sexual activities are over 18.

***

Part 07: Heaven and Hell of The North

'All women can be tempted. Well, not ALL women, but all women who like sex - all women who are INTO sex.' So said Maisie with great conviction. 'I mean, how can you not be tempted to try pussy? Even if only out of curiosity.

'I've actually had straight women ask me what pussy tastes like, and I always say, "Well you have one of your own, so you have a pretty good idea." What they really mean is what's it like to eat pussy, and I sometimes open my legs and say "why not give it a try." They don't usually take me up on that kind offer, but I can tell they're tempted. Some are only a little nudge away. I've turned a few heads in my time, I can tell you.'

I saw no reason to disbelieve her. She is that naughty and incorrigible. I wouldn't put anything past Maisie.

On this occasion, she'd called me to congratulate me on my win at De Ronde, and to talk about the big pile-up and its aftermath. Most of the fallers escaped with a few scuffs and scrapes, but her team mate and compatriot Gracie Trent would miss a couple of races with a fractured finger, and Mia and Licia were out for weeks.

'Did you managed to miss the crash Mais?' I asked.

'Yeah, I was caught behind it but didn't go down, so not a problem for me really.'

The interesting thing, from Maisie's point of view was that the absence of Gracie, Mia, and Licia meant that new riders would be selected from their team rosters to replace them, and that meant new opportunities. Like I said: Incorrigible.

On Maisie's team, the new face would be the Irish rider, Sian O'Kane, who was straight, but 'turnable' according to Maisie's Law, hence the conversation about that subject. 'Have you seen her? She's so cute, with those freckles...'

I didn't know Sian, but I was suddenly interested to find out who was replacing Mia on our team. I called Gabi to find out, purely from a sporting perspective, you understand, and it turned out the new rider for this weekend was a Swedish girl called Trude Falskog, who I had only very vaguely heard of. I looked her up on Pro Cycling Stats...

Hm. 27 years old, 165cm and 55kg, so a little shorter and a little lighter than me. Very good-looking, with great cheekbones and a cheeky smile, and she seemed to have dark blonde hair, pulled back tight into a bun or ponytail.

Her palmares was very impressive, with a number of wins in MTB, two national championships in Time Trial, and a couple of podiums in stage races, including the Tour of Sweden, and the Giro Donne.

I decided to call the fount of all cycling knowledge, Molly, to see what she knew: 'Yeh, she's a pretty big name in mountainbike, but she's only recently started concentrating on the road. She's gay too, but last I heard she had a steady girlfriend, so don't get your hopes up.' I smiled to myself. Hm, interesting.

'We are not coming to Roubaix this weekend by the way,' she said, 'even though it's nearby. The weather isn't looking good, and spectating there on a bad day is awful. We'll be watching live on TV though.'

'Yeh, OK.' She couldn't see my sad face.

'Just stay near the front, be aware, and wary, all the time, and you'll be fine.'

'Thanks Mol.'

So, Trude was gay, eh? Hmm, I decided I'd have to find out her relationship status. Maybe Molly wasn't quite up to date. Maybe she was no longer attached, in fact.. free. I was becoming as bad as Maisie. Every girl was a potential free girl.

I called Licia. 'Hey babe, how are you?'

'Doing OK, I guess. Still a bit sore. I'm a long way from getting back on a bike, but I've already been over the road in the gym, pedalling their recumbent-style exercise bike. Lisa, the manager, wasn't keen on letting me in with the sling on, but I gave her a persuasive smile and she gave in. She had to 'supervise' me of course... I'm sure she was eying up my legs.'

'Well they are well-worth eying up... I think I'm a little jealous now.'

'Don't be. She's not gay... At least, I don't think so.'

'What's she like?'

Oh, she's a bit of alright, actually; small, slim, smiley. Nice tight buns in her tracksuit bottoms. Like two polecats fighting in a bag.'

I burst out laughing. 'Oh God, you don't half crack me up sometimes, Liss.'

'Anyway, she was a nice distraction as I sat there pumping away for nearly an hour.'

'Did she watch you the whole time??'

'No, she was floating about, doing gym-manager stuff, but she kept coming back to have another gawp.'

'Well I can't say I blame her. I'd probably be gawping too.'

'Yeh, but you're well known for lecherous behaviour.'

'Hey! Bloody cheek... Says she of the "two polecats in a bag."

'Ha! Well I never said I wasn't just as bad...'

Oh, it always does me good talking to Licia.

'Anyway, your absence, along with Mia and Gracie, has brought three new girls to the classics peloton.'

'Of course. I know Trixi ten Dam is replacing me...

'Trixi ten Dam? Is she?

'Yeh, do you know her?'

'I remember her doing 'cross when I was still a junior.'

'Yeh, she did. We had some great battles.

Who are the others?' she asked.

'Well, Gracie's being replaced by Sian O'Kane, and Trude Falskog is stepping in for Mia.

'Ah, Trude's solid. She's a great add to your team. She's lez too. Did you know?'

'Yeh, Molly just told me. Attached though.'

'Not sure about that. She was going out with that American, what's 'er name...? Lolly Steen, but Lolly's not on the tour this year. Maybe they've split up?'

'Wishful thinking maybe. Anyway, we'll see. I'm not going to Molly's this time. Getting picked up by the team bus at Brussels airport, Friday aft, then it's straight to the team hotel.'

'I'm staying at home - surprise surprise. I'm missing the action already, in more ways than one. Missing you too babe.'

'Get yourself in the gym and see if you can chat Lisa up.'

'Really?'

'Well, you have to have something to stop you getting bored...'

We chuckled. 'See you later, babe.'

'Ciao.'

I felt a bit flat after the call. Somehow, everything seemed mundane and almost melancholy. Obviously, Licia's injury cast a bit of a cloud, but it seemed more than just that. Maybe it was a touch of post-race blues. The hard come-down after the euphoria of my De Ronde triumph. I sensed it was going to be hard to get myself up for Paris-Roubaix.

***

Paris-Roubaix Femmes

Roubaix is a very big name in cycling circles. The Paris-Roubaix race is one of cycling's oldest one-day races and one of the sport's "Monuments." Some would say it's the biggest of all the Monuments. It's infamous for mud, multiple sections of very rough cobblestones, punctures, and even broken wheels, frames -- and riders - hence its epithet "The Hell of The North."

The men's race started in the 1800s, and it has a long and chequered history, but the femmes edition has only existed for a few years. It started the year Molly retired, so she never had the chance to do it, something she still laments. I'm sure she would have won it if it had existed a few years earlier.

As always though, the women's race is over a shorter distance. It finishes in Roubaix, in the iconic old velodrome, like the men's, but it doesn't actually start in Paris. Instead, we delicate little flowers start in Denain, almost 200km north of Paris, and only about 50km from Roubaix as the crow flies. It does a few contorted loops around the Denain area, then meanders its way to Roubaix, covering 150km. The men's race is 110km longer and, in truth, the women's edition is a pale shadow. Honestly, it's as if they think that women couldn't possibly cover the same distances as men, which simply isn't true.

It does have 17 sectors of rough cobbles ("pavé") though, and those who have done it say it's plenty tough enough, so who am I to judge as a mere rookie?

I wasn't sure it would suit me because, unlike De Ronde, it has no significant climbs. It's mostly just cobbles -- flat roads -- cobbles -- flat roads, all the way. OK, it's not COMPLETELY flat, but the undulations are minor. This race is not decided by the climbs; it's decided by the cobbles, the weather and, in large part, a slice of luck and, as Molly had said, the weather forecast was bad, with heavy blustery showers on the menu. Oh lovely... Are you detecting a certain lack of enthusiasm?

Anyway, I flew to Brussels on Friday, and rendezvoused with the team bus. My flight was quite early in the day, so there were a few hours of thumb-twiddling as I sat on the bus waiting for other flights to arrive. The girls arrived one by one and I got my first glimpse of Trude when she appeared in the afternoon.

She already knew some of the team; Helen, Tera and Marlen, but not me - and Selina hadn't arrived yet. Anyway, there were the usual hugs and kisses all round, and I checked her out as best I could in her team warmwear.

She was a little shorter than me, though hardly noticeably, with green-hazel eyes, and her bronze-coloured hair in a low ponytail. She had cute dimples when she smiled, and (I noticed) dark red painted nails. She obviously wasn't afraid to embrace her inner femme -- maybe even her inner vamp. Nice.

She seemed to know Helen and Marlen quite well, and the three of them sat together around one of the small tables. They seemed to be having a nice catch-up, so I didn't intrude.

I grabbed a seat on my own and started cleaning up some photos on my phone. I still had some very risqué images from phone sex sessions I'd had with Maisie, Licia, and even Lucy. I knew I should delete them really - if someone found my phone or something it could be embarrassing -- but I liked them. They brought back happy horny memories and I couldn't resist looking through them again as I decided which ones I could bear to delete.

God, they were hot stuff, and I vividly recalled the sessions when they were taken as I scrolled through them. I was in the middle of an erotic daydream when a voice said, 'Chloe?'

OMG, it was Helen. Had she seen what was on my phone screen? I must have gone bright red as I put the phone face down in my lap. God, this was cringe-worthy. I was sat there, lasciviously looking through pictures of female body parts like some kind of bloody pervert. I hoped she hadn't seen.

She didn't show any reaction though. She just said 'Come and join us. Trude wants to meet you properly.'

I got up and went to sit with them and we chatted about cycling, racing, and how we'd won De Ronde. Marlen and Helen were very proud of their part in it, and why not? For well over 100km we'd operated as a team, sharing the work and, even though Tera couldn't take advantage, that early team work undoubtedly played a part in my eventual success.

We talked about how to win Paris-Roubaix, but nobody really had a formula. The previous two editions had been won with long-range solo attacks, both by riders who are time-trial specialists, but the only thing we agreed on was the fact that a slice of luck was needed to win. All teams make plans, but the race almost never goes to plan.

You could say it's a bit of a lottery, but it's that unpredictability that makes the race so fascinating, and has built up its mystique. There's definitely a lot of kudos in winning it.

Marlen made the startling observation that we would be the most lesbian team out there, with 4 gay members out of 6. Wow, she was right. No other team had more than 2. 'What I'd love to see,' she said, 'is an all-lesban podium. It would be interesting to see if the news channels would be brave enough to point it out if it happened. I bet they wouldn't.'

It was an intriguing point, and I thought she was probably right. It would be way too controversial to bring up sexual orientation, even if there were three lesbians on the podium.

Selina arrived, and the bus rumbled into life. We were off to Roubaix.

I sat gazing wistfully out of the window as we passed by Waregem. I was missing going to Molly's; missing the comfortable conviviality of her house, missing the stoofpot, and missing the sex. Oh, what wouldn't I have given to have been in bed with Molly at that moment? I closed my eyes and thought about her and her wonderful body. Mmm, there was no getting away from it: I was fucking horny.

I prayed that the room roster would have me with Helen again. Helen would always be up for a little girly gratification, but for all I knew, she may have had other plans, maybe with Marlen again. And then there was the tantalising question of Trude. There was a lot to ponder on, but it wasn't unpleasant pondering.

We arrived at the hotel and I checked the roster. Hmph. I was with Selina, Trude was with Tera, and Helen and Marlen were together. I suspected Helen would be quite happy with that arrangement, if the previous weekend was any guide. In fact, I suspected that she may have had something to do with it.

I had nothing against Selina -- in fact she's lovely - but I was really hoping for some sweet stuff, and I didn't think she would be likely to turn just because I was horny. I needed to "take some soundings" on Trude.

We had a few minutes before dinner, so I turned predator and went in search of her. She wasn't in her room, and Tera said she was downstairs in the lounge/bar, so I went down there and found her sitting on her own, looking at her phone. Texting with Lolly, perhaps?

'Hey Trude, can I join you?'

'Yeah, sure,' she smiled.

It's hard to vamp it up in sports gear; trackies, trainers etc. are not the sexiest things, but I was wearing a yellow team polo shirt, which fit me very well, with no bra. I was hoping my nipples would misbehave and that she would notice.

'How's it going?' I asked, as a bland general question as I sat down next to her.

'Oh, not bad. I was just catching up with Lolly.'

Dammit. So they were still together. I nodded. 'How come she's not on the tour this year?

'Oh, she went back to the 'States to concentrate on MTB and gravel. She never really liked being in Europe.' She pulled a face that said "what the hell is up with her?"

'That must make it hard for you to be together.'

'Yeh, too hard. We both know it. We're over as a couple, we just haven't pulled the plug yet. I think we'll stay friends, because I really like her, but the long-distance relationship thing doesn't work for me. She's not going to move to Europe, and I'm not going to move to the 'States, so... ' She trailed off and looked pensive. 'I need intimacy in a relationship. I'm really missing that.'

'When you say intimacy, do you mean sex?'

'Not just that, but it's a big part of it, yes.' She gave me a slightly coy look.

This was good. I hadn't expected her to be so open so quickly. 'Well, there are ways to have intimacy without necessarily being in a committed relationship,' I ventured.

'Yeh, I know, your little sex club...'

'Oh my, has our fame preceded us?' I said with mock shock and horror.

'Well it's quite well-known, and I am friends with Helen and Marlen, after all. They are having a bit of a fling at the moment, rekindling an old flame, I think. They even suggested I could join them!...I wish I were that liberated.'

'What's stopping you? Only yourself.'

'Maybe. I'm not sure I want a reputation like yours, Chloe.' She looked at me devilishly.

'Like mine?'

'Yeh. It's quite well-known that you are... loose, when it comes to sex.'

'Loose??' I exclaimed, huffily. I prefer the term "free" but I'd also accept "libertine," or "unbridled."

She grinned. 'Must be quite nice, to be so uninhibited.'

'It is. I'm getting the maximum pleasure out of life. Literally enjoying the fuck out of it. To be honest, I don't give a toss what people say about it. It's my life.'

'And is your girlfriend happy with it?

'Licia? Oh God yes. She's as bad as me... At least.'

She looked reflective. I could tell there was a thought process going on, but we had to break off as people started heading to the dinner table.

I sat next to her, something I'm sure Helen and Marlen noticed, as they sat down together, and Helen's eyes had that familiar twinkle.

It was all the 4Ts (Tedious Team Tactics Talk) over dinner, but I thought, more than at any other race, tactics were largely futile here. The brutality of the Roubaix cobbles (far rougher than any I've encountered in Belgium) mud that would do credit to a cyclocross race, winds blowing across open terrain etc., add up to a true battle of attrition.

Every year a huge proportion of the field fail to finish within the time limit. The previous year, out of 144 starters, only 61 were listed as finishers. 36 were DNFs, while another 47 were over the time limit. It's definitely a brute. The fact that it's this attritional with almost no climbing tells you all you need to know about what a bastard those cobbles are.

After dinner, I went to talk to Tera. I wanted to know if she'd be amenable to Trude swapping with Selina -- 'It's just a possibility. Nothing's settled yet.'

She looked at me with one raised eyebrow. 'On the prowl, are we Chloe?'

'You could say that. Nothing's certain yet.'

'Well don't exhaust yourself. I need you good and fresh tomorrow.'

'Aye aye capt'n.' I saluted her.

I found Selina and had a similar conversation with her, except for the capt'n part, and the fact that she said 'ugh' when the possibility of lesbian sex was mooted.

In an impressive bit of Chloe scheming, I'd prepared the ground. Now I just needed to complete my seduction of Trude.

I noticed she'd gone to sit with Helen and Marlen in the lounge, so I went to join them. 'Ahh, here she is, that loose British woman...' said Helen, smirking. Trude blushed. '...we were just talking about you.'

'I bet you were. Helen, you're terrible.'

'Trude says you've been trying to seduce her, and Marlen and I said "oo, lucky you..." Trude was squirming with embarrassment, but she was wearing an adorably coquettish smile. She really is quite lovable.

'Well what if I was? You can't blame me, can you? I mean, look at her.'

'Chloe stop,' said Trude. 'You're going to make me blush...' She pointed to her face with both hands and shook her head, knowing full-well she was already bright red, and we all laughed.

I went in for the kill. 'So, what about it then? Do you fancy a bit of sweet stuff tonight, Trude?'

Helen and Marlen looked at Trude for her reaction and she looked at the floor for a few seconds, then those greenish hazel eyes came up to meet mine and she said, 'You are very hard to resist, Chloe. I'm sure you know that. There's something about you, and it's not just those nipples...'

So, she had noticed.

'I am going to give in to temptation. I need this. I've felt so deprived recently. I'm going to allow myself... This doesn't mean I'm part of your klatsch though.

'No, no, of course not,' we murmured, knowing full well how easy it is to become hooked once you have "allowed yourself" just once.

I grinned, and leant over for a kiss. It was just a quick peck really, but I tried to put some sauce into it, letting my lips linger just a fraction longer than expected. 'Excuse me, I need to talk to Selina.'

The room swap was arranged, and a simmering sexual anticipation took over. We didn't dash straight upstairs. We stayed in the bar for a while with Helen and Marlen, just chatting and letting the thrum of excitement permeate our bones. Or is it just me that feels like that?