He rose out of his saddle, stood on the pedals and sent his bike powering up the last hundred metres of the Col De Tourmalet. He thought he heard the whisper of a groan from the rest of the peloton as they went out the back. He knew none of them had an answer to his strength today plus, as insurance, his two remaining team members, his domestiques, who had come to the front with him suddenly slowed, disrupting the counter-attack and giving it no time to form before he crested the hill, after which there was only descending. And no one descended like him. The plan had always been to jump as soon as The Devil was reached. The Devil was really a bike builder from some Eastern German town who positioned himself and his giant bicycle on a trailer towards the end of every stage of the Tour De France, dressed in a full scarlet Satan outfit complete with trident, tail and horns. When the leader appeared he ran alongside him, gibbering and jumping for the TV cameras. For the last minute on the steep upward slope the rider had been riding through a huge, screaming crowd in a space only just as wide as his bike.
What do You think about SSC (2001) The Dog Catcher?
