"I can’t believe I just paid almost two hundred Euro on a pair of shoes,” Mum repeated again as she slumped into one of the coffee shop’s sofas.
"I said I'd put in,” I offered once more as I separated my purse from my Handtasche.
"I know you did but I said they were going to be my treat and that's an end to it.”
"Two slices of torte then?” I suggested.
"My arm could be twisted.”
"Cappuccino?”
"Please,” she agreed.

To be honest I was equally shocked at the price, oh I know designer brands are expensive, a top pair of cycling shoes can be the same price but I'd, and I'm sure Mum too, had been thinking maybe fifty euro. Oh they are gorgeous shoes, after some debate I decided on the higher heels, they make my legs look longer and there was something else, oh yeah, I'm a short arse! On the plus side they are gorgeous – oh I said that already.

Mum put her cake fork down, "Do not tell your father how much I've spent today.”
"As if.”
"Well I suppose we ought to make a move then.”
"We need to collect the other stuff,” I reminded her.
"I know, I might be your mother but I'm not senile.”
"I never said you were.”
"Come on then Princess, your carriage awaits.”

"This is worse than Meadow Hell,” I sighed an hour later.
"No kidding,” Mum agreed.

Oh we’d collected the rest of our shopping and found the car within fifteen minutes but then we joined half of the NRW in trying to depart the extensive CentrO parking. So we’ve progressed maybe half a kilometre, in fits and starts but of course all the time more people are joining those trying to leave.

"How’re the feet?”
"Tired,” I allowed as I rubbed at my ankles.
"You’ve proved your point kidda, you can take them off if you want.”
"Er maybe I will.”
"Kids,” Mum sighed.

I reached down and eased my heels off before peeling off my footsies – oo that's nice. Yeah the air blowing into the foot well was bliss.

"I take it you have some occasion you wanted the shoes for?”
"Well nothing specific,” I had to admit, "Jules wedding?”
"That’s not going to be anytime soon and I've a feeling you’ll be Maid of Honour.”
"I am not wearing a meringue.”
"If your sister wants ‘meringues’ you’ll wear it,” Mum dictated.
"She wouldn’t would she?”
"I can’t imagine so but I never thought you’d be a clothes horse either.”
"I'm not.”
"Well whose are the designer frocks in your wardrobe, the drawer full of Wolford hose and the cupboard full of shoes you’ve got up there.
"Its not full.”
"Not far off.”
"How’d you know anyway?”
"I did your washing the other day.”
"Er right,” bum, hope she didn’t spot her birthday present, I never thought about hiding it.
"Ah, finally!”

Finally we moved out onto the exit roadway, the traffic signals causing so much delay now in sight.

As there are more of us than the lads, Mike the Mechanic was coming to Wuppertal with the girls staying there in the bigger BC bus, Caro and the lads are using the Apollinaris bus and Dad, Mand and me are in the camper. Oh and Mum’s driving over to give Caro a hand in Bitburg.

"We at the botanical gardens again then?” I asked as we trundled along the A1 the following morning.
"No, its somewhere near Oberbarmen.”
"I thought it was Wuppertal?” Mand queried.
"It is,” I pronounced, "Wuppertal is like saying London, its made up of several towns.”
"Along the Wupper valley I guess?”
"Yeah,” I confirmed, maybe being good at geography is useful sometimes.
"So this Oberbarmen place is one of the towns?”
"The furthest east,” Dad put in.
"I don’t suppose this circuit is flat,” Mand mused.
"Doubt it,” I supplied remembering previous visits to the area.
"Didn’t think so, hey is that our bus?”
"Looks like it,” Dad agreed easing off the gas and putting us onto the shoulder.

"Puncture,” Pater advised a couple of minutes later, "The others are coming on here, Mike’ll wait for the tyre people and follow on.”
"Best make some space,” I suggested as Dad rang the rescue service.

It was really more a case of moving our bags, the others were climbing on board by the time we’d done.

"Morning!”
"Hiya!”

There was a general exchange of greetings as Dad completed his call.

"Get yourselves sat,” Dad instructed as Tali pulled the door shut.
"Clear,” she called forward.

We pulled out onto the roadway, giving Mike a pip of the horn as we passed.

Our junction wasn’t much further and it seemed barely moments before we exchanged autobahn for B roads as we headed into Oberbarmen. Dad seemed to know where he was going and barely fifteen minutes after leaving the minibus we were parking by the event HQ, a car park on the edge of the Barmenwald according to the sign.

"I thought it was a Kirmes?” Gret mentioned.
"I think the fair is through the woods somewhere,” Dad advised, "Right, go and get yourselves signed on, Mand, Gaby if you can help the English girls.”
“’Kay, everyone got their licences?”

"Ga-bee!”
"Barb, Fran here?”
"Yeah, somewhere, who are this lot?” Fran motioned towards the collection of young women behind me.
"The rest of Apollinaris and the ones in white are English, they’re here on a training camp.”
"No Roni?”
"She’s not with us now,” I advised.
"No?”
"She’s riding with the senior squad for now.”
"Cool.”
"Heya Gab,” Fran greeted joining us, "You brought reinforcements?”
"They’re from England,” Barb advised.
"Sugar, got no chance now.”
"Course you have,” I interjected, "You’re as good as them.”

Well maybe, I don’t want to put my friends down – any of them, English or German.

"You reckon?” Fran pushed.
"You’ve been riding some good events this year,” I opined.
"I guess, so anyhow, what is the National Champion doing riding this?”
"I'm not the champion,” I pointed out.
"Well you will be in a fortnight,” Barb suggested.
"How do you work that out?”
"You are riding at Munich?”
"Er no idea.”
"You can’t let von Stuygen waltz it again.”
"Who’s she?”
"You must know her, comes from Passau.”
"Doesn’t ring any bells.”
"Hey Gab, gis a hand,” Mand called over in English.
"Looks like I'm needed, see you later.”
"Laters,” Barb agreed.

It didn’t take much to sort out the English, they’ve got International licences after all. I guess the woman manning the sign-on table was a bit out of her depth, its not exactly usual to get seven of them in a fairly small local Kirmes. And of course the UK licences are different to the German ones so mostly I was just translating the licence for her.

"All sorted?” Dad enquired when we drifted back to the Hymer.
"No Mike?” I asked.
"He rang a few minutes ago, the tyre people have only just got there.”

Despite being on his own, the Old Man had got the shelter up and was busy with the compressor and tyres.

He broke off to address us, "Everyone happy?”
"Gab got everything sorted,” Sal offered.
"We can go on the circuit for the next hour,” Gret supplied.
"Right then, get yourselves ready, you can warm up on the circuit okay?”

Everyone seemed happy with that and headed into the camper, well except me.

"What’s up Spud?” Dad asked as he returned to the wheels.
"Just wondered how we’re riding this, Fran and Barb are concerned we’ll just close it all down.”
"Those girls from down the road?”
"Yeah,” I agreed, "There are seven of us, there’s only like twenty odd in the girls race.”
"Hmm, leave it with me, go get ready, I'll talk to everyone before you go out.”

"Bit weird riding against Gret and Mand,” Tal suggested as we dropped down the back of the circuit.
"Should be better than just blocking everything.”
"I guess,” she sort of shrugged.

Dad’s split us into three teams, the BC girls are in one, Gret and Mand are team two and me and Tali are the third. Thing is, Dad says we’re not allowed to work together only with our team mates if that makes sense. Well I suppose it’ll make it more interesting for us, not sure how it helps the rest of the race much.

For this sort of race its quite a long circuit, two and a half kilometres, lapping strategies are unlikely to have success but the twists and climbs should allow for some excitement. Twenty laps so fifty kilometres – not a long race but I'm betting we’ll be done in by the finish. Oh and the roads a bit greasy in places under the trees, I've already had a bit of a squiggle and we aren’t racing yet.

We managed three laps before the officials pulled us in advance of the under fourteens race. They only do ten laps so we hung about to watch while we waited our turn, Dad distributed fresh bidons while Mike did last minute adjustments to our bikes. The race seemed to take forever but Dad gained our attention.

“Okay girls, enjoy yourselves out there, I want to see a busy race, remember no laps out, we’ve got wheels but you’ll need to work as teams if you need service.”

Great, lets just hope it doesn’t rain and wash out the grit.

Maddy Bell © 10.07.17