Pilot fish swimming with an oceanic whitetip shark
One story suggests that sea-faring people believed that pilot fish, which would appear around the bow of their ships when they were close to land, were leading (or piloting) them back to port.
An alternative etymology is that pilot fish were once, erroneously, thought to be piloting sharks to food, or even (as legends have it) piloting ships, whales and swimmers to safety.
Both of these are pretty good analogies for the lead out man (or woman) for the sprinter in a bike race. And the Coolamon Handicap saw me in a position to have my own pilot fish.
After a shocking appearance at the Rutherglen Classic 2 weeks before, chief Riverina handicapper, Barry O'Hagan, obviously had taken pity on me and stuck me in the limit bunch. I wasn't sure if I should be insulted by this, but I was happy enough to take it as a gift- that doesn't happen very often in bike races! Actually he had put all the women in limit, so it kind of made sense.
The first 40kms of the race were pretty uneventful. I was mindful of the fact that I really was in the wrong bunch and tried to encourage the others in the bunch without blowing them apart. Although I don't think they saw it like that- oops!
At the 40km mark we were caught by all the back markers, except scratch. This made for a rather large surging mass of riders on a fast, largely downhill stretch of the course. It was the rush of being in that bunch that reminded me why I love racing my bike.
At what I thought was about 10km to go fellow club member, Jeremy Rhind, turned to me and said "I want to lead you out". I couldn't believe it. Offers like that don't come along too often. And after the offer was repeated, I was glad to accept it!
From there I was well expertly escorted to the finish line. Jez made sure I was on his wheel at all times, which took a bit of co-ordination as we were both still swapping off to ensure we held a good spot in the bunch. And Jeremy spent an awful lot of time in the wind for which I am very grateful.
I wish I could say that this worked out perfectly, like you see at the end of a Tour stage, but that was not the case today. I knew the finish was uphill, but I had blocked out the steepness of it!
A group of 4 that obviously knew the course jumped early and attacked over a little roller at the base of the main climb and got enough of a gap to hold it to the line. Having missed that, I went not far up the climb, but found it was just a little too steep for the gear I was on and faded badly over the last 100m. By my count I ended up 10th over the line, and first female which was the primary goal.
The irony of the situation was that Jeremy had enough to come back over me on the line and take 9th! oops!
Big ups to Jeremy the pilot fish. It was nice to be supported and delivered to the finish line so capably!
