Good morning, everyone. Finally a beautiful
morning again. What a nightmare weather we've had. I just had my first motor pacing session behind
a tractor. I'm pretty dirty. The roads are muddy and wet, so, um, definitely, uh, looking a
bit muddy and worse for the wear, But, uh, it was very fun. I did about 15 ks at, uh, 40
ks an hour. So, uh, that was not bad. And, uh, easy way to get to work. But I must say, I am
pretty dirty. So this is where it goes. Here we go. The tractor comes past. Actually, the second
one I I The first one was a bit too quick for me, and the second one actually passed me. And then we
had to slow down for a right turn. And that's of course. The speed is quite low. And I just tucked
in real quick and, uh, made sure I was going at 40 ks an hour, real quick to try and catch it and
get into the draught. I had a bit of a wind coming from the left, which has made it a bit difficult,
but, uh, I kind of tucked in. There went hard for a while and got into the draught. The thing
is, with this weather, you have to be careful because the roads are wet and slippery. So if
you have to break, you're definitely gonna slide, especially with, uh, these kind of brakes we have
these days. And, uh so I can't. I actually prefer to sit on a little bit on the right like I'm doing
now so I can see the road a little bit. This is a very narrow road, so there's no way you can redo
that. So I was using the right back wheel and the centre of the axle. I could see a little bit. I
can see the road, because what what you do get on this road is you have, uh, bugs bunnies that
have become roadkill and that that kind of stuff you don't really want to hit one of those.
So I guess it's just my opinion sitting down behind the tractor wheel is gonna be reasonably
flashing already if I do go over it. But I was trying to keep a bit of distance and just sit
inside the draught. And as I said, over here, I have a bit of a win coming from the left. So
I've got it tucked into the right side. That gives me a bit of a view. Um, I'm doing about 40
KS in an hour, and, uh, the wind's gonna change, uh, as the track makes a left turn here. And from
that moment onwards, I would be sitting really tight in the draught. No wind bothering me, but,
uh, as I said before with, uh, these disc brakes, if you do have to brake very hard, you're gonna
slide in this kind of weather. Uh, maybe if you're a professional, maybe not. But I will be sliding.
I know that. So I'll keep my distance. I'll just try to stay in the and this is the major turn. So
here I have the wind coming straight on the front, and I'm very comfortable at this stage. I don't
have to work at all, which is cool 40 ks per hour. Not working at all. Lots of water on the road. So
I'm getting really dirty over. Uh, this is a way to get to work. I would not advise you if you
haven't done this before. The safest way to do it is to do it behind a scooter even better behind
the speed. But, uh, I had a really tough head when go to work. So when I heard the tractors coming,
I thought, Hey, this is his chance. You never know how fast they're going. Usually 40 ks an hour,
sometimes a bit faster. And, uh, the only thing with a tractor is you can't see the road. So you
are constantly hoping there's no road kill that's gonna give you a major front wheel, uh, problem
which you have to be flying over. So But as I said, with the tractor, the road is usually pretty
flat, but you have to have some kind of view on the road. You have to be far enough away to break.
If the tractor breaks in this weather, you have to be a bit further involved. And, um, just make
sure you in the in the draught. But I won't do this at home. It's not the last. And, uh, I tend
to do it quite often, maybe once or twice a month, but mostly on dry roads as that. It's just way
safer. So we're doing a left turn over here and, uh, small fiction with the wind coming from the
right now. So I'll try to tuck in there real quick before we before we go. But actually, I don't
know we do making a right turn again. So I'll be fine. And, uh, I can just sit totally in the
draught again. That's gonna be great. And they do tend to take off quite slowly. Mostly. So that's
a better view. Sorry at that kind of speeds, Um, you tend to keep your hands on the brake levers
and not clean the camera. But now, now the view is a bit better. My bike was extremely dirty after
this, but it's fun, and maybe it's not safe, but I think now it's quite clear to see. You can
see it maybe eight metres ahead on the road. If you look between the two tractor tyres and that's
quite safe for me, I think that's something. And it was lighter than the GoPro is making it a bit
darker. It was lighter than it seems, and, uh, I felt quite safe at this distance, and, uh,
pretty soon we're getting into a 30 K zone, and that's where I kind of, uh I let the tractor
go because I thought, Hey, um, you also slow down and, uh, once we get into a 30 K zone, it
doesn't make any sense anymore. So I hope you guys enjoyed that. I do this a couple of times
a month. If I'm lucky enough behind a tractor, a scooter or pedal neck, and I just love it,
especially if I have a headwind. Cheers, everyone.
