The Race

So I was on my bicycle going towards downtown Fredericia. It was a grey and windy day, but I was going at full speed. When I bike, I tend to go fast, or at least as fast as possible, and to be honest, I’m just not a big fan of being overtaken. It especially feels like it’s against the laws of nature when I’m being passed by little old ladies on electric bikes. It just feels wrong somehow, but I have slowly learned to live with it.

As I was entering a very long, even stretch of the bike lane along the harbour and marina section of my route, I vaguely sensed something slowly but surely coming up behind me. I could also sense that it wasn’t a bicyclist; the high-pitched sound was different. I increased my speed a bit, but the person was coming closer and closer. I took a quick glance over my shoulder, and it kinda looked like I was being chased by something resembling a big inverted ice cream cone.

I was a bit confused by this but also determined not to be overtaken, so I increased my speed further. But so did my pursuer, and after a few hundred meters of racing, the ice cream cone crept up on my left side. Both of us were now clearly going at max speed, like two heavy trucks taking way too long to pass each other on the highway. I discreetly looked over to the left while maintaining my maximum speed, sweating, headwind was brutal, heart beating like crazy.

The woman was about the same age as me, dressed in a huge curry/brown-ish jacket with a kind of waffle pattern. The jacket was very wide at the bottom, almost hiding the struggling electric scooter underneath her. So it came down to this: me against the finest low- to midrange e-scooter that Temu has to offer. There may or may not have been smoke coming from the motor of the scooter. But there definitely was smoke coming from the transparent neon green vaping device she was clutching with her left hand. I looked straight ahead, and gave it all I had in me, determined not to let her triumph.

And then it happened; I looked her way, she did the same, and we were locked in eye contact for a few uncomfortable seconds. It felt like the longest time. She was kind of looking right through me with cruel, dead eyes while she let out a big puff of scented smoke and then turned to look straight ahead. And right then and there, I knew that I was beaten; all energy and determination left my body. I knew it, and she knew it too. Something in me broke; I just gave up. Almost like in slow motion, I watched her disappear in the distance while I regained my breath. I am sure she has long forgotten the incident, but I will never forget.