You are riding along, doing your thing. 

In your own little world. 

A few people are cycling far ahead. 

Then you come out of your world for a moment. 

‘What was that?’ 

Then you go back in. 

Then you come back out of your world again. 

‘There it is again?’ 

You cannot get back into your world because it is becoming constant and not intermittent. 

It is not a feeling. 

It is not visual. 

It is not something you hear. 

It’s something you smell. 

It is BAD. 

Like BAD, BAD. 

You have smelled it before. 

You are close to those people ahead of you now. 

Then it clicks. 

‘The rider who does not wash their jersey.’ 

There are a few cyclists the same distance behind you. 

You want to turn around and give the International Signal for ‘it is not me.’ 

Kind of like an ‘SOS.’ 

It is rancid. 

How can those people ride with him like that? 

How can he pull it over his head and not think hmm?

I ride past as fast as I can and hold my breath. 

Maybe the guy has a perspiration issue? 

NO! 

There is a big difference between a perspiration issue and a non-washed Jersey. 

On the opposite spectrum, how nice it is to ride downwind of someone who smells like GAIN. 

Haha. 

‘Sending out an SOS’ 

Insert clothespin emoji here. 

‘There is another way to ride.’