The Guardian Bike blog, way back in the mists of time, had a piece on the delights of drafting behind buses. This isn’t really something I’ve had a chance to try, seeing as there are so few buses round here – and the one bus that has ever overtaken me while I’ve been on my bike was the school bus and it was going way too fast for me to catch it. But it did occur to me that I might be able to draft a tractor instead, and today, just as I was coming out of Papershop village, I thought I might have a chance. A tractor had just turned onto the little back road and was waiting to get past a car. If I really cranked it, I could get onto its back wheels and shelter from a blustery headwind.
Fortunately for me, I wasn’t quite fast enough. Because I realised, as I caught a whiff of its load, that no matter how bad the headwind (and this one was bad enough to bring me to a standstill going downhill in places) you’re better off right in the teeth of it than attempting to draft behind a tractor towing a tanker full of slurry.
Is that the sort with the big pipe at the back which just sprays? I always have a feeling the farmer may just turn the tap on for the hell of it.
Not worth the risk, is it? The really scary ones are the ones with the big prongs on the front, with a huge silage bale impaled on them, when they’re coming down the road towards you