Everybody prefers a tailwind and this was the mother of all tail winds. We were in Erfoud in the desert and the winds were kicking up. The sands were starting to blow down the road in front of us. Sally opted to take the local bus with her bike to Ksar-es-Souk and not get sand blasted. I couldn’t resist the sail downwind. The winds picked up again and now it was a full-fledged sandstorm. I steered around fast moving sand clouds in my last gear. I couldn’t crank fast enough so mostly I just held on. It was exhilarating, my fastest 80Ks ever. Sally’s old local bus got there just ahead of me. I think I would have beaten Sally’s bus except for two stops. First, the police stopped me to warn me not to continue. I explained that the winds were behind me so that they helped me to cover this desert expanse in no time. They shrugged and let me go. Secondly, I stopped for a warm coke in a basic desert shop: no electricity, no refrigeration and no windows. I saw the sign and thought it best to keep hydrated. It was hard to stop with the wind pushing me so hard. After the coke, out into the gale again, and back to full tilt in no time. As I blasted into Ksar-es-Souk I saw the back of Sally’s bus pulling out of town. Usually, if we know the duration of a local bus trip, we use it as a guide to approximate our bike time. We usually calculate a 3X factor. In other words, two hours by bus means 6 hours by bike.
With this mother of all tailwinds, I almost reached a 1X factor. I would have beat the bus but for a cop and a coke.