Juli thoughts

For many of us, July means something special. It’s the time of year when we get to spend a little more time living in our helmets than in our calendars.

We’ve been thinking about those roads for months. Perhaps all winter. Maps have been unfolded, routes saved and plans changed more times than we’d care to admit. And yet, we all know how it usually turns out. The best days are rarely the ones that unfold exactly as planned.

More often than not, it’s the spontaneous detour that stays with you. The unknown road that simply appeared around the next bend. The coffee stop in a place you’d never even heard of. The conversation with another rider you’ve never met before, yet somehow feels like an old friend.

I’m hoping for a warm, dry July. Not because everything has to be perfect, we all know how quickly the weather can change both the mood and the route, but because there’s something special about those days when everything just seems to fall into place. When the road feels right, the bike is running beautifully, and the scent of warm tarmac greets you as you pull over somewhere that was never part of the plan.

Because perhaps that’s what summer riding is really about.

Freedom.

Not the grand, complicated kind that needs explaining. Just the simple freedom to turn left instead of right because it feels like the better choice. To have no idea exactly where the next stop will be. To let the miles take as long as they want.

And somewhere along the way, you realise this is what you’ve been waiting for all year.

Not just the holiday.

But the feeling.

So here’s hoping for dry roads, long summer evenings and that the roads we’ve been dreaming about are every bit as good as we imagined. And if reality doesn’t quite live up to the plan… well, perhaps that’s exactly how summer riding is meant to be. After all, the very best roads are often the ones we never planned to ride.