May thoughts — we’re underway

May isn’t cautious. It just goes. Most of us are back to life now. The first miles are done — a bit stiff, a bit rusty, but still exactly right. The body protests a little, the clutch hand feels unfamiliar, but it fades quickly. It always does.

Because it’s not just in the body.
It’s in the spine. And then it comes.
The first proper ride.

Not that quick spin round the block “just to check everything’s working”, but the one that actually means something. The road that winds a little more than it needs to. The pace that finds its own rhythm. The eyes starting to work again. And suddenly, you’re there.

In it. That thing that’s so hard to explain to someone who doesn’t ride.

The wind.
The sound.
That feeling of being completely present, without really thinking.

And then there’s the coffee stop. Because yes — we can pretend it’s all about the riding. But we all know how it is. It’s just as much about the coffee, the laughter, the conversations beside the bikes. Rows of machines still ticking as they cool. Someone always with another story to tell. Someone who’s always been out a bit earlier than everyone else.

And then those faces. The ones that disappear every winter. Gone somewhere between October and March. But now, as if by some quiet agreement, they show up again. Same people. Same banter. As if we just pressed pause.

That’s the thing.
We don’t just ride for the sake of riding.
We ride to come back.

To the roads.
To the feeling.
To each other.

May is the starting signal.
The rest of the season is just the continuation.
So we head out again.
Corner after corner. Coffee stop after coffee stop.

And somewhere in the middle of it all, we know exactly why we’ve been waiting.