Good rides always start with a journey. It doesn’t have to involve geography, though. There’s a transition from sleepy somnambulance on foot, through somnambulance on a bike, all the way up to wideeyed epinephrine-fuelled mania. Every ride is transformative in a sense; even rides which retread familiar ground can be a force for change. Weather, time of day, mental state: all affect what we bring into a ride, and they all affect what we get out of it – whether it’s catharsis, exuberance or merely a nasty rash. It’s all good (well, apart from the rash).