EDITORIAL

WORDS CHIPPS

Devious things that we are, us humans rarely say what we mean and many subtleties of mood and intent are left unspoken. I guess that’s probably going to be our only defence against the AI robots of the future. Until they read this, that is… Oh…

Bike riding can be complicated enough – where to ride, is my bike working, who has the snacks – without secret codes coming into it, but it still happens.

Every mountain bike guide has their own way of playing down the severity of a climb, or perhaps bumping up the severity of a descent to dissuade you from trying it if they think you’re going to find it tough. It won’t take long on a guided holiday before you hear ‘And then we have a bit of a fun climbing challenge ahead’ or ‘A bit of a tricky pull from the valley floor to our lunch spot, but, oh, the views!’. They’re just trying to tell you without telling you that you’re going to spend the next hour and change sweating through your ears as you take on a barely rideable granny ring slog. And they know that you know. By saying ‘And then we’ll contour across to the next pass’ they know that you understand what’s ahead, but both of you are in denial about it.