This wasn't a particularly bad season. Obviously the one crash that broke my shoulder wasn't good but the other, my hips still look like an archipelago of scar tissue. Not all orderly like one of the strings of islands off the coast of Dubai, shaped like a palm tree or the flag of Cypress. Instead I have reminder of missed turns or ill-chosen lines and the idea that my skills aren't always where I would like them.

I like that for some reason, if it was easy would it be as fun? I think about points in races when the lap card reads higher rather than lower, knowing I have a lot more time before it stops. The smile (that at least was inside, maybe outside too) meant that I was able to stay in that place a while longer. The place that now because CX is over I won't be visiting until September.