Somewhere on the way down, things kind of get away from you. You’re not sure exactly where but things are definitely more… blurry. Bushes and trees are smears of brown and green as you hurl yourself downhill. The mechanical sound of cog slipping along chain has gone from hypnotic to frenetic. Cadence is off the charts. A small traitorous part of you is sneakily looking for a soft pile of leaves. But you’ve passed the point of no return and bailing now is not an option, so you go with the flow. You find extra legs and keep pinning it. You whip the bike past trees, over rocks and bank off berms until the scream that was at the back of the throat slowly dissipates. You bottom out and you know that if you could see yourself, you’d be grinning like a maniac. Gradually the outside world and the world inside your head click into sync.

Welcome to the Thrill.