Twenty-four years of May 19ths and the pattern is right there in plain sight. Racing, recovering, stressing, riding, ranting, and occasionally just standing in the flowers noticing that spring showed up without permission.
It started simply enough in 2002 with a post-race shower and a slow morning, the kind of slow going that feels earned. By 2006 the Thursday Night Ride had spiraled into something bigger than intended, a BBQ, a slide show, extra miles that probably shouldn't have happened before the Cow Pie Classique weekend in Billings. Then 2007 brought two separate dispatches from Missoula, one a brief wave from the Green Hanger and another full of motor sports, polish sausages, burned popcorn, and 200 photos from the dirt track.
In 2008 the body staged a minor revolt. Spring in Missoula meant flowers and a two-hour ride to Frenchtown, but also a sore throat described as pulling a freight train through a garden hose, which is frankly the best sore throat metaphor ever written. Then 2009 got real. Sitting in a car outside work, on hold, sliding back toward financial trouble but still finding something to appreciate about being broke in a mountain bike town.
By 2012, mornings had become something worth protecting. Bill Time, 6am to 10am, sacred and untouched. The afternoon commute of 2015 passed quietly. Then 2017 brought a full philosophical breakdown over lightweight bike parts, a genuine and very relatable death of the weight weenie era, 500 gram tires on the curb and no regrets.
2020 showed up twice. First, a hail-soaked loop in search of flowers and wind samples, curlews and a monster guarding the trail. Then a quieter reflection on belonging and escape, a place between Livingston and Gardiner that the world was suddenly crowding into, an overflow of people and complicated feelings about who belongs anywhere.
2021 looked back at the 2009 Solo Worlds journey, and 2022 marked an anniversary worth celebrating, green goggles and all.
What May 19th keeps saying, year after year, is pretty consistent. Show up, ride, recover, notice the flowers, protect the mornings, and don't buy cheap tires.