As soon as I started racing, and I did my first ever pre-ride of a race course, I got a taste of what it was.

I want to be in the midst of it, some sort of battle, doing well, holding my own, marking a pace.

I want to settle into a wide sweeping corner, the type that doesn’t destroy all your speed, but challenges how much you can keep. I want to negotiate that corner, not “get through” it, negotiate it.

Then, settling into the trailing edge of that curve, with the scenery still pivoting around me, start to settle, and feel the transition: From negotiation of a curve to the statement of a straight up ahead. I want to feel my hand on a throttle, and I want to hear a voice. That voice coming from the knowledge that it’s me that has put myself here, that I’ve earned this and I have the strength and ability to answer. And this is what I want the voice to say to me:

Now!