The message arrived while I was closing my laptop, just as the shadows were settling in for the night. “How do you feel about early mornings?” How did I feel about early mornings? Generally fine, as long as I’m wrapped up in a duvet, slumbering when they happen.

“Carbon can feel like a one-way conversation, but steel wants to be playful; it encourages you to push on,” says Robert Quirk, waxing lyrical about his frame material of choice at Quirk cycles while phoning in on the eve of his flight to ride the Silk Road Mountain Race in a pair of Quoc Gran Tourer Gravel Bike Shoes