The 2026 Coffeeneuring Challenge comes as I return to active service after a run-in with a car door back in July. The accident left me with a dislocated shoulder, and the number one bike with a fatal gash in the downtube. Three months into physiotherapy, I get painful reminders throughout the day that the shoulder is still weak, that the ligaments around the clavicle are permanently torn, but I can just about manage a couple of hours crawling up the gentler Dublin mountains with the promise of espresso and a flapjack somewhere along the way. The Oficina Pegoretti is building me a new frame, and the longer term promise is a week in the Alps next summer, but in the meantime coffeeneuring is enough to remind me of the fundamental pleasures of the cycling life: quiet roads, fresh air, fatigue that feels earned rather than inflicted.
One thing you discover when you dislocate your shoulder is that everyone around you, from fellow cyclists you meet in the coffee shop to the taxi driver who brings you to the hospital, is an expert on shoulder injuries. Everyone is eager to tell you how painful they are, has an opinion on which exercises you should be doing for rehab or where to get a set of resistance bands. Actual medical professionals say only one thing, with ominous unanimity: “Shoulders are tricky.”
