What is your relationship with cycling? No, not the bike. Cycling. How does it make you feel? Blissful, exhilarating, daring, inconsequential, doesn’t really matter. The relationship is yours and yours only.

We at Embrocation take this lifelong, human plus wheels partnership very seriously and very dearly, and we’re sharing with you readers. On this issue we explore the sum of all parts that propel us forward, commentating on a very personal level the wonderful outcomes that happen when you mix bicycles, passion, and art.

We get a very close, first hand experience at the core of the Belgian classics, a heartfelt account from the Tour of the Battenkill, a seemingly irresponsible write-up on American-style crit racing, a personal take on the sport at the highest level and much more. Intimate, biased, slanted, partisan, tendentious, so what? We get so close we touch handlebars, we smell the sport’s breath, marvel at its sparkling paint job and laugh at each others’ silliness. It’s the trip, the ride, the hurt, the heartbreak that level all riders, all readers, all over.

In Volume 6, we’d like to welcome you to the inner sanctum of our relationship. Enjoy, and embrocate regularly.