Weather & season
How the ten are chosen
Every month we read four things. None of them is a score, and all of them can be overruled by the feel of a place.
Weather window
We look for the settled weeks — the stretch where a region's rain, heat and storms all step back at once. Not perfect days, only kind ones.
Daylight
Long, usable light matters more than temperature. A route earns its place when the evenings are unhurried and the mornings begin gently.
Wind
Prevailing direction, not just strength. A coast ridden with the wind is a different country from the same coast ridden against it.
Surface & access
Passes open, tracks dry, ferries running, water available. A journey is only ready when the ground beneath it is.
Then we set the data aside and ask the last question, which no forecast answers: would this month be a good time to be there, slowly, on a bicycle?
Seasons move. So does the list — a route that leaves in September has not fallen out of favour; it has simply gone quiet for a while.