He left for reasons that made sense. The reasons create a void. The sport has a way of staying with you. Too much of it lives in the body. Too many mornings where it is the only thing that makes sense. And you don't just file away years of staying that close to a sport, and keep moving forward.

Something pulls him back, but the film resists the urge to explain what it is.

The competitors he returns to have not been waiting for him. The younger riders don't carry the same scar tissue, and the tracks don't adjust for sentiment. Whatever reputation he built before he left has the specific shelf life of a sport that respects current performance over history and nothing else.

Coming back was the easy decision. Everything after it isn't.