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Eejit
Have struggled so much to put words to this today, and though it feel strange spilling this much on the forum, I want to give it a stab while it's still raw like this because it feels like the absolute least Hayley deserves that people are open about what she meant to them, especially on here, where she impacted so many people. Also let's face it, she was never one to shy away from writing openly and at length, so consider this a tribute in kind to her.
Hayley touched so many lives just by living her own. She simply got it and could communicate it like nobody else. She cared about people like nobody else. She could see the absurd reality of life for what it was like nobody else. Her politics were her own, and ever developing. Her bike builds were always somehow far greater than the sum of their parts; always put together with a vision imitated by many (including me) but never really touched by anyone. Her insight and wit, even at the most frustrating or overwhelming of times for her, were razor sharp. Her capacity to offer attention and compassion and wisdom when someone needed it was almost superhuman – I've truly never met another person who had these things in such spades. She was one of the funniest people I've ever met, and probably the best writer I've ever known (something made all the more amazing and funnier by the fact that she had zero ambitions in that direction whatsoever). I've said often before that Hayley could have done literally anything she wanted, but that she chose above anything to live well and authentically. She simply did her thing, at all times, as much as it was in her power to, and invited everyone to realise it was in their best interests to do the same while we still could.
So many of the comments on this thread are testaments to Hayley's singular ability to connect with someone in a single meeting, a single exchange of messages, or even indirectly in a single post. Anyone lucky enough to have known her in the longer term will tell you she was like this to the core. Meeting her on here and becoming friends when we did changed the course my life, and I know the same was true for many mutual friends. To say I'm grateful to have known and loved her is to pathetically understate it – I and this forum and the wider cycling world and everyone who ever knew her in any capacity was lucky to have had her. She brought so many people together; it was what she truly loved to do. I loved the time we spent riding bikes, talking, laughing, chilling, working shit out together. Her passing is a huge loss to all of us, and I know her impacts will continue to be felt in big and small ways long into the future. RIP dear Hayley.