Since it was such a nice day Sunday, I did the morning GDB Roll for 32 miles (which involved a lot of climbing through the Lake Highlands area), met Terrie for lunch, and headed right out to Rockwall to join in on their 2PM ride, which I’ve described elsewhere, anticipating a brisk, but not killer, 25 miles.  I’ve hit this ride about four times, but now that the new bike shop has opened, they’ve moved the start to the store, near I-30 and Ridge Rd.
 
I met about 6 others there, none of which I had met before – most of whom appeared significantly younger (and perhaps fitter) than me, and of course none on ‘bents… Nelson’s pal Joey (on site mechanic) was apparently going to be the ride leader, but he was working with a customer, and said he “would catch up to us.”  So, six of us took off.  Through the first five miles, we were keeping a sane ~18mph pace, and I was fielding various questions about the ‘bent as we went.  Once we got to Rabbit Ridge, Joey and another guy indeed caught us – and the pace immediately picked up to 20+, through the rollers on McDonald, and we dropped a couple of people.  Approaching what I knew to be the last climb, I scooted to the front and asked, “So, does this ride regroup for people falling back?”  “Yep, top of this last hill….”
 
The regroup, however, was short-lived – we didn’t wait for the couple off the back (and I never saw them again), and turned east into the wind --  and immediately the pace went to 25+ (as shown)
 

 
…for the next ~10 miles….  I hung back, since we were going into the wind.  At one point, I scooted up to the front again, forced myself to smile  , and commented to Joey, “So, THIS is how the ride’s gonna be, eh?”   “Yep, all day!”
 
Let’s just say that it was a struggle keeping up, but I was determined to…  We finally got to the turnaround point, and the others were obviously surprised that I was still there.  We stopped and chatted a bit, waiting a couple minutes for a couple guys who had fallen off – then hooked ‘em back west at 25 again, but this time with a slight tailwind. This time I got in the middle of the group, intentionally...
 
I hung in there, again…    as we dropped two more guys…  but as we approached the McDonald roller section, I called up to Joey, and said, “ I’d like to make a request – since I don’t know the way back to the store, could we regroup at the end of Rabbit Ridge?”  “Sure…”    Once we hit the rollers, the testosterone kicked in, and everyone was hammering as hard as they could trying to keep up with Joey through the climbs.  And I commented "Here's where I wish I was 30 years old and weighed 150    "...  The, one guy mis-shifted and dropped his chain – At the top of the next hill, I thought “Screw it…”   and waited for the dropped guy, gasping, letting the other four go...
 
We continued the climb up McDonald to the end of R.R. at a saner pace (17-18) -- but when we got there, I didn’t see anyone waiting, and thought “Ratzenfratzen…. they left...”      But then I saw a guy waving from off to the left at a subdivision entrance, so they had waited after all.
 
Joey kept us at ~20mph through the last five miles of subdivision streets, back to the store.  At one point, one of the guys commented, “You really haul on that bike… if you were riding a carbon frame, you’d kick all our butts!”  “ Well, 'preciate dat… I do what I can…”  
 
When we got back to the store, we encountered the original two dropped people, who had just done a shorter route, apparently expecting to be dropped as they had been.  I thanked Joey and the others for the ride, and talked with Jason (owner) a bit about the new store.
 
Final stats – four gels, one Clif bar, and two bottles of Powerade later:
 
 35 miles (instead of 25), 20.0 average…    
 
 My legs hurt….