Speed Ride 3/18

My mountain bike was broke so I decided to roadie it and do the speed ride. My emphasis was on the 'ride' part as I wanted to get plenty of pedal spinning in. I am not speedy on a good day. I had to hustle to get to the meet point - about 20 people where already there. Then MF, richie, and strauber rolled in. I knew it was going to be trouble. We headed off and I wasn't use to riding fast and rotating ccw so I just stayed in the back. The route was actually different because a bridge was out on 45 so we took tadpole. At the first roller I knew the back was bad. Like an accordian the front slowed down, the field compressed, and I had to brake going up the roller then beat like heck to catch the expanding front of the pack. After this was a downhill that everyone crushed except the guys in the back, we just got lost contact and tried to catch back on. No luck. I worked with another guy until he disappeared then caught a mini-group at dry hollow. They didn't do it so we went back - the pace was a little too casual so I headed off on my own and did some extra mileage as I wanted to do 40+. Pretty good ride, ending up doing 43 at a 18.8 pace. Most of it by my lonesome! Once I get speedy and/or the bridge on 45 gets fixed I'll give it another go.