In the interests of symmetry, DB, I am going to write in this thread (your May31 thread has more posts)... but isn't it a shame there is no way to join threads together. When I have been a moderator there has been a tool for splitting threads, but nothing for joining them together...

My May 31 ride? Intense, hard out and I am still uncomfortable today.

I got a new bike last week - full carbon, dura-ace, but not the same low hill climbing gears as my usual road race bike (which is now relegated to training bike).

And yesterday (Its 8am on June 1st here in Middle Earth) I had about the toughest race in terms of hills that our club does! And I rode hard, and fast-for-me and felt really satisfied at the finish.
  • I stayed with the break-away group as we headed out, I even climbed the first hill with them before I dropped off - that is a first for me!

  • One climb which I have previously slogged up at 7-8kph (1.5km long) I went up at 9-10kph and wasn't in my lowest gear! My bike is much lighter... I have started spin classes once a week which I treat as interval training...

It was a 33km race - only about 9km of which were flat (and because that is the false flat, about 5km of it were going up also!)
I got in 44km in total when I include warm up/cool down.

Stunning day - a heavy frost in the morning meant the day (though cold) was sunny, dry and virtually windless.