Last week I made my return to group riding after a hiatus of a few years. I quit going partially because of kids, partially because of the people.

Because of that "hiatus" and the fact that I wore an oversized camelbak (I'll explain this in a minute) I was treated as the newbie. Which was annoying.

One of the guys, let's call him Green Jersey, was sizing me up. I'm sure he thought I belonged in a slower group (I picked a pretty fast pace group, about 22 MPH average). He made some rude remarks about my camelbak (I know its not a roadie thing to do!).

And throughout the entire 2 hour ride, he was behind me: telling me how long I should pull, how I should ride, when I should get a drink, what gear I should be in, etc. Every now and then he'd ride up next to me, finally I just told him to go in front.

The BEST part was when someone initiated a sprint. I was about 7 people back when the paceline started to break apart. I cranked it up, leap-frogged two groups and FLEW past the leader for a definite win. Even Green Jersey couldn't catch me.

Right after that, we regrouped and did an easy ride into town. Green Jersey decided to take-off at this point, ran a stop sign and was nearly run over by a car!!! It was scary. He was reprimanded by the group leader.

So, the reason for the camelbak: When I used to ride with "the group," it was all men and they always tried to drop me. The ride was a 120 minute sufferfest of which I usually bonked in the last 10-15 minutes because I could never find a free second to grab my water bottle or some nutrition. I was expecting that same level of intensity this time around. I thought it would be a lot easier for me to wear a camelbak with Endura in it than trying to reach for my water bottle. And it was. Except the ride wasn't as aggressive this time. Next week I need to ride up a group.