Tour de "Oh my God, my back hurts!"

[jobob]

Would you feel more relaxed, less pain if you did the same ride and distance by yourself with an approx. time goal finish in your head?

Oh, most likely!

Once the negative thoughts start popping up ("good grief, you suck!" - this was at around mile 20 when the rest of the field was completely out of view and I figured were already in the next county ) it's really hard for me to blot them out & everything else tends to go downhill from there.