aaw, thanks Raven, I appreciate that

But I may be using the term "race" a little wrong. The Norwegian term translates to "tour-race", and I've been too lazy to try to find an English equivalent. Most road races here appear to be this type and length. In theory people can enter it just as a casual organized ride, with stops where you can refill water bottles and grab a bite to eat, but in practice most people enter it as a race, stop as little as possible if at all, jockey for position, care about their finishing time... so I don't quite want to call it just an organized ride. But as our times show, we're scarcely setting any records But the "elite group" which starts first is very competitive and aims to beat the previous best time for the course.