I just came home from the hardest group ride I've done in a long time. It isn't that I haven't ridden in the area the ride was in, but there were some different roads and the on the familiar ones, we were going up instead of down. There were a lot of people; I did the shorter ride, which was only 28 miles, with 1775 feet of climbing. Long climbs... the longer ride was not much longer, 34 miles, but with almost 700 feet more of climbing, on hills I know that suck at this time of the year. So until the 2 groups split, near the end, I was in the front of the short rider group/back of the faster people. We rode to the Wachusett Dam, actually around it, through some gates on a sidewalk right next to the water. I had to put my foot down, with sharp right turns, I was getting dizzy. Once we got to the viewpoint, it was all uphill, although there had been lots of climbing before, too. Beautiful day, sunny, cool at the start, a day where it is hard to dress right. I was unzipping and zipping, and switched to a lighter head cover and took out my glove liners, which made it OK.It's about 55 now and the wind died down.
My average was the kind of average I have when I ride in the Berkshires (i.e. big climbs). But, I am happy, I stayed up front in my group and was clearly in sight of the faster people until they split off. And, I had my highest speed descent, ever, 33.6.