This was a spirited albeit humbling ride today. Stuart is quite the beast on the bike, at least in the earlier stages of an outing. After the usual, brisk start that Stuart seems to prefer, I eventually got up to speed. While tooling west on the boardwalk, a leisurely, relaxed chat allowed us to catch up on each other’s lives while heading into the stiff southwesterly wind. Once eastbound, after having finished with the boardwalk, the pace rapidly intensified, assisted by the strong tailwind. After a mile or so, we heard two riders calling out to pass left. While speeding past us, one invited us to hop on. Stuart had no trouble taking a wheel while I struggled to hang on. In short order, I was dropped and didn’t again see Stuart for another few miles! God, am I now starting to suck at riding, too? On a slightly more positive note, I still seem to have some decent endurance. Stuart struggled a bit heading back west into the fierce headwind as I sped up to eventually catch the wheel of a rather fast cyclist. Poor performance or not, it was still a fun ride. The weather wasn’t the greatest with mostly cloudy skies, high dew points, and temps around 80. The roaring southwesterlies also precluded a ride all the way to Captree.