Thankfully we were able to get the ride in despite the rapidly approaching diminished hurricane Florence. Had no rain except for a few sprinkles on the last descent to Cashiers. Despite there being fewer people than normal, there were some pretty fast folks to ride with and we settled into a fast pace early on. I and four other riders broke away from everyone else and stayed together despite half the group almost blowing completely by the first two turns. We encountered some really loose freshly laid pea gravel on Macedonia church road, and took the descent very gingerly and were ok. Turned onto Tanassee gap road and it was pea gravel again but thankfully it was very short lived and we were back to normal pavement. I managed to stay with the group throughout the first couple major minor climbs although in the process we dropped one of our contingent. One of the riders in our group, I think his name was Matt, was a powerhouse and he just stayed on the front for long stretches pulling really hard. He pulled us super strong through the Tuckasegee river valley and up the flatter parts of Tilley creek. I was barely hanging on at this point but decided i'd try my best to stay with them once it got steep. I somehow stayed with them up to the little downhill in the middle, probably cause they were holding back, and then once it went back up again, I got dropped. Surprisingly though I kept them mostly within sight and was only about 2 minutes down to the leader. I stopped at the top to fill up my bottles briefly and continued on. I rode pretty fast on the descent but never did catch anyone so I rode a decent tempo through the valley, trying to eat and drink and save something for Walnut Creek. I had burned most of my matches staying with the group and riding hard up Tilley creek, so Walnut creek was hard. Not my slowest but far from a good effort. Came down the other side into a strong headwind due to the approaching Florence, and stopped to top off my bottles again at the Norton aid station. I began to feel a bit better after the initial climb on Norton, and so I rode as hard as I could maintain. I spotted one of the riders from the front group ahead of me on the gradual slog up to highway 64, and he looked back and saw me too, and I could tell he put in a little kick to keep the distance on me, and as soon as i tried to up my pace, my right thigh began to start cramping, so I had to back off. I had the energy but my leg wouldn't cooperate. So I rode as hard as I could and the highway came up soon, and it was just a short descent to the finish. I was very satisfied with my good time on this ride, and I had a blast.