It was a beautiful day, but I decided to do the Tour de Zwift Stage 7 A group ride. After having breakfast, I took a nap. I thought I set my alarm to 10AM, but I didn't hear it go off. I got up around 10:30 and the ride was to start at 11 AM! I scrambled, and hopped on the trainer. I joined the group with about 6 minutes to go. The ride was a furious pace from the start. I did my best to get up to the first half of the pack. There were about 1200 riders. I managed to get into the top 700. The first lap was super fast. I was having my doubts but, I told myself to be patient. Everyone is going through the same thing and I would likely find my place in a small group. Turns out that I was doing some group hoping, but, I was holding mid six hundred place. The climb was longer than I anticipated, so that was in my favor. I did as best I could to stay in the saddle when the gradient tipped downward. I'm getting better at it, but I need a lot more practice. As usual I gained places on the uphill and lost places on the downhill and flats. It felt like I was putting in more watts than others just to keep up on the non-uphill parts. I was in and out of the saddle quite a bit. Wiping sweat and hydrating while sitting, also spinning. I was posting slower times on every lap. It was intimidating on the first lap, because it felt like I was at my limit with three more laps remaining. Eventually, the pace let up and I settled down. I didn't sprint to the finish, but I kept the tempo high. Concentration was good. I was captivated, listening to my music, watching the screen and reading the comments. Balance and form felt good. Gear worked great. Nutrition was good. I drank most of my Gatorade and no water. Ailments, some hand soreness and numbness. I was having to mitigate by sitting down and shaking it off. Other notes, There were over 20,000 riders on Watopia when I first logged in.