Today's weather was much hotter than the previous ride. In the mid 80's with winds from the North West. I wore the standard kit. I felt sluggish going out the door. No doubt, exaggerated by the heat. I had stomach cramps before departing. I spent a few minutes in the bathroom. When I was out the door, I was counting on the pain to subside. It did, to a certain degree. I did moderate tempo going out. I reached Route 202 in average time. To be expected, no surprise. The wind was turbulent on my way out to Willow Springs. I had no intentions of putting down a big effort. So, I kept the tempo moderate. In the meantime, I was working on my form. By the half-way point, going out, the wind had shifted to a cross-tail. It was more or less the same when I reached WS. On the way back, I started with easy tempo and picked it up to moderate. The wind wasn't a perfect headwind, so I was going faster than usual. When I got close to the last few risers, I noticed that there was a cyclist trailing me by about 500 yards or so. I thought to myself, "why not see if I could stay ahead of him, all the way to the top?" So, I put it into overdrive and made a big dig . My HR hit 166bpm. I was at my limit, and I held him off by a long shot. The remainder of the ride was mostly fun and games. Concentration was spot on. Ailments consisted of right hand numbness. Balance and form was the lesser, the right leg just wasn't hooking up. Gear is working well. I received the Mr. Tuffy's yesterday and installed it in time for today's ride. No flats today, so far so good. The chain fell off once, shifting to the big ring reengaged, no problems. Other notes, I saw 3 cyclists today. Two, going the opposite direction and one trailing me. On the downside, I got stung by a bee in the chest. This happened just as I was about to make a right hand turn onto Country Club. I pulled over and scraped the affected area with my squeegee too. The pain remained, but the stinger was nowhere to be found when I got back. I did manage to find the bee that stung me. It was on the bathroom floor. No doubt fell out of my jersey when I hopped in the shower.