Tyler and I arrived at about 6:10 am. He was still sleeping, so I unpacked the bike and got thing ready for the 7 am start. I figured we would start with the club, who were doing the 62 mile metric ride, but I didn't expect we would be able to keep up for long. We managed to hold on to the back of the pack for about 5 miles, but the swirling wind was in our face just a little too much. As the police escorted peleton pulled away, Tyler said "pedal harder, Papa, let's catch up!" I knew there was no way, as we still a too far before we headed west with a tail wind. We settled to a 15 mph pace. We finally reached the Dania Beach bridge, which involved a bit of a clover leaf climb. We had the wind at our back for the last part, and as we crested the hill we cranked it up and hit 27. We held that and slowed to 21 by the time we reached US 1. Heading north again, we settled back to 15. Riders who had mechanicals or other issues started passing us, trying to catch the peleton. At this point I realized that Garmin had stopped, so it was not recording. I pressed start, but we lost about 11 miles of hard work. Reaching 17th st, we headed east, into the teeth of the ever stronger winds. I was not looking forward to the causeway, looming ominously in the distance. It looked like Mt Everest, and this wind would not make it any easier. We got a short respite as we entered the wind shadow of the bridge, but I knew that would be short lived. The good news is that at the bottom of the bridge is our first rest stop! We kept a slow and steady pace up the hill, and several rider who we passed on the flats overtook us. We crested the hill and cranked up the gears for the descent, but the wind gusts held us back a bit. What could have been a 40 mph ride, was slowed but the gusty winds and the fact that we needed to make a 180 at the bottom of the bridge for our much awaited rest stop!