By the time I got to Nokes Blvd, I noticed another group coming up from behind, so I soft pedaled a bit until they caught up. There was a hellacious wind there near the mall. I asked what level it was and was told "3 or 4", but it felt like 2. They put in some hard accelerations and I was really on the rivet trying to keep up. We crossed under Rte 7 onto Algonkian Parkway and a short time later I was off the back. I tagged on the back of another rider and drafted him back to the group, we caught them at a light. I was fully at my limits when the group turned up Potomac View Road and I had to back off. Randy and John caught up to me on Palisades Parkway and we rode together. Once we got back onto Algonkian Parkway I pulled for awhile, but I guess I wasn't keeping the pace high enough, because the other guys pulled through and they pushed the pace up. It seemed to me like they were accelerating really hard away from the lights and every once in awhile, I'd be at top speed and then one of them would attack. All I could do was dig in and focus on holding that rear wheel. With just a couple miles left, they picked up the pace on Park Road and then they were in a full on Sprint when they hit Monroe. I looked down at my speedo and we were above the posted 25 mph speed limit, but a car behind me beeped anyway.

Yeah, I feel faster, but I can't keep up with the hard accelerations yet. DC RAND is holding a 200k Brevet this weekend, my goal will be to beat 9 hours and 40 minutes. That was my fastest 200k ever and I believe it was on this same route. That time was set several years ago and since then, all of my times for 200k's have been at least an hour slower, sometimes 2 hours slower.