Dropped (Again)

I showed up for the Cycling Spoken Here group ride last night. This time, there were 18 men... and me. Where are all the ladies? (I knew I was in trouble when I noticed their legs were shaved more recently than mine :) Once again, I was really pushing hard from the very beginning to hang on. (Note: It was very WINDY here yesterday.) I was doing really well.... feeling pretty good... cruising along in a hauling ass pace line. At the 17 mile mark somebody commented "we lost 2 :)" I think there was a subtle celebration (i KNOW there was a celebration ... if we were taking time to drink water ... I'm sure they would have toasted each other "to dropping riders! To DROPPING RIDERS!")... then a third guy fell off ... I'm still hanging on for dear life. Then, we made a turn off of hwy 751 onto Martha Chapel's Rd ... (this is the place where we **we girls** always get something to drink... chit chat... catch our breath.... WELL not on this ride). On THIS ride, everybody is up and out of their saddle sprinting (of course). I do the same ... thinking/knowing I can't do this much longer... but I somehow manage to close the gap... I'm ON! Whew. I'm going to make it. We start a short climb... climbing... climbing... I'm doing ok... THEN tragically the person in front of me stood up to pedal... and that's all it took. The gap between my tire and his went from 4 inches to 2 feet... DROPPED. There wasn't anything I could do. The Wind put a big 'ol hand on my chest and said "That's it Honey! You're done." Evil. Pure evil. This time... I made it to the 19 mile mark... we were averaging 20.5 mph when I fell off. Once again... I was okay with being left behind. Really... The Ego doesn't have a say-so. The next 10 miles were mighty lonesome... but at least I could breathe, drink some well-needed water and watch the sunset.