My last ride was a 42-mile trek up the back side of Mt Chehalem, and then out to Newberg and back to Sherwood. The Mt Chehalem ride is a grueling 5 mile ascent that left me about 200 yards behind the other 3 riders in my group.

It was discouraging, but I caught a second wind on the last 30 minutes of the ride that let me lead the pack for the last few hills coming into Sherwood. Of course, they could have just been taking it easy on the new guy too... but it felt great either way!

One thing I started to get the hang of on this ride was "digging deep" after leading the pack for a couple of miles. I'm talking about the part where you move over after a hard pull, and the other riders start to whiz by you... and you realize that if you don't push hard for another minute longer, they'll leave you completely in the dust. After all, they've been resting behind you for a couple of miles or so, and they're nice and fresh.

I'm not saying I'm able to dig deep enough yet to always be able to grab on behind the last rider whizzing by, but I'm nailing the majority of them now and it makes a huge difference.

There's definitely strategy involved here folks. If you pull too hard for too long, then you'll never have enough left to grab on as they go by.