what i found out today being pushed to keep up rather than riding solo at my own pace.

If I'm doing say 100 rpm, i would feel comfortable and could carry on like that. If I started to lose touch then I would have to up the gear and to accelerate but at a lower cadence, but after a while it became easier when the momentum gets going and there i was doing 100 rpm at a higher speed. I felt just as comfortable as i did at the lower speed. There was just that few strokes to get up to speed that felt a bit of a strain and the cadence fell.

So whenpeople say keep your cadence, it's a bit misleading.