This post, Mr. Hiker, gets closer to my feelings than the "smell the roses" posters. Cannot stand roses. I am happy with the 3 hour rides and only a very few in this area any where near my age can keep up. However, a riding buddy of mine (age 60) does struggle to stay with me the first 60 miles, but easily pulls away from me in the last 15 or so miles in a century. We ride quite a few events together and i would like to finish with him. That is all there is to this. Nothing to do with roses.