I'm posting this the next morning. Last night was a regular Tue/Thu club ride. Beyond that it stopped being typical. Coming out of the parking lot, someone yelled "car right" and all but three of us went anyway. When I caught them they were doing 24 mph. They were doing the typical surge-and-fall-back that you'd expect from people not really used to doing those speeds, and they eventually slowed to 18-20 mph, still with the surges though. At about 4 miles out, they led me into a pot hole field, and I lost my water bottle. Did they slow down? Not only no but HELL NO!!!

I finally caught them about a mile later, then promptly cranked it up to 27. The blinking dot in my mirror disappeared quickly, and I rode the rest of the 25-mile route alone. My GPS didn't start, so I didn't get a good recording, but going by my start and stop times I averaged a bit over 21 mph. The route had about 600 feet of climbing, so flat by some standards, but still enough to feel.