Yesterday I went out on my club's B ride. We had 14 riders, male and female, and we did 56.6 mi. and 3700 ft. elevation. On the way out to mid-point I was hitting the climbs better than I ever do. Putting some effort into it instead of just hanging back which I normally do. After about 20 mi. I decided to go easy to save some for the end of the ride. At the mid-point I was feeling very strong and everything had been effortless. After about 10 mi. on the way back I started to lag. One of the ride leaders, and the strongest rider, told me to get on his wheel. I had been gapped by a couple hundred yards and was losing ground. I couldn't hang on his wheel and was truly confounded at my loss of strength. My legs weren't feeling like jello but my body just didn't want to respond. I guessed I might have been under-fueling even though I felt like I had been doing all the right things up to that point. I had eaten a pack of those gummy things, 2 GUs, a small energy bar, a bottle of water, a bottle of water with GU tab and had a large energy bar and a bottle of water w/GU tab left. So, because I couldn't think of anything else to do to rectify the situation, I ate the energy bar and drank the bottle. After we regrouped I found it easier to hang with the group. As the ride went on I got energy back and by the end of the ride, when people are tending to crank it up, we hit a straight section of road with some rolling hills. At that point I was with the ride leader and 5 other riders. At one point I went by two of the riders and chased the ride leader and two others who had opened a gap. When we hit the last small climb before our start/stop I blew by the others and rode up to the ride leader and smacked him on the ass. He said, "Damn, you're back. Nice." I guess I was. I've never had this happen before but it was encouraging to know that I can recover in the middle of a ride. It was an interesting day. FWIW my ride average was 15 mph.

That is interesting. Whenever I've had that "bonk" feeling I've never been able to recover during the ride.

That is interesting. I definitely fall into the camp of once behind the eight ball there's no recovering. Glad to hear that you found the legs again.