My Commuter Excuses For Not Going Fast

They came in handy today, because on the way home I got dropped plain and simple by a fellow commuter. The excuses I'm talking about are my buttery 1992 carbon Trek 2300 frame, and my 28-wide bullet-proof tires. Other excuses I've gotten rid of one by one. The guy passed me just outside of Amsterdam, near the Nieuwe Diep, I got on his wheel, and together we continued South along the Amsterdam Rijnkanaal. We passed a guy out on a training ride, but he did not get on the train. I was on the wheel for about two miles, working, but not suffering, when we had to go through the little chicane after the river Diem. I dropped back to leave a little room, because you can't really see what's coming from the other side there, but my lead man powered through it so that I came out of the chicane about twenty meters back. I closed the gap, with some difficulty, but the guy had really decided to increase the pressure, and suddenly I was on the limit, a feeling I haven't experienced much on the bike this year. I didn't stay there for very long. It was hard, the legs had not quite recovered from the Sunday ride, and I was beginning to taste again the fig I had put in my mouth when I left work, about six miles back. And then there were the two bike-related excuses. I let him go. He didn't get too far ahead, because up and over the Amsterdam Rijnkanaal bridge, and into and through the city of Weesp I continued to see him ahead of me, the last time as I was entering the Hoogstraat and he was just crossing the bridge across the Vecht river there. He may have been stronger. He certainly looked very good on the bike (a much more recent Trek model with skinny tires), and he had shaved legs (as well as a smaller backpack). But I'm sure that if this had been last week and I had been on the Klein instead, I would have stayed on his wheel happily, maybe even traded a pull or two with him. As it was, he made me go through the kind of experience--the point where you decide to be dropped--I've only experienced behind cars and mopeds this year.