Only six months overdue, but this might be the best retirement card yet. In fairness, this is the second card I've received from this generous gift giver.Okay okay, it's less of a retirement and more of a segue. I call it less bike racing and more bike riding. It's putting the stoke back in cycling. It's why I proudly work with the industry's best brands, and why we both realize that bike racing is a small piece of the scrumptious pie that is broader sport of bike riding. It's why grand fondos are a thing to stay and gravel has an appeal to the masses. With all the horrible news in the world today, bike riding can put a smile on people's faces and leave an impression for a lifetime.I spoke yesterday in my Strava ride title about the long running Exeter Cycles Wednesday Night ride being the hardest group ride that I've ever done. That statement created some buzz in the subsequent comments as 20-someodd people chimed in their $0.02 about what is the actual hardest group ride.I love the Exeter Cycles ride for lots of reasons, but not least of which is its humility. Not laden with ego by calling itself Wednesday Worlds nor some other inane name -- it's a bike ride. Exeter is the former home of Fior di Frutta cycling which is hands down the best team that chose never to go pro. A smattering of their riders that would make any cat 1 blush is found here. On any particular night from April through September (we're New Englanders, afterall, so there's the winter to contend with six months out of the year) JG, the shops proprietor, congregates anywhere from a dozen to forty rides, issues the rules of the road*, explains whatever derivation of the route we'll saunter, and off we go.I've ridden the Bus Stop ride (Boulder), the Simi ride (LA), the Shootout (Tucson), the Ring of Fire (Asheville), and super speedy group rides in probably 25 other states, DC also. They don't hold a candle. I don't care what ripping pro lives in your town, I don't care how many feet of elevation your ride covers, I know that if you come to any Exeter Wednesday night ride, you'll get your legs torn off. It's not an attack fest, just a ridiculously hard paceline where if you can't continue to hack it, you get spat out the back. It's very Ricky Bobby: if you're not first, you're last. Plus it finishes on the infamous Watsonberg.I'm impressed how poor the results are when you search "hardest group bike rides in America" on the internets. There are lots of results that pour in about the hardest climbs; I add "bus stop" and "Simi ride" to the search and that just opens a can of worms related to municipal bus travel in southern California. No help.So the question remains, who deserves the title The Hardest Group Ride in America? What's your answer.I'll keep turning up to group rides wherever I go, because even though I've segued out of the world of bike racing, turns out I'm still in the world of bike racing as it pertains to Leadville.And more Rocky Mountain backdrop here.This August 13, I'm lining up with a formidable group of roadies to form the World Bicycle Relief team tackling Leadville. Timmy Duggan, Craig Lewis, and someone named Laurens Ten Dam are taking on Leadville. Please check this out and if you think you're a fan of this kit, I know a guy who can make your ownership a reality. As seen above, the top of the jersey is a silhouette of Africa with a child on a bike in technicolor. The bottom is the subtle topography of Leadville. It's the #proest of pro kits. *It's simple: roll out of town single file, never ride more than two abreast, and never take up more than half of our one lane.