Friday-Weird ride

Woodinville to Redmond. Started out too fast, I was immediately chased by a fit rider, passed another and they worked together to try to reel me in. I opened up an 800 yard gap which held for a while, but I just did not have the extra oomph to top 23 mph. They closed the gap to 300 yards by the time I  pulled off at Redmond to adjust the fit of my new helmet. I felt winded and burned out. Return to Woodinville I felt a bit better but not good. The weird part was that the cyclometer said I did the route at 21.2 mph average, which is the highest average speed for me this year. Go figure