Not a great day

Did my usual training ride to Benson today.
53 miles, 3,000 feet climb, and today, very windy.
I was really looking forward to it. Geeta was away on her leadership program, so I had Daniele with me all week. After missing out on last weekends ride, I couldn't wait to get a few more miles under my belt.
I even managed to go to sleep early last night (well, by 11PM).
But I must have been really tired from the past week.
I woke up late (9.30 AM), then took even longer to get ready and have my breakfast.
Finally I realized I didn't have any juice to put in my water bottles, so had to take plain water with me.
By the time I left I could tell I was not in great shape.
Anyway, I got on with the ride, I even enabled the Virtual Partner option on my GPS to keep me motivated.
Unfortunately, I missed a turn due to traffic at a junction (one of the problems of leaving late is that you have to deal with more traffic), which meant my Virtual Partner was ahead of me by a quarter of a mile, and kept the advantage all the way to the top of Pishill.
If it can be of any consolation, this time I didn't feel as tired when I got to the top of Pishill: not the best performance in terms of time, but I managed to keep a steady pace all the way to the top, which in my opinion shows I am getting better at managing my energy reserves.
After Benson, I met another rider and I am please to say I was first to the top of the climb, although he then caught up with me when I slowed down in town to recover some energy. Did I mention I was not in my best shape today?
By this time I was ahead of my Virtual Partner by a quarter of a mile.
Anyway, he was a nice chap, so we rode together, me at the front, for a few miles: apparently we were both heading back to Wokingham, but he was going back the Henley way.
By this time the wind really picked up, and every downhill section was a struggle to get above 30 mph. Needless to say my Virtual Partner caught up with me and his advantage was just growing steadily...
I got back home after a total time of 2h 58m, 5 minutes later than my Virtual Partner. Hence the disappointment.

For future reference, the Pishill climb (from the sign at the bottom to the sign at the top of the ascent):
Time: 9m 36s
Distance: 1.96 miles
Av. speed: 12.2 mph
Max speed: 16.9 mph

This week I am resuming the regular commute to work, which should hopefully raise my fitness level back to where I left it a week ago.
Next weekend I will do two back-to-back rides to Benson, and I just can't wait!