Ring the Peak defrost

It was a cold and frosty day for a bike race here in Colorado. The temps stayed below freezing most of the day. The moisture on the ground helped the riding surface an it was not as soft as last year.
I had a good ride till I got to the turn off to Victor. The cloud cover and wind came up and really cooled things off much more than it was earlier in the morning. I put on some dry gloves and a wind shell over them then a dry hat, my windstop jacket and neck warmer. With 30 + miles to go I needed to stay warm and dry. After a long hike a bike up over the highest and what I thought would be the coldest part of the day it was time to make the long descent back to town.
As my speed increased so did the windchill factor creating a hazard I was not looking forward to. Frozen fingers that made technical descending very difficult. Last year I really flew through this section and expected to make short work of it this year. Wrong, my fingers became so cold I had a hard time operating the brake levers. I would walk the most technical sections and even the easier parts just to try to warm myself.
This really slowed me down but also made me wonder how long it was going to take to get down out of there. I had not seen a single soul since leaving Gold Camp road and did not expect to see anyone anytime soon. Lots of things go through your head and mine was full of thoughts. Am I going to freeze up here, will I make it down before dark and it gets colder? Corned beef n cabbage, corned beef n cabbage, corned beef n cabbage. Got to head straight home and get in the warm shower, and the bed with lots of covers. Find someone in a warm car and get them to crank the heater up. It's amazing what the mind does but I stuck to my mantra of corned beef n cabbage. That seemed to get me down to the road and it was getting a few degrees warmer the lower and closer I got to town.
Once in town it was a race to finish before dark, I had a good chance of making it so I pushed the rest of the way to the finish.
I made it in at 6:30 pm and just before dark. Julie, Linda and Fred had a table waiting and beer on the way. I could not take my gloves off so Julie helped peel them from my frozen hands.
Corned beef n cabbage ordered and a beer in hand we toasted to my craziness for even being outside on a bike.
We also toasted Linda for running her first half marathon earlier in the day. Good job Linda!
Ring the Peak was a success for me this year, a little more of a challenge but I rode faster than last year, I rode it on my full ridge single speed and finished.
There were 13 riders that started the race, five of us finished the complete course for 2012.