Season kickoff in the snow

This past weekend was the season kickoff for team Alpine Ortho down at the Gallup Dawn til Dusk 12 hour race. Now one would think the weather should have been fine that far down in NM but hell no. The race started under partly sunny skies and 37 degree temps. I think that may have been the high for the day as gradually the clouds picked up and the wind started to blow with gusts as high as 60 mph. Yup, 60 mph. I actually had myself and bike lifted off of the trail once. I know I'm skinny but thats ridiculous!! The snow started flying at about 1 pm and the temps quickly dropped to right around freezing and the course turned into sloppy clay. They ended up shortening the race to 10 hours as a result. Us three solo riders Stew, Laura and myself had to call it a day about 7 - 71/2 hours in. A wise choice as none of us has enough body fat keep warm in those temps. Even so Stew held on to a fine 3rd place in the solo men 20-29, Laura was 3rd in the solo women even though her lap times were way ahead of 2nd and was quickly gaining on first. And old man Jeff managed to take 1st in the uggghhhhhhh 40 -44's. ( Can I say I was leading all solo's when I stopped? Is that too egoish? Well I was, so there!) What might have been with better weather but it was a good early test nonetheless. Until next time....................